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> There simply is no good way to secure bitcoin for the regular joe at this point in time. My coworker has a regular checking account. One day he noticed he ha
by ye 13y ago
> There simply is no good way to secure bitcoin for the regular joe at this point in time.
My coworker has a regular checking account. One day he noticed he had something like $20K missing. He called the bank, they have a long conversaton, put him on hold, long long hold, then they say "Your money is back, let's never talk of this incident again".
If he hadn't noticed it, he would be out $20K.
- ceejayoz 13y agoIf it'd been in Bitcoins, he'd still be out the $20k.
- AsymetricCom 13y agoIf it'd been in his own bitcoin wallet, he would have never lost the $20k
- ceejayoz 13y agoPlenty of people have had their coins stolen, both from personal computers and hacked exchanges. For example: http://www.geekosystem.com/first-major-bitcoin-theft/ http://www.geekosystem.com/first-major-bitcoin-theft/ The ability to irretrievably lose massive sums of money with no recourse is a challenge for Bitcoin. Banks have insurance for just this sort of eventuality. Cash is relatively hard to steal in gigantic quantities.
- smithzvk 13y ago> The ability to irretrievably lose massive sums of money with no recourse is a challenge for Bitcoin. Banks have insurance for just this sort of eventuality. I find it funny that you pose the problem and give the solution in such close proximity. (In case you miss my meaning, the solution is to trust large wallets with third party companies that insure their holdings and guarantee your money even if they are successfully attacked)
- alexeisadeski3 13y ago@ceejay, The FDIC isn't really relevant here ー it doesn't really insure against theft or bank error. But banks have other insurance which does precisely that.
- ceejayoz 13y agoI don't see the FDIC picking up the tab on lost wallets any time soon.
- cstrat 13y agoUnless someone stole his private key. I am sure there are already virus and malware out in the wild which target private keys. Offline wallets are the only way around this - but eventually the user will need to use their private key to move those funds.
- Romoku 13y agoWell Bitcoin is currency not a bank note.
- bpodgursky 13y agoIf you don't notice that you're out 20K... you should probably just give your money to a financial planner instead.
- dingaling 13y agoChecking accounts shouldn't really be used for sums of money like $20k; they're intended for payments-out, so should be restricted to the buffer needed for one or two months' payments. They are equivalent to DMZ servers; hold only what is necessary for the service and be prepared to drop them quickly if problems occur. The real money ( such as received salary and savings ) should be in firewalled deposit-only accounts ( like servers in the secure internal network ). Push from the salary receiving account to checking when necessary. Don't accept any requests from the DMZ.