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Why I find IOTA alarming

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Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#2
I feel like I'm missing one side of the story. I don't know much about IOTA but from what I learned reading articles linked on HN today IOTA:

- Uses custom "ternary" crypto which has been shown to have vulnerabilities in the past.

- Has software that doesn't include the basic function of generating wallet addresses, instead having some users rely on shady 3rd party websites and getting their coins stolen.

- Does away with much of what made other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work in the first place in order to remove transaction limitations.

- Except that the changes required to make this work, at least in theory, are for the most part not actually implemented yet and there appears to be a lot of doubts that it can work at all. See for instance this comment on the article: https://medium.com/@comefrombeyond/thank-you-269640e794e7 ("in the future", "temporarily", "will be using",...). Also note that many replies in this comment actually deflect the original criticism without actually addressing it. I don't even understand what that person means by "You describe the internet", and how that has anything to do with the argument of TFA.

So basically you have a highly experimental technology (even by cryptocurrency standards) which is very much unproven (even by cryptocurrency standards) and yet apparently it has a market cap of $6 billions: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/iota/

So what's the other side of the story? Can a IOTA enthusiast explain what's missing from this picture?

Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#3
post #2

I feel like I'm missing one side of the story. I don't know much about IOTA but from what I learned reading articles linked on HN today IOTA: - Uses custom "ternary" crypto which has been shown to have vulnerabilities in the past. - Has software that doesn't include the basic function of generating wallet addresses, instead having some users rely on shady 3rd party websites and getting their coins stolen. - Does away…

Blockchain + IOT = enough buzzwords to profit off of the greater fool theory.

Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#4
post #3
post #2

I feel like I'm missing one side of the story. I don't know much about IOTA but from what I learned reading articles linked on HN today IOTA: - Uses custom "ternary" crypto which has been shown to have vulnerabilities in the past. - Has software that doesn't include the basic function of generating wallet addresses, instead having some users rely on shady 3rd party websites and getting their coins stolen. - Does away…

Blockchain + IOT = enough buzzwords to profit off of the greater fool theory.

Who said blockchain?

Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#5
post #2

I feel like I'm missing one side of the story. I don't know much about IOTA but from what I learned reading articles linked on HN today IOTA: - Uses custom "ternary" crypto which has been shown to have vulnerabilities in the past. - Has software that doesn't include the basic function of generating wallet addresses, instead having some users rely on shady 3rd party websites and getting their coins stolen. - Does away…

The fact that it is using balanced Ternary makes it seem like the science project of young/inexperienced developers. If you're building a cryptocurrency put away your hubris and use what is tried-and-true.

Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#6
post #2

I feel like I'm missing one side of the story. I don't know much about IOTA but from what I learned reading articles linked on HN today IOTA: - Uses custom "ternary" crypto which has been shown to have vulnerabilities in the past. - Has software that doesn't include the basic function of generating wallet addresses, instead having some users rely on shady 3rd party websites and getting their coins stolen. - Does away…

1. There have been no vulnerabilities in the past. Please read: https://blog.iota.org/official-iota-foundation-response-to-t...

2. If people are unable to generate a simple seed (password) on their own. How can they even begin to understand cryptocurrency or even new tech based on IoT? Still, yes it should be in the wallet and it will be added, but only for investors, I guess?!

3. Please read the following from their AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/Iota/comments/7goul4/iota_founders_... and https://www.reddit.com/r/Iota/comments/7tltz2/live_interview...

Is their market cap justified? Is the entire crypto market cap justified? The whole idea is to invest in tech that can change the future. Who knows which party will be the winner. It's a dare to believe in something magical, like IOTA. Or put your luck into something more real like Bitcoin, for example. Alas, it's good to have doubts, but this blogpost is alarming and not IOTA.

PS: A small portion of my crypto investments are in IOTA, but never press your luck on a single coin.

Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#8
post #2

I feel like I'm missing one side of the story. I don't know much about IOTA but from what I learned reading articles linked on HN today IOTA: - Uses custom "ternary" crypto which has been shown to have vulnerabilities in the past. - Has software that doesn't include the basic function of generating wallet addresses, instead having some users rely on shady 3rd party websites and getting their coins stolen. - Does away…

1. There have been no vulnerabilities in the past. Please read: https://blog.iota.org/official-iota-foundation-response-to-t... 2. If people are unable to generate a simple seed (password) on their own. How can they even begin to understand cryptocurrency or even new tech based on IoT? Still, yes it should be in the wallet and it will be added, but only for investors, I guess?! 3. Please read the following from their…

> 1. There have no vulnerabilities in the past.

I don't know man, the MIT Digital Currency Initiative found a pretty bad one last August:

https://medium.com/@neha/cryptographic-vulnerabilities-in-io...

>  the IOTA developers had written their own hash function, Curl, and it produced collisions (when different inputs hash to the same output). Once we developed our attack, we could find collisions using commodity hardware within just a few minutes, and forge signatures on IOTA payments. We informed the IOTA developers, they patched their system, and we wrote a vulnerability report

Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#9
post #2

I feel like I'm missing one side of the story. I don't know much about IOTA but from what I learned reading articles linked on HN today IOTA: - Uses custom "ternary" crypto which has been shown to have vulnerabilities in the past. - Has software that doesn't include the basic function of generating wallet addresses, instead having some users rely on shady 3rd party websites and getting their coins stolen. - Does away…

BitConnect, a literal Ponzi scheme that was repeatedly flagged to newbies as a Ponzi scheme they should avoid, had a $2.5 billion market cap last month before collapsing.

While IOTA boosters probably have a story they believe that justifies the hype in their mind, just because it’s worth $6 billion in this market doesn’t mean they necessarily have a good one.

For what it’s worth, of all the crypto people I follow that I consider smart or savvy, none of them are IOTA bulls.

Also, the IOTA founder comes off as extremely immature on twitter each time someone trashes it. Even if all the criticism is FUD, his reaction alone is enough to keep me away.

Re: Why I find IOTA alarming

#10
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. There have been no vulnerabilities in the past. Please read: https://blog.iota.org/official-iota-foundation-response-to-t... 2. If people are unable to generate a simple seed (password) on their own. How can they even begin to understand cryptocurrency or even new tech based on IoT? Still, yes it should be in the wallet and it will be added, but only for investors, I guess?! 3. Please read the following from their…

> 1. There have no vulnerabilities in the past. I don't know man, the MIT Digital Currency Initiative found a pretty bad one last August: https://medium.com/@neha/cryptographic-vulnerabilities-in-io... > the IOTA developers had written their own hash function, Curl, and it produced collisions (when different inputs hash to the same output). Once we developed our attack, we could find collisions using commodity hardwa…

DCI's report: https://github.com/mit-dci/tangled-curl/blob/master/vuln-iot...
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