3 ms·

If someone manages to steal money from a crypto wallet (hacking, social engineering, whatever), does that make it theirs by the ancient universal truth of numbe

• rfd4sgmk8u 5y ago
  Practically, yes. Whomever has the private key can make a transaction. Proof of knowledge (of a private key) is equivalent to ownership. This is how it works. Money is a human construct. But it can live on a system backed by physical universal quantities like computation, to remove the need for human trust constructions.
  • loktarogar 5y ago
    It doesn't remove the need, it just handwaves it away. You can't just ignore theft, and it's definitely not a positive aspect of a system like that.
    • rfd4sgmk8u 5y ago
      Cryptocurrency is meant to be analogous to physical cash. Cash is not designed to prevent theft, most theft of monetary instruments throughout history has been through confiscation of gold or cash. They exist as physical quantities in the physical universe -- anti-theft features (as opposed to anti-counterfeiting) measures do not exist, nor can they. It is just a rock or some hemp-cotton paper. Likewise, cryptocurrency exists in the computation universe as a state in a peer to peer consensus, and controlled by knowledge of large integers in the integer universe. Anti-theft features do not exist, nor can they. Its just an integer. Its not about a positive or negative aspect, they do not apply, anti-theft as a concept is an out-of-band mechanism. Primarily a state violence backed model. It works for most. Cash, Gold and Bitcoin, its just a boring token of value. It is the ecosystem around it that provides the ability to enforce 'anti-theft'.