NiceHash hacked, Bitcoins worth $70mil gone

[Deleted]

I think the point people are trying to make is that outside of a very small number of online businesses (or Japan apprently) you can't spend bitcoins like you can spend money you can only sell them to other bitcoin traders.

So, exactly the same as gold.

[chazus]

if you are smart and use a reputable site like coinbase

Even reputable sites are vulnerable. Any large amount, unless consistently trading, should be kept in a private wallet.

[Zan15]

Have you ever did this crazy thing and put pictures that are important to you on 2 different devices, like maybe a hard drive and a flash USB? Well.. you can do that with bitcoin too.

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"you pray that one of the exchanges is actually open, not crashing long enough for you to actually trade and that your coins are not stolen during the whole process.


not to mention that there is actually a buyer on the other side....."



I find a pretty big difference in having to wait a couple hours because of high traffic or getting your coins stolen. One is reasonably accepted depending on the site, the other is the most important thing in crypto. You will not lose your coins if you are smart and use a reputable site like coinbase, but yes you may have to wait a couple minutes to cash out at times.

it can't be taken serious if you have to wait a few hours to sell/trade a few times a week. If they want this sucker to snowball they are going to have to fix that.

" You will not lose your coins if you are smart and use a reputable site.."

one of the most reputable sites at the time Mt. Gox was hacked and poof went 850,000 coins with a current value of 12 billion dollars.

it was handling over 70% of all bitcoin transactions worldwide and The company said it had lost almost 750,000 of its customers' bitcoins, and around 100,000 of its own bitcoins, totaling around 7% of all bitcoins. (current value around 18 billion)


or how about the exchange that replaced them?
Bitfinex is an opaque crypto-currency exchange trading and currency-storage platform based out of Taiwan, owned and operated by iFinex Inc.[2][3] Since 2014, it has been the largest Bitcoin exchange platform, with over 10% of the exchanges' trading.[4]


and of course they were hacked.....120k coins, but they actually paid back the lost money because at the time it was only 72 million, now it would be 2 billion and there is no way they could afford to pay it back.

and....even though they are still in operation....this "REPUTABLE" site......

In April 2017, Bitfinex announced that it was no longer able to let users withdraw their funds in USD,[14] after Wells Fargo cut off[6] its wire transfers.[15] Bitfinex and Tether[6] sued Wells Fargo for the decision but dismissed the case few days later.[16][17] As a consequence, Bitcoins were traded at a price around 100 USD higher than other exchanges[18][19] as users started buying bitcoins in order to move them to other exchanges and withdraw their funds there.[20][21]

Shortly after the Wells Fargo cutoff, Bitfinex stated all international wires had been cut off by its Taiwanese bank. Since then, Bitfinex has moved between a series of banks in other countries, without disclosing to customers where the money is stored.[

[Deleted]

Would anyone give me a quick course on how to invest, where, how much and any tips regarding bitcoin? I literally got 2000 cash from old sales and I want to invest it.

[Zan15]

Said no one ever. You will not lose your coins if you're responsible and keep your wallet with you, alongside your multiple backups.



)

was said by the person i quoted, so ya....obviously said by a supporter.
How do you keep it with you if you are trying to sell it on an exchange then it gets hacked?

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This isn't a testament to this exchange's quality but the reputability of the attached banks. (And yes, banks have been hacked too.) Additionally: You're not bound to trade through any particular exchange. Bind your wallet to any exchange and deal through any of them. If you limit yourself to just one, that's fine. But as with any newer tech, you have to expect technical difficulties and should plan accordingly. You just can't attribute individual failings to the system as a whole, especially if there are obvious ways to counter or at least mitigate such failings.
That's liky saying that the construction company is liable because you cracked your skull because you ran head-on into a concrete wall they built without any kind of protection.

Are cryptos without worries? NO! I'd advise anyone to not even think about putting any money into them they couldn't afford to lose in a moment's notice. The markets currently are fricking wild, and the peaking wide interest generates technical hurdles many attached comanies didn't have to deal with until recently. It'll take time to resolve them, which makes the markets even more unstable. It's a rollercoaster, especially during the past few weeks. But the ideas have been proven worthy for a couple of years by now, and any security worries result not from the actual technique employed for the core concept, but satelite installments that aim to ease the use of the tech. Any qualms against those would be like saying: "Well, cash isn't safe because ATMs can physically be removed and cracked." - which would only say things about the company making and installing the ATMs in question, but NOT the concept of cash money itself.

BTCs are a lot like cash in this regard: If you're not an utter idiot, you're able you secure your stash with relative ease. That doesn't say much about their market value, but if you're not stupid at least your actual posession of BTC can be made quite untouchable.
Regarding their value, we're currently in rather turbulent times and we'll have to see how this plays out. Stuff is still rather new, and only recently gained the attention of "non-geeky" media and people, which naturally causes a lot of movement. Anyone claiming to know anything right now can only be called ignorant, stupid, delirious and/or biased. Especially if like now, it's pretty much unknown if and how governments will eventually react. Cryptos' fate will eventually be decided on political levels, and as far as I'm concerned I see them being put into the same shackles traditional currencies are in eventually. Thus I'm glad to have had my fun and gains with them so far, and will proceed to do so until they inevitably become just yet another regulated currency.
(Which isn't even a sentence of doom, but they surely eventually will be not much better than trading traditional currencies in the eyes of investors. Read: Just another option, just as potentially viable as any other option.)

ATM, Banks, Accounts, Stock Market.....all things that are insured for your losses if stolen

Even when ATM's were "new technology" they were still insured for losses.

[breadisfunny]

Have you ever did this crazy thing and put pictures that are important to you on 2 different devices, like maybe a hard drive and a flash USB? Well.. you can do that with bitcoin too.

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"you pray that one of the exchanges is actually open, not crashing long enough for you to actually trade and that your coins are not stolen during the whole process.


not to mention that there is actually a buyer on the other side....."



I find a pretty big difference in having to wait a couple hours because of high traffic or getting your coins stolen. One is reasonably accepted depending on the site, the other is the most important thing in crypto. You will not lose your coins if you are smart and use a reputable site like coinbase, but yes you may have to wait a couple minutes to cash out at times.

because no one would ever think to steal all your hard drives. NOPE. get back to me when its a federally insured currency like fiat money is.

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I feel like you aren't actually sure how 'storing it on a drive' works and what that means. you can have an 'offline wallet' and still keep it easily safe.

if a robber wants something bad enough he's gonna get it.i think your underestimating the resourcefulness of criminals. the amount of bitcoin worship in this thread is fucking astounding in how you are all just ignoring it's downsides.

[Iamanerd]

because no one would ever think to steal all your hard drives. NOPE. get back to me when its a federally insured currency like fiat money is.

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if a robber wants something bad enough he's gonna get it.i think your underestimating the resourcefulness of criminals. the amount of bitcoin worship in this thread is fucking astounding in how you are all just ignoring it's downsides.

Encryption, ever heard of it? Anyone worth their salt with crypto has a lot of safeguards in place.

[Kraenen]

The whole point of bitcoin is that it is a currency you can buy groceries with. If a 25 dollar transaction at the super market costs 7 dollars and 3 days to process, and 7 days of a home's power to do it , then it doesn't seem like much of an efficient currency.

You proved my point by comparing bitcoin to stocks. It is only being used for speculative purposes as an investment not as a currency. The underlying technology is useful but it isn't quite ready to be called a currency yet.

That's an interesting angle. Has there been any work on the effect of bitcoins on global warming and power consumption/costs?

[Barnabas]

Encryption, ever heard of it? Anyone worth their salt with crypto has a lot of safeguards in place.

Or you just buy a trezor if you are serious about storage?

[Iamanerd]

Or you just buy a trezor if you are serious about storage?

I use a hardware wallet myself, but in regard to my response above the person was talking about drives being stolen etc. Even ignoring Crypto being on a drive, if you have anything you don't want stolen always have backups and at least in my case encrypt your drives.

[GreenJesus]

That's an interesting angle. Has there been any work on the effect of bitcoins on global warming and power consumption/costs?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ion-explained/

The skyrocketing value of Bitcoin is leading to soaring energy consumption. According to one widely cited website that tracks the subject, the Bitcoin network is consuming power at an annual rate of 32TWh—about as much as Denmark. By the site's calculations, each Bitcoin transaction consumes 250kWh, enough to power homes for nine days.

[maccajoe]

WTF is a bit coin anyways? and why is fake money worth real money? da fuk?

All money is "fake" its only real because we assign a value to it. Chocolate used to be used as money.

[chazus]

if a robber wants something bad enough he's gonna get it

Incorrect.

It is, for all mathematical intents and purposes, impossible to 'steal' a properly stored offline wallet.

[Jeezy911]

because no one would ever think to steal all your hard drives. NOPE. get back to me when its a federally insured currency like fiat money is.

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if a robber wants something bad enough he's gonna get it.i think your underestimating the resourcefulness of criminals. the amount of bitcoin worship in this thread is fucking astounding in how you are all just ignoring it's downsides.

Um go ahead and steal my hardrives, I have backups and passwords. It doesn't work against smart people.

[Logwyn]

Um go ahead and steal my hardrives, I have backups and passwords. It doesn't work against smart people.

Famous last words!

[Saucerian]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ion-explained/

Nice. I had a feeling if anything could prompt outcry over blockchain currencies, it would be this.

Ammo for the left to rail against a favored tool of its globalist masters.

[Saucerian]

@Saucerian

Ultimate edit: Scrap that. Forgot to factor in the amount of people. Yes, energy cost is currently quite high. But I also fully expect bitcoin to run its course in the not too distant future, mostly because of that effect. But I also expect cryptos that were designed to better cope with this shortcoming to thrive for a long time in the future.
Bitcoin is basically the tens of gallons per few miles guzzling first automobile. The models will evolve, but the concept is here to stay. Firmly.

If its efficiency can be improved, great, I guess, but I wonder if as Bitcoin runs its course so too will all the others, as they get cheaper to create and more nations / entities say "us too" and institute their own, as some have started to. They'll just be fiat currencies like we have now, just using bits rather than paper.

If I had to guess I'd say the ones that stay will be the ones backed by stable governments or commodities, as now.

[Deleted]

They have been printed out by now and shipped to Panama, no doubt.

[Amalaric]

All crypto currency is a sham... having a currency that can be hacked is such a bad idea not that I prefer the current fiat currencies.

We should all go back to using copper, silver and gold coins and stop using this essentially worthless paper money.