More like he may have stole the BTCs him self. A lot of his security claims where false and he failed to disclose the hack after it happened for almost a week but during this week he still allowed people to transfer BTCs into inputs.io.<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1q3rpp/tradefortress_stole_30_of_my_btc/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1q3rpp/tradefortres...</a>
Call me a luddite if you like, and I will probably be left behind in work and life, but I really can't shake the feeling that Bitcoin is an unworkable bad idea. Taking into account the risks of theft, the risk of government legislation, the risk of the system being gamed, the risk of wild fluctuations in value without rhyme or reason....
Seems to be an issue of his age there. He claims to be much older on Bitcointalk. He owns a $750k house and previously rented a $500/week apartment too, so I highly doubt he is truly 18.
Incidents like this are good. They will teach idiots not to trust "online wallets". Why on earth would you entrust a 3rd party service with your coins when you can keep your private key safe on your own and never have to worry about this?<p>When will people finally learn that since Bitcoin is decentralized by nature, that there is no need to re-invent these online "banks" to store coins?<p>Serves them right.
Say what you like about 'fiat money' and 'taxation is theft' and big gov't and etcetcetc but if somebody robs my bank it doesn't cost me anything directly.
It seems to me the gold analogy is more applicable when storing BTC than the cash one. I might be OK storing my gold with <i>some</i> institutions, especially ones with a proven track record and insurance policy, but other than those few institutions, I'd probably opt for a fire proof safe (a safe rated to protect the amount of money stored).<p>If one were to use BTC to store vast sums of money, you can store your BTC with a traditional bank. Simply generate a wallet offline on new hardware with a relatively secure USB bootable OS, write the keys down on a piece of old fashioned paper (use carbon paper and store the copy, destroying the original) and cover with some sort of tamper proof seal. Lock inside a lead box and then put it in a safety deposit box.
In some kind of <i>very</i> weird way, these incidents give me more confidence in bitcoin-the-currency.<p>There are so many attacks on "bitcoin infrastructure" it is pretty clear that it is seen as a target by criminals (of various degrees of skill).<p>And yet there is no evidence of any critical break in bitcoin itself. They still haven't worked out how to print money.<p>I'm still a bitcoin cynic, but I'm slowly gaining confidence in it as a store of value.<p>Like I said: Weird.
| "And the more of it that is out there, the more thieves will be drawn to it.<p>Bitcoin will eventually be the defacto valuable item to steal, however I see the community is in its early days and perhaps Bitcoin will lead to even safer computing as our operating systems will need to be more secure.<p>Theres a lot of things we can learn.
Guys help me here. It seems that I don't understand and maybe don't really know how bitcoin works. How can it be stolen? A change in the logs? A pseudo-transaction?