Topic: Insurance against theft or loss of bitcoins - page 2. (Read 4067 times)

Unless the wallet client required a one-time code to be input which requires a user-specific physical offline component to generate. MMOs have been experimenting with this kind of security for a while now and I believe it's been working out relatively well.

See: WoW authenticator
https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/battle-net-authenticator-faq

Any transaction made with the proper code would have to have been made by the person with the authentication device. I don't believe the odds of these offline authenticators getting cracked are very high, but I could be wrong.

I cant see that happening, anytime soon. Theres no way to prove they were actually stolen and insurance fraud would be rampant.

There's no way this would work.  I could send all my BTC to wallet #2 and say they were stolen and they'd never know the difference.

I guess the closest analogy would be insuring your cash holdings.  A difficult proposition, for many reasons.

But even better than insurance, is outright theft prevention, which is the model Bitcoin will be providing once all its functionality is implemented.  Insurers/banks will offer joint custody services for your wallet through multisig transactions, so that both yourself and a reputable entity must authorize in order to spend your funds.  Thus, if wallet is stolen, the thief can't do anything.  This also removes the problem of the insurer itself running away with your money: they couldn't do anything with it because they don't have your signature.  And just to be on the safe side in case you don't completely trust the insurance entity, the joint custody could be set up as something requiring periodic explicit renewal by yourself, by setting up a delayed transaction (via nLockTime) on initiation which would automatically return the funds to you after, say, a 6-month period.

Bottom line is that, in the long term, the goal for Bitcoin is to make traditional FDIC-style banking/wallet insurance obsolete and unnecessary.

See here:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/using-nlocktime-for-lost-online-wallets-34152
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/using-nlocktime-for-lost-online-wallets-34152

On the contrary, yes there could. It would have to be a real stand up operation, though and would require the use of a "bank" type operation that I've been thinking over for a while now. Think of it this way, a company creates their own client and adds extra layers of security to it. I believe this has already been done before, see bit coin armory.

So now you have a company with their own bit coin client that is extra secure, they are know willing to bet that nobody will crack their methods of securing wallets and transactions so they begin selling insurance. That's basically the end of this story, either they're right and everyone is happy, or they're very wrong and everyone loses everything and the company pays out every last satoshi they have (assuming this is a legitimate and reputable business).

In order to aid with the payouts and keeping the company afloat, they could also introduce a feature on their client that sets aside bit coins and allows the company to take short term loans against it in return for interest. (Read: basically a savings account, but at any time you are in full control and only earn interest based on the needs of the company in terms of payouts)

Its not a perfectly thought out idea, but I think it could be possible with the right people and the right minds behind it

Yeah, it is kind of impossible business. Insurances for houses or health make more sense. With bitcoins, it doesn't make sense for the insurer or for the guy who takes the insurance. Because the stealer can be always the same person who owned the bitcoins before theft.

No there won't be insurance for bitcoins. Plain and simple. If someone were to be offering insurance, I could almost guarantee you they will collect your payments and disappear the moment a large sum of bitcoins goes missing.

Do you think in the future there will be insurances covering theft?
How would you prove the insurer you were not the "thief" yourself?