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Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#81

Post by davidgerard »

Animats wrote: post #38
swinglock wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When logged in on the balance page it says: "DO NOT DEPOSIT TO PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED BITCOIN DEPOSIT ADDRESSES. Deposits sent to previous address will not be honored. New deposit addresses are forthcoming.".

Well, at least they're doing that. But there's still no explanation on their site, blog, Twitter, or Facebook, and it's after 8 AM on Monday in London. Expect this to start hitting the financial press in London in the next hour or two.

I think you overestimate Bitcoin's media profile. FT Alphaville is just mentioning yesterday's crash. Apart from that, only the Bitcoin press and fragments of the tech press (Wired, TechCrunch) have mentioned Bitstamp.

edit: whoops, added to the FT Alphaville article! http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/01/05/2079012/who-needs-cave... Come in via Google News for full text. They're using it as one example in a piece on how Bitcoin's infrastructures and the community's ability to assess expertise are not very good.

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#82

Post by Robin_Message »

megaultra wrote: post #69
qnr wrote: post #3

More info: https://coinfire.cf/2015/01/05/bitstamp-confirms-deposit-add... "We are working to determine what has gone wrong. The majority of our coins are swept and placed in cold storage often so this shouldn’t be a major issue right now but we are still working to determine the breadth of the issue. This seems to be a server issue and not a compromise but our teams are still investigating."

I don't like the wording here: The majority of our coins are swept and placed in cold storage often so this shouldn't be a major issue right now . It leaves too much wiggle room. It's like saying: At least some coins have not been placed in cold storage so this could be an issue . Does not look good.

The whole point of cold storage is that only some coins are swept into it (and some remain in a "hot" wallet which is used to process transactions) so I don't think you can read what you have into this statement.

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#83

Post by tedunangst »

csomar wrote: post #78
tedunangst wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this supposed to work in the real world? Imagine if you had to mail the payment for your electric bill to a different address every month.

The site gives you a new address for each deposit. You are not going to remember the address anyway. So it doesn't matter if it changes.

More generally, though. "Bitcoin core discourages address reuse." I work for the company of the future and I get paid in bitcoins. I'm supposed to log into the payroll system and enter a new address every two weeks?

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#84

Post by sneak »

FatalLogic wrote: post #62

https://Bitstamp.net is now showing this message Bitstamp Service Temporarily Suspended We have reason to believe that one of Bitstamp’s operational wallets was compromised on January 4th, 2015. As a security precaution against compromises Bitstamp only maintains a small fraction of customer bitcoins in online systems. Bitstamp maintains more than enough offline reserves to cover the compromised bitcoins. IN THE MEAN…

Two additional updates from their CEO:

https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric/status/552091195795845120

https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric/status/552090819659071488

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#85

Post by Animats »

Bitstamp needs a crisis PR team right now. They're blowing it. They've announced "we're down, we don't know what happened, we don't know when we will be back up, but everybody's assets are just fine. Trust us."

That's not how you do crisis PR. In this situation, a company has to overcommunicate.

Their CEO should have called a press conference for noon in London. All the financial press would show up. They should be announcing "We've been attacked. All customer funds should be intact, but we're shutting down temporarily for a snap audit. We've brought in outside auditors. We've notified the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard). Here are their representatives and you can question them. We will have another press conference in 24 hours".

Now people will be asking hard questions, such as "Is Bitstamp really in London or are they really in Slovenia", and "Why is the CEO on a plane for Vegas?" (Going to CES, yes, but in this situation, he needs to get back to the office.)

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#86

Post by maxerickson »

tedunangst wrote: post #83
csomar wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The site gives you a new address for each deposit. You are not going to remember the address anyway. So it doesn't matter if it changes.

More generally, though. "Bitcoin core discourages address reuse." I work for the company of the future and I get paid in bitcoins. I'm supposed to log into the payroll system and enter a new address every two weeks?

If you trust the other party, you don't have to clear the transaction through the block chain.

You could also just log in and supervise two automated systems interacting, rather than entering numbers.

(Mind you, I don't believe in the glorious future of bitcoin, but any wider usage will certainly be accompanied by better UX)

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#87

Post by sneak »

Animats wrote: post #85

Bitstamp needs a crisis PR team right now. They're blowing it. They've announced "we're down, we don't know what happened, we don't know when we will be back up, but everybody's assets are just fine. Trust us." That's not how you do crisis PR. In this situation, a company has to overcommunicate. Their CEO should have called a press conference for noon in London. All the financial press would show up. They should be a…

Considering that you just figured out very nearly exactly what's happening (sans press conferences) - how exactly are they blowing it?

PS: There is no current Concorde service.

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#88

Post by mikeash »

tedunangst wrote: post #71
csomar wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he means you use a new address for each deposit.

How is this supposed to work in the real world? Imagine if you had to mail the payment for your electric bill to a different address every month.

If the analogy is accurate, then the pre-addressed envelope that comes with your bill already has the unique address on it, so you don't have to do anything special. What's the problem?

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#89

Post by tedunangst »

mikeash wrote: post #88
tedunangst wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this supposed to work in the real world? Imagine if you had to mail the payment for your electric bill to a different address every month.

If the analogy is accurate, then the pre-addressed envelope that comes with your bill already has the unique address on it, so you don't have to do anything special. What's the problem?

Ah, good point. I said electric bill, but was mentally focusing on the few checks I still hand address, for which I don't necessarily receive monthly bills (rent, etc.).

Re: Bitstamp Accounts Frozen

#90

Post by pseudoscops »

sneak wrote: post #87
Animats wrote: post #85

Bitstamp needs a crisis PR team right now. They're blowing it. They've announced "we're down, we don't know what happened, we don't know when we will be back up, but everybody's assets are just fine. Trust us." That's not how you do crisis PR. In this situation, a company has to overcommunicate. Their CEO should have called a press conference for noon in London. All the financial press would show up. They should be a…

Considering that you just figured out very nearly exactly what's happening (sans press conferences) - how exactly are they blowing it? PS: There is no current Concorde service.

Boy am I glad I moved all my crypto holdings from Bitstamp to a decentralized exchange (http://www.bitshares.org)

Feels a lot safer having it all in there!

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