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Approx. $40,000,000 worth of cryptocurrency "Ethereum" hacked and stolen
CaptHenway
Posts: 34,260 ✭✭✭✭✭
http://www.kitco.com/news/2017-07-20/Hackers-Steal-Staggering-32-Million-In-Ethereum.html
If a computer can create it, a computer can hack it!
Professional Numismatist, Retired. 55 year member ANA. Former ANA Senior Authenticator. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and ANA Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner of the PNG's 2026 Robert Friedberg Award for "The Enigmatic Lincoln Cents of 1922," Available now from Whitman or Amazon.
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some have even been stolen by using fake server updates which contained a backdoor.
100% cryptosecure they are not.
"Following the news of the breach, ethereum’s price tumbled to a low of around 138 from $235."
WTF is Ethereum? Breach this, breach that, next is self driving cars. ISYN
"WTF is Ethereum?"
Don't they make catheters for really old people and cats?
I don't know if it is spelled the same, but ethereum was the name of a powerful type of crystal in the Japanese film "Castle in the Sky" from the 1980s.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Ethereum is another cryptocurrency like BitCoin. wallets are software (programs) that users use to manage their "accounts".
It is still in the early stages, so it's worth the electricity to mine it, which is why the price was going up rapidly. It's also why you can't buy a decent PC Video card - they're being snapped up to build mining rigs.
Note that the hack was not against the blockchain itself, it was against a specific feature that was insecurely coded.
Ethereum's "secret sauce" is that you can define software that runs to interact with the blockchain. This would allow you to create all kinds of special features - like wallets that require two users to "sign" transfers or two out of three, etc. (the kinds of features you might find in a corporate checking account). Somebody found a hole and used it to drain 3 accounts.
https://blog.ethcore.io/the-multi-sig-hack-a-postmortem/
ANA 50+ year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Author: 3rd Edition of the SampleSlabs book, https://sampleslabs.info/
So far, I think the golden rule remains the golden rule.
So how does this affect me and why should I care?
Other than being amused by this occurrence, what meaning might I attach to this "theft" of an idea?
Since nothing actually existed, could anything have actually been "stolen?" Give a golem a computer and this is what they do....
Cant hack a coin collection
...when it comes to women, swing at every ball?
with a name like ethereum.....
What man maketh, man can take awayeth.
It will be interesting to come back in ten years and revisit threads like these.
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
I just submitted a few Eutherium coins to PCGS........I am now worried that they got hacked on the way.
Kim needs more money for more missiles.
"A dog breaks your heart only one time and that is when they pass on". Unknown
These crypto currencies are a dangerous game... in a way, similar to pyramid schemes in their hey day.... Yes, some appear to be making big bucks right now... but there are many questions yet to be answered and the government(s) have not yet become involved... and, of course, they will. Cheers, RickO
I'm all for going back to 1966.
I remember some advertisement trying to get me to buy bitcoin around 2009 for 6 cents. I sure wish I would have bought 100 bucks worth and forgot about it.
Yesterday, I could have sold it for 4.67 Million.
@Wabbit2313 that's crazy! 6 cents!?
My YouTube Channel
I appears this $$$ is ethereal, very delicate.
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
Captured for posterity, RogerB's sense of humor.
Don't quit your job writing and selling coin books to those that read them.
Someone can still steal it.
Cryptocurrency never made any sense to me. There is no regulation on these and nothing to keep these companies from going under leaving you with nothing.
Cisco has a cat or a catheter? Ephemeral!
But i can keep it at a bank in a safety deposit box requring two keys and also insure it. Better than someone from across the ocean sitting in their underwear and plundering my account on their laptop
Like the saying goes , a fool and his money..... are soon parted.
There will always be those who jump in to make fast money.... and some will.... others will end up losing, some a little, some will lose everything. So many schemes in the past... and always new one's ... same formula, different costumes. Cheers, RickO
Same thing happens to 401k's and people's retirement savings. In a white collar sorta way.
Practice makes perfect & nobody is perfect. So, practice being nobody and be perfect !
Why should cryptocurrency be any different than the fiat kind , pillage and plunder 24/7 is the motto.
I wonder if the crypto people can get a bail out from congress? Everyone else is doing it
I can't believe these alternative currencies have so many fans and a decent following. Kenny Lay and Bernie Madoff would be green with envy.
Another thought just occurred to me.... When crypto currency is stolen, how is it disposed of?? I understood each 'unit' had a unique and identifiable block code... therefore, I would think it is totally traceable/identifiable. If so, how would a 'thief' dispose of it? The only answer I could come up with (not being an expert in this field) is that it could be sold back to the original 'bank', who would delete it, and keep the residual funds - those not paid in ransom. Thereby the thief and the 'bank' both profit. Comments, criticisms or death threats?? Cheers, RickO
I'll be on the side lines watching this one. Biotech stock investing is about as risky as I go. BTW I wonder why pictures of Bit Coins are Gold colored. Hmmmmm
100% Positive BST transactions
No, the visible address is container of the electronic currency, you need the private key to access it. So everyone can see the transfer from address 1 to address 2 and can watch the flow of the stolen item. But you don't know who the address belongs to and only the person with the matching private key can make the next transfer.
So you don't know if the transfer from address 13 to address 14 in the chain represents my moving it to another wallet I own, or selling it to somebody for physical gold or euros or dollars.
There are also services that take in multiple transactions, "mix" them together and then spit them out to new addresses. https://ethermixer.com/ - you pay money to have it done quickly or get money to have it done slowly. So you can't tell what transfer out matches the transfer in. IF, of course, you trust the mixer - they have physical control for that time period.
ANA 50+ year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Author: 3rd Edition of the SampleSlabs book, https://sampleslabs.info/
@BStrauss3...So how will the 'thief' dispose of $40 million in crypto currency? Or will they just ransom the whole lot?? Cheers, RickO
That's the question, isn't it...
They can keep moving and mixing it over enough days or weeks so you can't be sure what's what. Needs enough daily volume so that your $40M sliced into small enough chunks so it gets lost in the noise. According to one of the exchanges, the 24h volume was $663,074,000.
ANA 50+ year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
Author: 3rd Edition of the SampleSlabs book, https://sampleslabs.info/