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Robbing the Ethereum stagecoach

Accepted submission by bradley13 at 2017-07-20 06:19:08
Techonomics

Robbing the stagecoach

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

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.


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