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Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

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Re: Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

#2
Wow, it really is the wild west out there right now...

I wish that some of the "post-mortem" reports I've seen were this good and detailed with problem, explaination, resolutions. I don't have a horse in this race so people affected probably feel differently.

Re: Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

#3
Given illegal nature of Silk Road 2, I can't help but be suspicious of this explanation of the hack. If someone's sufficiently willing to flaunt laws as to operate a site devoted to selling contraband, what stops them from taking advantage of their position of power and stealing from their users?

Re: Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

#4
post #3

Given illegal nature of Silk Road 2, I can't help but be suspicious of this explanation of the hack. If someone's sufficiently willing to flaunt laws as to operate a site devoted to selling contraband, what stops them from taking advantage of their position of power and stealing from their users?

That is roughly what I thought when I saw this. These people are dealing with criminal enterprises. What do they expect?

Re: Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

#6
The claim that this was caused by transaction malleability rings hollow.

The reference client (github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin) does not resend transactions because of malleability.

The only way you can have double transfers due to malleability is if you are manually reviewing transfers and re-sending them yourself manually.

This seems like a very convenient scapegoat.

Re: Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

#8
post #3

Given illegal nature of Silk Road 2, I can't help but be suspicious of this explanation of the hack. If someone's sufficiently willing to flaunt laws as to operate a site devoted to selling contraband, what stops them from taking advantage of their position of power and stealing from their users?

This is also the guy that just talked a bunch of trash about the last Dread Pirate Roberts, and how he was so much better about security. Jinxed yourself, bro.

Granted this was supposedly in the Bitcoin protocol itself, but for real, there's really never any need to stick your neck out to talk about how great your security is...

Re: Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

#9
post #5

Is our only recourse downloading the entire block-chain to keep our wallets stored offline? Or do I have some misunderstanding? I just really like the convenience of services like coinbase.

You can keep your wallet on your own computer with a "light" client like Electrum, which doesn't need to download the whole blockchain. There are some security tradeoffs, but nobody can outright steal your bitcoins without you doing anything.

Re: Silk Road 2 Hacked, All Bitcoins Stolen

#10
post #3

Given illegal nature of Silk Road 2, I can't help but be suspicious of this explanation of the hack. If someone's sufficiently willing to flaunt laws as to operate a site devoted to selling contraband, what stops them from taking advantage of their position of power and stealing from their users?

I see your point, but stealing from drug dealers is usually a dangerous business.
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