Live data from Hacker News

Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

inputs.io

81–90 of 193 posts

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#81
post #42
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting thought. Could there be "shunned" Bitcoins where, if they held certain blacklisted wallets in their history, businesses and users would choose not to accept them? One could imagine people still choosing to trade in these Bitcoins, but that such a penalty would forevermore reduce their value next to "unshunned" coins. Could legit businesses and people using Bitcoin collectively reduce the value of stolen B…

Who would manage such database of "shunned" Bitcoins? Who would decide which ones are "shunned" and which aren't? This is a delicate topic, almost as much controversial as censoring internet to get rid of child porn. With decentralized protocol/currency as Bitcoin is, that is not possible to do properly. OTOH, every service can decide on their own what they accept and how they operate, so each and every service opera…

Note, I'm not saying it's a fantastic idea, just something that happened to occur to me as a possible development in Bitcoin's future.

It'd likely be along the lines of anti-spam lists. You might have one that's high-profile thefts or seizures. For that matter, these lists could be political, issue-based, or whatever.

It's ridiculous and unlikely to be followed if taken out to the extremes of issue-based disputes, but I don't think it's impossible for a significant number of people to agree not to transact in stolen Bitcoins, some on principle, some as self-preservation (the exchanges), and most because their utility is reduced by the first two groups refusing them. This also happens to increase the value of untainted Bitcoins.

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#82
post #62

Is there anything to stop the community from creating a database of known-stolen Bitcoins which participants can choose to reject? I guess all it takes is one non-participating exchange, but it seems like you could make it much less convenient to cash out.

Many members of the community have reacted quite loudly and negatively to the suggestion that a central authority should be able to declare certain bitcoins tainted. This effectively introduces an external-to-the-blockchain way to essentially remove their bitcoins from their control, which they (currently) believe is impossible in bitcoin, and which they believe would devalue their bitcoins if it were known to be pos…

I wonder if this is a problem that could be solved with an evolution of the technology. Meaning bitcoin (or a future crypto-currency) policing itself in a distributed manner, without requiring a central authority. Perhaps some way to hold referendums as to whether specific coins should be considered stolen. And if passed, some predetermined resolution mechanism would come into play, whereby the stolen coins would no longer be valid anywhere, and new coins would become available - either returned to the theft victim, or added to the mining pool, or something.

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#83

I had hundreds of Bitcoin on Coinlenders up until very recently when they switched to a "demo" legal-workaround that was legally terrible and childish. Coinlenders is a sister site to Inputs that share the same wallets. Coinlenders funds are being re-distributed to Inputs wallets. I obviously made a good decision to leave Coinlenders when I did as Coinlenders users are going to get perhaps 40% of their invested amoun…

I don't know, $1.1M is a lot of money. If someone stole a million dollars from my company, I don't know if I'd be rushing to reimburse it with personal funds (assuming I even could), however bad I felt for the users. That said, if I recall correctly, one case where the corporate veil can potentially be pierced in a lawsuit is negligence. IANAL, but maybe users would have a legitimate case against personal funds, assu…

And there you have it... if you were registered with a regulator you would have insurance and have had put up a multimillion dollar bond in some cases for a scenario were YOU screw up.

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny seeing you on my side. How you been? I haven't crossed words with you in a while. james_d?

Different, James, I think. I'm not completely on board with your view, but your criticism here is valid and should be acknowledged by BTC proponents if they have any hope of observing their currency as realists. This kind of thing is a major drawback to using Bitcoin.

Have you never trolled the r/debatereligion circuit?

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#86

I don't know what you expected, Bitcoin enthusiasts. You bought into a system where coins could be permanently lost because you forgot a password. You bought into a system where the government cheerfully gained control of a large share of the market by simple confiscation. You have recreated money . But you aren't even good at it! You still think that simple cryptography will excuse you from the fact that you're gree…

Instead of hating something you should try to understand it first:

> permanently lost because you forgot a password

You don't have to encrypt your wallet, that's up to you. If you believe that not even knowing the password of an encrypted wallet you should be able to recover your bitcoins your problem is actually with cryptography in general.

> the government cheerfully gained control of a large share

Powerful entities have power, welcome to the real world.

> the fact that you're greedy bastards

huh? can you expand on this?

> it intentionally promotes a counter-establishment treatise

Nop, Bitcoin is a technology, and neither the paper nor the Bitcoin Foundation is "counter-establishment". Actually the last one is trying really hard to make Bitcoin "pro" establishment.

Sorry I don't wanna be rude but your post is absurd.

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#87
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they are traceable. There is a public record of every wallet address the bitcoin has touched. If those who it was stolen from reveal their wallet addresses, it should be possible to track down the coins and find out who the thief was.

You can still use a "mixing" service, which takes many coins from many sources and mixes it in a way that you can't tell anymore what is the source of Bitcoins you received. Blockchain.info operates one of these.

Isn't that effectively bitcoin laundering?

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#88
post #70

I don't know what you expected, Bitcoin enthusiasts. You bought into a system where coins could be permanently lost because you forgot a password. You bought into a system where the government cheerfully gained control of a large share of the market by simple confiscation. You have recreated money . But you aren't even good at it! You still think that simple cryptography will excuse you from the fact that you're gree…

You fail to point out that cash has all the same drawbacks: You can permanently lose cash if destroyed in a fire. Your cash or bank account can be confiscated easily by the government. Etc. Of course, unlike cash, Bitcoin has advantages because it offers the option to prevent these losses: you can back up a Bitcoin wallet. You can avoid government confiscation (password-protected wallet). Etc.

.

Re: Inputs.io hacked – 4100 BTC stolen

#89
post #79
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You fail to point out that cash has all the same drawbacks: You can permanently lose cash if destroyed in a fire. Your cash or bank account can be confiscated easily by the government. Etc. Of course, unlike cash, Bitcoin has advantages because it offers the option to prevent these losses: you can back up a Bitcoin wallet. You can avoid government confiscation (password-protected wallet). Etc.

[deleted]

Wait a few years for the Bitcoin ecosystem to mature, and all the security mechanisms developed by banks (and more advanced ones that are just inapplicable to cash) will appear and be applied to Bitcoin: theft insurances, properly secured web wallets (HSM, userbased multi-sig, cold wallets, etc), tamper-proof hardware wallets, etc.
Post reply on HN