BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC stolen

Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by mikeash on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @07:36PM (#12214279)

I'd say it's a little harder than not losing cash. If you put cash in a safe, you can be confident that an attacker can't take the cash without getting into the safe. If you put bitcoin in a safe, an attacker can take it without ever getting into the safe if you happened to forget about a copy of your private key somewhere else.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by ryanlol on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @07:46PM (#12214329)

Surely you would generate a new key to put in the safe if you had to worry about that.

And anyway, robbing safes is easy. But try emptying a bitcoin wallet encrypted with a good password, it's very easy to make impossible.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by bdcravens on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:11PM (#12214803)

> a bitcoin wallet encrypted with a good password, it's very easy to make impossible

There's the problem with adoption. "SFYL you should have been smarter" means there will always be a % of the population who should never use it.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by russelluresti on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @07:50PM (#12214356)

Nothing is impossible in the digital realm. And the bad guys are ALWAYS better than the good guys.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by mikeash on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @07:56PM (#12214378)

Surely, but that requires more knowledge and care than securing cash.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by ryanlol on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:35PM (#12214921)

Producing a long random string to use as a password? Not particularly.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by mikeash on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:44PM (#12214964)

Most people have no idea what a long random string would even look like.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by ryanlol on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:47PM (#12214979)

I think you're seriously underestimating most people. "Long random string [of letters and numbers]" is rather self-explanatory.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by bdcravens on Wednesday August 03, 2016 @01:20AM (#12215773)

Dealing with nondevelopers, never say "string". Did that once and the person on the other end of the phone was obviously confused. After 2 seconds, realized how bizarre it sounded.

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Re:BitFinex down due to Bitcoin security breach - 120k BTC s... by mikeash on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @09:56PM (#12215018)

I think you're seriously overestimating most people's ability to think when presented with anything remotely computerish.

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