Bitcoin Forum

Are CoinBase, Kraken, and Poloniex Doomed to Fail?

If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware that over the summer an exchange called BitFinex was hacked and lost about a third of the value stored on the exchange. You may have your cryptocurrency and tokens on one of the large exchanges, like CoinBase, Kraken, Poloniex, etc. That means you have a password to the exchange, and the exchange holds your private keys. This short essay is my attempt to explain why any successful exchange that aggregates customer keys is simply one that hasn’t been hacked yet...

https://medium.com/@pullnews/are-coinbase-kraken-and-poloniex-doomed-to-fail-2739153d033a

I completely agree with
However holding bitcoin in cold storage and trying to earn profit from trading daily is not quite possible as in trading sometime your assets will be in the form of another alt or your bitcoin stucked in margin positions. SO without storing bitcoin in exchanger and trusting their security we can't trade and make profit.

"The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall" I don't think this work just for exchangers. Every big company is potential target. BitFinex is hacked and money is stolen that is truth, but as we see BitFinex is slowly recovering, and price is going up (there is a thread some people thing regaining trust is reason of the increase). I think people are aware of that fact, everything can be stolen or hacked. With good equipment and smart people there is not enough safe place in this world.
I don`t know are these exchange sites are doomed to fail, if they invest in their security probably they will have more chances to survive.

The target of hackers are these big exchanges and that's why most of the money goes to fix the security holes.
I don't think they are doomed to fail because the money they invest in security worth every cent.

if we are going to think like this,every business that runs or have their presence online are tend to fail if they dont take security seriously.Look at how net banking security works,are they suseptable to hacks,yes they are. Running an exchange is not a easy job they must employ a strong security team to tackle all this. i dont know how strong teams each exchanges have,and the survival of these exchanges depends upon how strong they take care of security.

Every exchange or service is at risk since hackers potentially can "walk out" with millions worth of coins if they somehow gain access to the hot wallets, and maybe even the cold wallets. Then they don't ever have to work anymore. But one thing that is bothering me quite a bit, and that's that people are too much pointing their focus on hackers and stuff. I find greedy and filthy employees/owners an even higher threat. You as exchange or service can protect yourself somehow against thief employees, but how to protect yourself for the big boss himself?

I don't think if that is a real or just a scenario, but the important things are I know, Everything is having a destiny will be a success and fail, we can implement if that site will be a successful site for every time, sometimes their destiny to be collapse will be coming.
And more big a things will be having a more responsibility and risk.

And the threee of exchange site is you already mentioned in your post is a bigger exchange and you can't implementing if that is will be a fail. we having a lot of amounts and that is will be a good target for the hacker. and I think if they claiming to have a high security that is will always having a little part is already forgotten and be a slit for a hacker. they are need always improving their security for anytime for reducing the slit for hacker.

IMO big exchanges may have good reputations, but they are just the ones that haven’t been hacked yet. When your money is pooled with that of many other people, it is far more at risk than if you hold it in your own wallets. (I say wallets, because you wouldn’t be foolish enough to hold it all in a single wallet, would you?)

As long as you don't leave your bitcoins in an exchange since they can scam and/or "hacked", you'll be fine. Sure you need to put your in an exchange to make a trade, but once you do, I'd suggest that you just get your coins out of there.

the problem is that there is no other alternative.
I see some projects here and there saying we are the solution and honestly some of them look pretty good but none of them seems to be able to take the market.

and as a trader you are forced to use these exchanges and accept the risks of leaving your funds on the site because sometimes you have to leave it there in an open order and there is nothing you can do about it.

Yes I agree, there is no alternative.   Traders have to leave their funds in an exchange to be able to trade. You cant put an open order when you are to withdraw your fund from an exchange you are trading.  this is really the fact and nothing can be done on this.  So traders need to risk to be able to fullfill their orders.

The biggest hacks, Gox and Bitfinex, were down to the staggering incompetence/criminality of the exchange operators themselves. Had they run the type of security that anyone with a functioning mind would - cold wallets feeding a trickle into hot wallets - hacks would suck but be relatively minimal.

Hi
Maybe this are the cruel parts of using exchange for trading! And still no alternative being explored. But improving on security very much possible.

Now the time has come for bigger exchanges to improve security at the very best level.
And they have to be more carefully about recruiting staff regarding on intregity as well.

Thanks!

Indeed, securing exchanges is just one aspect of the whole problem as the operators are in a league of their own.

They enjoy the freedom and access to reach any wallet containing user funds.

At the end of the story, these kind of scandals will never go away. Not the first, and not the last.

They are not necessarily going to fail or steal our money, but there's also no guarantee that they won't. I lost money in cryptsy and probably won't ever see any of it again. Just be prepared for the worst on any exchange.

It is true that a company might invest so much in security only to lose it to greedy employees who have somehow managed to access important security codes. Bitfinex hack was most likely an insider job.

No they are not doomed to fail!

Sure you can never trust to anyone and they can never provide you 100% guarantee

With every hack that we suffer and survive, exchanges and people should learn to better protect themselves
I for sure try not to keep my funds at exchange for more then i need, but sometimes I am locked to fiat or some alt coin which I don`t have local wallet

Hi
You are absolutely right. Every hacking incidents will help security staff to become much more professional and teach the method of deploying counter efficiently.
On the other side traders have to be more careful about leaving funds in exchange account!

Thank you for putting valuable input.

These are among the top exchanges so of course, they would be the target of hackers. So what? I'd still rather use them than some unknown, up-and-coming, and unproven, probably scammy site. Yes, the best way is to store the majority of your coins in cold storage but there are times when you need to use a service and choosing one that is more established is common sense. Would you trust your coins to a less-known questionable site just because the big ones might get hacked? I wouldn't. To conclude that they are doomed to fail just because they are the most likely target of hackers, That's complete paranoia.

*: I'll just put this here.
https://medium.com/@pullnews/are-coinbase-kraken-and-poloniex-doomed-to-fail-2739153d033a#.ixdrrsm49  

He is not comparing small exchanger companies to big excahnger companies, he just being scared about after what happened on bitfinex, he has a thought in his mind that saying "what if this happen again?" this wont stop people by using ecchangers but highly secured system is necessary.

Cryptsy is very big shock for me also because as Mintpal gone I put all coins in this exchange and they run away very quickly as I have no time to recover this just because of this now I am keeping all coins in my own wallet not in any exchange they are not safe any way

Nah. I get we are all scared about the bitfinex thing happening again and that more security measures should be taken to prevent this, but did you even read the article (advertising)? It was ok at the start, that was his opinion, but towards the end when I read the part Isn't he just basically alarming people and exploiting the bitfinex hack to advertise his site? Yes, the hacking could happen and it's no fun. But if people want to get trust they should do so by proving themselves or their service and not just rely on throwing mud to the competition.

That is good just like we choosing our wallet that is safe and can secure our coins, use excharger when you want to exchange your coins from one another and move them on its designated wallet if you can pay fees, although paying fees is too much but it is better when you are confident your coins are in safe place.