6 ms·

When will people shut the fuck up about crypto already?

ed_elliott_asc 4y ago
What I don’t understand is what happens when someone can crack wallets and just start transferring money anywhere they want? Why is this something that can’t happen?
- sph 4y ago
  Literal cracking of that kind of encryption is still some time away, people are already losing their crypto money through theft and lacks of backups anyway.
- mr_mitm 4y ago
  You'd need to break ECDSA, which is assumed to be hard, and not without reason. Basically the entirety of online privacy is built on this or similar assumptions.
- edf13 4y ago
  Same reason people aren't cracking other encrypted data, hacking banks, breaking TLS etc. It uses strong encryption (Not all the same encryption, but strong all the same).
- shakow 4y ago
  > Why is this something that can’t happen? Because if you crack wallets, you are either (i) cracking it through social means, i.e. stealing login/password, and it's nothing extraordinary; or (ii) you just broke EC crypto, and the world has a much worse problem at hand than you stealing something-coins.
  - smcl 4y ago
    I thought there was an other scenario which is biting people more commonly: (iii) smart contracts that are clumsily or maliciously constructed to either transfer assets out of a "wallet" or lock them up for eternity
elefanten 4y ago
When its adoption in its successful niches and its rejection from its unsuccessful niches is so complete, that it is boring to even mention it.
- MereInterest 4y ago
  Pray tell, what are its successful niches? I haven't yet seen any.
  - dTal 4y ago
    Bitcoin: internet-based black markets NFTs: money laundering, scamming idiots (similar to the fine art world - NFTs make a ton more sense if you view them as an attempt to create "digital fine art" in the same way as Bitcoin is digital gold).
    - luciusdomitius 4y ago
      Fine art world is not a scam, but tax-evasion.
      - arbitrage 4y ago
        For the people with $$$$, it's tax evasion. For people with $ or $$, it's a scam.
  - bigbillheck 4y ago
    It's pretty good for fraud.
  - roenxi 4y ago
    There was that Canadian trucker protest where the idea was floated of de-banking them. At that point, a fungible asset worth a few thousand dollars that is a little hard to seize without a court order and serious police involvement would be exactly what they needed. That was the tipping point that got me in to crypto. It is fit for purpose. I don't want to be debanked suddenly by my political opponents.
mchaver 4y ago
As long as our modern economic history is deemed interesting. Almost 400 years later we still talk about Tulip mania. Even if cryptocurrency falls out of favor tomorrow, it will still be an interesting economic event for a long time.

What I don’t understand is what happens when someone can crack wallets and just start transferring money anywhere they want? Why is this something that can’t happen?

sph 4y ago
Literal cracking of that kind of encryption is still some time away, people are already losing their crypto money through theft and lacks of backups anyway.
mr_mitm 4y ago
You'd need to break ECDSA, which is assumed to be hard, and not without reason. Basically the entirety of online privacy is built on this or similar assumptions.
edf13 4y ago
Same reason people aren't cracking other encrypted data, hacking banks, breaking TLS etc. It uses strong encryption (Not all the same encryption, but strong all the same).
shakow 4y ago
> Why is this something that can’t happen? Because if you crack wallets, you are either (i) cracking it through social means, i.e. stealing login/password, and it's nothing extraordinary; or (ii) you just broke EC crypto, and the world has a much worse problem at hand than you stealing something-coins.
- smcl 4y ago
  I thought there was an other scenario which is biting people more commonly: (iii) smart contracts that are clumsily or maliciously constructed to either transfer assets out of a "wallet" or lock them up for eternity

elefanten 4y ago

When its adoption in its successful niches and its rejection from its unsuccessful niches is so complete, that it is boring to even mention it.

MereInterest 4y ago
Pray tell, what are its successful niches? I haven't yet seen any.
- dTal 4y ago
  Bitcoin: internet-based black markets NFTs: money laundering, scamming idiots (similar to the fine art world - NFTs make a ton more sense if you view them as an attempt to create "digital fine art" in the same way as Bitcoin is digital gold).
  - luciusdomitius 4y ago
    Fine art world is not a scam, but tax-evasion.
    - arbitrage 4y ago
      For the people with $$$$, it's tax evasion. For people with $ or $$, it's a scam.
- bigbillheck 4y ago
  It's pretty good for fraud.
- roenxi 4y ago
  There was that Canadian trucker protest where the idea was floated of de-banking them. At that point, a fungible asset worth a few thousand dollars that is a little hard to seize without a court order and serious police involvement would be exactly what they needed. That was the tipping point that got me in to crypto. It is fit for purpose. I don't want to be debanked suddenly by my political opponents.

mchaver 4y ago

As long as our modern economic history is deemed interesting. Almost 400 years later we still talk about Tulip mania. Even if cryptocurrency falls out of favor tomorrow, it will still be an interesting economic event for a long time.