Bitcoin Trading Platform Announces Huge Downtime Following Cyber-Attack (softpedia.com) 51
An anonymous reader writes: BitQuick, a US-based Bitcoin trader has announced that it will shut down its platform for up to 2 to 4 weeks following a cyber-attack this week. The platform took this step because it has not yet identified how the hackers infiltrated their systems. It is unusual for companies to take down their systems for weeks, but after the recent Cryptsy and LoanBase hacks, the company is not willing to lose millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin. BitQuick announced clients of the incident, and 97% already withdrew their funds from the platform.
... while in Wall Street ... (Score:1)
the heist happens every single micro second ...
So... (Score:2)
We're so fortunate. :/
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You thought wrong. They did not give any indicator that they'd be doing so. In fact, the only official words given about Timothy were, specifically, that he is a "real person" and that he was still there.
Why would you think that? Nobody official told you that. Nobody with any insider knowledge told you that. Nobody gave any good reasons (that I can think of) to think that. You concocted it in your head or listened to someone else who did. Then, rather than relying on the source of that, decided that it was
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Meanwhile...
https://next.ft.com/content/39... [ft.com]
http://bfy.tw/4qlU [bfy.tw]
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"BitCoins were never convertible to dollars"
You should maybe do some more research on the subject.... What do you think bitcoin exchanges are for? Not only can you *easily* convert bitcoin to dollars.. you can quickly and easily convert it to many currencies all over the world.
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Sounds like they are handling it well (Score:5, Insightful)
The company is not yet sure what information the attacker stole, but it's certain that, due to its security system, no Bitcoins were stolen and that the attacker didn't get access to personal user details (driver's licenses, IDs, passports data, etc.) or their email addresses. One day after the attack, the company says it emailed withdrawal instructions to all sellers, that all transactions have been processed, and that only 3% of the money it stored prior to the attack has remained unclaimed.
So they found a breach, shut down everything immediately, made arrangements to refund everyone's "money", actually refunded everyone's money, and are waiting to ensure they can start back up safely.
Sounds pretty professional to me.
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I was under the impression that you need to wait at least a year before sending breach notifications if you're a professional organization. Seems to be the standard procedure in the industry.
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It does sound reasonable and professional. Is it? I'd like to think so.
At first blush, and compounded with other happenings of late, people are thinking/opining that the cracks in the façade are starting to appear. That's one way to look at it. However, it seems the cracks are being repaired as they appear and are less drastic than many of the naysayers speculated they would be. That is, of course, the least popular way to look at it - especially in these parts where anger, mockery, and indignant outra
Bank Insurance for Bitcoin? (Score:3)
After all of these high profile failures of various Bitcoin trading platforms, I'm thinking that Bitcoin really needs some sort of equivalent of FDIC or NCUA bank account insurance for deposits. The mainstream is really going to have trouble accepting Bitcoin as a currency when their account balances can magically disappear overnight with no legal recourse.
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FDIC/NCUA requires that the banks know who they have deposits from and gave loans to, and BitCoin is designed to be anonymous. Lost BitCoins are like lost cash, and exchanges not lasting long prove how illiquid this "currency" is.
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FDIC/NCUA requires that the banks know who they have deposits from and gave loans to, and BitCoin is designed to be anonymous. Lost BitCoins are like lost cash, and exchanges not lasting long prove how illiquid this "currency" is.
Bitcoin is NOT designed to be anonymous. It is psuedonymous. Why do people stick to this?
I am not a miner nor a speculator. I am interested in cryptocurrencies because I think they -could- fundamentally change how economies work.
Bitcoin stores details of every transaction forever. That is what the blockchain does! This puts all transactions out in the open for analysis. Sure you can mix between a billion wallets, but how long before someone detangles the block chain and sees that the guy who bout 2
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Because the distinction between anonymous and psuedonymous is a meaningless distinction that gets trotted out
If you don't understand these words, they are indeed meaningless to you, but that doesn't mean they're meaningless for everybody.
Anonymous: no identity whatsoever attached to a transaction => they are fully untraceable
Pseudonymous: an "identity" is attached to the transaction, but this "identity" is not the real name of the person. However, this identity allows to see (given some amount of effort) which transactions belong together and were executed for the same "economic beneficiary". And if even one
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However, this identity allows to see (given some amount of effort) which transactions belong together and were executed for the same "economic beneficiary".
Only if by "economic beneficiary" you mean a single Bitcoin address, and not an actual person. Reusing addresses is, of course, already considered poor security practice. If your pseudonymous identity is only attached to a single transaction, you might as well be anonymous. There is no real difference between "ephemeral identity used exactly once" and "no identity".
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Only if by "economic beneficiary" you mean a single Bitcoin address, and not an actual person.
"economic beneficiary" is bank-speak for "person who really is behind a given account" (rather than the straw man or shell company's officer who showed up at the branch to open the account).
Reusing addresses is, of course, already considered poor security practice.
But people do make errors. Especially when trying to operate for a continued period of time.
If your pseudonymous identity is only attached to a single transaction, you might as well be anonymous. There is no real difference between "ephemeral identity used exactly once" and "no identity".
Except of course, that this ephemeral identity is used at least twice. Indeed, before being able to spend money from a wallet, you must first put money into that wallet, and there's your second transaction. Done from another walle
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"economic beneficiary" is bank-speak for "person who really is behind a given account" (rather than the straw man or shell company's officer who showed up at the branch to open the account).
That's that I thought it meant, but the Bitcoin blockchain doesn't provide that information. It only includes Bitcoin addresses, which are generally ephemeral and used only for a single transaction output.
Except of course, that this ephemeral identity is used at least twice. Indeed, before being able to spend money from a wallet, you must first put money into that wallet, and there's your second transaction. Done from another wallet, which also had at least 2 transactions.
I assume that by "wallet" you actually mean "Bitcoin address", since a "wallet" is really just a collection of addresses and there is no way to observe which addresses make up a single wallet just by observing the blockchain.
I would count that as one use, not two, since the address is associated with a sin
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This is the second time, in one thread, you've made some very backwards statements about BTC. BTC is not anonymous and was never intended to be. Your ID can be obfuscated, to some extent, but it is not (nor has it ever been) anonymous. Why would you think so?
I mean that as a question. I'd really like an answer. Who told you it was anonymous or even meant to be? Why did you listen to them? Did you check their credentials? Did you bother to look for yourself?
I do not use BTC. I do not own any BTC. I have prob
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Of course a user doesn't need to use an exchange. A user can easily use one of the many wallets that don't have a central company keeping everything for you. You can
LOL, fer sure (Score:2)
Can you imagine this news article?
"Bank Of America, a US-based banking conglomerate has announced that it will shut down its banks and all operations for up to 2 to 4 weeks following a cyber-attack this week. The bank took this step because it has not yet identified how the hackers infiltrated their systems."
No, of course not. And this is reason #67,866,371, 485 why I won't mess around with bitcoins. Banks can't get away with this kind of nonsense, but Bitcoin? Sure, why not?
Yeah, see, you don't really need
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The vegans of IT.
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We shut down trading on the stock market or on individual stocks when necessary for various reasons, how is this any different?
When was the last time the Stock Market was closed for a month because they'd had a break in and they couldn't figure out how the perpetrators did it?
Answer: That would be "never".
So, yeah, there's your difference.
Mostly that it is 2-4 weeks (Score:1)
A stock market shutdown happens for part of a day, triggered by well defined events.
Amount of time matters.
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>>Can you imagine this news article?
You really don't know anything about using bitcoins, do you?
Instead of this reply, I wish I had modpoints to mark you "-1 Clueless".
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Can you imagine this news article?
You really don't know anything about using bitcoins, do you?
I know enough to stay the fuck away from them and not pour my money down a digital toilet.
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Instead of this reply, I wish I had modpoints to mark you "-1 Clueless".
Well then you must be feeling very frustrated and unhappy right about now. :)
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Waves good bye.. (Score:1)