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Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

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Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#171

Post by ascendantlogic »

psyc wrote: post #167
ascendantlogic wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if this is what the curmudgeons from the 70's and 80's sounded like during the web 1.0 boom of the mid-to-late 90's

I find the economic promise of the nascent Internet objectively more plausible than the promises of ~1000 altcoins.

And just like I said, I'm sure all the neckbeards from the 70's and 80's felt the same way about the Internet and shit like Geocities and pets.com.

But hey, I'm sure it's "different" this time, right? You're right and everyone in the crypto space is wrong.

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#172

Post by ascendantlogic »

This is getting a lot of traction because anything related to crypto evokes really strong responses here, but this was a phishing attack. The fact it happened in the crypto space is largely secondary.

People get phished and get tricked into handing out bank account and credit card details all the time. It's not even newsworthy unless it happens on a large scale. This is only newsworthy because of the fact that it's crypto so people equate this with some sort of deficiency with the technology and/or ecosystem. That's not the case.

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#173

Post by psyc »

ascendantlogic wrote: post #171
psyc wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the economic promise of the nascent Internet objectively more plausible than the promises of ~1000 altcoins.

And just like I said, I'm sure all the neckbeards from the 70's and 80's felt the same way about the Internet and shit like Geocities and pets.com. But hey, I'm sure it's "different" this time, right? You're right and everyone in the crypto space is wrong.

It's funny that we can take totally opposite lessons from "I'm sure it's different this time".

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#174

Post by surrey-fringe »

ascendantlogic wrote: post #172

This is getting a lot of traction because anything related to crypto evokes really strong responses here, but this was a phishing attack. The fact it happened in the crypto space is largely secondary. People get phished and get tricked into handing out bank account and credit card details all the time . It's not even newsworthy unless it happens on a large scale. This is only newsworthy because of the fact that it's…

Excuse me, but Bitcoin is ENCRYPTED and SECRET

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#175

Post by ascendantlogic »

psyc wrote: post #173
ascendantlogic wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And just like I said, I'm sure all the neckbeards from the 70's and 80's felt the same way about the Internet and shit like Geocities and pets.com. But hey, I'm sure it's "different" this time, right? You're right and everyone in the crypto space is wrong.

It's funny that we can take totally opposite lessons from "I'm sure it's different this time".

Given the fact that we're discussing this in the comments of a popular link aggregator for a VC firm/startup accelerator, I'd wager if Internet 1.0 hadn't happened we wouldn't be here.

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#176

Post by ascendantlogic »

surrey-fringe wrote: post #174
ascendantlogic wrote: post #172

This is getting a lot of traction because anything related to crypto evokes really strong responses here, but this was a phishing attack. The fact it happened in the crypto space is largely secondary. People get phished and get tricked into handing out bank account and credit card details all the time . It's not even newsworthy unless it happens on a large scale. This is only newsworthy because of the fact that it's…

Excuse me, but Bitcoin is ENCRYPTED and SECRET

it was encrypted and it was secret. They tricked people into giving them money. The currency is the only variable here.

I do understand you're being sarcastic, though.

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#177

Post by Steeeve »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #86
arkitaip wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

turning your comment into a 10-week pdf course as we speak, just gonna pick a theme over ath theme forest brb

Could I invest in your course academy via some sort of ICO?

Coursecoin is going to change the academic world altogether. The combination of a distributed ledger algorithm with online academia opens up a world of education to people who otherwise could not afford it. Student loans are out of control, but with course coin, the students earn their tuition by mining coins. All the overhead of an academic institution is distributed over a wide array of systems that are responsible for keeping track of enrollment, grades, and personal progress on the blockchain. Teachers get paid better because they get paid in coursecoins as they are mined. They have an actual incentive for their students to remain interested and to succeed.

The ICO will be raising money to bring on new material and for marketing of the courses. We expect 100,000 students in the first quarter, at which point the coin value on the open market is expected to skyrocket beyond all other blockchain coins.

Send your donation or investment money to coursecoin@gmail.com (seriously, please don't.). We will handle the rest.

If you'd like to see our white paper, check it out. https://futureoflife.org/data/documents/research_survey.pdf

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#178

Post by ringaroundthetx »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #140
ringaroundthetx wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they are for a product or service, the limited issuances of the token gives them a speculative market based on future demand and future supply. the team and organization gets funded, the buyers are liquid, nobody makes ridiculous decisions counter to their dreams hoping for "an exit", because everyone already has one. we don't have consumer or investor protections here yet so sure it is ripe for abuse, so far people…

> the team and organization gets funded, the buyers are liquid, nobody makes ridiculous decisions counter to their dreams hoping for "an exit", because everyone already has one. Can you expand on this? What do you mean by "everyone already has one" in this scenario?

Okay, in startups, corporations are formed and the equity (shares) in the corporation are doled out as currency. Completely useless currency given to helpers under the idea that they'll get rich one day in very improbable scenarios.

There is no legal way to sell the shares (hyperbole, but very many hurdles). And exchanging additional shares for cash investments only serves to make your non-sellable stake in the company smaller while increasing your tax burdens in many scenarios. These new investors are typically VCs and they push for changes in the company completely unrelated to the founders vision, and good exits never come, because of the many ways VCs can get their much of their money back before founders or even employees get anything.

In token sales, there may be a corporation for liability purposes but the equity in that corporation is not being sold at all. A product from the corporation is sold, a product with the unique characteristics of having easily formable secondary markets.

Tokens are initially created and sold in exchange for US dollars, or Ethereum or another liquid token. This is used to grow the company, just like any presale on kickstarter is used to grow a company. Yet, the equities regulator is sticking their nose in it (for good reason), but a more applicable regulator could be formed to help grow the market and still obtain the consumer/investor protections they desire. I digress:

Everyone that buys can immediately sell to other people, if the demand is there.

Everyone that earned tokens by helping the corporation, including the founders, or large purchasers who also wanted to see the project develop, can also sell to other people. Immediately.

If there is demand, then existing holders that helped fund the company (buy buying early), can sell to other people at a higher price.

This is only "controversial" and "confusing" because it is more advantageous than the promises people sell to 20 year olds spending decades of their life for useless sweat equity, and it undermines the existing VC industry. It is potentially as revolutionary as "the share company" was in the year 1600.

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#179

Post by Steeeve »

tzz wrote: post #163

There are a lot of scams on the web, but you don't blame the HTTP protocol. There are a lot of email scams, but you don't blame SMTP. Sad to see the dominant view of this community is against any type of cryptocurrency.

If you're an NBA player, you spread the word about gold digger scams. If you're midlevel management you spread the word about timeshare scams. If you're a retiree, you spread the word about tech support scams. If you are a techie, you spread the word about blockchain investment scams because we're the target market for those scams.

Scammers do their best to associate themselves with our communities because positive discussion at a place like hackernews is seen as "well, all those smart techies trust it..."

Re: Hackers nab $500k as Enigma is compromised weeks before its ICO

#180

Post by quickthrower2 »

hendzen wrote: post #53
wott wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am unconvinced that hard earned money is 'invested' in those companies. The target demographic is not hard working class.

The target demographic is gullible, greedy software engineers who have a lot of disposable income but lack experience in conducting due diligence on speculative investments. Basically, Hacker News readers. Why do you think there are so many ICO related posts on this site? It's not accidental.

I don't have any evidence but I suspect it's technical people who got into Bitcoin early. Have a few million but no partner / no kids so maybe think they are "rich" and "set for life" so don't mind a gamble. Maybe the adrenelin of making all that easy cash is what they want to repeat. This would make sense because to hold Bitcoin for that long and not sell is kind of irrational gambling, even though the results have been good.
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