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Binance's Trust Wallet extension hacked; users lose $7M

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Re: Binance's Trust Wallet extension hacked; users lose $7M

#11
post #5

I love the concept of cryptocoins. But in practice, there are some enormous hazards that make it not worthwhile IMO. This is just one such hazard, but by now we've seen several flavors of "this custody/storage mechanism failed to securely store some wealth." If securing it yourself, it's so easy to mishandle and either destroy your wealth or have it stolen. If delegating it to an "expert" you risk the custodial agent…

> Having a government-insured bank deposit means that I've never had to think about this in my lifetime. It's a problem that I don't need. Government-insured bank deposits are mostly BS, the fine prints say they have about 10 years to reimburse you and in case of a systemic failure good luck. In case the bank app, their "system" or your computer is compromised most banks will not reimburse you. It is very easy for th…

even if that's the case re: government insured banks.... Maybe it feels more secure because there is someone to hold accountable if/when it all falls apart. People can show up in DC with pitch forks and vent their frustration; good luck tracking the stateless billionaires behind a company like Binance through Micronesia/the Caribbean/Seychelles/whatever island paradise they stashed their cash on.

Re: Binance's Trust Wallet extension hacked; users lose $7M

#12

I believe the Achilles' heel of Web3 is really that is was built on Web1&2. Whatever opinion you might have about this industry, the core work is done by the Bitcoin and Ethereum teams and it is pretty admirable. They have been progressing for 10 years in a system where any mistake can collapse the entire system. But ultimately those wallets and Web3 apps are built with web technologies and run in a browser and this…

It's not true that seed phrases have to be connected to the web browser though. Take a look at Trezor. There is a web plugin but the keys never leave the hardware wallet. The issue is users prefer the convenience of not needing to use a HW wallet for the transaction signing, which leads to a plce where keys are stored in digital space and can be stolen.

Re: Binance's Trust Wallet extension hacked; users lose $7M

#14

I believe the Achilles' heel of Web3 is really that is was built on Web1&2. Whatever opinion you might have about this industry, the core work is done by the Bitcoin and Ethereum teams and it is pretty admirable. They have been progressing for 10 years in a system where any mistake can collapse the entire system. But ultimately those wallets and Web3 apps are built with web technologies and run in a browser and this…

There are plenty of native app wallets.

Re: Binance's Trust Wallet extension hacked; users lose $7M

#15
post #5

I love the concept of cryptocoins. But in practice, there are some enormous hazards that make it not worthwhile IMO. This is just one such hazard, but by now we've seen several flavors of "this custody/storage mechanism failed to securely store some wealth." If securing it yourself, it's so easy to mishandle and either destroy your wealth or have it stolen. If delegating it to an "expert" you risk the custodial agent…

Sort of a double edged sword there. A big part of the appeal of crypto money is that there is no "centralized daddy." The upside is that your property can't be confiscated by "centralized daddy." The downside is you can lose your keys.

People who do not understand that trade-off have no business buying crypto.

Re: Binance's Trust Wallet extension hacked; users lose $7M

#20
post #5

I love the concept of cryptocoins. But in practice, there are some enormous hazards that make it not worthwhile IMO. This is just one such hazard, but by now we've seen several flavors of "this custody/storage mechanism failed to securely store some wealth." If securing it yourself, it's so easy to mishandle and either destroy your wealth or have it stolen. If delegating it to an "expert" you risk the custodial agent…

I believe cryptocurrencies are an in-vitro experiment on free market ideologies and that's why people are so split on them.

I think of them as primarily an ideological technology, designed to establish the primacy of free market capitalism over any sovereign law.

I think that is why people still hold onto them, despite nothing but scams coming out of them so far.

As somebody who doesn't think unrestrained free markets are a good idea, it feels like the capitalist monkey paw: Finally, there's completely unrestrained uncensorable money. Unfortunately, the result of that is what every advocate of regulation would've told you: Nothing but scams.

Ironically, the phrase capitalists use to describe why socialism can't work - "doesn't account for human nature" - has been proven to apply to their preferred ideology.

They got what they wanted and turns out it sucks. The technology that was supposed to establish the primacy of their world view ended up disproving it instead, plunging them into ideological crisis.

They have no choice but to double down despite ever more evidence of free market failure. There's a certain ideological cost sunk fallacy going on - to admit error and change ones ideological framework completely would be too painful, so they keep waiting for redemption.

Just my grain of salt as a socialist.

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