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$477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

marketwatch.com

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Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#51

Post by throwaway0x7E6 »

ohbtvz wrote: post #38
woodruffw wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had assumed that they had some kind of obtuse M of N scheme with no sufficient number of parties in the same place at once, but that was perhaps too optimistic (?) of me.

Armed government agents show up to your door asking you for half a billion dollars. You tell them "can't do it, I need this other key that's held by my partner in a different place". What do you think is going to happen next? "Understandable, have a good day" and they go home? Or they hold you in jail until you somehow find a way to comply?

but that's the very purpose of such schemes, to render you unable to comply.

if such an event happens in a more or less civilized country, you might eventually get some third party to confirm that you're unable to disclose the key

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#52

Post by tormeh »

ohbtvz wrote: post #38
woodruffw wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had assumed that they had some kind of obtuse M of N scheme with no sufficient number of parties in the same place at once, but that was perhaps too optimistic (?) of me.

Armed government agents show up to your door asking you for half a billion dollars. You tell them "can't do it, I need this other key that's held by my partner in a different place". What do you think is going to happen next? "Understandable, have a good day" and they go home? Or they hold you in jail until you somehow find a way to comply?

And how would you ever comply? The government can hold you hostage, but absent the consent of your collaborators there’s nothing you or the government can do. Which is not a great situation to be in, to be fair.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#53

Post by cercatrova »

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #48
cercatrova wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XKCD 538 remains ever relevant.

Wow, that's from February 2nd, 2009. October 31, 2008 was when the bitcoin white paper was published. https://xkcd.com/538/

Well, it was back when crypto still colloquially meant cryptography, not cryptocurrency. Of course, in this case it's the same thing because cryptocurrency uses cryptography underneath.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#54

Post by School-Cotton »

DavidPeiffer wrote: post #48
cercatrova wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XKCD 538 remains ever relevant.

Wow, that's from February 2nd, 2009. October 31, 2008 was when the bitcoin white paper was published. https://xkcd.com/538/

I’m pretty sure by “crypto” they meant “cryptography” (its original meaning), not “cryptocurrency” here.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#55

Post by antod »

cercatrova wrote: post #53
DavidPeiffer wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, that's from February 2nd, 2009. October 31, 2008 was when the bitcoin white paper was published. https://xkcd.com/538/

Well, it was back when crypto still colloquially meant cryptography, not cryptocurrency. Of course, in this case it's the same thing because cryptocurrency uses cryptography underneath.

And on the current topic, crytocurrency really does mean hidden currency.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#56

Post by yanderekko »

sanxiyn wrote: post #28
tartoran wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But does FTX have the right to agree to this? It’s like me agreeing with a stranger to sell your house and split the proceeds between us. FTX wasn’t entitled to the customers money and neither had the Bahamian authorities.

Bahamian government is seizing assets "to protect the interests of clients or customers".

That's just dodging the key question. Obviously the government has some rationale other than that they're taking it because they can. The problem is that they're still taking money that's owned by someone else, even if it's controlled by SBF. I'm sure there are strong international norms if not laws against a sovereign power directing a foreign financial actor to repay some sort of debt by pilfering client deposits, regardless of whether the debt is legitimate or not.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#57

Post by theossuary »

nostromo wrote: post #46
dendriti wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK so not actually guns but "government" then. Not as dramatic though. OP is likely the same kind of person who calls taxes "theft" for rhetorical purposes.

How do you think governments force people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t do?

Using people. Governments have been powerful far longer than guns have existed.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#58

Post by malermeister »

ohbtvz wrote: post #38
woodruffw wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had assumed that they had some kind of obtuse M of N scheme with no sufficient number of parties in the same place at once, but that was perhaps too optimistic (?) of me.

Armed government agents show up to your door asking you for half a billion dollars. You tell them "can't do it, I need this other key that's held by my partner in a different place". What do you think is going to happen next? "Understandable, have a good day" and they go home? Or they hold you in jail until you somehow find a way to comply?

They'll hold you and go get your partner in the other place next.

If he's in a different jurisdiction, they get the other country to cooperate and share the seized funds.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#59

Post by zeven7 »

woodruffw wrote: post #49
ohbtvz wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Armed government agents show up to your door asking you for half a billion dollars. You tell them "can't do it, I need this other key that's held by my partner in a different place". What do you think is going to happen next? "Understandable, have a good day" and they go home? Or they hold you in jail until you somehow find a way to comply?

Absolutely the latter. My surprise comes more from FTX seemingly not even trying to do some kind of key protection scheme; it seems as though they made it easy for this seizure to happen. To my mind, this speaks large volumes about the quantity of misplaced confidence in these firms.

They made it easy to move the funds around on purpose, so that they could move the funds around any time they wanted. "They" being a very small handful of people, maybe just SBF himself, maybe a couple others. They didn't want it to be hard to move funds because that would require more accountability. Accountability was the last thing they wanted.

Re: $477M FTX ‘hack’ was a Bahamian government asset seizure

#60

Post by ck_one »

hailwren wrote: post #44
blackhaj7 wrote: post #40

Didn’t the transactions got to FuckSBF or something similar? This sounds like bull

No, there is a way to spoof transfer events on etherscan so that trolls can attach funny coin names to famous wallets.

How does it work?
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