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Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

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Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#81
post #79
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2018 will be the year that a major US exchanger gets raided by the FBI/SEC.

Wouldn't be the first time, assuming you mean exchanges in general: http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/30/business/fbi-commodities-s...

My 2018 prediction is that a terror attack (or other high profile event, say a massive human trafficking ring bust) of some sort will get blamed on "Bitcoin financing" and this will be used as pretext to go after one or more US exchangers and seize assets. That's why - never keep your coins on an exchange-controlled wallet. If this happens, it will take many years if you ever see your coins again. By then the worldwide crackdown on exchangers will crash the Bitcoin price, so it might not matter at that point.

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#82
post #24

I raised this concern in a comment last week. We are going to see more instances of this. Remember how in the movies they break into a bank manager's house and hold the family captive while someone goes with the manager to open the bank vault? Same thing is inevitably going to happen IRL. I always say exchangers are Bitcoins weakest link. All it takes is one compromised employee at Coinbase or another large exchanger…

What you're talking about is called a tiger kidnapping, and is not something that just happens in movies - it's happened several times in my home country, Ireland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_kidnapping

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#83
Unfortunately, one of the 'killer apps' for crypto is extortion. It's going to change the world and not for the better.

The hard part of extortion has always been getting paid. It's always involved exposure ("meet me there with a bag of money") or been subject to limitations (wire transfer clawbacks, cash withdrawal limits, etc), until now.

Right now anyone in the world can fill an insulin syringe with cyanide solution, walk into supermarkets (too big to properly secure, and there's too many supermarkets to prevent it), and inject it into random plastic coke bottles. People will stop drinking coke, and then Coca-cola will be willing to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to make it stop. Ten years ago, the extortionist would then have to meet somewhere to collect a bag full of money, and that's where the risk comes in. But now they can simply send coca-cola a bitcoin address and get paid anonymously risk-free. You can design extremely profitable low-risk crimes.

The question then becomes, if more people were given the ability to steal risk-free, would they? Anyone who has spent time in the crypto ecosystem has already learned the answer. They will. This is why nearly every exchange gets 'hacked' and so many darknet vendors pull exit scams. It turns out a lot of the reason most people are good all the time has more to do with fear of getting caught than virtue.

The world is about to become a very scary place.

Be the change that you wish to see. Money won't make you happy.

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#84
post #77
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An exchange doesn't have to have all of their assets ready to use at a moment's notice. They could have 95% of their assets locked up in an inconvenient but safe method. If their hot wallet starts running low, then they begin the process to top it up with their hard-to-use multisig protected funds.

Good thing nobody can tell when the hot wallet starts to run low, otherwise they might know the exact moment when the keys need to come together.

For bitcoin, they can actually tell. For things like monero, not really.

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#85
post #43
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best way to not get your car stoken is to leave the engine in a warehouse in Germany, the chassis in a car park in Brazil and the rest in your garage in California. That's super secure but how do you use it every day?

An exchange doesn't have to have all of their assets ready to use at a moment's notice. They could have 95% of their assets locked up in an inconvenient but safe method. If their hot wallet starts running low, then they begin the process to top it up with their hard-to-use multisig protected funds.

The analogy to this is bill gates not having all of his networth stored in his house

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#86
post #45
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should rather xor it with two other random keys.

I don't think I follow you, could you please explain what you mean a bit further?

splitting the key into multiple segments reduces the number of bits one has to guess.

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#87
post #83

Unfortunately, one of the 'killer apps' for crypto is extortion. It's going to change the world and not for the better. The hard part of extortion has always been getting paid. It's always involved exposure ("meet me there with a bag of money") or been subject to limitations (wire transfer clawbacks, cash withdrawal limits, etc), until now. Right now anyone in the world can fill an insulin syringe with cyanide soluti…

For something as large scale as that coke scheme bitcoin could always implement clawbacks via consensus.

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#88
post #87
post #83

Unfortunately, one of the 'killer apps' for crypto is extortion. It's going to change the world and not for the better. The hard part of extortion has always been getting paid. It's always involved exposure ("meet me there with a bag of money") or been subject to limitations (wire transfer clawbacks, cash withdrawal limits, etc), until now. Right now anyone in the world can fill an insulin syringe with cyanide soluti…

For something as large scale as that coke scheme bitcoin could always implement clawbacks via consensus.

But that won't scale because the public won't have time to study every case that occurs. Maybe instead we could have specific people whose job it is to analyze cases and make judgements. And maybe each case could be assigned a few people to study it and help the judge decide...

Re: Exmo Bitcoin exchange chief executive kidnapped in Kiev

#89
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2018 will be an interesting year for decentralized exchanges and atomic swaps.

2018 will be the year that a major US exchanger gets raided by the FBI/SEC.

What does your prediction have to do with my comment?
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