So this was most likely planned out to coincide with the payout?
Without doubt. I'm surprised they didn't squeeze another 20 hours of mining profits
I guess once you are over $50m it's all the same...
That's a common misconception, but a few million here, a few million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.
This is why use the jaws of life to get the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube.
There was an attack on bcc that hurt the scrypt profit-switching pools just a day before this. I'm really not sure this heist was all about the money, or at least, not just this particular pile of money. The perps may be playing a much bigger game.
Such as?
The people who suffered in both cases were mining altcoins, and were out on the fringes of profit switching among the lesser known, less secure alts (bcc, for example). Taking out some alts on the periphery might increasingly scare speculative dollars to more established currencies, not just bitcoin, but the most familiar, strongest cryptos. Two attacks wouldn't accomplish that, so I'm just spit-balling unless there are more attacks, but if they profit from each attack with the foreknowledge of what will go down as well as the wallet proceeds, they can drive bigger and bigger attacks as they go and knock down targets like dominos.
If you were going to attack the entire system rather than just promote your corner of it, eventually all the way to attacking bitcoin itself, that wouldn't be a bad way to start. Alts are almost an overflow for BTC. Take that away and profit in the process, and you've got a softer final target and more resources to hit it with.
This is a worry inducing comment to say the least.
Ehh its always doom and gloom around here if you listen to that kind of shit.
Its quite common for people to think the sky is falling.
Granted, sometimes it is.
Now is it time to don our tinfoil hats? Sure why not?
I have a very stylish one!
Edit:
Does anyone else here not see the lack of logic in them up and running?
The business model was killer. It was really sound. Especially because if you had spent any time mining you would see that the rates they give is almost 3/4 what it would be worth if you were actually mining something.
The positive side is that smaller coins can actually be secured and not pwned by massive hash rates as soon as they launch by any ol guy who could click a few buttons and deposit some BTC.
In my mind this is not a conspiracy, though I may be wrong, but instead someone skimped on updating the website UI and there was a hole. Thats what happens with these things.
Honestly, is the person doing it for the money? Well Im sure it doesnt hurt. But more probably they are doing it to "re-secure" alts that launch and then literally are broken by people mining to hell and dumping.