Author

Topic: Get serious (Read 759 times)

newbie
Activity: 10
Merit: 0
August 02, 2011, 11:04:57 AM
#8
The victom admits the theft is due to his own lack of precaution... while I will admit it would be nice if there was some way to track ownership of coins it would just create more issues than it solved... as people would be claiming daily I didnt mean to transfer that coin...

Moral of the story is ... protect yourself and your assets as it is a big bad world out there and people will take things from you if you dont.

And I as you are a 'newbie' but a person with 25k BTC can hardly be considered a newb... imo a person that gets his wallet.dat worth 25k stolen is no newb but a serious fool.... it reminds me of my time in the Navy when you got back to base after a weekend leave after a long cruise to hear stories of guys getting rolled with 5k$ in cash in their wallets after cashing all of their checks for 6-9 months..... WTH would you walk around with 9 months pay in your wallet.... common sense is is priceless... foolishness has a price put on it daily!
newbie
Activity: 5
Merit: 0
August 02, 2011, 10:32:19 AM
#7
I'm wondering why this theft "undermines the whole bitcoin project". There have been much larger thefts of dollars, did they undermine the whole dollar project? If you look around in the forum, you will see that there has already been a very lengthy discussion on the topic of securing one's bitcoin wallet against theft, and I'm not sure more details about allinvain's story are really going to add to what we already know. It would be interesting to get the whole story, but the bitcoin project doesn't hinge on this in any way.
Is bitcoin the currency of the future or is it the exclusive domain of geeks? If it is going to be taken seriously, then we have to be concerned about a carefree "serves them right" attitude to theft. When hard currency is stolen a lot of serious people get involved in solving the crime and recovering the money. If bitcoin is going to be generally adopted then some thought has to be given to the protection from criminals of unsophisticated buyers. It is not the theft itself that threatens the bitcoin project, it is the reaction to it.

I appreciate the advice and information that is available in the forum but it should be easier for newbies to find and to separate the tech issues from practical advice. Finding and navigating forums is not easy for newbies. Do the traders have a link on their sites to a newbie security handbook? They should. Can the traders agree on the contents of it? Who should write such a book? We all should, perhaps a Bitcoin users security wiki?

Is this it, generally agreed upon? https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Wallet_Security_Dos_and_Don'ts_(Windows)
legendary
Activity: 1820
Merit: 1000
August 02, 2011, 08:35:09 AM
#6
I'm wondering why this theft "undermines the whole bitcoin project". There have been much larger thefts of dollars, did they undermine the whole dollar project? If you look around in the forum, you will see that there has already been a very lengthy discussion on the topic of securing one's bitcoin wallet against theft, and I'm not sure more details about allinvain's story are really going to add to what we already know. It would be interesting to get the whole story, but the bitcoin project doesn't hinge on this in any way.
full member
Activity: 168
Merit: 100
Live long and prosper. \\//,
August 02, 2011, 01:52:02 AM
#5
newbie
Activity: 5
Merit: 0
August 02, 2011, 01:50:42 AM
#4
Are you talking about the guy who lost 25k BTC in MyBitcoin?
I'm talking about "allinvain" who posted in Bitcoin discussion  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=16457.320
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
August 01, 2011, 10:48:19 PM
#3
lol someone been watching cnn
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
August 01, 2011, 10:41:37 PM
#2
Are you talking about the guy who lost 25k BTC in MyBitcoin?
newbie
Activity: 5
Merit: 0
August 01, 2011, 10:30:24 PM
#1
The successful heist of 25,000 bitcoins undermines the whole bitcoin project. It behoves (sorry about the antique word, I'm an old guy) the movers and shakers in the bitcoin world to solve it, quickly.

How I see it: To really help this guy would need a lot of detailed information, not only technical but personal. So I will make some assumptions and based on these suggest a way forward.

He is young, technically savvy, got in very early to buy 25,000 at a good price. When it peeked briefly at $30 he was theoretically worth $750,000 which is intoxicating and almost impossible to keep quiet about. Perhaps he told someone he shouldn't have. A fellow student, co-worker, family even, someone who could discover his passwords without having to hack anything. $750,000 is a substantial sum and could, apparently did, inspire serious felony. Such a large sum should be kept in a safe, in this case meaning a dedicated computer which would not be connected to the internet except when actually necessary to do so to trade. As soon as the trade is completed, log off and physically disconnect. All preliminary and follow-up correspondence would be done from another box.

What to do? He needs to hire a very highly skilled investigator, not only technical but also an old-fashioned detective. This will cost a bundle which, I assume, he hasn't got. So offer a reward. It would have to be substantial to get the calibre of man needed to solve this case. Probably about one third or more of the amount stolen, say 10,000 bitcoins. A lot of money to lose, but better than losing the whole lot.

And, when it all shakes out, please let us know whodunnit and howdunnit so we can all make the bitcoin saga safer.
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