Bitcoins/Litecoins/Virtual Currencies

Flobee said:

ShakyJake thought you might find this interesting


Source is a podcast called "Darknet Diaries" apparently.

Spoiler

112: Dirty Coms

Listen to this episode from Darknet Diaries on Spotify. This episode we talk with a guy named “Drew” who gives us a rare peek into what some of the young hackers are up to today. From listening to Drew, we can see that times are changing for the motive behind hacking. In the ’90s and ’00s it was...

t.co

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I love how Coinbase takes no responsibility. Just 'too bad too sad'.

EDIT: I wasn't sim swapped and I definitely wasn't phished. I'm pretty tech savvy and don't go around clicking on links or installing random software that might have spyware.

Is anyone confident or concerned with the impending Ethereum PoS change? about half of my crypto holdings are in ETH and I don't really understand the ramifications of what they're going to do. I'm not convinced it won't turn into a shitshow and tank ETH but that's speaking mostly from my own ignorance, admittedly.

Break said:

Is anyone confident or concerned with the impending Ethereum PoS change? about half of my crypto holdings are in ETH and I don't really understand the ramifications of what they're going to do. I'm not convinced it won't turn into a shitshow and tank ETH but that's speaking mostly from my own ignorance, admittedly.

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

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I have very little faith in Ethereum. However... I believe that the people in charge of it are more concerned with the marketcap increasing than with any other factor. They'll sacrifice decentralization, usability, and their developer mindshare, and whatever integrity they still possess if it means number go up. IMO they're either going to destroy it, or the value will go up drastically (probably while destroying it). I don't follow closely anymore, but I've seen claims that they're looking to decrease new issuance significantly.

I think ETH is a scam, but I haven't sold all of my old bags due to this. My opinion is unpopular

Break said:

Is anyone confident or concerned with the impending Ethereum PoS change? about half of my crypto holdings are in ETH and I don't really understand the ramifications of what they're going to do. I'm not convinced it won't turn into a shitshow and tank ETH but that's speaking mostly from my own ignorance, admittedly.

Zerohedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

Click to expand...

I was pretty hyped a while ago. more recently I've had some concerns. not in tech, but the question of speculation, and investor behavior.

A decent amount of people have had their Eth locked into staking while it was in process. Whats going to happen when all that Eth is back in play? are people going to just reup, and keep it staked? or... sell it, now its free to do so... esp with a market collapse that occurred since.

yeah, pos laying to rest energy concerns... yeah, we'll see. the argument was never well informed in the first place. it was always fake news/emotional. Eth was always better then BTC, yet, the energy issue was placed on NFTs and Eth anyway. so i don't expect facts to mean much.
its "supposed" to become dramatically more deflationary with pos. we'll see...

Speaking of ETH


"But as the crowd pushes inside, a wiry man with elfin features is sprinting out of the venue, past astonished selfie takers and venture capitalists. Some call out, imploring him to stay; others even chase him down the street, on foot and on scooters. Yet the man outruns them all, disappearing into the privacy of his hotel lobby, alone."

Lol...

Tmac said:

If you listen to the podcast, this shit happens regardless of the user. They're exploiting password/username leaks, using Coinbase's own security gaps, and then literally stealing a manager's tablet (or paying them off) at Verizon, ATT, or T-Mobile to sim swap so they can verify fund withdrawels.

Not sure how a user's savyness can avoid this. It's happening in spite of the user.

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What sucks is the very nature of crypto prevents them from undoing it.

Tmac said:

FTFY.

It's one thing for your wallet to get haxxored. It's a completely different thing for them to haxxor Coinbase.

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Right. It's important to draw a distinction between problems with the various things in the crypto universe (exchanges, money laundering, scams) and the actual cryptocurrencies themselves and blockchain tech in general.

Conflating the two is sloppy at best and disingenuous at worst, and it's part of what makes that Time article I linked a bad article.

Tmac said:

One thing he says to do is use a different email account for different things which is something I'd never considered.

So, one personal account, one business account, and one financial account. Or a financial account for each aspect of your finances. That way if one gets compromised it still doesn't matter if they sim-swap you.

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Yeah, but that leaves me with like 12 different emails. I mean, you could argue that if that's what it takes, that's what it takes. I just think that some corporations need to build in better security for their customers.

Again, it's a sign of how immature the crypto field is that something could happen like what happened to Jake and the exchange could get away with not reimbursing him.

I'm no fan of big banking, but on the rare occasions I've had something fraudulent happen, I've been immediately reimbursed with few questions asked. Crypto companies need to get to that point fast.

Tmac said:

One thing he says to do is use a different email account for different things which is something I'd never considered.

So, one personal account, one business account, and one financial account. Or a financial account for each aspect of your finances. That way if one gets compromised it still doesn't matter if they sim-swap you.

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i do this and it is annoying but I hold strong. I have my random shit website sign up account. My “real” account, meaning friends and family and non critical subscriptions like Netflix or whatever and then my “hidden” email. Literally only banks, credit cards, brokerage, and crypto. For those accounts i 2 factor or whatever the best security offer is for everything. Passwords are random ass shitty long values which( my 1 biggest flaw) I write down in a safe etc.

Funny part which probably makes all of the above retarded…..I allow connection via my phone via fingerprint. So I’m sure I’m an idiot but that my balance of security vs reality.

im new to crypto and other than a few personal fuckups of early on transferring shit to defi where the fee was more than what I transfered I’ve been lucky to not get burned yet. If anyone cares I use Binance.US, Coinbase, and Nexo fairly evenly distributed. For general life I put 100% of everything on credit card and pay/deal with disputes there.

a single call to my credit card company of “I didn’t charge that” and they will cancel charge and literally mail a new card overnight to my hotel anywhere in the world(almost). I’ve had to fight with my bank over 300$ for months before. So now the bank is pretty much only a spot for direct deposit and paying credit card. Only two transactions each month.

Arden said:

Again, it's a sign of how immature the crypto field is that something could happen like what happened to Jake and the exchange could get away with not reimbursing him.

I'm no fan of big banking, but on the rare occasions I've had something fraudulent happen, I've been immediately reimbursed with few questions asked. Crypto companies need to get to that point fast.

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I would argue that the premise of Bitcoin and to a degree crypto at large is that these sort of guarantees will not exist. This movement is very much taking power/responsibility away from centralized entities and putting it back in the hands of individuals. This has a ton of benefits, but obviously there are downsides. Big brother guaranteeing you get your money back isn't something I see lasting into the future.

As a result of the above I think you'll increasingly see individuals and corporations move away from the trusted third part model for data. If my third party vendor (Coinbase in this case, but also ActiveCampaign and Hubspot from just this week) is compromised and leaks my user data... as a company I am going to be held responsible by the customer. Expect to see a big transition toward more in-house services from these companies as user data continues to get hacked. The cost of spinning up these services internally is going to be lower than the cost of losing large chunk of your userbase because you're viewed as having security issues.

Wait until hackers, or those they sell the data to, start breaking into people's homes because they know how much crypto they hold. Trusted third party model will not survive, so it is going to be worth learning how to secure this stuff yourself in a private way.

Flobee said:

I would argue that the premise of Bitcoin and to a degree crypto at large is that these sort of guarantees will not exist. This movement is very much taking power/responsibility away from centralized entities and putting it back in the hands of individuals. This has a ton of benefits, but obviously there are downsides. Big brother guaranteeing you get your money back isn't something I see lasting into the future.

As a result of the above I think you'll increasingly see individuals and corporations move away from the trusted third part model for data. If my third party vendor (Coinbase in this case, but also ActiveCampaign and Hubspot from just this week) is compromised and leaks my user data... as a company I am going to be held responsible by the customer. Expect to see a big transition toward more in-house services from these companies as user data continues to get hacked. The cost of spinning up these services internally is going to be lower than the cost of losing large chunk of your userbase because you're viewed as having security issues.

Wait until hackers, or those they sell the data to, start breaking into people's homes because they know how much crypto they hold. Trusted third party model will not survive, so it is going to be worth learning how to secure this stuff yourself in a private way.

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Agree that's the premise. Disagree that is (and will be) the reality. Crypto was designed, in part, to eliminate the middle man. Instead, crypto will ultimately eliminate *some* of the middle men and replace others. You give far too much credit to humanity if you think the population of the world would be able to function financially without some version of the middle man. That concept also fails to account for the reality that there is always a middle man. Power will always be siloed to some degree or another, whether it's crypto exchanges or online wallets, there will always be bottle-necked points of failure.

It's too much to hope that BTC will completely restore full financial sovereignty to "the people," the same as it's too much to hope that ETH and Web3 will return ownership and control of the web to individual devs.

The pendulum swings back and forth, but the reality is that it never reaches either extreme of its potential arc. Right now the pendulum has swung too far in the "centralization" direction, and the hope is that crypto can be one of the factors that brings it back the other way by making things more decentralized. BTC from the strictly financial angle, and ETH from the Web protocol angle.

Personally, I think it will work. Partially because I have faith in blockchain tech and partially because I just think it's time for a change, and these things naturally tend to balance themselves out.

Arden said:

Agree that's the premise. Disagree that is (and will be) the reality. Crypto was designed, in part, to eliminate the middle man. Instead, crypto will ultimately eliminate *some* of the middle men and replace others. You give far too much credit to humanity if you think the population of the world would be able to function financially without some version of the middle man. That concept also fails to account for the reality that there is always a middle man. Power will always be siloed to some degree or another, whether it's crypto exchanges or online wallets, there will always be bottle-necked points of failure.

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Well, I don't expect everyone to be full sovereign individuals that take full responsibility for their wealth and remove dependence on middlemen, no. However I do think that it becomes possible to do this in a feasible manner, and because of this a lot of the guarantees and promises that we're accustomed to in a fully centralized system will no longer exist. I don't believe that many fully grok just how fundamentally different a true hard money system is from the fiat shitshow we've all been in our whole lives.

If true hard money is stolen... its gone. Nobody is going to refund you because they don't have the ability to print more to do so. There will be no FDIC on a Bitcoin standard. That is my point. We're used to a monetary system with the illusion of guard rails, but those rails only exist because the ones providing this 'security' are robbing you blind in return for providing it.

Also, to be clear, Bitcoin was designed to remove centralized control of the monetary system. It does this exactly as designed. I would argue that crypto was designed to take your Bitcoin from you. There is nothing outside Bitcoin that actually adheres to removal of centralized control, thus nothing that would actually succeed in eliminating the middle man. Both systems are successful in their aim.

I know this will probably drop back down, but it's interesting to see these spikes. Something has been slowly pushing the average price up in the last 2 weeks.