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> The underlying value of the dollar isn't so badly effected because bank robberies happen Since you and a number of other sibling comments have raised this po

> The underlying value of the dollar isn't so badly effected because bank robberies happen Since you and a number of other sibling comments have raised this point: This comparison is poor. There are tens of thousands (probably even hundreds of thousands) of banks worldwide, each of which hold only a literally trivial fraction of their assets in (robbable) cash. That's why bank robberies don't matter. In contrast to that, a substantial fraction of total Bitcoin transactions are handled by just a handful of exchanges, each of which have a substantial amount of their assets in hackable digital form. Bank of America has $2.34 trillion dollars in assets. If they had that in robbable cash, in one place, then it's safe to say bank robberies would matter. Edit: My number of banks worldwide is way off as I was thinking in terms of banking licenses, whereas for bank robberies, it's the physical branches that should be counted. In that case, there are about 80.000 banks in the U.S. alone.

Crosseye_Jack 7y ago
> There are tens of thousands (probably even hundreds of thousands) of banks worldwide, each of which hold only a literally trivial fraction of their assets in (robbable) cash. Binance said that the coins were taken from their hot wallet and not their cold wallets. It could be said that separating these wallets (if done correctly) is removing the vast majority of their assets from the "robbable on site cash". > Bank of America has $2.34 billion dollars in assets. If they had that in robbable cash, in one place, then it's safe to say bank robberies would matter. Exchanges (imo) need to adopt the same security measures as retail banks do. Multiple cold wallets (Like how there are multiple cash depots in the banking system) and multiple hot wallets (like how there are multiple branches of a single retail bank). I'm not trying to defend the security practices of exchanges at all (imo, a lot of them to it in a very poor manner). And not saying bank robberies don't matter (Didn't the price of BTC dip after the mtgox hack?) but that with the right practices in place a robbery shouldn't matter too much. Which if the CEO of this exchange is to be believed the lost coins will be replaced from their "rainy day fund". (Though I'm always skeptical that such funds do infact exist) My point is, the underlying security of bitcoin isn't what keeps getting hacked. But the security of the exchanges holding said coins. Note: I'm not a Bitcoin "supporter" (the power usage for transactions alone blow my mind) though I do see the value of a decentralised payment system removing the ability to have your payment platform taken away from you because your thought process doesn't align with the gatekeepers (Example: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mastercard-activist-shareholder-vote-ban-payments-far-right-groups-224513648.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mastercard-activist-sharehold... )

Crosseye_Jack 7y ago

> There are tens of thousands (probably even hundreds of thousands) of banks worldwide, each of which hold only a literally trivial fraction of their assets in (robbable) cash. Binance said that the coins were taken from their hot wallet and not their cold wallets. It could be said that separating these wallets (if done correctly) is removing the vast majority of their assets from the "robbable on site cash". > Bank of America has $2.34 billion dollars in assets. If they had that in robbable cash, in one place, then it's safe to say bank robberies would matter. Exchanges (imo) need to adopt the same security measures as retail banks do. Multiple cold wallets (Like how there are multiple cash depots in the banking system) and multiple hot wallets (like how there are multiple branches of a single retail bank). I'm not trying to defend the security practices of exchanges at all (imo, a lot of them to it in a very poor manner). And not saying bank robberies don't matter (Didn't the price of BTC dip after the mtgox hack?) but that with the right practices in place a robbery shouldn't matter too much. Which if the CEO of this exchange is to be believed the lost coins will be replaced from their "rainy day fund". (Though I'm always skeptical that such funds do infact exist) My point is, the underlying security of bitcoin isn't what keeps getting hacked. But the security of the exchanges holding said coins. Note: I'm not a Bitcoin "supporter" (the power usage for transactions alone blow my mind) though I do see the value of a decentralised payment system removing the ability to have your payment platform taken away from you because your thought process doesn't align with the gatekeepers (Example: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mastercard-activist-shareholder-vote-ban-payments-far-right-groups-224513648.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/mastercard-activist-sharehold... )