5 ms·

Presumably the attacker will stop short of doing anything that would completely destroy the currency, since they now own a lot of it

buttershakes 10y ago
Or, they could just plow that currency into BTC at diminishing value as fast as possible. That's presumably what I would do if I discovered a bug like this and wanted to make bank.
lazaroclapp 10y ago
I think they could also be shorting ETH, in dollars/euros/rubles/yuans, in which case destroying the currency would be excellent business for them, even if they can't extract what they stole.
- brohee 10y ago
  Any (presumably buoyant) entity actually offering that possibility?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - forgotpwtomain 10y ago
    Poloniex seems to be the exchange with the largest volume (I somehow doubt anyone is buying long-positions larger than that) - so it looks like they could at least cash out several thousand bitcoins - although it's been a while since I've been on their site and if they offer API access some of those positions might be automatically diverted as the price moves. [0] http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/#markets http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/#markets [1] https://poloniex.com/exchange#btc_eth https://poloniex.com/exchange#btc_eth
    - tinkerrr 10y ago
      Poloniex has apparently stopped trading DAO tokens and ETH as well [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4oiesu/polo_froze_eth_and_the_dao/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4oiesu/polo_froze...
- pjc50 10y ago
  Shorting small illiquid markets is very difficult and prone to blowing up in your face. The most recent famous example of this is Porsche/VW: http://www.economist.com/node/12523898 http://www.economist.com/node/12523898
benbou09 10y ago
Can't they just take control of TheDAO, and then steal all its Ether?
- tingol 10y ago
  And drop its value to nothing, why do that?
  - onion2k 10y ago
    The purpose of a hack (or any crime) is not to extract the maximum possible value, but to extract the maximum value and get away with it. Cashing out quickly and disappearing is part of the escape strategy. They probably won't care if it destroys the currency.
  - benbou09 10y ago
    TheDAO only owns 15% of Ether supply, so it would not destroy its value

buttershakes 10y ago

Or, they could just plow that currency into BTC at diminishing value as fast as possible. That's presumably what I would do if I discovered a bug like this and wanted to make bank.

lazaroclapp 10y ago

I think they could also be shorting ETH, in dollars/euros/rubles/yuans, in which case destroying the currency would be excellent business for them, even if they can't extract what they stole.

brohee 10y ago
Any (presumably buoyant) entity actually offering that possibility?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- forgotpwtomain 10y ago
  Poloniex seems to be the exchange with the largest volume (I somehow doubt anyone is buying long-positions larger than that) - so it looks like they could at least cash out several thousand bitcoins - although it's been a while since I've been on their site and if they offer API access some of those positions might be automatically diverted as the price moves. [0] http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/#markets http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/ethereum/#markets [1] https://poloniex.com/exchange#btc_eth https://poloniex.com/exchange#btc_eth
  - tinkerrr 10y ago
    Poloniex has apparently stopped trading DAO tokens and ETH as well [1] [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4oiesu/polo_froze_eth_and_the_dao/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/4oiesu/polo_froze...
pjc50 10y ago
Shorting small illiquid markets is very difficult and prone to blowing up in your face. The most recent famous example of this is Porsche/VW: http://www.economist.com/node/12523898 http://www.economist.com/node/12523898

benbou09 10y ago

Can't they just take control of TheDAO, and then steal all its Ether?

tingol 10y ago
And drop its value to nothing, why do that?
- onion2k 10y ago
  The purpose of a hack (or any crime) is not to extract the maximum possible value, but to extract the maximum value and get away with it. Cashing out quickly and disappearing is part of the escape strategy. They probably won't care if it destroys the currency.
- benbou09 10y ago
  TheDAO only owns 15% of Ether supply, so it would not destroy its value