Bitcoin Forum

what is stopping an exchange from stealing everyone's coins?  a forum reputation?  how much is a forum reputation worth?



I know regulation is "whack" to the cryptocurrency market, but it is nice to find ways to protect people from scams somehow.



"trusted" unregulated companies holding your valuables seems about as risky as anything.



is there a way to actually be safe in the exchange market? 



I don't know.

this vircurex crash with all my funds in their system left me feeling vulnerable.

like these exchange companies are run completely anonymously aren't they?  and they could theoretically vanish with all your coins without a trace? 

I just wanted to open a discussion about this aspect of the cryptocurrency economy.  why should I trust an exchange based out of russia somewhere, or hong kong, or where ever vircurex is based out of? 

are there actually faces and names associated with holding responsibility for these companies, or are they just some structure some highschool kids in russia programmed and realized they had access to millions and millions of dollars....



its the wild west

(if you have reasons why to trust these companies btc-e vircurex, and the upcoming cryptotrade.com, please share)

just saying, don't worry they are to be trusted doesn't work for me

I think you just answered your own question  ;)

+1

I have some exotic coins in Vircurex. Bitcoin and litecoin are safe in my local wallets, but I don't have a TRC or PPC wallet on my computer.
So I just have to trust the guys at Vircurex.

Btw: just checking the site and it says: "The system is not available, we are aware of the issue and are working on it"...

btc-e.com makes hundreds of thousands dollars per month profit and that figure is growing fast. Yes they could steal your coins but that would be like killing the golden goose.

However the smaller an exchange is, the less profit they are making and the more risk there is involved.

Ultimately though you can't trust these exchanges like a bank. And the absolute worst thing you can do is to leave a lot of money laying around on an exchange because if that exchange gets hacked into you will cry. And believe me a lot of exchanges get hacked  :-\

The answer is, nothing will completely stop the risk of an exchange stealing your coins.

Even with regulations and laws, as seen in Cyprus, there is always risk to storing value, no matter how small you perceive it to be.

The best defense against theft in this regard is to spread the risk and minimize the exposure.

Just to clarify, vircurex.com have said everything is fine and it is a technical issue.

Unfortunately the withdrawal fees for vircurex.com means people are encouraged to take risk and store their coins there. You have to consider your other choices.

does anybody have incidences in mmind of when exchanges were hacked, and what happened in the process?

if the exchange gets hacked your just S.O.L. better luck next time or do they reimburse you and take responsibility for their failed security?

all valid concerns in this economy..

I'm a little ticked off at Vircurex. I moved my coins out of BTC-e because of being down so often, and now Vircurex goes down. Oh well. The only coins I have on there is the profit I made off LTC's rise this week.  8)

Both btc-e and vircurex have been hacked in the past and covered the losses themselves. Mooncoin apparently just stole the deposits and disappeared. Cryptoxchange shut down and last I saw there were a lot of users that never got their money back.

I think crypto exchange gave a warning

And let people BitCoin/cash out

nice thanks for the history

how long has vircurex been fluffing the golden goose?  btc-e?  

what qualifications would you need to start an exchange?  none whatsoever, a forum name?


could we petition as a community for brainstorming and development of a top of the line secure exchange?  it can't be hard.  and have the profits go back into bitcoin development.  as a secure exchange I mean, top of the line security, accountability, and safety for its users.

I hate to say some kind of insurance plan.  but facts are facts.  theres gonna be hacks and the such.  I would hope an insurance plan was there to back any misfortunate events.  even though I hate insurance.  especially car insurance,

I think that this is possible isn't it?  we don't have to work in such sketchy ways all the time, eventually as bitcoin becomes more mainstream I would hope we would have developed something like this.  its got some pretty scammy scammers popping in and out without a trace, but i feel like we could transcend our vulnerabilities over time.  

any thoughts on this thread appreciated

There's a reason why there are so few good exchanges around. It is hard.

At least Vircurex is keeping folks informed of their status via twitter.

https://twitter.com/Vircurex

It's always possible they can take the money and run.  But with Bitparking getting out of the alt-crypto-currency trading, Vircurex is the only game in town for PPC trading at the moment.  BTC-e has yet to implement PPC trading on their platform.  It would be a missed opportunity if Vircurex bailed out now.  PPC volume was their highest out of the other alt-currencies they support.  LTC was second which says a lot.

Bottomline:  It's all about trust and reputation in the anonymous-part of the bitcoin world.

I also have a few coins lying around at Vircurex, am not too worried based on their Twitter messages. Although if I had a large chunk of money, I wouldn't feel too comfortable holding them anywhere besides my own wallet. I think everyone is caught up in trading coins for profits right now, which is not meant to be the purpose of all of this cryptocurrency stuff. I think the future, people will just hold on to the coin they want for 99% of the time, and only be subjected to liabilities during the small window when they make the exchange and thats it. You could further minimize that by doing the exchange in small quantities. That's the best I can think of for now.

What is "top of the line"?  It's a mistake to think the quality of possible exchange practices is a total ordering.

IS TRC dead?  I just invested everything in it and I guess the whole system is frozen, nobody can move coins.

humans gone mad, see profits, turn into chicken, chicken not a lot of brain, chicken no gain.


i hope enough said?

like swarms of trolls chasing chikun

Spacegoat-- May I ask your age, origin, and any personal demographic indicators you wish to share?  It's for posterity.

TRC launched!

I'm 28.  native american celtic(irish english scottish german swiss) - long distance traveler, I've walked through most every american city with a guitar to make my bread.  hitch hiked over 10 K from age 22-27 rode trains for thousands of miles until I got in an accident and almost died, and so stopped riding freight trains. 

I just got back to mainland from exploring 4 hawaiian islands on skateboard over the course of 1 year. 

I'm into ancient medicines like ayahuasca and peyote as well as the ancient cultures around their sacramental use, I pray in a tipi with indians of many tribes, I'm a member of the native american church... so I get to do things in the old way, carry eagle feathers and carry peyote, the holy sacrament. 

I'm friends with lots of incan, and south american indians and northern american indians, I was raised by mormons on 3,000 acres in the middle of nowhere in wyoming where my english scottish great great grandparents homesteaded in 1915.  I am now inheriting that homestead while my best friends from college open a cafe in sebastopol and I am torn as to whether I should work the land or rock and roll...

uh.  just got into bitcoin, borrowed $150 from my mom excited cuz I multiplied it by 10 so far in 2 weeks day trading. and she's ppoor so I hope to help her out someday with a good life. 

I have an above average IQ.  musician, classical, play every instrument.  flamenco guitarist.  film maker.  and I've always put being an artist before money, so I've never been financial.  always been a broke ass, exchanged money and comfort for real knowledge and experience, and I gave up food to experience what it was like to actually starve.

 

never even could think in terms of money....

until this day trading started, where its more like that computer game on the TI-86 calculator where you sell drugs and reup.  buy low sell high, I used to get in trouble in calculus for playing that game through class. 

this day trading,
its all a video game to me and I'm going to try and get a high score of 70 million and buy 20,000 acres in wyoming and support a herd of buffalo and elk and wild horses.  I just realized that day trading is where its at because your profits get stacked.  you make 5 double ups and you're STACKED. 

I've predicted many big trends the last two weeks and broadcasted the predictions to try and help people not lose their money to faulty projections,

and sunk line sinkered em and scored pretty good, so all of the sudden everyone on my facebook (well like 5 people) want to give me money and invest it for them.  one for 10K I had to talk down to 2K cuz I am like whoa nelly I don't want to lose that 10K for you.  and other smaller investments.  so I'm now an unnoficial hedge fund manager on trust for people I know well.  they really just threw money at me to make it go bigger.  and I guess they trust me, monday I'll have like $3500 to throw around.  from guys I sweat with and camped with and stuff.


I am friends with some really smart creative people, pro skateboarders and we're all sort of texting each other learning the ropes of daytrading cryptocurrencies its been pretty fun. 

UNTIL vircurex crashed with my loot!   >:(

but TRC is back online, VIRC is coming back up.  its all good, I probably needed a breather anyway.  yeah I pretty much stopped sleeping and just became a day trader.  and night trader.  rode litecoin up from $0.8 to $4.53 and that was like my first night.  rode a couple other surges, and made some stupid moves too.

so.  yeah here I made this informational video, its what I believe in for the earth hands down.

oh yeah.  and I hang with aliens in the amazon.  no joke.  like elvy alien interdimensional super intelligent light beings outside the physical realm, they are more primordial than primordial.  you drink a ton of ayahuasca and you fall through a couple layers of reality and boom you land in the elf nest.  terence mckenna, and all that, yeah he knows, he talks about it.  alex grey talks about it.  here's a movie I made about it.  the songs at the end are the songs we sing through the night when we drink this holy sacrament that connects us to star beings and stuff.  its nuts and totally the most beautiful healthy thing ever.  everything else is actually nuts.  so yeah.  also a vipassana meditation student of s.n. goenke and I was taught aikido by a super badass japanese old sensei dude and can pretty much take marines in hand to hand combat.  well I did once, and he said I was the greatest martial artist on the planet right now.  (as I got my stuff stolen in boulder colorado)  (he may have been distracting me and inflating my ego)  but yeah aikido is where its at.  vipassana ayahausca aikido peyote half moon, veganism(rastafarianism), and bitcoin.  all where its at right now.

here's that video I just made.  don't mind the donation beggings I need to take those down that's when I was trying anything to get a little bitcoin.  but yeah- its an hour, about ayahuasca.  I think its the best informational on ayahausca out there.  I would redo the intro if I could and take out :ayawhatska?" but its too late now... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvU5ukIQiuE

There's one more player = http://cryptonit.net/

also www.crypto-trade.com will be opening in 8 days anybody know anything about them, I know they are in hong kong... 
i must say i am fairly skeptical of trading platforms.  btc-e i feel good with but new ones... hmmm

anybody know anything about them?  I hear they're going to have a trollbox too

I have about 4BTC and 50PPC at Vircurex. If anyone is interested in buying my account at 90% of what is in there, please PM me.

I just heard they would be opening back up tomorrow mid-day

patience is key my friend

Why didn't they tell you about BTC when it was BTC10k/pizza?

Supposedly this twitter account is not really run by Vircurex.

See https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49383.160 post #168 and related discussion.

haha

they don't speak in english. they're words are made of crystals and textures and fractals.  and actually I think in some crazy way they are actually behind everything,

and I heard about bitcoin way back in 2009, but had no clue how to buy them nor had any money...  but good question.  

https://www.google.com/search?q=elf&hl=en&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS508US508&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=mcFgUcW6BcWHqwGiw4GQCw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=653#hl=en&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS508US508&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=elf+dmt&oq=elf+dmt&gs_l=img.3..0i5j0i24.1564.1989.0.2099.4.4.0.0.0.0.100.264.2j1.3.0...0.0...1c.1.8.img.lwYZjWsfp4A&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.44770516,d.aWM&fp=397fcd0f2c519df2&biw=1366&bih=653

these are some renditions of what i'm talking about.  none do the real thing justice.

someone once posted on a facebook post about this stuff, "if you really want to access the faerie realms, you can play world of warcraft."  my response was, that's like saying if you really want to access war, you can play call of duty.

faerie and elven kind are real.  and they are also space aged.  so its like damn never saw that coming.  elves are the aliens?  wtf?  and faerie tales go back to ancient times, its part of our latent subconscious mind.  but what exists?  what causes matter to form?  its all condense light, its all imaginary, and there are other structures of form available to experience that are beyond the limitations of this reality, by factorals and exponents and whatever would be beyond exponents.  like infinity x infinity x infinity...  and they say that 3(infinity) is still infinity.  but I'm talking what happens when you break past infinity.  that's what this whole thing is. its like immortality, eternal life,

and the elves will puke on you if you need it.  its all raw.  if you're a total ass bastard, habitually defiling women and others, and you want to see elves face to face, they are going to show you as clearly as imaginable how you are a shit head.  and your conscience will awaken and you will change.  that is the nature of these creatures.  ayahuasca is known to cure drug addiction and alcoholism, it like shows you something more magical than disneymovies could imagine.  and it changes you on a cellular level.

its improved the quality of my life immensely.  and supreme court has ruled that ayahuasca is protected as a religion.  so I'll be forming the first american ayahuasca religion someday soon, maybe after I make 70 million dollars day trading.


anyway.

thanks dude

I guess somebody is taking it upon themselves to quote kumala on twitter then,  I'm just glad to hear everything is ok.  on btc-e they said vircurex announced they wouldn't give support on coins until august and my heart sunk to my toes

That site is using ddos protection only to 20Gbps they will be blasted off the face of the internets when hit by 80+Gbps. Gox is getting hit by 300Gbps+

They also take webmoney directly which means all their WM funds will get seized as webmoney is nazi about allowing their currency to be traded for competitor currency (bitcoin is a competitor currency). Even having Liberty Reserve and Webmoney logos on the same page is enough for WM to cut you off and seize money, this is why BTC-E only accepts paymer cheques and doesn't give out their WM account ID.

No 2FA (two factor auth)

Using an obvious virtual office for an address

Curious what SSL they will be using, if it will be leaked comodo junk SSL.

Expool.com doesn't exist their supposed mining pool

Using template software, as I recognize lot's of the defaults on the demo page. Gonna get hacked.

Domain only purchased for one year, clearly not a srs trading site

Zero info on wallet security, or if there is insurance coins held in trust should they lose everything.

Does anyone know of a site that shows spot price for PPcoin, Litecoin and other currencies?  charts would be nice too.
Thanks.

http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/

Good for charts, not so much for tracking current prices.

just like everything else when it comes to keeping bit currency online... NEVER keep more on them than you are absolutely OK with losing.

Sure there is a chance the site might get hacked or run off with your coins, but if you made say.. $500 trading on there and only ended up losing $200 of coins... you still came ahead by using their services.

just dont keep your whole btc stash on some online site..

Whoever is tweeting under the Vircurex name is not affiliated with Vircurex and doesn't speak for them.

Kumala has confirmed that Vircurex does not have a twitter account.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49383.msg1754962#msg1754962

That poser with the Vircurex twitter may be sticking to valid info right now, but he could say anything later on just to mess with the exchange.

I particularly am getting annoyed that the faker keeps saying "we" when he isn't a part of Vircurex to begin with.

-- Smoov

Looks like Vircurex is back up!

And coins still there :)

Yup, all present and accounted for  8)

Would probably be a good idea for you all to change your passwords just to be safe. :)

Also, make them strong.

And use 2 factor auth for both your email and login there