IT KEEPS HAPPENING: Bitcoin bank Flexcoin bites the dust after hack attack
36 replies, posted
[quote]A bitcoin bank has been forced to close after hackers stole 896 bitcoin, worth £365,000, in an attack on Sunday.
The company shut its website and posted a statement on Tuesday morning detailing the loss.
“On March 2nd 2014 Flexcoin was attacked and robbed of all coins in the hot wallet,” the statement read. “As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately."...
...The same day the company came clean about its losses, a second bitcoin firm, Poloniex, also admitted that 12.3% of its reserves had been stolen by hackers. Poloniex is a bitcoin exchange, and the company has committed to operating at a fractional reserve until it can replenish the losses itself.
“I sincerely apologize for this,” Poloniex’s owner wrote in a statement, “and I am very grateful to the many people who have already expressed their support and belief in my character. I take full responsibility; I will be donating some of my own money, and I will not be taking profit before the debt is paid.”
Flexcoin’s closure follows that of MtGox’s, blamed on hackers stealing 750,000 bitcoins by exploiting a bug known as “transaction malleability”. Several other bitcoin businesses, both high- and low-profile, have gone under. Services including Bitcoinica, Inputs.io and MyBitcoin have all been hacked, each losing thousands of bitcoins.[/quote]
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/04/bitcoin-bank-flexcoin-closes-after-hack-attack[/url]
Are most of these companies too dumb to store wallets with sha-256 encryption?
Wow.. seems like eventually these hackers are gonna take down bitcoin
I wonder what they spend their newly gained fortune on
It feels like any of these small bitcoin bank startups could just fake a robbery and walk away with all the money people have deposited.
[QUOTE=brianosaur;44125676]Wow.. seems like eventually these hackers are gonna take down bitcoin
I wonder what they spend their newly gained fortune on[/QUOTE]
Aren't the hackers basically in a lose/lose situation?
[QUOTE=Teddybeer;44125998]And how much does a metal detector cost.[/QUOTE]
How many bitcoins are there?
I can't wait to see the reaction of desperate bitcoiners once it finally starts to bite the dust.
[QUOTE=Flarey;44125645]Are most of these companies too dumb to store wallets with sha-256 encryption?[/QUOTE]
that implies these are actual hackers and they aren't just sleazy admins running off with the dosh
[QUOTE=brianosaur;44125676]Wow.. seems like eventually these hackers are gonna take down bitcoin
I wonder what they spend their newly gained fortune on[/QUOTE]
I don't think so, I think they are showing the legitimacy. They are simply being the equivalent to real life bank robber, only if the sites who are being hacked were real life banks, it'd be like they were keeping literally all of everyone money in a burlap sack in the front lobby. They are weeding out the shitty guys who can't keep things up to snuff when it comes to security, just like a real bank robber would. I know this kinda sounds like I'm praising bank robbers but that's not it I'm just saying that the currency is worth something or no one would steal it, and they definitely wouldn't attract the kind of talent that seems to be pulling this off. No ones gonna steal something they think will be worthless after they steal it.
or just some real shitty guys scamming everyone out of their bitcoins because either A that's why they started the bank int he first place or B. they saw how much money it ended up being and greed took over.
[QUOTE=Flarey;44125706]Aren't the hackers basically in a lose/lose situation?[/QUOTE]
there's a shitton of people who've been advocating [i]buying up as much as humanly possible[/i] during these attacks because they say it'll go back up in price, though it's arguable whether they're advocating that because they're either:
• confident the fact there's provably less in circulation due to a lot of accounts just 'vanishing', causing the price to inflate
• blindingly stupid and think it just naturally climbs in price for no discernible reason other than "it's cool and does that"
so they'll probably have a lot of people willing to buy some of it to siphon off some dosh. It isn't like they had to invest any money into getting the coins they stole, even selling at 1% of the price they were at the time of the theft is still profitable
Gold is a good alternative. The gold price is rising at a steady rate.
I'd be happy to swap the gold and silver that I currently own for a future regulated digital currency.
[QUOTE=barttool;44125684]It feels like any of these small bitcoin bank startups could just fake a robbery and walk away with all the money people have deposited.[/QUOTE]
Any one of the banks can do that. People honestly think these major banks wouldn't run off with hundreds of millions of unregulated money just because it'd make them an [I]"asshole"[/I]. Unregulated money means no one above gives a shit. Once it's stolen it's gone forever and that's the end of it.
Bitcoins, and especially their banks, rely on the good will of humanity. Unlike actual banks, they don't have regulations (and the very real riots that would take place) to prevent them from [I]"Whoops someone emptied the vault, don't know who and we're not going to investigate it -- we're closed now bye"[/I]. That nativity that first sparked Bitcoins growth is what now leads them to this. It'd be amusing if I knew all these people didn't see Bitcoins as a get-rich-with-no-effort scheme. Unfortunately they do and they have had this coming.
Or you could just...use local currency. Y'know, like normal people who don't believe in conspiracy theories.
Would anyone with any serious amount of Bitcoins trust one of these online banks? Seems small timers would probably find more use for them instead
[QUOTE=Flarey;44125645]Are most of these companies too dumb to store wallets with sha-256 encryption?[/QUOTE]
SHA-256 is a hashing function. You're thinking of AES.
All my dogecoins are still mine so who's laughing now
serves them right. if you had self respect you'd be using a real cyber currency
[url]http://www.cyberbeans.org/[/url]
[QUOTE=DOG-GY;44127650]serves them right. if you had self respect you'd be using a real cyber currency
[url]http://www.cyberbeans.org/[/url][/QUOTE]
adcoin is what all the cool kids are using these days
[QUOTE=Aphtonites;44126060]I can't wait to see the reaction of desperate bitcoiners once it finally starts to bite the dust.[/QUOTE]
Why do so many people here have a huge hate-boner for bitcoin?
I don't think the reactions would be pleasant([I]Maybe[/I] humorous).
[QUOTE=ASIC;44127800]Why do so many people here have a huge hate-boner for bitcoin?
I don't think the reactions would be pleasant([I]Maybe[/I] humorous).[/QUOTE]
Because they're all imaginary-currency-investing ron-paul-loving libertarian anarchists who cry about the government, of course.
[QUOTE=supersnail11;44127758]adcoin is what all the cool kids are using these days[/QUOTE]
"Every day Beanthusiasts™ use special software to uproot and fork CyberBeans from the beancloud."
adcoin doesnt know what its dealing with
[QUOTE=DOG-GY;44128356]"Every day Beanthusiasts™ use special software to uproot and fork CyberBeans from the beancloud."
adcoin doesnt know what its dealing with[/QUOTE]
Adcoin uses advanced cryptography to make sure your hard earned coins remain something relatively similar to being in your possession. It comes from the trusted name of cash4ads™, and works through the Adcoin Transfer Protocol™ over TCP/IP to directly send and receive coins.
You may have heard of "Bitcoin" before, but what do you really know about Bitcoins? Can you really trust Bitcoin? Of course not! Adcoin comes from the trusted cash4ads brand. As we all know, there's no one you can trust more than cash4ads. So why not trust Adcoin?
[QUOTE=ASIC;44127800]Why do so many people here have a huge hate-boner for bitcoin?
I don't think the reactions would be pleasant([I]Maybe[/I] humorous).[/QUOTE]
quite a few people are bitter after hearing the stories of people who have made thousands off this shit
[QUOTE=Cloak Raider;44128730]quite a few people are bitter after hearing the stories of people who have made thousands off this shit[/QUOTE]
There's also loads of people who sunk tons of cash into it and lost out.
Especially those who bought all that mining equipment.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;44128828]There's also loads of people who sunk tons of cash into it and lost out.
Especially those who bought all that mining equipment.[/QUOTE]
Oh yeah definitely
but the main reason for the bitterness I think is people calling it stupid, then getting annoyed at the few success stories
[QUOTE=dai;44126439]there's a shitton of people who've been advocating [i]buying up as much as humanly possible[/i] during these attacks because they say it'll go back up in price, though it's arguable whether they're advocating that because they're either:
• confident the fact there's provably less in circulation due to a lot of accounts just 'vanishing', causing the price to inflate
• blindingly stupid and think it just naturally climbs in price for no discernible reason other than "it's cool and does that"[/QUOTE]
One of the reasons that people advocate large buys during stuff like this is market manipulation to keep the price of bitcoin stable or to make it go up. Bitcoin value is heavily dependent on supply and demand of the coin to maintain value, so if someone shit on one of the exchanges with a huge volume of Bitcoin, or sold a huge volume in smaller blocks, it would cause the value of Bitcoin to crash.
You can see this happen when Mt Gox was failing, people were panicking and doing large sells that dropped Bitcoin down to ~$100 on their exchange and also significantly lowered the value of Bitcoin on other exchanges as well. Since they closed up, Bitcoin (and other coins) have started to recover (bitcoin being up from ~570 to almost 700 a few hours ago and settling to ~660 now.)
This is basically what I never like about bitcoin, and kept saying would happen, and all I got was dumbs for it. I have to agree with the comment earlier that in all likelihood, there's a strong chance these are just fake reports of hackings so these people can walk away with whatever amount of bitcoin they're holding.
[QUOTE=Sobek-;44131158]This is basically what I never like about bitcoin, and kept saying would happen, and all I got was dumbs for it. I have to agree with the comment earlier that in all likelihood, there's a strong chance these are just fake reports of hackings so these people can walk away with whatever amount of bitcoin they're holding.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Sobek-;44001578]I'm so sick of hearing about bitcoin. We got a little ad in our mail here for a 'Bitcoin information seminar', crazy... Literally everyone on the coast here who got it has no idea what bitcoin is or how it works, nor do they want anything to do with it. Maybe we're all just old fashioned, but we like to deal in real cash, real money.[/QUOTE]
Because it was a dumb post. By the way, people steal "real cash, real money" all the time - should we stop using USD?
[QUOTE=supersnail11;44131204]Because it was a dumb post. By the way, people steal "real cash, real money" all the time - should we stop using USD?[/QUOTE]
"real cash, real money" is insured. So...no? I know this gets brought up every time, but the fact the "horrible evil" fiat currencies are insured by their regulatory governments is one of their big strengths. If your bank folds overnight, you still have some of the money, not all, but some. Which is more than can be said if your exchange folds overnight.
[QUOTE=hexpunK;44131320]"real cash, real money" is insured. So...no? I know this gets brought up every time, but the fact the "horrible evil" fiat currencies are insured by their regulatory governments is one of their big strengths. If your bank folds overnight, you still have some of the money, not all, but some. Which is more than can be said if your exchange folds overnight.[/QUOTE]
If your exchange folds overnight, you're an idiot for keeping your money in an exchange. It's not a bank!
And no, I'm not trying to say that USD is evil, but neither is Bitcoin.
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