Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Sunday November 26 2017, @01:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the gone! dept.

https://api.cointelegraph.com/amp/v1/news/bitcoin-account-holder-loses-100k-over-public-wireless-network

An unidentified 36-year-old man who owns a Bitcoin account has lost more than 100,000 euros ($117,000) worth of Bitcoins while he was logged in on a public wireless network in a restaurant in Vienna, Austria.

The Austrian police, however, claimed that they are still investigating whether the victim's account was already hacked before he opened his account on the unsecured network, CBS reports.

This latest case reflects the growing concern over the security of digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum amidst their growing popularity as a mode of payment.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Unixnut on Monday November 27 2017, @06:56AM

    by Unixnut (5779) on Monday November 27 2017, @06:56AM (#601966)

    > It's less real than that federal reserve note. In the event of an electromagnetic pulse, those notes are unaffected. They still exist, they're still foldable, stackable, and transportable.

    And what makes you think the USD (or any other fiat currency) would be worth anything in such a collapse scenario?

    To actually disrupt the bitcoin network, you would need multiple massive worldwide EMP events, akin to a global level nuclear war.

    Under such EMPs, peoples accounts, all ledgers, etc... which are held on computers go. Suddenly someone with millions in their current and brokerage accounts has as much money as the bum next to him, i.e. fuck all. Fiat is backed by the power of the government to coerce you to use it with violence. If the government went away or was weakened, so would the strength of whatever paper they push as "currency".

    And in such a scenario, if I am a survivor, and someone comes to me and offers me what is basically bits of coloured paper to exchange for material things that are in short supply, I would think they were nuts. Hell, if you came and offered me toilet paper instead of paper money, I would find it a more appealing deal.

    In such an "end times" scenario, the only thing I can think would work is barter, so either have something to trade, or some useful skills so you can trade your time+labour for whatever you need (or you are very good with weaponry and don't have a problem with murder to get your way, in which case becoming the local bandit/warlord is an alternative).

    Whichever way you slice it, in your scenario, anything that takes out enough Infrastructure to ruin Bitcoin, will ruin pretty much all other currencies as well. If you want to "stack" something to use in such a scenario (apart from the necessities for living), stick to precious metals (Silver/Gold, I would go for Copper too, good conductor, and critical to modern living for its use in generators/motors and transformers), good tools / machining, toilet paper and medicines.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2