Hacker releases PII on Las Vegas-area students after officials don’t pay ransom

Re:Hacker releases PII on Las Vegas-area students after offi... by 34sdfasasd on Friday October 02, 2020 @05:25PM (#24667183)

"Just make water not wet." Bitcoin is money, and there will always be people willing to trade it for something else, like candy, other money, gaming tokens or even non-virtual things. Several of these things are enabled by technologies like DEX's and Cross Chain Swaps. OTC trade desks are not going away either. The problem is equivalent to shutting down any and all trade/commerce between anyone at any time. Good Luck with that!

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Re:Hacker releases PII on Las Vegas-area students after offi... by bpodgursky on Friday October 02, 2020 @05:32PM (#24667220)

If Bitcoin's critical mass is ever shrunk enough that a single party can execute a 51% attack against the currency, someone will, and the currency will quickly cease to exist as an asset or tradeable currency.

If the US and China crack down on trading houses and currency conversion (aka ban them) there's not enough mining happening elsewhere in the world to keep the chain safe.

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Re:Hacker releases PII on Las Vegas-area students after offi... by gruez on Friday October 02, 2020 @06:05PM (#24667500)

>If the US and China crack down on trading houses and currency conversion (aka ban them) there's not enough mining happening elsewhere in the world to keep the chain safe.

Getting such a ban in place would be the hard part. If US banned bitcoin, I'd imagine US's enemies would sponsor bitcoin exchanges/miners just to piss off the US. Also, considering that miners be located literally anywhere and only need a modest amount of bandwidth to operate, shutting down clandestine mining operations would be very difficult. See: all the illegal drug labs/grow ops around the world.

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Re:Hacker releases PII on Las Vegas-area students after offi... by Reelin on Friday October 02, 2020 @06:04PM (#24667490)

On the contrary, if it ever shrank to an extent that posed an existential threat I think it is almost certain that a different consensus algorithm (such as proof of stake) would be adopted.

There's no telling how the legalities surrounding crypto currency will evolve but I seriously doubt that it will ever disappear.

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Re:Hacker releases PII on Las Vegas-area students after offi... by cwkoss on Friday October 02, 2020 @07:18PM (#24668014)

This happened - a mining group approached (and possibly passed) 51%, so they directed some of their miners to other pools because they didn't want to devalue their earnings.

Anyone with that much mining power has a huge financial incentive to keep the golden goose alive.

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Re:Hacker releases PII on Las Vegas-area students after offi... by Nextgrid on Friday October 02, 2020 @06:06PM (#24667503)

Even if you ban legitimate usage of cryptocurrencies, it will still have value underground for criminal activities as a settlement mechanism between criminals (Bitcoin/Monero seems easier to move than bags of physical cash).

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