81–90 of 297 posts
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…
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.
If they were ready btc would be $1m and they would be widely used.
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.
Few people think they are ready. If they were ready btc would be $1m and they would be widely used.
They shouldn't feel too bad. If they still had that 490k they'd just waste it on stupid bullshit like cryptocurrency.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, this is usually (apologies if not in your case) a straw man, and representative of the usual HN blind spot for cryptocurrency. Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets do protect against this class of attack. We are rapidly approaching a world in which those with significant assets or job responsibilities should be carrying physical 2FA tokens, which can allow use of private keys while protecting them (a hardware walle…
> The history of scams is long, requiring periods of societal learning and transition as e.g. credit card, identity fraud, and wire fraud have taken center stage. And governments have enacted laws to protect people. With cryptocurrencies, they - by definition - cannot . Once you got scammed, your money is all but gone (sans a very VERY few exceptions). > The ability to memorize 12 words and have direct ownership of y…
Rollbacks being impossible doesn’t mean the government cannot legislate.
This is a double edged sword - the benefit and the drawback are inextricably linked. Caveat emptor. Do you want absolute control of your funds? If so, you can memorize 12 words and travel the globe. If not, look to custodial partners, ETFs, or multi-signature wallets.
> That's a societal problem, it can only be solved by society, not by cryptocurrency peddlers and tech-bros. And in any case: at some point that "wealth" has to enter the real world, and it's there that governments can step in and seize said wealth.
What? I assume by “this” you mean people who don’t have quality trustworthy financial institutions?
This is Hacker News. We brainstorm technological solutions to real world problems all the time. This particular problem can only be solved be “society” at large, not technology, because you say so?
You want to disparage those trying as “tech-bro peddlers” - do you simply mean any technology inclined entrepreneur who doesn’t present female? This is an absurd emotional invective.
I’d bring up Monero RingCTs and stealth addresses as an intermediate step and the offramp of direct purchases which that community has been building, as well as tools like Bisq, but I doubt the utility of continuing to reply.
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Central banks are the government. And governments define the law we all operate in. And as the crypto industry experiences today they can be vindictive, inconsistent, spurious, aggressive etc. And are highly skilled at resisting efforts to limit their power.
> Central banks are the government The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is, despite the misleading name, a private corporation. [1] This is true I believe of many central banks. Nevertheless, and perhaps this is what you really meant, central banks can _act as an instrument of government_, or, more cynically, serve to enrich the political class and politically well-connected. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
A better summary of that link would be "it is a legally murky thingamajig, which is symbolically private while being governmental in practice".
The section concludes with this quote from a political science professor:
> the "ownership" of the Reserve Banks by the commercial banks is symbolic; they do not exercise the proprietary control associated with the concept of ownership nor share, beyond the statutory dividend, in Reserve Bank "profits." ... Bank ownership and election at the base are therefore devoid of substantive significance, despite the superficial appearance of private bank control that the formal arrangement creates.
Now, it's very possible that the Wikipedia article is itself misleading. I'm just saying it isn't a good citation to use if what you want to do is casually describe the Federal Reserve as "despite the misleading name, a private corporation". The section you linked is all about how that would be a more misleading description!
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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
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Off topic, but I wish /.well-known/ was used more often. Right now, the only real usage for apis is in oauth2. There are dozens of tiny use cases we could use a standard uri for ease of use in corporate environments… .well-known/documentation - redirects to the docs .well-known/health - health check .well-known/specificiation - api contracts Etc…
> Right now, the only real usage for apis is in oauth2. ... as well as the ACME HTTP-01 challenge as used by Let's Encrypt etc.