Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

popey.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 297 posts

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#41

Post by nradov »

woah wrote: post #19
louwrentius wrote: post #7

[flagged]

Cryptocurrency is the only place where regular people use cryptography that they control in a way that matters enough for someone to attack it. Of course we will see mistakes being made. Covering your ears and singing "lalala crypto bad" instead of trying to learn how to make cryptography easier to use is boring.

Far more regular people use other cryptography tools and protocols like full disk encryption, TLS, end-to-end encrypted messaging, etc. All of those are secure and easy to use.

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#42

Post by nntwozz »

On a tangent, my neighbor came to me about a month ago and asked if I was a "hacker"?

He's around 75 and has known me for maybe 20 years, we're not close friends but we run into each other every now and then and he knows I work with IT; I'm about half his age.

Long story short, I find out he needs help to retrieve his bitcoin wallet because he's lost $300k. I spend an hour looking around his devices and find out he's been buying bitcoin from a young hip instagram lady in Florida.

Wait for it…

…they shared access to the wallet.

He had a chat log stretching back one year on whatsapp with her, he was now paying her smaller sums to cover the cost for some "hacker" to retrieve his wallet.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#43

Post by RobertRies »

stouset wrote: post #34
codetrotter wrote: post #9

This is scary and even a hardware wallet might not help. When I create a transaction with Electrum on my computer, I use a hardware wallet to sign the transaction. When I sign the transaction, the hardware wallet shows the amounts, and the output addresses. But if my copy of Electrum was backdoored and smart about what it did, it could use an output address for the remaining amount that went to another wallet. And si…

Reading this, it is bonkers to me that people think cryptocurrencies are ready or appropriate for mainstream use, either as a currency or as an investment. Line could go up, but if you aren’t extremely careful with processes that most people don’t and won’t comprehend—and don’t even realize are something you need to do—you can just straight up lose everything.

The claim is that some day innovations, and checks, and some other technologies will fix this and do all of this automatically, somehow.

That's why it's still early days.

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#44

Post by t_mann »

codetrotter wrote: post #9

This is scary and even a hardware wallet might not help. When I create a transaction with Electrum on my computer, I use a hardware wallet to sign the transaction. When I sign the transaction, the hardware wallet shows the amounts, and the output addresses. But if my copy of Electrum was backdoored and smart about what it did, it could use an output address for the remaining amount that went to another wallet. And si…

Assuming the hardware wallet is safe, and that you indeed check all the recipient addresses and make no mistakes there, I don't see how the software should be able to fool you, though? I would assume that the hardware wallet is built to never leak your private key, at least not when signing a transaction, and the signature that it produces would always be for the exact transaction (recipient, amount, data,...) that you checked (since we assume the hardware wallet to be safe). Can you explain?

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#46

Post by ipython »

RobertRies wrote: post #43
stouset wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading this, it is bonkers to me that people think cryptocurrencies are ready or appropriate for mainstream use, either as a currency or as an investment. Line could go up, but if you aren’t extremely careful with processes that most people don’t and won’t comprehend—and don’t even realize are something you need to do—you can just straight up lose everything.

The claim is that some day innovations, and checks, and some other technologies will fix this and do all of this automatically, somehow. That's why it's still early days.

Early days… 15 years later. To quote spaceballs, When exactly will “then” be “now”?

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#47

Post by kikokikokiko »

RobertRies wrote: post #43
stouset wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reading this, it is bonkers to me that people think cryptocurrencies are ready or appropriate for mainstream use, either as a currency or as an investment. Line could go up, but if you aren’t extremely careful with processes that most people don’t and won’t comprehend—and don’t even realize are something you need to do—you can just straight up lose everything.

The claim is that some day innovations, and checks, and some other technologies will fix this and do all of this automatically, somehow. That's why it's still early days.

[flagged]

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#48

Post by zepton »

codetrotter wrote: post #9

This is scary and even a hardware wallet might not help. When I create a transaction with Electrum on my computer, I use a hardware wallet to sign the transaction. When I sign the transaction, the hardware wallet shows the amounts, and the output addresses. But if my copy of Electrum was backdoored and smart about what it did, it could use an output address for the remaining amount that went to another wallet. And si…

Ledger fixed that exact issue in 2019: https://sergeylappo.github.io/posts/ledger-hack/

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#49

Post by GauntletWizard »

ipython wrote: post #46
RobertRies wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim is that some day innovations, and checks, and some other technologies will fix this and do all of this automatically, somehow. That's why it's still early days.

Early days… 15 years later. To quote spaceballs, When exactly will “then” be “now”?

The history of finance is as long as recorded history, perhaps the reason for it[1]. That said, these kinds of crazes[2] are almost as old.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complaint_tablet_to_Ea-n%C4%81... [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

Re: Exodus Bitcoin Wallet: $490k swindle

#50

Post by ravenstine »

reisse wrote: post #11
redder23 wrote: post #3

Even the real version is the app is a software wallet right? If you have almost 500k in BTC and do not have it on a hardware wallet and use their official software for it, I have to say it's at least partially on you if you lose it.

Bitcoin "wallet" is just a pair of public and private keys. Honest question - what is the difference between a "hardware wallet" and a thumbdrive with the keys on it, except for the price tag?

If it's being used as a "savings account", there really isn't a meaningful difference, although it can be superior because a hardware wallet is more likely to be targeted for an exploit than some rando thumb drive that no one knows the location of or knows exists. This goes against everything that r/bitcoin would say, but lots of those users are similar to those infosec guys who consider all electronics "unacceptably compromised" while completely ignoring the actual risk level in reality and accepting certain tradeoffs.

A hardware wallet can make sense for "checking" purposes, but if you're only moving around small amounts of money occasionally, then you have to ask yourself whether one is worth using over a wallet app on your phone when the latter is more convenient.

Post reply on HN