Coins Stolen from Wallet

[causi]

Dude reuses a private key all over the place and then throws a fit when someone gets it and takes his money. This is like wanting a lock company to give you money when you bought a new house, didn't change the locks, and the previous owner walked in and took the money from under your mattress.

[andruby]

Did the github issue mention "Dude reuses a private key all over the place" or is that information from somewhere else?

[ls15]

I think every crypto wallet that is worth its bandwidth to download tries to educate users about the importance of keeping private keys secure.

[mabbo]

And here we see why crypto cannot replace the real money system for mainstream consumers.

Real people reuse passwords. They forget passwords. They accidentally get a virus on their computer. They get tricked by fraudsters.

Crypto's main selling point- complete decentralization- means there is so fixing mistakes, no means to undo fraudulent transactions. Real people don't want that.

[shanebellone]

Crypto's use cases are mostly illegal.

Ironically, if crypto was stable, it would better appeal to the general public. However, it would lose ground with its current user base.

The paradigm is incorrect. This generation of crypto will all, eventually, fail.

[kryogen1c]

> real people

There's a lot of braindead crypto hate on HN, but these are very real and salient points.

I work in IT. I have to reset people's passwords after a 3day weekend. The other day, an employee typed their password into a phishing email because the real person they were emailing got compromised in the middle of their email exchange.

Crypto banking is simply a nonstarter for these people. There was an article on HN about how scammers cost 10B$ last year. A bank where mistakes are permanent and irreversible will never be mainstream.

[detrites]

They also wire money to Nigerian fraudsters, get duped into bad house loans and crash their cars. Should we condemn everything as well?

The solution for all these and crypto, is education.

[nix23]

A friend of mine clean houses from deceased peoples, sometimes they find 1000's of euros and even Deutschmark...so much for forgetting passwords ;)

[potatototoo99]

I'd be much more worried if a transaction could be reverted based on weaving a story with a screenshot.

[detrites]

Sounds a bit like the current banking system.

[ricardobeat]

> Only I know the code, only I have access to my computer, I did not tell anyone my password.

> what's the problem with blocking it and returning the funds

> What's the point of seeing all existing transactions if they can't be stopped and reverted if stolen

Sounds exactly like the what the average person would think of crypto if it went mainstream.

[janalsncm]

Imagine if forgetting your bank account password meant your account was unrecoverable.

Or if a bug in the bank’s software meant you could lose your life savings.

Or if no transaction could be reversed, even in the case of obvious offline fraud?

All these things and more can be found in the incredible world of crypto.

[ls15]

So I know a victim of a phishing scam. She got tricked into confirming a transaction from her bank account. She called her bank minutes after it happened, but they told her that they are not able to reverse the transaction. However, according to them they are investigating if they can do something for her based on what they call "good will".

[mudrockbestgirl]

I don't understand where the bank analogies always come from. Crypto is not a bank. Holding crypto is like holding cash. If you put it under your bed and it's stolen, do you go to the government and complain about reverting the transaction?

If you want a third-party (bank) to secure your cash so you can do that with crypto, but then you're also exposed to the counterparty risk that comes with it. But that has nothing to do with crypto or fiat or whatever. If you don't trust yourself with managing the keys, put it on Coinbase or Kranken, centralized banks. If you want full control, put in your safe, i.e. manage your own key.

There are also decentralized alternatives that offer something in the middle, e.g. smart contract or social recovery wallets.

[kybernetyk]

Imagine you lost your secret key and no one could decrypt your secret files. Bug or feature?

[puskavi]

Lol, he literally says he used same private key somewhere else

[quickthrower2]

> but wallet mnemonic was used for farming forks more than a year ago

there you go

[haasted]

What does "farming forks" mean in this context? Or any context, for that matter.

[bsdz]

This is nothing new. Most are aware of the general issues with crypto currency security. Interesting comment from network code maintainer..

We maintain the blockchain, which facilitates the transactions, nothing more... If we had to revert your funds, we would have to convince the entire ecosystem to roll back the blockchain, to prior the block that moved your funds, and every transaction made since along with it... Not only that, it would then be a matter of fight between you and the thief of who got the first transaction out of your wallet...

[haint_]

What's interesting about that comment? Isn't that basically how blockchain works?

[2muchcoffeeman]

Isn’t immutability one of the features of the block chain? Why is this person asking for a reversal of the transactions?

[gdcbe]

I created and operated some blockchains in the past. From experience I can confirm this attitude in this gh issue… people do no want decentralised chains where they are fully responsible for their own security. Knowing that if you’re extremely unlucky a pirate could even guess your seed. I suppose it’s also the reason why many users keep their money in managed wallets such as the ones of exchanges…

So… not sure why all the hype on cryptocurrency. It often doesn’t do what they advertise they do, and neither does the market want them to do it…

[tjoff]

The amount of funding crypto has supplied organized crime is staggering.

[TacticalCoder]

I really don't think so. It's estimated 3% to 5% of the entire world's GDP comes from organized crime. These are officials CIA numbers / estimates.

3% to 5% of the entire fucking world's GDP.

Cryptocurrencies are a tiny drop in the bucket. Tinier than tiny. Completely insignificant in the grand scheme of crime.

Organized crime existed way before Satoshi Nakamoto released Bitcoin to the world and shall, sadly, continue to exist long after that.

[kreetx]

Money gotten through crime can (digitally) flow even through regular banks, see e.g Danske Bank, Swedbank and others in the Baltics. And locals will only start investigating when nudged by US government.

[terminal_d]

Money sans "managers" at the top is a system taking the long way to suicide. Money with incompetent managers is a ponzi scheme. Money with excellent management is a cult.

[asdz]

dude should go to centralize crypto not decentralize, maybe their support can help, e.g. Binance :)

[rasengan]

There is no way to prove the recipient address isn't owned by the OP.

[rouxz]

Blockchain police is on its way, stay still.