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Hackers Steal $5M In Bitcoin During Bitstamp Exchange Attack
itwbennett writes: After a weekend hack forced the Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp to shut down, Bitstamp has revealed that $5 million worth of bitcoin was stolen during the attack. And that's not all the bad news for Bitcoin this week: Canadian Bitcoin exchange Vault of Satoshi announced it is is no longer accepting new deposits and will close Feb. 5. But in this case the operators are pursuing new business opportunities, saying in a post that the shutdown "has absolutely nothing to do with insolvency, stolen funds, or any other unfortunate scenario."
Bitcoin loss
After such toil
All goes to dross
Like $100/bbl oil
Burma Shave
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Funny, but it does make me wonder why people keep anything in these exchange or in online wallets anymore. I mean is keeping a small file safe yourself really that hard?
If bank of america and other major institutions cannot keep your info out of the hands of hackers why would you think any other website is infallible?
You wouldn't, but Bank of America is federally insured, Bitcoin exchanges are not. Obviously storing currency in one of those is a lot more risky than that other.
If bank of america and other major institutions cannot keep your info out of the hands of hackers why would you think any other website is infallible?
My bank (Chase) got hacked last year, and Teh Evil Haxx0rz might have gotten my vital info, but all of my money is still in the bank.
Months before that, someone used my Chase CC to buy a couple of Amtrak tickets (presumably to then refund them for cash). Got a fraud alert from Chase, and called them to confirm that it was in fact fraud. They immediately canceled my card sent me new ones. Checks of my & my wife's credit reports show no unusual activity.
So, thank you very much, but I'll stick with fiat money stored in an actual, regulated American bank.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Can those bitcoin stealing malwares pickpocket my wallet from a printout in a manila envelope in my safe?
If I had millions of USD in BTC, I'd have to consider having several offline wallets.
Good.
$5M is a lot, but I've long suggested that any significant amount of BTC be stored on a printout in a safe, with a backup in a safe deposit box.
Don't worry. Fewer and fewer people will be making that mistake in the future, except maybe the poor sod who's gonna try to buy something with Bitcoins a year from now.
You are welcome on my lawn.
The real question is how much do those operators make by shifting around other people's bitcoin and doing the conversion versus how much they make by having a bunch 'er' stolen, seeing as there are no criminal ramifications for when they get stolen, they just need to have evidence of an attack and it's whoops tee hee and they do not cover the loss, like a normal bank would.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
Is it? Is it really? I haven't exactly seen a decrease in the use of bitcoins. Though I aslo haven't seen a significant increase either. However among those using it they still seem to be using it.
Of course it is. I'm not saying people aren't using it but obviously the broader appeal of it is not taking hold and it is viewed as "unsafe" with the incompetence of these operators proving that point by losing customer funds. Bitcoin has a lot going for it but obviously won't go mainstream if you have exchanges continuously screwing up like this.
Given law enforcement's inability and unwillingness to investigate any online crime, combined with the complete lack of government regulation or even recognition as a legal tender, what is stopping the exchange operators from simply stealing the bitcoins and then saying they were hacked?
"Sorry, we got hacked and all your coins are gone. It was probably criminals in Russia / North Korea / Elbonia. Look! They covered their tracks so well, they made it look like the attack came from the Starbucks across town. We lost all our money, too, so we're shutting down and filing bankruptcy. Better luck next time."
Is there any way to track the stolen coins and void them? I wouldn't think people would steal them if they couldn't spend / cash them...
When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. It only affects the people around you. Same thing when you're stupid.
Circle and coinbase are regulated with Fincen, AML and KYC regulations, additionally they are insured. The "hack" exchange discussed here was also audited recently and had over 100% solvency unlike most banks and the stolen amount was just some of their pocket trading coins on their live server. I use traditional banks along with bitcoin banks because there are advantages to knowing when to leverage Bitcoin or Fiat.
Yes, just like people stop using dollars when there are bank robberies.
No, people do not stop using dollars when there are bank robberies because - as I pointed out in my original post - these bitcoin entities are unregulated and uninsured. If a bank is robbed you do not lose your money, when MtGox was robbed you lost your bitcoins.
I thought I made it pretty clear and wouldn't have to point out that the reason I explicitly said they were uninsured and unregulated is because that is contrary to the existing banking systems.
Money and currency are different things, money is ...
Currency is what is used in circulation ...
So what is "paper money"?
Gold ... has intrinsic value
No. It only has the value that we believe it has. Just like... fiat money!!!
The only difference between metals+land (aka physical assets) and fiat money is that they'll be around long after fiat money has gone away. Unless, of course, the government seizes it, it corrodes away (silver, titanium copper, etc), gets flooded out, is lost, stolen, misplaced, etc.
USD used to be a meaningful reserve currency before 1971, now it is not
If we had stayed on the gold standard, what would have happened to the US (and world, for that matter) economy when the population is growing faster than the new supply of precious metals?
The world population increased 75% from 1960 to 1999. Did the amount of gold increase 75% in that time? No. Population is going up exponentially, but the gold supply is going up linearly.
We also have more "stuff" (cars, bigger houses, TVs, gadgets, computers, etc) than we did 50 years ago. That "stuff" has to be paid for, which would require even more gold.
Thus, commodity-based currency eventually became unsustainable.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
The idea that anything has "intrinsic value" is so badly flawed I don't know why this myth persist. Gold and other metals have practical uses, which gives it some additional value yes, but assuming that gold will retain its value, or in fact have any value whatsoever, under all conditions is false.
I don't know exactly what your definition of 'meaningful' is, but approximately 60 % of the world's currency reserves are still in USD, with the Euro being the only one coming even close. I'd call that rather meaningful. So yes, the dominance of the dollar has shifted a bit (which mind you, is not an altogether negative thing either), but dollar is still the go-to reserve currency of the world.
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
But, tell me, how is this not exactly what people should have expected? You can't say "wow, what we really need is an unregulated currency", and then be caught off guard when the lack of regulation and insurance bites you in the ass.
If you want to have an unregulated currency, don't bloody well expect all of the benefits of a regulated and insured banking system.
By definition these are not banks, these are not mature financial players, and they're unregulated and insured -- they're essentially technology startups. Which means you are taking a lot more direct risk.
You say "these incompetent operators is what is causing bitcoin to lose credibility", I say it never had that credibility in the first place. You wanted the wild west of currency, you got it.
So, those of us who have been scratching our head over the whole bitcoin thing aren't suddenly going to feel sorry for you, not even a little. Because what you're complaining about has been touted as a design feature.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
you could buy a new car for 20 ounces 100 years ago you can still buy a new car for 20 ounces today.
But there are a lot more cars (and people to buy them) now than 100 years ago. That's a big problem, and why I said that the GS is unsustainable.
Gold provides natural level of inflation at about 1.5% a year.
It does?
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1