My friend thinks that virtually all of these hacks are inside jobs. Banks have elaborate rules and security procedures in place to prevent insider from stealing (and yet it still occurs). Once the key to your wallet is stolen it’s really hard to trace the money.
There is absolutely no point to cryptocurrency if it’s hackable by anyone, inside or out. The whole point of cryptocurrency is robust security. That is the one tiny negligible bit of value these things have to offer if they are not grounded in external commodities or instruments. And yet we read all the time of hacks and thefts.
My understanding is that cryptocurrency doesn’t actually promise security against theft, only against fake transactions and falsification of past data (hence blockchain).
Sure, but it’s just not good with those minimal security affordances. My point is completely new protocols have to be devised that provide a more reliable defense against theft, because otherwise who can trust cryptocurrency with substantial amounts of non-criminally-acquired money. Or else the wallets and other repositories have to guarantee reimbursement like credit cards do.
I thought anonymity is the key attribute of the blockchain?
Security is not guranteed because a 50%+1 control of the network allows the controller to do anything he/she wants to the blockchain.
I don’t think bitcoin started as a scam, but at some point it definitely turned into one, along with all these other cryptocurrencies. I have no idea why anyone would buy into them at this point.
But what do I know? People continue to start smoking every day.
Indeed. But without antitheft security, IMO there’s no point to it except for criminals.
I agree. Blockchain does not intrinsically guarantee security or even identity or ownership. That must come from an overarching framework that the distributed ledger runs IN.
This headline tries to make Bitcoin sound like a bad investment. Such bad publicity only makes me quadruple down on my own cryptoblockchain investment (zero dollars thus far), because there’s no doubt this commodity is massively under-valued at this point in time.
https://m.sfgate.com/business/article/Bitcoin-bloodbath-nears-dot-com-levels-as-many-13037337.php
Down 70 percent from its December high after sliding for a fourth straight day on Friday, bitcoin is getting ever-closer to matching the Nasdaq Composite Index’s 78 percent peak-to-trough plunge after the U.S. dot-com bubble burst. Hundreds of other virtual coins have all but gone to zero – following the same path as Petsdotcom and other red-hot initial public offerings that flamed out in the early 2000s.
Personally, I am starting to view bitcoin mining the same way I do mountain top removal. Inefficient and hazardous to the environment.
But hey, if you think make believe fairy currency is undervalued, go for it. I am sure your sell big the next time some hedge fund or underworld low life manipulates the value so it go up.
Just remember that some idiot actually bought Bitcoin at $21k. Yikes.
Hopefully this means that GPUs become more sanely priced.
They already have, actually! Now if only RAM would follow suit…
Nowinstock still shows Vega 56s at $100 over MSRP, but it’s still the lowest they’ve been all year.
Reported.
I’m kind of amazed we haven’t had more spam in this thread, given what a cesspool marketing for crypto trading and ICOs is.
This is only somewhat relevant:
Imagine all the fake value of the bitcoin, only Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump are on the board of directors, and Congress passes a law allowing the fake entity to manage all of the US of A’s debt.
At least Congress remained pretty skeptical throughout cryptocurrencies, so, progress?
The virtual currency markets have been through booms and busts before — and recovered to boom again. But this bust could have a more lasting impact on the technology’s adoption because of the sheer number of ordinary people who invested in digital tokens over the last year, and who are likely to associate cryptocurrencies with financial ruin for a very long time.
“What the average Joe hears is how friends lost fortunes,” said Alex Kruger, a former banker who has been trading in the cryptocurrency markets for some time. “Irrational exuberance leads to financial overhang and slows progress.”
“I guess I thought we were ‘sticking it to the man’ when I got on board,” Mr. Herman said. “But I think ‘the man’ had already caught on, and had an exit strategy.”
For some reason, i never connected the dots.
Companies like Dell were eager to take Bitcoin as payment when it was rapidly appreciating (that $1,000 laptop paid in Bitcoins might be worth $10,000 to Dell in a few months); as soon as the bubble burst, companies immediately stopped accepting Bitcoin as payment.
I mean, good? Far better for them to hear that than to hear (and try to emulate) stories of vast gains in wealth.
From a quick Google, it looks like Dell stopped accepting BTC well before the big run-up in late 2017/early 2018. Generally, of course companies are going to be happier accepting payments in an appreciating currency than a declining one, but large, financially responsible companies are not going to want to accept one with a lot of variability in either direction as they should be savvy enough to realise that what goes up quickly can also go down quickly.