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I have to agree with that, even if it's very hard and is on the edge of blaming the victim. I feel for people losing everything, but really, don't keep your sta

I have to agree with that, even if it's very hard and is on the edge of blaming the victim. I feel for people losing everything, but really, don't keep your stash at exchanges. Those are meant for trading, not as main account. To make a comparison with fiat money, would you throw your main bank account at trading ? Chances are you would have a main bank account and a secondary one for trading that would only contain money you're ok to lose. To push the metaphor further, would put your whole money at trade in an obscur online bank that was created just a few time ago ? The main strength of cryptocurrencies is that they are decentralized. You're supposed to have your stash on your main computer. Each time people try to use a centralized online wallet instead, shit happens. This sounds quite weird as it feels like keeping one's money under his bed, but really, it was how it was meant to work. Again, I feel for victims here, but please, be smart about it : recommend to anyone owning crytocurrencies to hold them on a local wallet, with backup for keys encrypted on a thumbdrive. Explain to them what happened to you.

mcv 13y ago
> I have to agree with that, even if it's very hard and is on the edge of blaming the victim. I feel for people losing everything, but really, don't keep your stash at exchanges. The main reason that's unsafe, is because the exchanges themselves are unreliable amateur outfits. Keeping the wallet on your own decive sounds smart, until you realize that your own device isn't very secure either, and every bit as much an amateur environment as the worst exchanges. Your PC can be stolen, or compromised by trojans and viruses (and you can bet they'll be targeted if lots of money is stored there), and you can lose your money in a hardware crash. Backups help, but every backup is also a new way someone else might get access to your wallet. > To make a comparison with fiat money, would you throw your main bank account at trading ? Chances are you would have a main bank account and a secondary one for trading that would only contain money you're ok to lose. To push the metaphor further, would put your whole money at trade in an obscur online bank that was created just a few time ago ? No, the proper metaphor here is to have your money in a bank, or to have it at home in a pillow. Most people have their money in a bank, and well-regulated banks are pretty safe. (The recent banking crisis was due to lack of regulation allowing banks to take crazy risks.) What we need is well-regulated, safe bitcoin banks and exchanges.
- oelmekki 13y ago
  > Keeping the wallet on your own decive sounds smart, until you realize that your own device isn't very secure either, and every bit as much an amateur environment as the worst exchanges. You can't compare both. Am I saying that with a local wallet you have absolute security from everything possible in present and future ? Obviously not. But it's certainly not as easy (and that's an euphemism) to steal money put on 1M people computers than on one or a bunch of servers.
  - mcv 13y ago
    Criminals can reach a lot of computers with viruses, trojans, botnets, that sort of stuff. And if they know that a significant number of PCs contain very real money, you can bet they're going to try a lot harder than they have so far. The more attacks can be distributed, the less the advantage of distributed wallets. And then it comes back to real security. So far, real banks seems to be pretty good holding on to our accounts. Even if they squander our money on risky speculation, at least our accounts aren't being emptied on a massive scale. If bitcoin wants to truly challenge traditional money, then its financial service providers need to be held to the same standard.
  - Bjartr 13y ago
    That's what paper wallets are for.

mcv 13y ago

> I have to agree with that, even if it's very hard and is on the edge of blaming the victim. I feel for people losing everything, but really, don't keep your stash at exchanges. The main reason that's unsafe, is because the exchanges themselves are unreliable amateur outfits. Keeping the wallet on your own decive sounds smart, until you realize that your own device isn't very secure either, and every bit as much an amateur environment as the worst exchanges. Your PC can be stolen, or compromised by trojans and viruses (and you can bet they'll be targeted if lots of money is stored there), and you can lose your money in a hardware crash. Backups help, but every backup is also a new way someone else might get access to your wallet. > To make a comparison with fiat money, would you throw your main bank account at trading ? Chances are you would have a main bank account and a secondary one for trading that would only contain money you're ok to lose. To push the metaphor further, would put your whole money at trade in an obscur online bank that was created just a few time ago ? No, the proper metaphor here is to have your money in a bank, or to have it at home in a pillow. Most people have their money in a bank, and well-regulated banks are pretty safe. (The recent banking crisis was due to lack of regulation allowing banks to take crazy risks.) What we need is well-regulated, safe bitcoin banks and exchanges.

oelmekki 13y ago
> Keeping the wallet on your own decive sounds smart, until you realize that your own device isn't very secure either, and every bit as much an amateur environment as the worst exchanges. You can't compare both. Am I saying that with a local wallet you have absolute security from everything possible in present and future ? Obviously not. But it's certainly not as easy (and that's an euphemism) to steal money put on 1M people computers than on one or a bunch of servers.
- mcv 13y ago
  Criminals can reach a lot of computers with viruses, trojans, botnets, that sort of stuff. And if they know that a significant number of PCs contain very real money, you can bet they're going to try a lot harder than they have so far. The more attacks can be distributed, the less the advantage of distributed wallets. And then it comes back to real security. So far, real banks seems to be pretty good holding on to our accounts. Even if they squander our money on risky speculation, at least our accounts aren't being emptied on a massive scale. If bitcoin wants to truly challenge traditional money, then its financial service providers need to be held to the same standard.
- Bjartr 13y ago
  That's what paper wallets are for.