Bitcoin heist: $500k stolen from some guy

[silverpig]

What is a bitcoin worth in the real world? Can I buy gasoline with a bitcoin? How about a house? Anything tangible? There is nothing there. Just fools willing to part with real world cash for a made up currency. Why not start your own currency called Silverpig and sell it on an exchange to people stupid enough to give you a backed currency?

And no police dept is going to invesitgage and toss my sister in jail for defrauding me with fake money in monopoly. What world do you live within? The bitcoin world?

Right now a bitcoin is worth about $19.68. Some retailers are accepting bitcoins right now yes.

I COULD start up a currency called silverpigs and use them. I'd have to come up with a way to regulate the supply and ensure that they couldn't be duplicated. I'm lazy so I won't do that.

 

[Nebor]

What is a bitcoin worth in the real world? Can I buy gasoline with a bitcoin? How about a house? Anything tangible?

Uh, I know people that have purchased thousands of dollars in computer hardware and other goods with bitcoins.

 

[soccerballtux]

Bitcoin heist



Okay, so it *might* have happened. I don't agree with the article saying that the intermediares necessarily protect you from theft and fraud. Sure, it's true to some extent, but not at all true with cash.

Besides, can't you just put your bitcoins on a truecrypt drive and a backup offsite truecrypt drive and have them be (almost) perfectly safe?

which raises an interesting possibility, thought of this the other day:
you're running a p2p app with money behind it.
It's asking to get hacked.

 

[silverpig]

Hmmm, would dropbox + truecrypt be good enough?

 

[Doppel]

I read the wiki article and still don't know what the fvck these are. An arbitrary currency with a set rate of growth somehow managed over a network? And any idiot who has $500k of some so-called currency should have known it wasn't real. This stuff isn't FDIC insured so it's worth the paper it's printed on.

 

[wirednuts]

I read the wiki article and still don't know what the fvck these are. An arbitrary currency with a set rate of growth somehow managed over a network? And any idiot who has $500k of some so-called currency should have known it wasn't real. This stuff isn't FDIC insured so it's worth the paper it's printed on.

of course not, there is no paper. and since you dont even know how these work, you dont know how much theyre worth.

remember beanie babies? the material they were made of was worth about 3 cents yet you could get $300 for some of those at the time.

nobody knows what bitcoins will be worth years from now, but right now they are actually a hot commodity.

 

[wirednuts]

Hmmm, would dropbox + truecrypt be good enough?

if a hacker has full control of your computer then no. a simple keylogger would bypass any type of security you put on the machine. it has nothing to do with bitcoins, dropbox or trucrypt at all.

 

[Doppel]

of course not, there is no paper. and since you dont even know how these work, you dont know how much theyre worth.

remember beanie babies? the material they were made of was worth about 3 cents yet you could get $300 for some of those at the time.

nobody knows what bitcoins will be worth years from now, but right now they are actually a hot commodity.

Well if this guy could have bought half a million in computer equipment and resold for USD then it would have been worth something. Seems like they could just as easily agree that naturally formed pebbels that resemble oprah winfrey could work.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Well if this guy could have bought half a million in computer equipment and resold for USD then it would have been worth something. Seems like they could just as easily agree that naturally formed pebbels that resemble oprah winfrey could work.

this is obviously over your head. Common knowledge that something is only worth what you can sell/barter/trade it for and no more. including pebbles, dollars, dildos, acorns, goldfish crackers, dried up turds and shit stained underwear, these all have a value that is equal to what someone will pay/trade/barter with you for it.

 

[Doppel]

this is obviously over your head. Common knowledge that something is only worth what you can sell/barter/trade it for and no more. including pebbles, dollars, dildos, acorns, goldfish crackers, dried up turds and shit stained underwear, these all have a value that is equal to what someone will pay/trade/barter with you for it.

My post was obviously over your head. A fiat currency is worth only what the confidence level is. Considering it wanes for many with the backing of a sovereign nation I can't understand what kind of person would trust in the software creation of some guy who came up with it a couple of years ago.

BTW you agreed with me; I agreed with you. Hence the pebbles formed like oprah.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Hence the pebbles formed like oprah.

Except people aren't paying $20 USD for pebbles formed like Oprah.

 

[nonlnear]

Except people aren't paying $20 USD for pebbles formed like Oprah.

I am. I have paid no less than $20 for each and every Oprah shaped pebble I have ever encountered in my life.

 

[NoStateofMind]

I am. I have paid no less than $20 for each and every Oprah shaped pebble I have ever encountered in my life.

<scrambles to driveway in search of sacred Oprah pebble

 

[CitizenKain]

Hmmmm

 

[BeauJangles]

of course not, there is no paper. and since you dont even know how these work, you dont know how much theyre worth.

Bitcoin is open-source, so we know how it works.

remember beanie babies? the material they were made of was worth about 3 cents yet you could get $300 for some of those at the time.

Beanie babies weren't a currency. You couldn't exchange a Beanie Baby for physical items.

nobody knows what bitcoins will be worth years from now, but right now they are actually a hot commodity.

What is your point exactly?

I read the wiki article and still don't know what the fvck these are. An arbitrary currency with a set rate of growth somehow managed over a network? And any idiot who has $500k of some so-called currency should have known it wasn't real. This stuff isn't FDIC insured so it's worth the paper it's printed on.

Except there are exchanges that will happily take your Bitcoins and give you USD and, as much as you might not like it, Bitcoin is gaining some valuable allies. StockTwits has added Bitcoin, investment banks are looking into Bitcoin, some guys are even writing high-frequency trading algos for Bitcoin.

I'm not saying it's going to last, but it's cool as hell.

 

[Doppel]

hehe someethingawful even mentions beanie babies.

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/attack-of-bitcoins.php?page=3

Some forum post there apparently partially crashed the value of this thing.

 

[halik]

Haaa when virtual items are "stolen", is it really a crime?

 

[halik]

Bitcoin is open-source, so we know how it works.



Beanie babies weren't a currency. You couldn't exchange a Beanie Baby for physical items.



What is your point exactly?




Except there are exchanges that will happily take your Bitcoins and give you USD and, as much as you might not like it, Bitcoin is gaining some valuable allies. StockTwits has added Bitcoin, investment banks are looking into Bitcoin, some guys are even writing high-frequency trading algos for Bitcoin.

I'm not saying it's going to last, but it's cool as hell.

Exactly what investment banks are looking into bitcoins?

Also I'm just gonna stop you there and call bullshit on the high-frequency trading algos.

Real time data for bitcoin has existed for a week and you have no place to go hedge yourself if you wanna be a market marker for bitcoin.

 

[Doppel]

I think I understand bitcoins enough now to be confident that they are just a programming exercise and little more; a fad. Two main reasons, both from Wiki:

1) The later you get in on these the less advantageous, which scares away new comers. "mining" becomes more irrelevant and you are increasingly forced to literally convert actual money/services into BC, something early adopters didn't have. This would be analogous to the government coming out with a new currency but not telling most people about it (since most don't know what BCs are), but those who know start getting more and more of it early on simply because they knew to show up at the bank giving out the new free money, but oh damn the supply is running low, sorry everyone else who didn't know about this!

2) With a set limit to the number of coins it is inherently deflationary. If the US government said the money supply will now go up 20&#37; for every 100% increase in population we'd all be fighting over comparatively less money. We would thus be unmotivated to use it, knowing that the longer we keep it, and the more who try to get in on the action, the more our money is worth. It would lock down fluidity. The defense to this that a BC can be accurate to eight decimal places doesn't change this fact.

 

[Doppel]

Anybody still wasting time on this stupid crap?

 

[YoungGun21]

My group and I dropped out early August when the price kept slowly falling and I was certain it was not going to remain profitable for much more than 2-3 weeks.

 

[manimal]

Got in and out quick. Was able to sell off all my amd cards for more than I bought them.


The concept is interesting.

 

[nobodyknows]

Right now a bitcoin is worth about $19.68. Some retailers are accepting bitcoins right now yes.

I COULD start up a currency called silverpigs and use them. I'd have to come up with a way to regulate the supply and ensure that they couldn't be duplicated. I'm lazy so I won't do that.

I wouldn't give you 2 cents for one.

 

[yllus]

Hmmm, would dropbox + truecrypt be good enough?

I think an open source solution along those lines is the key to secure BitCoin wallets. Basically the OpenPhoto Project but for BitCoins: Self hosted, but via prepackaged software, and open source so nothing nefarious is hidden away in the source.

 

[Dulanic]

not really, but for the sake of argument let's assume you're right...

I've never come across a bank that didn't protect their customers against theft and fraud, so you would simply get your money back (minus the fee that I can't remember what's called in english).

The banks don't just offer it because they feel like it. They offer it because they are required to due to Regulation E.