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According to media reports, the Meerkat Finance team made a brief note about the hack in Telegram but have since disappeared from all social media platforms. Th

According to media reports, the Meerkat Finance team made a brief note about the hack in Telegram but have since disappeared from all social media platforms. Their website and Twitter accounts are disabled, and the Telegram group is now deleted too. Distressed users have reached out to Binance CEO Chanpeng Zhao, hoping that the CEO can track down the money. CZ has not replied to any comment on Twitter. Know that feeling. Welcome to Mt. Gox in 201x. Go stare at a lake and make peace that your money is gone. (Then post loss porn so that you can get a few internet points out of it.) By the way, as a registered member of Mt Gox, I was able to view every single claim posted by every other Mt Gox user, which was very surprising. It's essentially a giant table of confirmed claims, with 2,000 pages. You can hardly scroll more than a page before finding someone with a confirmed claim of ~1,200 BTC or so. So, take comfort that there are always bigger losses. :)

Avalaxy 6y ago
The different is that Mt Gox was run by a wildly incompetent guy. This one was just a plain scam. Especially back in 2013/2014 I have personally managed many exchanges "disappear". The excuse was usually that they were hacked, but it was clear they were just scams where the founder ran off with the money. It highlights the importance of regulation.
- WanderPanda 6y ago
  * It highlights the importance of trustless systems Not your keys not your coins!
  - iamben 6y ago
    I don't have the keys to my bank...
    - hulahoof 6y ago
      Makes you think
    - tromp 6y ago
      That's fine. Your bank doesn't pretend to be decentralized. Cryptocurrencies do. And in doing so, shift the responsibility of safeguarding the keys to the user.
      - iamben 6y ago
        I wasn't making a point about centralised or decentralised currency/money/finance? It was regarding the 'regulation' thing. Cryptocurrency is only ever going to work for John Everyman if the industry starts to mature a bit. Blaming the user when another exchange gets ripped off doesn't exactly scream 'legit', does it?
      - anthony_d 6y ago
        Coinbase also doesn't pretend to be decentralized and the bank analogy holds pretty well for them. I'm not sure it's meaningful to say cryptocurrencies are decentralized. Decentralization is more of a social phenomenon than technical, e.g. cash is decentralized but socially we've found advantages to centralize.
        hulahoof 6y ago
        Cash is most certainly not decentralised, unless you are using some uncommon definition of 'cash'
        asimpletune 6y ago
        How is cash not decentralized? I can pay anyone anywhere for anything and I don’t need any centralized infrastructure.
        nayuki 6y ago
        The issuance of gold is decentralized. The issuance of cash is centralized, unless you believe in counterfeiting. However, the transacting and storage of both cash and gold are decentralized.
        alasdair_ 6y ago
    - klmadfejno 6y ago
      Your bank is regulated and insured.
      - xtracto 6y ago
        Which still does not prevent it to block you from your money in the event of a very sharp recession or depression to "avoid bank runs". It has happened every time in every country where the government actions have fucked the economy. The people are the ones that pay.
        iamben 6y ago
        Just off the top of my head, didn't Binance do exactly that in like the last 10 days or something (with ETH, iirc)? I don't think it's an argument against some kind of regulation/consumer protection. Pretty much everyone I know (in the UK) has banked safely for most of their life. Pretty much everyone I know that's touched crypto (me included!) has a story about losing something.
        klmadfejno 6y ago
        And if the government decides to outlaw bitcoin, not only will it become a lot harder to access it from services or trade it for goods, but the value of the coin will plummet rapidly.
- intricatedetail 6y ago
  Don't we already have laws against fraud? Unless by regulation you mean preempting any chance of someone running a scam?
intotheabyss 6y ago
This is BSC we're talking about here. All Binance needs to do is blacklist those funds, after-all, they control the consensus of their network.
- tiku 6y ago
  Can they blacklist addresses/funds directly on the blockchain itself with smart contracts?
  - qqii 6y ago
    Since it is assumed that Binance owns the validator they could simply blacklist the address from ever making transactions.
    - londons_explore 6y ago
      I assume that before they can do that these funds will go through a bunch of other smart contracts, be swapped for monero, mixed a bunch of times and eventually cashed out.
      - leppr 6y ago
        You seem to mix-up "smart contracts" and the platform on which they run. On BSC, Binance effectively controls all smart contracts, since they control the chain itself. And given that all bridges with the outside world are also centralized in a way, the only way for the scammers to cash out would have been to swap before anyone notices.
      - qqii 6y ago
        If you're interested you can follow the funds yourself: https://bscscan.com/address/0x9542966f1114eaa5859201aa8d34358bfedbfa79 https://bscscan.com/address/0x9542966f1114eaa5859201aa8d3435... As far as I know BSC doesn't have any mixers, nor aomtic swaps exchanges.
    - suifbwish 6y ago
simonebrunozzi 6y ago
If it's indeed a scam, people that lost their money should pool some money, hire a law firm, and sue.
AuryGlenz 6y ago
I lost quite a bit on btc-e, but in that case our government stole it.

Avalaxy 6y ago

The different is that Mt Gox was run by a wildly incompetent guy. This one was just a plain scam. Especially back in 2013/2014 I have personally managed many exchanges "disappear". The excuse was usually that they were hacked, but it was clear they were just scams where the founder ran off with the money. It highlights the importance of regulation.

WanderPanda 6y ago
* It highlights the importance of trustless systems Not your keys not your coins!
- iamben 6y ago
  I don't have the keys to my bank...
  - hulahoof 6y ago
    Makes you think
  - tromp 6y ago
    That's fine. Your bank doesn't pretend to be decentralized. Cryptocurrencies do. And in doing so, shift the responsibility of safeguarding the keys to the user.
    - iamben 6y ago
      I wasn't making a point about centralised or decentralised currency/money/finance? It was regarding the 'regulation' thing. Cryptocurrency is only ever going to work for John Everyman if the industry starts to mature a bit. Blaming the user when another exchange gets ripped off doesn't exactly scream 'legit', does it?
    - anthony_d 6y ago
      Coinbase also doesn't pretend to be decentralized and the bank analogy holds pretty well for them. I'm not sure it's meaningful to say cryptocurrencies are decentralized. Decentralization is more of a social phenomenon than technical, e.g. cash is decentralized but socially we've found advantages to centralize.
      - hulahoof 6y ago
        Cash is most certainly not decentralised, unless you are using some uncommon definition of 'cash'
        asimpletune 6y ago
        How is cash not decentralized? I can pay anyone anywhere for anything and I don’t need any centralized infrastructure.
        nayuki 6y ago
        The issuance of gold is decentralized. The issuance of cash is centralized, unless you believe in counterfeiting. However, the transacting and storage of both cash and gold are decentralized.
        alasdair_ 6y ago
  - klmadfejno 6y ago
    Your bank is regulated and insured.
    - xtracto 6y ago
      Which still does not prevent it to block you from your money in the event of a very sharp recession or depression to "avoid bank runs". It has happened every time in every country where the government actions have fucked the economy. The people are the ones that pay.
      - iamben 6y ago
        Just off the top of my head, didn't Binance do exactly that in like the last 10 days or something (with ETH, iirc)? I don't think it's an argument against some kind of regulation/consumer protection. Pretty much everyone I know (in the UK) has banked safely for most of their life. Pretty much everyone I know that's touched crypto (me included!) has a story about losing something.
      - klmadfejno 6y ago
        And if the government decides to outlaw bitcoin, not only will it become a lot harder to access it from services or trade it for goods, but the value of the coin will plummet rapidly.
intricatedetail 6y ago
Don't we already have laws against fraud? Unless by regulation you mean preempting any chance of someone running a scam?

intotheabyss 6y ago

This is BSC we're talking about here. All Binance needs to do is blacklist those funds, after-all, they control the consensus of their network.

tiku 6y ago
Can they blacklist addresses/funds directly on the blockchain itself with smart contracts?
- qqii 6y ago
  Since it is assumed that Binance owns the validator they could simply blacklist the address from ever making transactions.
  - londons_explore 6y ago
    I assume that before they can do that these funds will go through a bunch of other smart contracts, be swapped for monero, mixed a bunch of times and eventually cashed out.
    - leppr 6y ago
      You seem to mix-up "smart contracts" and the platform on which they run. On BSC, Binance effectively controls all smart contracts, since they control the chain itself. And given that all bridges with the outside world are also centralized in a way, the only way for the scammers to cash out would have been to swap before anyone notices.
    - qqii 6y ago
      If you're interested you can follow the funds yourself: https://bscscan.com/address/0x9542966f1114eaa5859201aa8d34358bfedbfa79 https://bscscan.com/address/0x9542966f1114eaa5859201aa8d3435... As far as I know BSC doesn't have any mixers, nor aomtic swaps exchanges.
  - suifbwish 6y ago

simonebrunozzi 6y ago

If it's indeed a scam, people that lost their money should pool some money, hire a law firm, and sue.

AuryGlenz 6y ago

I lost quite a bit on btc-e, but in that case our government stole it.