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posted by martyb on Thursday July 20 2017, @05:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the ephemeral-ethereal-wealth dept.

Some time ago, I wrote that I had given up on Ethereum. While the problems coming from the DAO hack are now in the past Ethereum has had a few other problems.

Granted, these problems have nothing to do with Ethereum itself. They are all exploits in the surrounding ecosystem. Hacking the CoinDash website to replace their public wallet address was particularly cheeky. This all reminds me of tales of the Wild West, when money was transferred between banks by stagecoach or by train. The technology simply didn't exist to provide the necessary security way the heck out on the prairie.

Seems like that's where we are now. The necessary technology does not exist, to provide the security that currencies like Ethereum and Bitcoin really require. Website hacks are a dime a dozen, and when a hack can be worth $millions... The same for software: When professional programmers still write code vulnerable to SQL injection - when our platforms even allow this as a possibility - then we simply do not have the technology to secure the stagecoach.

Previously:
$30 Million Below Parity: Ethereum Wallet Bug Fingered in Mass Heist
Hacker Allegedly Steals $7.4 Million in Ethereum During ICO
Used GPUs Flood the Market as Ethereum's Price Crashes Below $150
Ethereum Mining Craze Leads to GPU Shortages
Ethereum Unusable, DAO Refunds Possible


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  • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Thursday July 20 2017, @07:36PM (2 children)

    by JNCF (4317) on Thursday July 20 2017, @07:36PM (#542033) Journal

    You can expect this to happen again and again until the developer of the smart contract is held liable for any losses incurred due to a flaw in that contract's code. That will be the only way to insure that these contracts get the scrutiny they truly need and companies can rely on them to do business on the Ethereum (or any similar) platform.

    This is a realm that is particularly difficult to regulate; there is practically no physical supply chain. Software can be released pseudonymously on the blockchain itself. You can't touch what you can't see. There will be solutions to this problem, and they will be solutions that your courts can't even dream of. I have no idea how long they will take to create, but your wigs and gavels aren't going to help.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @02:48PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 21 2017, @02:48PM (#542382)

    i don't think anyone was talking about bringing the useless fucking courts and government into the equation...

    • (Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday July 21 2017, @03:09PM

      by JNCF (4317) on Friday July 21 2017, @03:09PM (#542398) Journal

      held liable for any losses incurred

      I see no sensible interpretations that don't involve jackboots, but I'm open to new ideas. Care to enlighten me?