So if you have the private key in your hand, and the address with your Bitcoin still has Bitcoin, while someone else could have your private key, why wouldn't they just transfer the money out?
Except if we are wrong in those other cases, we can usually use the legal system to help us recover our stolen property.
> So if you have the private key in your hand, and the address with your Bitcoin still has Bitcoin, while someone else could have your private key, why wouldn't they just transfer the money out?
Maybe they are waiting for you to deposit more bitcoin into that address, or maybe they are waiting to collect more private keys before exploiting them all at the same time, or maybe they... why speculate?
The idea that money can disappear without recourse because of one mistake in security or one highly motivated targeted attack is not, in my opinion, a desirable property of a currency.
Well, from a criminal's point of view, I don't see the upside in waiting. The owner of the coins could move them at any time, and then your loot is gone for good. I think it's safe to assume that if someone else has possession of your private keys, your addresses will be drained immediately.
Or the fact that in pull based financial systems like the US, someone who got your debit card number when buying a coffee can charge you again in the future, so you need to be eternally vigilant with your statements.
To me, cryptocurrency is a breath of fresh air in these regards. It's a predictable system to plan around.
Which is why banks analyze your transaction history, and call you when they observe suspicious patterns of use of your credit card.
I'm not so naive to say that one thing is the best, but I'm willing to speak up for trade-offs in these absolutist arguments.
The per-transaction costs of this fraud-prevention are miniscule, the false positives don't affect me (I get a phone call, and I tell them everything's fine), and I have recourse, both procedural, and legal against false negatives.
Just because you sprinkle a bunch of crypto powder on a transaction doesn't mean that all possibility for fraud goes away. The median per-transaction cost in crypto for this sort of thing is zero, while the worst-case cost is 'you lose the entire transaction/all your money'. And that latter one happens far too frequently for me to bank my life on it.
You've been steering this towards your crypto=bad hobby horse. But if your point is that you wouldn't "bank your life" on something, we can agree. I wouldn't "bank my life" on anything, like hoping I catch a recurring payment on my debit statement that I 100% canceled.
That one's not too hard - if in any doubt transfer to a new wallet with a new private key.
Nothing is 100% secure - you can but do a reasonable job. My biggest worry when I have my own keys is losing the keys rather than being hacked.