[PLUG-TALK] bitcoin exchange hacked, funds stolen

John Jason Jordan johnxj at comcast.net
Sat Jan 12 00:58:04 UTC 2013


On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 15:53:05 -0800
Michael Rasmussen <michael at jamhome.us> dijo:

>> On Jan 11, 2013 9:57 AM, "Michael Rasmussen" <michael at jamhome.us>
>> wrote:
>> > With the Ruby on Rails hack no less.
>> >
>> > https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=135919.0
>> >
>> > Yeah, I'm good with banks.
>> 
>>  On Fri, Jan 11, 2013 at 10:20:16AM -0800, Benjamin Kerensa wrote:
>> Banks get robbed or in some cases rob customers... How is it
>> different?
>
>FDIC to start.
>Fed law that limits consumer losses for a second.  (Commercial
>accounts can be liable for their own losses via fraud.)

It bears noting that none of the "depositors" in the exploited web site
lost a single bitcoin. I am unclear as to whether the website wallet
lost any money (although they certainly lost sleep). 

There have been a couple previous exploits hijacking bitcoin web
depositories, and no one has yet lost anything. 

You have to look at it differently from present currencies. If you pull
a bank heist you get paper currency that you can spend anywhere. If you
hijack a bitcoin account you get the bitcoins. But as soon as the
hijacked account holder realizes they have been hijacked, they report
the bitcoins as stolen, and bitcoin then renders them valueless. 

What if every paper bill you held in your pocket had a transaction
history to it, logged on the internet and impregnated into a magnetic
strip on the bill. If someone steals your bills, you just report it to
the mint, which then renders them electronically valueless. The thief
might be able to use them to buy something, but the thief had better
spend them fast. As soon as the mint revokes them they can no longer be
used to buy things. 

I hope everyone does not take me as a proponent of bitcoins. I like the
idea, but I currently hold no bitcoins and don't plan to buy any soon.
I post only to correct misconceptions and clarify how bitcoin works.
And I don't understand the bitcoin system thoroughly either. Bitcoin
intrigues me. Just as the internet has given the world true freedom of
speech, so bitcoin may some day give us true freedom of currency. 



More information about the PLUG-talk mailing list