Bitcoin & Other Crypto Currencies

Oh I know all that now. But a couple years ago I could not find anyone like that

 

IRC channels have been there since inception. Then again, most people do not even know what irc is.

 

I'm sorry but you cannot dismiss what happened as "people looking to do illicit things.". It's fraud. Plain and simple. And if it can be done, it will be done and the next time it happens, it won't be chump change.

 

/slap skygear

 

SO I as a stranger set up a site to host selling drugs. I setup an escaro account and tell you to give me, a dealer, all your money to hold for a couple days. Seems legit right?

Could have been with credit cards too. The persons that opened the honey pot site were in it for the money and that is all. Couple IT guys out to make a quick buck.

Kind of like driving to "the hood" rolling down your window and saying, " You know where I can get some weed?" - Guy says "I know someone, give me your money" - Now one of two things will happen. You get the drugs when he comes back, or he leaves and you get ripped for the money you just gave him. (or third thing a gun in your face asking for the rest of your belongings )

Anyways, it is over 10 fold more secure than a CC. You are in control of YOUR funds at all time until YOU send them off into the abyss. If I get your wallet address, I cannot send money from it, only to it. Plus you can have an infinite amount of addresses in your wallet. One for each transaction, or many for transactions.

The guy(s) did not hack, circumvent security, steal an identity to get the funds, or anything of the sort.

In my eyes, he SOCIAL ENGINEERED them under the guise of trust. I mean come on "sheep market". To me that screams red flag. People were in such a loss over the SR being seized, they were willing to trust anyone for their 'FIX'/// This guy saw an opening and went for it.


Unless you send them off into the abyss, they are secure.

Vs I stick a keylogger or a sniffer on your computer/ network and grab your info in the instance of a CC or Bank details or PayPal, Payza, WU, or other online funding sources.

 

Actually it was around 96,000 BTC - translate that to current market value - thats $115,200,000 - Not chump change.

 

Whether social engineering or key logging or sniffing; fraud is fraud.

I think you're missing a really important concept. You admit someone was socially engineered into giving up Bitcoin yet you want to believe everything is totally secure. It's not and you have provided proof.

Further, you are trusting exchanges that are what? In business to make money and at the moment, unregulated and difficult to track. If CC info is stolen, it's a bitch to untangle but protection is built into the system-that doesn't exist in the Bitcoin world today. There are a lot of safety mechanisms within traditional banking that are not available in the virtual currency markets.

And currency trades in Billions of dollars. So what happened with SR really is chump change by comparison.

 

I use certain exchangers that I have had great dealings with over the years. MTGOX for instance, has affiliations with a bank to some degree.

your right about the protection to a degree. The transactions cannot be reversed per se as in a traditional transaction. Unless the transaction was coded in that manner requiring both keys and stipulations. It was not designed in the way of traditional systems.

Yes. There was fraud. In this instance I would look at the fraud more like a robbery.

I feel we both are focused on the wrong things here though.

If you protect yourself using common sense and additional security, bitcoin and other crypto are a revolutionary system.

They are not BIG BANK.


Personally. I have not been ripped,. Ever.. I take precautions. Many.


Either way. It is not for everyone. Not trying to force it down anyones throat. However, if you looked at it from an investment standpoint, or as a day trade option. From monday til today, A person could have MADE ~$240 per coin at current market rate.


So if someone dropped $2k on monday and cashed out today, thats $490 profit. In my book thats a good chunk of change.

If nothing else. Look at it as an investment opportunity. Thats why it is in this sub-forum.

Fraud happened. I said it. PERCEPTION, that is all.

 

Thought you might like to read this. Talks about fraud.

 

Appreciate it.

 

Not a good day for the bulletproof bitcoin

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/bitcoin-crash_n_4400623.html

 

Damn Chinese. I know. Got out while it was good. I'm no dummy

 

Currency is backed by government. Bit coins sound like casino chips. Put those in a drawer and forget about them and the casino goes under, you are left with nothing. Oz is right in my opinion: pyramid scheme thus questionably legal. Last one holding the bag of bits gets rooked.

 

Someone just bought a Tesla Model S with btc. Bank of America is looking at btc too. So some consumers are spending serious money using them and financial institutions are considering how btc or like will benefit them. These were both in yesterday's news.

I still think there's too much chance of fraud. Is it a pyramid scheme? idk about that-but the success of btc does depend on the amount of currency it holds to back up the btc and there's not a lot of security in that.

 

Who back the bit coins?

 

No government. And its value is highly volatile.

Most businesses don't deal in pure btc either. They will accept a payment in btc and quickly convert it to dollars or whatever.

I worry about both fraud and the anonymity. I think it's just too easy to cheat.

 

i hate the word pyramid scheme, isn't everything a pyramid scheme? If you work for a corporation, you're working hard to make the man more money right?

 

No. A pyramid scheme generally involves getting others to 'buy in' to your idea. That in turn pushes you up a level. Only the guy at the top gets rich. Eventually, the pyramid collapses because it cannot bring people in fast enough to sustain itself.

 

No, everything is not a pyramid scheme. A corporation actually produces something, usually of value; the only money involved in a pyramid scheme is from new membership enrollment, and when new people stop joining, there's no money left to falsely inflate and pass around.

 

If you work for a corporation, you are either making money that builds the business and makes the owners money or you are building shareholder equity. You could argue that as an early employee, any shares you might receive as compensation are worth more than someone who comes in later, but that isn't even close to a pyramid scheme.