Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 312 posts

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#151

Post by [deleted] »

stale2002 wrote: post #47
cflewis wrote: post #33

As someone who knows very little about the blockchain, I was wondering if the Bitcoins are "known"? Like, they have a hash or something? Can't they be then blacklisted from use somehow? I thought the whole point of the blockchain was that all the transactions were all known?

It is very difficult to blacklist coins with the current culture of Bitcoin. If 1 person refuses to accept the coins, there are thousands and thousands of others who knowingly WILL. And an even larger group of people who aren't even going to be aware of your blacklist and will do so unknowingly. In order to blacklist coins, it is not enough to just blacklist the 1 address. You have to black everyone who accepts those…

[deleted]

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#152

Post by jacobush »

s0rce wrote: post #7

Wow, didn't know Mt. Gox lost 850k BTC, thats 9B USD at the current price. Are these coins traced? Were they quietly sold or are hackers sitting on billions in BTC?

So in the future, someone might pay off the Mt. Gox debt for shits and giggles!

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#153

Post by CyberDildonics »

tzahola wrote: post #139
ReverseCold wrote: post #90

Posting this as a top level comment as well (probably a better idea): The coins stolen are XEM ( https://nem.io/ ) not Bitcoin. They're currently tracking the stolen coins to ensure they are not sold. Preliminary evidence suggests that it was a private key stolen and not a network problem. Disclaimer: Am somewhat associated with the team, and I hold a small amount of XEM. Feel free to ask questions.

>and I hold a small amount of XEM. *held :^)

I doubt someone who actually understands crypto currencies is keeping their money on an exchange, since this exact thing can happen.

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#154

Post by stuxnet79 »

dmix wrote: post #135
stuxnet79 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kim Nilsson's group have been investigating the Mt Gox incident for years and he gave a presentation some time ago that summarized some of their findings ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l70iRcSxqzo ). One of the best summaries of the Mt Gox incident, as well as the fallout and subsequent investigations that I've watched.

Any TLDW for the primary theory on who did it? Inside job?

Well worth watching IMO. TLDW, MtGox was compromised more than a dozen times and if 'MagicalTux' and Co would have done their due diligence and notified users the scale of the theft wouldn't have been as high as it ended up being.

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#155

Post by dangero »

Retric wrote: post #117
dangero wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

paper wallet generation software can also have bugs or be intentionally rigged and people have definitely reported both quite a bit. You're right on with your approach -- I think the answer is multiple wallets -- even multiple brands of hardware wallets, multiple exchanges, multiple computers, multiple different types of paper wallets stored in different places, even multiple cryptocurrencies in case one has a catast…

I am not saying your wrong, but that kind of defeats the point of using a crypto coin in the first place.

Absolutely! This is not consumer ready at all. It's important to continuously point that out.

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#156

Post by justinhj »

skinnymuch wrote: post #142
blueline wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the wire had something like 30M viewers at peak and was absurdly well received....

Do you have any links or citations for a number even close to that? It’s live viewership numbers are lower than current HBO shows like Westworld that don’t overall get 30M viewers per episode. Or did you have a different meaning for 30M than per episode? Usually that’s what people mean for tv so I am assuming that.

According to wikipedia the peak viewing for individual episodes is about 4m. Although it's not a stretch to assume it reached a lot more people than that via legal streaming services and illegal downloads.

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#157

Post by tdb7893 »

fpgaminer wrote: post #138
m3kw9 wrote: post #50

A lot of people take for granted of a bank guarantees from govt. In a bank you are protected if the bank burns down or gets robbed empty. Unlike the Wild West here

I remember naively believing that FDIC covered theft. There are little notes and placards posted all over banking websites and physical locations advertising that your funds are insured by FDIC. I'll bet most people who see those signs believe the same thing I believed: that "insured" in that context meant your funds were protected. Against theft; fire; fraud; etc. Right? But FDIC _doesn't_ cover theft. Or anything e…

If money is stolen from the bank it's the bank that loses money, not you. I think banks are generally insured against theft but if if they did lose a lot of money from a theft I'm under the impression that they would fail and the FDIC would cover it.

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#158

Post by makemoniesonlin »

Leader2light wrote: post #149
edshiro wrote: post #143

This kind of news is the reason why people should seriously consider buying a hardware crypto wallet if they plan to put significant sums at risk. I've started trading in this space with a modest amount, but as I plan to increase some of my investments I am definitely considering purchasing a wallet. I would sleep better if I knew my coins were not held within the exchange.

What happens when your hardware fails or is destroyed? Or someone just forces you to give up the info?

You store the seed phrase securely as well somewhere, and if the hardware wallet fails, you can still access your coins.

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#159

Post by sincerely »

tn_ wrote: post #52
trey-jones wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exchanges are not a trustworthy place to keep your crypt. I think that is accepted. What does it have to do with the value of the thing?

Bruh if it's accepted then why did people just lose over a half a billion $ storing their cryptocurrency in one.

I don't hold a lot of crypto or anything but one of the most repeated sentiments in communities, guides etc is "don't store money in an exchange". People do it, just like people sometimes buy drugs on DNMs without using PGP encryption, and /usually/ it doesn't end badly for them, but the worst-case scenario (exchange hacked or exit scams and arrest respectively) is pretty bad.

Re: Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange hacked, losing $530M: NHK

#160

Post by cryptonitez »

vkou wrote: post #140
csomar wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not? By using a usd-token like usdt it become possible. Bitshare usd also has been very stable lately and it is fully decentralized.

A usd-token requires trust that the token issuer isn't just printing magic internet money. You've just moved your point of failure from the exchange, to the token issuer. All evidence points to USDT being just that - magic internet money, with nothing backing it.

Dozens of exchanges risking their reputation on it suggest otherwise.
Post reply on HN