Thread: RIP Bitcoin

Feds eye crackdown on digital coin investments

A new approach to fundraising by startups that uses digital currencies like bitcoin is sparking concern among lawmakers and regulators, and calls for tougher rules.

At issue are initial coin offerings, where new companies or smaller projects seek to crowdfund — or raise investment funds from the public — through crypto online currencies.

While many of these offerings are well-intentioned, others are scams and some have weak security making them susceptible to hacks.

That's led to growing calls for new regulations to protect investors and consumers.

more Feds eye crackdown on digital coin investments | TheHill

ICO's ( initial coin offerings ) - most of them proposed to be built on the ethereum blockchain

but probably 90 + % will not materialise

Several leaders of companies involved in Blockchain technologies have voiced out their opinions on the ruling issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in mid-2017 regarding the so-called initial coin offerings (ICO).

Based on the ruling, some digital currency ICOs can be considered as securities and should be subjected to existing regulations. Some welcome the ruling, while others are still on the fence on how this affects the future of ICOs.

According to Ari Mellich, Decentraland Project Lead, the SEC decision has no significant effect in the cryptocurrency market in general.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/icos-...o-be-compliant

tomorrow there will be a hard fork of the bitcoin blockchain with the spinoff of Bitcoin cash - BCC
many people are buying bitcoin as they have been told they will recieve the equivalent number of BCC as the bitcoin they hold

I am not holding any bitcoin now as when I hear ideas about free money it invariably leeds to nigerians - I think this hardfork will hit the bitcoin community very hard as the wailing and bitter recriminations happen

I moved to decred - DCR - as it has the issues that are facing BTC covered already

Wow going toward 3000 Euro !

1 Bitcoin equals
2891.28 Euro

I told a friend to buy some at around 400 Euro couple years back he did not wanted.
Few month ago he told me that he purchased some at 2000 Euro a piece, i tought silly guy...

there is no shortage of stupid in a bubble spiral, could reach 5,000 EUR, even 10,000 EUR !!!

sky is the limit,

but would you take that risk ?

the main thing BTC has going for it is that it is actually used as currency but already its transaction costs are starting to rise as the spam transaction attacks come again

https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison...onfees.html#6m

also the time taken to confirm transactions is a problem

https://blockchain.info/charts/avg-c...e?timespan=all

not sure if there will be any implementation of lightning network into the BTC as the difficulty of producing a concensus for the hardfork has just been demonstrated - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Network - but other coins are doing implementing so they will reap the benefits of being a micro transactional currency

I think it's an overhyped fad, just look at the people using it or are appealed by it, it just say enough to stay away from it

a bit like the gold rush,

Reaching 3500 Euro ! August 13.2017

1 Bitcoin equals
3494.85 Euro

The Philippines Peso, you now need 60,3 for 1 Euro... DU30 administration weakens the value, good for us foreigners living here, getting pera from outside...

Crikey.


What's the best way of profiting from its sudden fall ?

Ron Paul commenting on Bitcoin - amongst other things.

BTC and BCC combined have now broken through $5000

it went to 4,000 USD, might go to 10,000 USD

fools who think of it as gains should be concerned of its internal inflationary mechanism I suspect

they are buying an inflationary currency for Chinese and dodgy Drug Dealers

Tulips anyone ?

Indeed...just what I was thinking.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania

Enigma, the cyrptocurrency investment and trading platform, was hacked on 21 August by unknown hacker(s). Around $500,000 in Ethereum has reportedly been stolen by the hackers. The heist hit Enigma as the firm was preparing for a crypto token sale, during the firm's ICO (Initial Coin Offering) pre-sale.

The hackers reportedly created a fake ETH address and tricked users into sending their money to it, by spamming Engima's slack channel and email newsletter for pre-sale coins. TheHackerNews reported that the hackers sent a fake message to users via Engima's Slack channel and email newsletter to trick users to continue sending to the hackers' fake ETH address.

At the time of writing, both Enigma's site as well as the hackers' fake ETH site displayed a warning to visitors of the sites, urging users to not send any funds. Enigma took to Twitter to confirm the attack, adding that it has taken back control of "all compromised accounts, including the website".

The firm also said that no company funds were stolen. Users' wallet addresses, passwords and private keys were not stolen. The firm also confirmed that its social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and the firm's blog have not been hacked.

Engima also said that it "deeply regrets" the harm and loss the attack caused for its users, adding that all users who have lost funds should email and notify them, and that it was currently investigating the attack. However, the firm is yet to clarify how it intends to handle the aftermath of the hack.

Hackread reported that a Reddit user claimed that the heist stemmed from Enigma's CEO Guy Zyskind's accounts getting hacked. Yet another Redditor claimed that he was able to find Zyskind's email address on the popular data breach index platform HaveIBeenPwned. However, it is still unclear as to how the attack occurred.

This is the 6th cryptocurrency-related breach and the 5th Ethereum heist in the past couple of months. Hackers have previously hit the Classic Ether Wallet, Veritaseum, the Parity wallet, Coindash and also stolen from Bittrex.

The escalating hacks against cryptocurrency platforms, especially heists targeted at ICO's indicate that hackers find such platforms attractive targets.

Enigma has been hacked and $500,000 in Ethereum stolen ? don't use it to send funds

Identity thieves hijack cellphone accounts to go after virtual currency
Originally published August 21, 2017 at 6:15 pm Updated August 21, 2017 at 7:38 pm

Hackers have discovered that one of the most central elements of online security — the mobile phone number — is also one of the easiest to steal.

In a growing number of online attacks, hackers have been calling up Verizon, T-Mobile US, Sprint and AT&T and asking them to transfer control of a victim’s phone number to a device under the control of the hackers.

Once they get control of the phone number, they can reset the passwords on every account that uses the phone number as a security backup — as services like Google, Twitter and Facebook suggest.

“My iPad restarted, my phone restarted and my computer restarted, and that’s when I got the cold sweat and was like, ‘OK, this is really serious,’” said Chris Burniske, a virtual-currency investor who lost control of his phone number late last year.

A wide array of people have complained about being successfully targeted by this sort of attack, including a Black Lives Matters activist and the chief technologist of the Federal Trade Commission. The commission’s own data shows that the number of phone hijackings has been rising. In January 2013, there were 1,038 such incidents reported; by January 2016, that number had increased to 2,658.

But a particularly concentrated wave of attacks has hit those with the most obviously valuable online accounts: virtual-currency fanatics like Burniske.

Within minutes of getting control of Burniske’s phone, his attackers had changed the password on his virtual-currency wallet and drained the contents — some $150,000 at today’s values.

Most victims of these attacks in the virtual-currency community have not wanted to acknowledge it publicly for fear of provoking their adversaries. But in interviews, dozens of prominent people in the industry acknowledged that they had been victimized in recent months.

“Everybody I know in the cryptocurrency space has gotten their phone number stolen,” said Joby Weeks, a bitcoin entrepreneur.

Weeks lost his phone number and about $1 million worth of virtual currency late last year, despite having asked his mobile phone provider for additional security after his wife and parents lost control of their phone numbers.

The attackers appear to be focusing on anyone who talks on social media about owning virtual currencies or anyone who is known to invest in virtual currency companies, such as venture capitalists. And virtual currency transactions are designed to be irreversible.

Accounts with banks and brokerage firms and the like are not as vulnerable to these attacks because these institutions can usually reverse unintended or malicious transactions if they are caught within a few days.

But the attacks are exposing a vulnerability that could be exploited against almost anyone with valuable emails or other digital files — including politicians, activists and journalists.

Last year, hackers took over the Twitter account of DeRay Mckesson, a leader of the Black Lives Matters movement, by first getting his phone number.

In a number of cases involving digital-money aficionados, the attackers have held email files for ransom — threatening to release naked pictures in one case, and details of a victim’s sexual fetishes in another.

The vulnerability of even sophisticated programmers and security experts to these attacks sets an unsettling precedent for when the assailants go after less technologically savvy victims. Security experts worry that these types of attacks will become more widespread if mobile-phone operators do not make significant changes to their security procedures.

“It’s really highlighting the insecurity of using any kind of telephone-based security,” said Michael Perklin, chief information security officer at the virtual currency exchange ShapeShift, which has seen many of its employees and customers attacked.

Mobile-phone carriers have said they are taking steps to head off the attacks by making it possible to add more complex personal identification numbers, or PINs, to accounts, among other steps.

But these measures have not been enough to stop the spread and success of the culprits.

After a first wave of phone-porting attacks on the virtual-currency community last winter, which was reported by Forbes, their frequency appears to have ticked up, Perklin and other security experts said.

In several recent cases, the hackers have commandeered phone numbers even when the victims knew they were under attack and alerted their cellphone provider.

Adam Pokornicky, a managing partner at Cryptochain Capital, asked Verizon to put extra security measures on his account after he learned that an attacker had called in 13 times trying to move his number to a new phone.

But just a day later, he said, the attacker persuaded a different Verizon agent to change Pokornicky’s number without requiring the new PIN.

A spokesman for Verizon, Richard Young, said that the company could not comment on specific cases, but that phone porting was not common.

“While we work diligently to ensure customer accounts remain secure, on occasion there are instances where automated processes or human performance falls short,” he said. “We strive to correct these issues quickly and look for additional ways to improve security.”

Perklin and other people who have investigated recent hacks said the assailants generally succeeded by delivering sob stories about an emergency that required the phone number to be moved to a new device — and by trying multiple times until a gullible agent was found.

“These guys will sit and call 600 times before they get through and get an agent on the line that’s an idiot,” Weeks said.

Identity thieves hijack cellphone accounts to go after virtual currency | The Seattle Times

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

The escalating hacks against cryptocurrency platforms, especially heists targeted at ICO's indicate that hackers find such platforms attractive targets.

that's because they have been secured by Indian amateurs,

the whole thing is a joke, like Harry

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

the popular data breach index platform HaveIBeenPwned

harry, have you checked all your email address there ? I remember putting a few of yours in it when I hacked your PC

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

“My iPad restarted, my phone restarted and my computer restarted, and that’s when I got the cold sweat and was like, ‘OK, this is really serious,’”

Probably a MacBook user with an aol.com address

I see the fat queer fucktard is quite excited today, eh Buttplug. Get your STD test results through?

I like XMR also, but after watching it for weeks hovering around $45. I sold it at $95, and bought ZEC.

Will buy more XMR again at the next dip in the market.

For those who still doubt Bitcoin, expect it to go to the moon as it is becoming the gold standard of cryptocurrency.


Snooze and you lose...

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

For those who still doubt Bitcoin

it has split once and likely to split again in november

ZEC s main driver is the privacy implemented , but Zsnarks ( zero proof of knowledge ) is being built into multiple currencies now

I have bought DCR ( Decred ) and have staked tickets with a stake pool - on average you can expect 2 to 2.3 percent return a month in DCR

Originally Posted by baldrick

Originally Posted by Mr Earl

For those who still doubt Bitcoin

it has split once and likely to split again in november

I heard about an upcoming ETH fork, but no BTC fork,

The BTC fork which just happenned is still being implemented and the results are still developing.

I see these "splits" or more correctly "forks" as great buying opportunity.

Few people really understand what these "forks" really mean and causes panic selling for the boneheads and suckers who follow the herd and buy high and sell low.
It's no wonder so many think bitcoin is a loser.

I don't understand the obsession with BitCoin.

It's like Apple... Overpriced and underspecced. There's so many more usable currencies without the time and transaction cost overhead that Bitcoin has. Even with their proposed speed increases they will never be fast or cheap enough to power the world's economies or even sub-economies.

But, like Apple, there's a lot of tards in the world and they have money to spend on the 'cool' new thing.

Originally Posted by Plan B

I don't understand the obsession with BitCoin.

It's like Apple... Overpriced and underspecced. There's so many more usable currencies without the time and transaction cost overhead that Bitcoin has. Even with their proposed speed increases they will never be fast or cheap enough to power the world's economies or even sub-economies.

But, like Apple, there's a lot of tards in the world and they have money to spend on the 'cool' new thing.

Bitcoin is hardly a cool new "thing" at this point. The little understood intrinsic value of bitcoin is the blockchain from which it works.

We are about to see the whole cryptocurrency scene go mainstream. As this happens the market capitalization will go to the moon! Sure there will be some technical hicups (buying opportunities) along the way, asside from some major government intervention the sky is the limit for bitcoin, me thinks.
A year from now when it is $10k a coin it will still be a good time to buy in.

When faster more liquid transactions become needed there is DASH and perhaps EOS when that gets implemented.

I think the next 3 years will be a wild ride! Hang on to your seat!