Possible Bitcoin Heist

[lxskllr]

Just pointing out the dangers of bitcoins. It really doesn't dampen my enthusiasm much, but it's something to consider. Like Linux, bitcoins give freedom, and with freedom comes responsibility. Mommy won't be there to protect you, but mommy won't be there to say you can't have that beer either. Imo, it's a net win if you're willing to take responsibility for your life :^)

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...-questions.ars

[devilock76]

Kind of too late in the game to even adopt due to how difficult it is to "mine" them now.

Ken

[lxskllr]

Kind of too late in the game to even adopt due to how difficult it is to "mine" them now.

Ken

"Free" bitcoins are hard to come by, but they can be purchased on the market. Now probably isn't the best time to buy due to high prices, but like every other currency, it's up to the individual to determine when to get in, and there's always risk involved.

[devilock76]

"Free" bitcoins are hard to come by, but they can be purchased on the market. Now probably isn't the best time to buy due to high prices, but like every other currency, it's up to the individual to determine when to get in, and there's always risk involved.

True, and for my money I would say now is NOT the time to buy in. Who knows what will happen in the future though.

Ken

[Mykislt]

Well, I think deflation is inevitable. Even if you buy at 20 dollars, I assume it will go up very high in months

[sgreger1]

It is not something I would use as a regular currency. It's only good for circumventing authoritarian governments at this point as it is usefull for single transfers but not to hold your paycheck in.

Example, Paypal blocks wikileaks so therefore: WikiLeaks now accepts anonymous Bitcoin donations on 1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v


What happened here is this gentleman lost his wallet, nothing else. It's called life and it happens with regular money too. The difference is that with bitcoins, your wallet is stored on a computer and plugged into the internet, which carries inherent security risks in and of itself for those who weren't aware.

Just like you can get mugged for your wallet in real life, you can get hacked and get your wallet taken on the computer. It's really no different, and getting mugged doens't make me lose faith in the USD$ so the same is true with Bitcoin.

The long and the short of it is that this is ****ing cowboy shit, pure libertarian style, no central authority or government, which means when someone steals your shit there is no way for you to go find them and no one to call to help you, because it's all anonymous and not ran by any central authority. Welcome to freedom, it comes with a little risk but it's still sweet as molases bitches.



Bitcoin like anything has it's problems. Ironically, even without a central authority inherent to the system, a "central authority" has arisen by a mass of unknowing miners blindly giving their GPU powers to a single entity (DEEPBIT) as part of a mining pool who know control 50% of the currency. This is very bad. But it won't be the end.

Mining for bitcoins is like mining for gold, it is hard to do, has little return, and takes way more effort than it is worth.
At this point Bitcoins are only good for laundering money or paying for things that the government makes illegal which in itself makes it valuable to the world community.


Some random good links for those interested:

The Economist covers Bitcoin: "Bits and bob"

The Guardian on "Bitcoin: the hacker currency that's taking over the web"

This ones about the guy who lost 500k worth of bitcoins because he didn't encrypt his wallet.dat file (the same one Lx is tlaking about I believe)
https://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=16457.0

[sgreger1]

Well, I think deflation is inevitable. Even if you buy at 20 dollars, I assume it will go up very high in months

Yes, bitcoin favors early adopters, because it is like gold, there is still a lot to be mined, but there is a finite amount. Once it reaches the maximum and cannot be mined, than the existing bitcoins increase in value proportional to their demand. So those who buy in early get to buy cheap and sell high. I wouldn't recommend putting any significant amount of money into bitcoins right now though unless you are a hacker or able to really secure your shit. You need to be able to ensure your digital wallet doens't get jacked because it's impossible to trace where it goes once it's gone.

[sgreger1]

Person leaves $500,000 on their front porch, and is devastated upon finding it missing. Oh wait, I meant to type "left a gigantic bitcoin wallet on a daily-use workstation connected to the Internet".



Even worse, his Mt. Gox. account had been broken into the day before. He set up a virus scan and then went to sleep, with the computer still connected to the internet ಠ_ಠ

So he knows he got hacked so he leaves his computer running, connected to the internet, with the client even running. He has failed on so many levels.

"If there was a means to invalidate the thieves coins or to reclaim them then the same could be done to a legitimate user. Bitcoin is a secure system only so long as you keep your wallet secured - and sadly it seems you were not able to adequately do so.
This isn't a reason to abandon bitcoin completely or to dismiss it as flawed, but of course it's understandable that you wouldn't want to reinvest after having lost so much."

[devilock76]

If I want to protect data the last machine I am putting it on is a Windows computer.

Ken

[RobsanX]

This sounds a lot like when Gmail invites were going for hundreds of dollars?

[justintempler]

More Bitcoin news:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new...itcoin_wallets

New Trojan Targets Bitcoin Wallets
Posted 06/17/2011 at 10:27am | by Brad Chacos

Privacy advocates and seedy characters on the edge of Internet legality alike use Bitcoins as their virtual currency of choice. The anonymous, decentralized P2P nature of Bitcoins lets you transfer money without ever having to contact a bank or even know the true identity of the person on the other end of the transaction. Recent events have dragged the shadowy currency into the light of public scrutiny, and now its squirming users have another headache to deal with: a trojan designed specifically to pilfer your Bitcoin wallet.

The malware goes by the name Infostealer.Coinbit. Once it works its way onto a Windows PC, the program checks the default location for Bitcoin's wallet.dat file. Your wallet contains the encryption keys that are essential to Bitcoin transactions. If the trojan finds a wallet, it sends the data file to the attackers.

"If you use Bitcoins, you have the option to encrypt your wallet and we recommend that you choose a strong password for this in the event that an attacker is attempting to brute-force your wallet open," Symantec's Stephen Doherty said on the company's blog.

Sounds like a smart move to us, especially since there are sure to be even more attempts to swindle Bitcoins out from under your nose in the future. Earlier this week, a man claimed to have $500,000 worth of Bitcoins stolen from his e-wallet. One of the currency's selling points is its non-centralized structure, but remember that lack of oversight that seems so awesome in theory means that you have nobody to turn to when some jerk steals your encryption keys.

[sgreger1]

More Bitcoin news:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/new...itcoin_wallets

This just in! If you have a digital wallet and are storing it on a windows PC, you should probably password protect it!

People are willing to break into your house and use deadly force to steal valuables from you, the internet is no different (you just don't get shot in the process). And instead of buying a pistol for self defense, all you have to do is password protect your shit.

The key vulnerability in my mind is that you have to have it unencrypted during any transaction so a smart virus would intercept it only when you are actively trading bitcoins, because during that time the wallet file has to be unencrypted. They are working on building that into the system so that you don't have to worry about that.

[lxskllr]

Bitcoin exchange hacked...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...mments=1#reply

[sgreger1]

Bitcoin exchange hacked...

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/n...mments=1#reply

And this is where the biggest flaw is. Everything is safe until you try to onvert it back to US currency (or any other standard currency). To do so you must go througha broker, and said broker could be hacked and therefore compromise your account. They need to find a better way of converting things, the problem is that this specific exchange company had shoddy and lacking security policies and therefore left all of it's customers very vulnerable to an attack. Someone with some real skill should set one up that is less prone to hackers, there are a few out there but tehre is no way of knowing how good their security is.

[lxskllr]

Someone with some real skill should set one up that is less prone to hackers, there are a few out there but tehre is no way of knowing how good their security is.

Open source it. Have a completely transparent system, and pay people in bitcoins that provide implemented security solutions/protocol. Everybody wins. Coders/idea people make a bit of change for their ideas, the exchange gets a lot of business since the security's been vetted by the community, and users get a secure exchange that's been proven by many eyes looking at the setup.