

MyBitCoin Team Responded to Hacker Attack by Getting Shitfaced - spiffae
http://www.betabeat.com/2011/08/08/mybitcoin-spokesman-finally-comes-forward-what-did-you-think-we-did-after-the-hack-we-got-shitfaced/

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microtherion
It's also interesting to see how, despite one of the initial design objectives
of bitcoin being a currency beyond the reach of government intervention, users
now want the police to investigate bitcoin related mishaps.

As Kim Stanley Robinson might have put it: "That's libertarians for you —
anarchists who call the police to get their bitcoins back."

~~~
ashconnor
It doesn't help that America has bastardized the meaning of Libertarian to
mean pro-Capitalist neo-liberal whilst the original meaning (and today's
meaning in the rest of the world) is equivalent to anarchism or Libertarian
Socialism.

~~~
walexander
_'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means
just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'_

Can we please take the rhetoric back to reddit.

~~~
shadowfox
> 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it
> means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'

Not the OP and I may be misunderstanding the point of this. But don't we need
some common definitions/clarification on usage in order to discuss things?

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berkes
Having built quite some ecommerce and online ventures as webdeveloper I can
say one thing for sure: it takes a lot more then an OpenSource webshop-
application or a bunch of PHP scripts to run a multimillion commerce.

It takes time above all. Time to get legal issues sorted out. To have the
administration and legislation sorted out properly. To have your insurances
set up. To have proper help and support in place. And to have your entire
venture -including the software- thourougly benchmarked and security-tested.

The BTC-economy is very young. Most of the ventures you see there now, never
set up a proper and professional venture; one that can deal with multimillion
of dollars. They are of the order of a few quickly hacked up scripts. Perfect
for selling a few socks per week. But not for value-storage worth millions.

We must be patient: the ventures who have stuff properly in place will appear,
but later; after they have everything in place and secured to really run such
ventures.

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erikpukinskis
People have referred to Bitcoin as a "Wild West". You think people in the Wild
West didn't get shot?

If you want stability, wait a hundred years, earn your money the traditional
way, and then buy a condo in BitPaloAlto.

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cturner
If anyone has been looking to get into bitcoin, the spot price is a lot lower
at the moment than it was a few weeks ago when all the media was focussed on
it. (I increased my position over last few days at slightly lower prices.)

~~~
blhack
Yeah, but doesn't it take a few days to get your money to one of the
exchanges? (Like mtgox?)

~~~
cturner
I've been using britcoin and find the guy pretty responsive. Last payment was
received and handled within 24 hours.

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ChuckMcM
Another sad bitcoin story. Is it really all that surprising that if 'real'
money was available to be stolen from non-bankers (who have a huge network of
enforcement types at their disposal) that folks will come in and walk out with
the money if they can?

I've not been following bitcoin closely, mostly just seeing the major
screwups. But has anyone even started the process of a 'best practices'
tutorial on keeping a bitcoin bank secure? (and these are depository banks,
call them 'enthusiast websites' all you want but if they 'hold' a quantity of
a good for others which has monetary value then they are a depository and
should arm themselves appropriately)

~~~
owenmarshall
One of the major advantages bitcoin has is that it is decentralized. Placing
your money in a bitcoin bank is simply unneeded.

Sure, keeping your BTC in an exchange's account may make it faster to exchange
your BTC to USD, and you may see less transaction fees, but at the end of the
day it means you have to trust the exchange to do the right thing.

Want to keep your coins safe? Secure your wallet.dat.

~~~
SkyMarshal
Pretty sure that if you want to trade BTC on an exchange, there's no other way
but to deposit your currency in their wallet. Otherwise, how can the exchange
ensure your counterparty that they'll get your money if your bids are matched?
Same with real money exchanges, you have to deposit your money into their
account before you can trade.

~~~
owenmarshall
You are absolutely correct. But that doesn't really change anything.

Placing your BTC in an exchange's wallet means you are trusting that exchange.
I don't really trust exchanges -- I still use them, but I never transfer extra
BTC in, and I _always_ transfer 100% of the BTC I buy into my wallet.

After the Mt. Gox hack, it came out that many people were buying BTC _and
leaving it in Mt. Gox' wallet_. That's a colossal mistake; there is simply no
reason to trust anyone else to _hold_ your BTC.

Bitcoin exchanges will always exist and need to be secured. Bitcoin banks
serve no purpose and should never exist.

~~~
SkyMarshal
Ah yes, completely agree there.

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drivingmenuts
Isn't this the equivalent of calling the FBI on someone raiding the guild
bank?

It's not real currency, in the government-backed sense. The FBI might go after
someone for the hacking, but I fail to see how they could prosecute anyone for
theft.

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elliottcarlson
No - If someone steals your Word document from your computer, then that is
data theft - it doesn't matter if it contained your grocery list or a business
plan that was sure to net you millions. It is just data but the value is there
to you, even if someone else thinks that business plan is worthless, so
someone taking that away from you is still some form of theft.

~~~
corin_
But on the other hand, if I write a piece of text and upload it to, say,
Google Docs, I can't sue them for theft if they lose that data.

~~~
elliottcarlson
When you use Google Docs you are agreeing to their terms and conditions which
include limitations of liability for loss of data, loss of business and loss
of profit[1]. If you were using a service that promised you that your data was
safe and secure, and placed no such limitations because you were paying an arm
and a leg for that peace of mind, well then you could sue them if the data
were lost.

[1] <http://www.google.com/accounts/TOS> (see 15.1 A and B3)

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thisisnotme
This is awesome.

The site looked like it was put together by a novice and didn't even have a
reset password system.

If someone set up a bank with no banking and no ownership identify on the
internet, would you send them an envelope full of cash?

If the creator of this site made off with the money, good for him. It was the
perfect con.

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gojomo
The parts of this story that are more interesting that the 'shitfaced' line
are:

• the progress of participants in a #bitcoin-police IRC channel in tracing
some of the possibilities and connections behind MyBitcoin and the compromise

• the risk of vigilantism as people act on hints and theories that might be
casting suspicion on only tangentially-related people – someone who denies any
direct involvement reports receiving threats

Those two points show both the potential and risks of a distributed,
community-based enforcement system.

