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Missing line in a smart contract leads to $10M hack

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21–30 of 333 posts

Re: Missing line in a smart contract leads to $10M hack

#21
post #2

I wonder when people will realize that the complexity inherent in human financial transactions will not go away just because you write code instead of natural language and 'decentralized finance' will reinvent everything it tried to get rid off (but shoddily) because nobody likes to lose their live savings because they missed a semicolon.

There is place for both systems. Most crypto people have made peace with the fact that they can lose it all. People overestimate conventional finance. Conventional finance is incredibly flimsy if you dig into it. Leveraged beyond repair, ductaping one unprecedented monetary experiment after another. No conventional currency has preserved substantial purchasing power over a span of say 100 years maximum. The mathematical proof of supply limits alone is an unbeatable feature. Myself, not a crypto fan at all, I am sure crypto will be banned at some point, but just on the merit it's as good as anything.

Re: Missing line in a smart contract leads to $10M hack

#22
post #2

I wonder when people will realize that the complexity inherent in human financial transactions will not go away just because you write code instead of natural language and 'decentralized finance' will reinvent everything it tried to get rid off (but shoddily) because nobody likes to lose their live savings because they missed a semicolon.

There is place for both systems. Most crypto people have made peace with the fact that they can lose it all. People overestimate conventional finance. Conventional finance is incredibly flimsy if you dig into it. Leveraged beyond repair, ductaping one unprecedented monetary experiment after another. No conventional currency has preserved substantial purchasing power over a span of say 100 years maximum. The mathemati…

conventional finance has ways of insuring money and getting back stolen funds. it also is more idiot proof. nothing like that exists with cryto. crypto way less forgiving of errors..

Re: Missing line in a smart contract leads to $10M hack

#26
post #18

Why do ransomware when you can just find exploit and get away without having tainted crypto and also make much more $ too. Defi is such a big gift to hackers. Probably $100 million stolen total in past 2 year. These protocols and contracts are so complicated that such hacks are inevitable and more to come.

Moreover the "hacker" is simply doing something that is allowed by the contract so it's hard to argue that these hacks are even unlawful.

You could argue all hacking is just doing something that is (accidentally) allowed by the target system.

Re: Missing line in a smart contract leads to $10M hack

#27
post #2

I wonder when people will realize that the complexity inherent in human financial transactions will not go away just because you write code instead of natural language and 'decentralized finance' will reinvent everything it tried to get rid off (but shoddily) because nobody likes to lose their live savings because they missed a semicolon.

First thing I do when changing or creating a thing.

Try to figure out WHY things are the way they are and run through some scenarios. It's not a bullet proof system, I don't always do it well... but it can help having to re-invent some of the more obvious aspects of the wheel.

The whole blockchain ecosystem seems like a long drawn out lesson as to why at least some systems we have are kinda big, bulky, involve a lot of checking / overhead ... and why some rules and regulations exist.

Every new blockchain company that posts a blog and complains about "Why can't we just..." often has me thinking "Well yeah you shouldn't... wtf"

Re: Missing line in a smart contract leads to $10M hack

#30
post #2

I wonder when people will realize that the complexity inherent in human financial transactions will not go away just because you write code instead of natural language and 'decentralized finance' will reinvent everything it tried to get rid off (but shoddily) because nobody likes to lose their live savings because they missed a semicolon.

But also, surely the traditional legal system will still handle disputes over smart contracts just like it does with traditional contracts. I can’t imagine that a missing line of code (intentional or not) would be treated any differently by the legal system than a vaguely-worded clause in a traditional contract. The legal system almost certainly will not say “your contract was just code and the code executed properly…

I'm pretty sure a "smart contract" isn't a legally-binding contract. A smart contract is a piece of software code, like a text editor or a web browser.
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