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Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

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Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#11

Post by misja111 »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #4

Can someone explain how is it possible to steal Bitcoin if every transaction is recorded in a public ledger? Does not every bitcoin have its own signature which allows you to track its movement? New to this.

Yes it is possible to check the history of a Bitcoin and see that it has been stolen. Provided that you take the effort to do that.

This is no different than when a bank is robbed and banknotes are stolen. The bank might have written down the numbers of the banknotes and those can be published. But most shops won't check those when somebody buys something.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#12

Post by [deleted] »

acali wrote: post #8
ch4ch4 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, the real challenge now is how to spend it all without getting caught!

This is what I don't understand. If you can watch every transaction, is the key to successfully getting away with theft the ability to withdraw funds without being detected?

[deleted]

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#13

Post by bufferoverflow »

What really pisses me off is how it got handled by NiceHash:

Alex Zvyozdny: Many of you already know that the site reddit spread information about the alleged hacking of our service. We hasten to assure everyone that your bitcoins are safe and sound. And we are the largest pool in the CIS countries are not going to close, but rather increase our presence in the regions. In connection with the increased number of those wishing to mine the crypto currency at our sites, as well as rent or lease capacities for mining, we conduct PLANNED technical works, which are to be completed on Friday morning. From December 8, the service will work in the standard mode. Since this is the most massive update in the last two years, we have indeed suspended all Bitcoin payments, and the funds were taken to a safe place. After the works - everything will be returned to their places. Please do not panic! Sincerely yours, NiceHash.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#14

Post by lawn »

acali wrote: post #8
ch4ch4 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, the real challenge now is how to spend it all without getting caught!

This is what I don't understand. If you can watch every transaction, is the key to successfully getting away with theft the ability to withdraw funds without being detected?

Something like that yes.

You can try to conceal your coins by sending to many addresses, using mixer services to switch your coins with someone else and then trade them often to other cryptocurrencies which makes them harder to track. I would personally try to trade them for Monero where you basically can't trace your transactions.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#15

Post by Nursie »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #4

Can someone explain how is it possible to steal Bitcoin if every transaction is recorded in a public ledger? Does not every bitcoin have its own signature which allows you to track its movement? New to this.

Gain access to someone's server, somehow convince it to sign a transaction that sends the BTC your way, done.

And with no way to reverse it there's no way to pull the balance back.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#16

Post by jonknee »

misja111 wrote: post #11
rokhayakebe wrote: post #4

Can someone explain how is it possible to steal Bitcoin if every transaction is recorded in a public ledger? Does not every bitcoin have its own signature which allows you to track its movement? New to this.

Yes it is possible to check the history of a Bitcoin and see that it has been stolen. Provided that you take the effort to do that. This is no different than when a bank is robbed and banknotes are stolen. The bank might have written down the numbers of the banknotes and those can be published. But most shops won't check those when somebody buys something.

> This is no different than when a bank is robbed and banknotes are stolen. The bank might have written down the numbers of the banknotes and those can be published. But most shops won't check those when somebody buys something.

Well it's quite a bit different because everyone has access to the ledger where you can see what "bills" were stolen and can automatically prevent them from being used.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#17

Post by BearGoesChirp »

misja111 wrote: post #11
rokhayakebe wrote: post #4

Can someone explain how is it possible to steal Bitcoin if every transaction is recorded in a public ledger? Does not every bitcoin have its own signature which allows you to track its movement? New to this.

Yes it is possible to check the history of a Bitcoin and see that it has been stolen. Provided that you take the effort to do that. This is no different than when a bank is robbed and banknotes are stolen. The bank might have written down the numbers of the banknotes and those can be published. But most shops won't check those when somebody buys something.

With bitcoins, it is easier to track the notes, but it is also easier to get rid of the association if you find someone willing to clean them for you.

Say I steal 10 bitcoins from you. I go to someone who cleans bitcoins for a cost of 10%. I send them 10 bitcoins, and they send 1 bitcoin to 9 different wallets (keeping the 10th as payment). That alone would allow you to still track it. But now add in thousands of other people sending them bitcoins on the same day, and some random pauses as to when they send the bitcoins to other wallets, and you are no longer able to tell which bitcoins in are associated with which bitcoins out.

Now, do you just get businesses to stop doing business with anyone (any wallet) that has ever received bit coins from the mixer? And there are many mixers out there.

And this is still simplified. You can be governments are monitoring and running statistical analysis on those mixers to try to find people laundering bitcoins associated with especially bad things. I'd even guess some of the bitcoin laundering operations are ran by governments in an attempt to better track the flow of bitcoins.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#20

Post by rafiki6 »

How is it that this can't be prevented by the Bitcoin network? The network should be able to mark coins stolen and unusable...oh wait it can't. Because in order to do that you'd need a trusted third party to verify the coins were stolen defeating the purpose of a distributed ledger that doesn't require third party trust. Yet another shortcoming of trying to replicate cash.
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