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It's a super massive stretch to imagine this invalidates Ethereum. Only some specific types of contracts are vulnerable to front-running issues and there are wo

It's a super massive stretch to imagine this invalidates Ethereum. Only some specific types of contracts are vulnerable to front-running issues and there are workarounds. The article is about the difficulty of being the first to take from a contract offering free money. This isn't an issue about regular contracts being unsafe to use. I think the title misportrays the issue as being much more general than it is. For some reason I see the article brought up often in Twitter conversations by people who don't understand Ethereum and are trying to argue as if regular transactions are vulnerable to theft.

spicybright 5y ago
It's not just contracts that are the issue. You need to be an expert in cyber security just to not to get robbed. The general recommendations I've heard go like this: - Have a dedicated machine just for transferring money - Only boot from a read only flash drive to interact with the network - Store credentials in a separate place, maybe on paper in a very hidden spot - Transfer a small amount of money before large transfers and wait 24 hours to make sure it works ok - Spread your money between many accounts so it can't be stolen all at once Does that not seem at least a little insane to anyone? No one is going to be able to practically use the network without some expert user as a proxy. And I don't see that changing any time soon with how terribly designed the protocol is at controlling these issues.
- aqme28 5y ago
  > - Have a dedicated machine just for transferring money - Only boot from a read only flash drive to interact with the network - Store credentials in a separate place, maybe on paper in a very hidden spot You're overstating the problem. Companies like Ledger make "hardware" wallets as you're describing and they're not complicated to use. If you're using crypto in small amounts and not as long-term storage, I think a phone wallet or desktop wallet is fine.
  - v0idzer0 5y ago
    I think you’re understating the problem. Imagine having your entire life savings on a flash drive. It’s a disaster. Crypto has no chance of replacing fiat until that and many other issues are resolved.

spicybright 5y ago

It's not just contracts that are the issue. You need to be an expert in cyber security just to not to get robbed. The general recommendations I've heard go like this: - Have a dedicated machine just for transferring money - Only boot from a read only flash drive to interact with the network - Store credentials in a separate place, maybe on paper in a very hidden spot - Transfer a small amount of money before large transfers and wait 24 hours to make sure it works ok - Spread your money between many accounts so it can't be stolen all at once Does that not seem at least a little insane to anyone? No one is going to be able to practically use the network without some expert user as a proxy. And I don't see that changing any time soon with how terribly designed the protocol is at controlling these issues.

aqme28 5y ago
> - Have a dedicated machine just for transferring money - Only boot from a read only flash drive to interact with the network - Store credentials in a separate place, maybe on paper in a very hidden spot You're overstating the problem. Companies like Ledger make "hardware" wallets as you're describing and they're not complicated to use. If you're using crypto in small amounts and not as long-term storage, I think a phone wallet or desktop wallet is fine.
- v0idzer0 5y ago
  I think you’re understating the problem. Imagine having your entire life savings on a flash drive. It’s a disaster. Crypto has no chance of replacing fiat until that and many other issues are resolved.