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And then, when you "hit the jackpot", will you become a thief? Or will you just feel like you picked a lock, smile and pull the door back shut.

alex77456 5y ago
Average wallet won't have much in it. On the other hand writing an article with a semi proof of this would affect the bitcoin economy, whether deservedly or not.
Yizahi 5y ago
As they say "the unstoppable law of unbreakable code". You will become the "rightful" owner of those tokens, unless they happen to belong to one of the Not-The-Owners of that particular blockchain. If they are, they will just fork a blockchain removing your money from your wallet. Vitalik and Co already did this with Ethereum after TheDAO contract execution as designed, because their own funds were affected.
- tata71 5y ago
  See my earlier comment about this no longer being feasible.
- lupire 5y ago
  That only true if you remain anonymous or out of jurisdiction. Bitcoin has no EULA, local law applies to property.
henvic 5y ago
Why a thief? Bitcoin is a silly idea based on scarcity that doesn't exist. If someone generated the right numbers by chance and had luck, I wouldn't say they'd be doing anything wrong getting whatever is there. It's not the same as stealing data, and is not the same as hacking into a banking system. It's decentralized, and there isn't the concept of real scarcity. It's not even hacking. https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/ https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/
- matheusmoreira 5y ago
  > If someone generated the right numbers by chance and had luck The whole point of cryptography is nobody could possibly guess these numbers within the lifetime of the universe. If this assumption is somehow proven wrong, we've probably got bigger problems than one person losing money.
- jmoreno94 5y ago
  Because whether or not Bitcoin is silly, someone else paid their hard earned money for the coins, usually we say that makes someone the owner. What do you usually call someone who takes a thing from its owner without permission?
  - hellojesus 5y ago
    The problem with crypto is the ownership (edit: maybe I should say authorization to transact) is defined only by the private key. You may get lucky with KYC, but who in their right mind would gen a collision only to get caught on the cash out? You're not in control once someone has your pk unless you can mobilize a 51% attack to fix your problem.
  - seanw444 5y ago
    Borrowing it, obviously ;)
  - henvic 5y ago
    Except that they aren't taking anything from anyone. It's information. They might be copying it. And you might argue things like privacy count, and I'd be willing to hear your reasoning, but this shouldn't be like magic. Yeah, someone was silly to pay hard earned money in exchange from useless tokens. It was a gamble. If the useless tokens get stolen, I'm sorry to say, but whoever paid for BTC already lost their wealth in the first place when they converted whatever they had before for it.
    - iosjunkie 5y ago
      The balance of your bank account is similarly “information”. But since everyone places value on that information, it’s valuable. And these days, they way society is using traditional currency is become less tangible all the time. It’s is 100% possible to live life with never touching physical currency. Get paid via direct deposit, credit cards for your daily expenses, ACH your housing bill and credit card expenses. All just information flowing around. Crypto is certainly overhyped and overvalued days, but it’s seems that at the core, crypto and modern banking are accomplishing the same thing: managing numbers(information) that people value.
TheFreim 5y ago
While I don't agree with this like of reasoning I think a potential counter argument would be that in crypto currency ownership is determined by access to private keys and not other traditional means (essentially this argument says its not stealing because ownership is determined by access).
- lupire 5y ago
  That only works if Bitcoin has a EULA or a law is passed. Why wouldn't the same logic apply to any property?

alex77456 5y ago

Average wallet won't have much in it. On the other hand writing an article with a semi proof of this would affect the bitcoin economy, whether deservedly or not.

Yizahi 5y ago

As they say "the unstoppable law of unbreakable code". You will become the "rightful" owner of those tokens, unless they happen to belong to one of the Not-The-Owners of that particular blockchain. If they are, they will just fork a blockchain removing your money from your wallet. Vitalik and Co already did this with Ethereum after TheDAO contract execution as designed, because their own funds were affected.

tata71 5y ago
See my earlier comment about this no longer being feasible.
lupire 5y ago
That only true if you remain anonymous or out of jurisdiction. Bitcoin has no EULA, local law applies to property.

henvic 5y ago

Why a thief? Bitcoin is a silly idea based on scarcity that doesn't exist. If someone generated the right numbers by chance and had luck, I wouldn't say they'd be doing anything wrong getting whatever is there. It's not the same as stealing data, and is not the same as hacking into a banking system. It's decentralized, and there isn't the concept of real scarcity. It's not even hacking. https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/ https://henvic.dev/posts/bitcoin/

matheusmoreira 5y ago
> If someone generated the right numbers by chance and had luck The whole point of cryptography is nobody could possibly guess these numbers within the lifetime of the universe. If this assumption is somehow proven wrong, we've probably got bigger problems than one person losing money.
jmoreno94 5y ago
Because whether or not Bitcoin is silly, someone else paid their hard earned money for the coins, usually we say that makes someone the owner. What do you usually call someone who takes a thing from its owner without permission?
- hellojesus 5y ago
  The problem with crypto is the ownership (edit: maybe I should say authorization to transact) is defined only by the private key. You may get lucky with KYC, but who in their right mind would gen a collision only to get caught on the cash out? You're not in control once someone has your pk unless you can mobilize a 51% attack to fix your problem.
- seanw444 5y ago
  Borrowing it, obviously ;)
- henvic 5y ago
  Except that they aren't taking anything from anyone. It's information. They might be copying it. And you might argue things like privacy count, and I'd be willing to hear your reasoning, but this shouldn't be like magic. Yeah, someone was silly to pay hard earned money in exchange from useless tokens. It was a gamble. If the useless tokens get stolen, I'm sorry to say, but whoever paid for BTC already lost their wealth in the first place when they converted whatever they had before for it.
  - iosjunkie 5y ago
    The balance of your bank account is similarly “information”. But since everyone places value on that information, it’s valuable. And these days, they way society is using traditional currency is become less tangible all the time. It’s is 100% possible to live life with never touching physical currency. Get paid via direct deposit, credit cards for your daily expenses, ACH your housing bill and credit card expenses. All just information flowing around. Crypto is certainly overhyped and overvalued days, but it’s seems that at the core, crypto and modern banking are accomplishing the same thing: managing numbers(information) that people value.

TheFreim 5y ago

While I don't agree with this like of reasoning I think a potential counter argument would be that in crypto currency ownership is determined by access to private keys and not other traditional means (essentially this argument says its not stealing because ownership is determined by access).

lupire 5y ago
That only works if Bitcoin has a EULA or a law is passed. Why wouldn't the same logic apply to any property?