BITCOIN, Heists, Thefts, Hacks, Scams, and Losses

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In summary: I don't know if this actually happened, but...?In summary, the website of major bitcoin exchange MtGox was offline Tuesday amid reports it suffered a debilitating theft. Around midmorning in the U.S., the company released a statement saying it had closed off transactions "to protect the site and our users." It offered no further details.
  • #946
Well, I don't know how I missed that. The recent news was that they somehow linked the $400M to the trio, although it was pretty obvious. If someone steaks $400 and on the same day, someone else has $400 appear in their account, you don't know there was a causal relationship. But if it's $400 000 000, you're pretty sure.

It has caused me to rethink two-factor authentication using a cell phone. There are those who seem to think it will stop attacks by major world governments, but it didn't even stop three Millennials. It also makes me wonder who made the decision not to spring the $40 for a Yubikey or similar.
 
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  • #947
Vanadium 50 said:
It has caused me to rethink two-factor authentication using a cell phone. There are those who seem to think it will stop attacks by major world governments, but it didn't even stop three Millennials. It also makes me wonder who made the decision not to spring the $40 for a Yubikey or similar.
I thought it was well known it's worst than single factor authentificatikn due to impersonalization.

Some crypto hardware wallets have FIDO2 compatibility and can be used for 2FA.
 
  • #948
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/27/crypto-mining-electricity-use
US judge halts government effort to monitor crypto mining energy use
The federal government has said it needs better information about major miners’ power use, but estimates that up to 2.3% of the US’s total electricity demand last year came from just 137 mining facilities. Globally, crypto miners are thought to soak up as much as 1% of all electricity demand, which is the same as the entire country of Australia, with bitcoin mining’s energy use doubling just last year.

This new thirst for electricity risks worsening the climate crisis, campaigners say. In the US, where nearly four in 10 of all bitcoin are now mined, up to 50m tons of carbon dioxide is released each year due to the mining operations, according to RMI, a clean energy thinktank.
In Texas crypto-farms are operating on an independent power grid, so I'm not sure what the feds can do about it.
 
  • #950
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...ence-calls-100-year-recommendation-grotesque/

SBF asks for 5-year prison sentence, calls 100-year recommendation “grotesque”​

Bankman-Fried argues for 63 to 78 months, says he "is already being punished."​


1709160991261.png

"if you can't do the time, don't do the crime"​

 
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  • #951
fluidistic said:
Make a push request to switch to PoS like Ethereum did.
Sure, It's that easy.
https://hackernoon.com/exploring-the-feasibility-of-transitioning-btc-from-pow-to-pos

Conclusion​

By analyzing several factors (such as technical, economic, political, and social factors) and available resources associated with the likelihood of switching Bitcoin's consensus algorithm, it is concluded that the transition of Bitcoin to PoS is unlikely to happen in the near future. But, based on the pace of technology and the majority consensus to change Bitcoin’s algorithm among the Bitcoin community, everything is possible in the future to fulfill the majority of demands. In addition, developers and experts in the related field are continuously striving to find the best possible solutions to solve the scalability and over-energy consumption issue of the biggest public blockchain Bitcoin. So, just not sticking to the PoS consensus algorithm, let’s hope there will be an advanced, highly secure, and truly decentralized consensus algorithm for Bitcoin in the future.
 
  • #952
nsaspook said:
Bankman-Fried argues for 63 to 78 month
Roughly one minute per theft. One minute per $7000 stolen.

Guy holds up a gas station and steals a few hundred bucks and gets a few years in the joint. I guess the lesson isn't "crime doesn't pay". It's "blue collar crime doesn't pay".
 
  • #953
nsaspook said:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/feb/27/crypto-mining-electricity-use
US judge halts government effort to monitor crypto mining energy use

In Texas crypto-farms are operating on an independent power grid, so I'm not sure what the feds can do about it.
Make a push request to switch to PoS like
nsaspook said:
Sure, It's that easy.
https://hackernoon.com/exploring-the-feasibility-of-transitioning-btc-from-pow-to-pos

Conclusion​

By analyzing several factors (such as technical, economic, political, and social factors) and available resources associated with the likelihood of switching Bitcoin's consensus algorithm, it is concluded that the transition of Bitcoin to PoS is unlikely to happen in the near future. But, based on the pace of technology and the majority consensus to change Bitcoin’s algorithm among the Bitcoin community, everything is possible in the future to fulfill the majority of demands. In addition, developers and experts in the related field are continuously striving to find the best possible solutions to solve the scalability and over-energy consumption issue of the biggest public blockchain Bitcoin. So, just not sticking to the PoS consensus algorithm, let’s hope there will be an advanced, highly secure, and truly decentralized consensus algorithm for Bitcoin in the future.
Unfortunately Bitcoin devs are very conservative. The problem is that they want to stick to Nakamoto's original ideas, thinking he was a God, whereas in reality if Nakamoto was still active, he would probably embrace more efficient systems.

Nakamoto failed in several things. He wasn't able to design an anonymous use of Bitcoin (smarter people in privacy matters, did however, and they created Monero). He came up with PoW as a solution to double spending problem, which works in practice, but isn't the most efficient system, by an immense margin. He himself said he hadn't found a better way than PoW. There are other things he failed, too, that got fixed over time.

Shame to the current Bitcoin devs.
 
  • #954
Very conservative here means protecting the current system investment. IMO that Nakamoto worship is a cover. It's the large Bitcoin holders (whales) and miners that control what happens, the Bitcoin devs know what's good for them. The miners would fork off a backwards compatible PoW version of Bitcoin in an instant causing the new PoS (with Bitcoin now one of many PoS coins :wink: ) version to die a quick death unless the miners get a large slice of the action from those that don't want to give it away.
 
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  • #955
U.S. Government Crypto Wallets Transfer Nearly $1B of Bitcoin Seized From Bitfinex Hacker
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...tcoin-seized-from-bitfinex-hacker/ar-BB1j4cpj

Two crypto wallets tagged as holding funds seized by the U.S. government related to the infamous Bitfinex hack have just transferred nearly $1 billion of bitcoin to unidentified addresses.

A wallet that's one of at least three tagged by the blockchain-data firm Arkham Intelligence as holding seized Bitfinex hacker funds, on behalf of the government, initially transferred 1 BTC around 18:39 UTC (1:39 pm ET). Roughly a half-hour later, the remaining 2,817 BTC in the wallet were sent, leaving the wallet empty. Together they represented about $173 million worth of bitcoin.
 
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  • #956
A Florida woman had $500K in the bank and a mortgage-free home. Now she’s broke — thanks to her husband — and joining a surge of Americans facing bankruptcy

https://news.yahoo.com/finance/news/m-contemplating-bankruptcy-florida-woman-110300154.html

The woman thinks her husband spent some or much of the money on crypto-investments.

Crypto has become a common financial secret within relationships. Bread Financial’s survey revealed that 16% of people (12% of men and 4% of women) admitted to hidden crypto ownerships. Though the survey didn’t delve into the whys, it’s likely because cryptocurrency is often considered a risky investment and respondents didn’t want to risk upsetting their partners.
 
  • #957
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/202...-didnt-author-bitcoin-whitepaper-judge-rules/
Craig Wright Is Not Satoshi, Didn't Author Bitcoin Whitepaper, Judge Rules
"I will make certain declarations, which I am satisfied are useful and are necessary to do justice between the parties. First, that Dr. Wright is not the author of the Bitcoin white paper. Second, Dr. Wright is not the person who adopted or operated under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in the period 2008 to 2011. Third, Dr. Wright is not the person who created the Bitcoin System. And, fourth, he is not the author of the initial versions of the Bitcoin software. Any further relief will be dealt with in my written judgment," Judge Mellor said.

1710432614271.png

Scratch Aussie.
1710432743713.png
 
  • #958
If I were Satoshi Nakamoto, I might be very pleased with a court ruling saying I wasn't. I'd still have my zillion dollars in Bitcoin. I would slowly unwind my holdings, paying full income tax on it. My defense against ever being a co-defendant is "It's not me. The courts said so."
 

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