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Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

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Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#31

Post by murph-almighty »

Scarbutt wrote: post #21
rafiki6 wrote: post #20

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.

If someone stoles cash from you, how do you mark that cash as stolen?

FWIW banks will record serial numbers of bills that go missing after a robbery.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#32

Post by [deleted] »

mikeash wrote: post #9
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.

The problem is that the individual coins aren't tagged. It's not like cash where you could conceivably note the serial numbers of all the bills that were stolen. You can track the theft and see where the coins got sent, then see where those wallets sent additional coins, etc., but they'll soon get mixed up with legitimate coins (especially if the thief uses a mixer) and you won't be able to know which is which. It wo…

[deleted]

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#34

Post by jhall1468 »

murph-almighty wrote: post #31
Scarbutt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone stoles cash from you, how do you mark that cash as stolen?

FWIW banks will record serial numbers of bills that go missing after a robbery.

And then it gets laundered and stays stolen. But that's only banks.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#35

Post by meritt »

jonknee wrote: post #16
misja111 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's not how it works. Individual satoshis do not have a serial number. As soon as it goes through a mixer, you cannot definitively say which are stolen and which are legit.

Bitcoin's blockchain is just a ledger of amounts stored at addresses at points in time.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#36

Post by nikkwong »

Can someone walk me through how this happens from a technical perspective? Nicehash must keep their PK at some "super secret place" so they can sign transactions out to their miners. In an ideal situation that PK is unreachable even in a security breach—but if it's not well guarded enough then once that PK is found the floodgates are open. Is that correct? Also, from a technical perspective why would a pool keep so much BTC in a hot wallet? Shouldn't they be constantly distributing rewards out to miners, and just pocketing a % them selves which (you'd assume) they'd move to cold storage?

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#38

Post by siculars »

rafiki6 wrote: post #20

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.

Who is the "trusted third party", the arbiter of such disputes? Is it the government that relies on civil forfeiture laws to keep the lights on in many local municipalities? Which government? The US? EU? China? Russia?

Best you can do is start a tainted coins site and record it there.

Re: Hackers Steal $70M in Bitcoin

#40

Post by vim_wannabe »

chickenfries wrote: post #37
Tharkun wrote: post #33

Tangent: why refer to these people as "hackers" and not "thieves"/"criminals"/" embezzlers"/...?

Because until very recently that is what hacker meant to regular people: "someone who bypasses computer security, usually to commit a crime"

There was also an attempt some years ago to rename them "crackers" but white people took over that one.
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