Bitcoin Forum

I'm sure many of you have seen the news about the WannaCry ransomware?

Do you think cases like this will affect Bitcoin negatively in the long run?

Even though Bitcoin is not the issue in cases like this, I feel like Bitcoin gets shown in a negative light. Since these hackers are only requesting payment in BTC this is what ignorant people get attached to.

I've heard plenty of people say things like: "Oh bitcoins...aren't those only used by hackers?"

Obviously these people are in the minority and do not know what they are talking about but it seems to be what lingers with some. I also know a lot of people that invest in Bitcoins, mine them, etc.

My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?

The big question is...is there anything that can even been done to prevent situations like WannaCry?

The beauty of Bitcoin is that it's decentralized, but will that maybe be it's downfall too?

The solution for criminals is easy. Switch to dollars and paypal. 

This is why bitcoin is better money, nobody can seize it from you without a rubber hose.

Run better operating system. Keep backups of data you care about. Don't click on or plug in I trusted links or hardware.

Im going to invent a do it yourself "get out of ransom" kit.  Sell it for $9.95 and make a killing.

Possibly the ability to blacklist addresses so that they can never be used as an input again. Infect a million machines, and you need a million addresses otherwise they will end up getting rejected by the network. Would make ransom attacks on large scale more difficult, and once found to be a scam, address is forever locked so the funds can never be spent. If the scammers are likely to loose everything they get, there's less incentive to bother.

Offcourse it may affect Bitcoin negatively. Bitcoin are already shown in negative light for last few years. Many people think that bitcoin is mainly used by hackers, drug dealers and terrorists. These assholes are using bitcoin only because it's more complicated to track than fiat. But if we compare volume how much bitcoin and how much fiat is used for bad activities, I thing it's clear which type of currency is more dangerous. It's like to compare how many people dies in car accidents and how many in plane crashes.
I'm worried that some governments after recent atracks may start to look more strictly into bitcoin and try to control it. There are risk that some countries may try to ban bitcoin in their country.

The intervention of the government will be inevitable if we can't control the flow of bitcoin transaction and its anonimity thus making hackers and especially taking advantage of it bypassing the screening ot scanning of money involved

Who should blacklist those addresses? do you see any one blacklisting miners mining their own spam transactions or rejecting their blocks?
There is no central authority to turn to and provide them the addresses to have a wide spread blacklisting in the entire network.
Mixers are blind when it comes to these things unless they already are informed about the situation but I don't see all of them ever willing to do this.
Don't forget about the ability to spend those bitcoins as a miner fee and no one able to track them any more.

Bitcoin has just being caught in the crossfire with the hackers, you might argue that this is bad press for bitcoin but hitting 150 countries and seeing bitcoin for the first time is on your pc or trending news might give it good advertisement.

From Microsoft standpoint they have advised customers on using secure systems and regular updates of our pcs

The responsibly falls on the tech people who should be securing the system anyway. Hackers are criminals, they just choose to use bitcoin. Had they been another kind of criminal, they could have asked to get paid in fiat.


It's publicity but I don't think it's a good advertisement. Imagine you never heard of it and the first time you did, you are being asked to use it to pay someone who locked your files. Sure, not the hackee have a bitcoin address, what happens next after payment was made? I believe it would leave a bitter after taste.


Well that sounds like a plan. You go you!  ;D

The only way out is to improve the security of the systems people are running. If you keep your software up to date, it's really hard to be infected by such malware. What are the odds that a 0 day infects the entire earth? its kind of ridiculous.

EVEN with a closed source software like windows, if you keep it up to date, you keep your firewalls and so on ready, it's pretty hard to get hacked unless you are some ridiculous target, on that case then it's your fault by running freaking windows in 2017 and a sysadmin you should be fired.

It is already affecting bitcoin in a negative way, just think about how much people have never heard about bitcoin before and it was their first time getting some knowledge about it, most of such people will think that bitcoin is bad just because the media wrote some shitty articles about a hacker who decided to use bitcoins... Disgusting. The problem is that media usually neevr shows bitcoin in a good way, the real way, they don't say that bitcoin is beneficial for people to use as it's decentralized and that people don't need to be dependent on banks. The knowledge about bitcoin that people get from the news and stuff like that is that it is used only for drugs, paying ransoms and paying for hitman services...

Microsoft has already introduced the patch to control over this foreseen problem about 4 , 5 months  ago but many people still not deployed that patch. Even the multinationals were found ignorant in this respect and found the victim of this virus. The only solution to this is not to quit bitcoins but to make your anti-virus and system upgraded with latest security patches.

There, fixed that for you ;)

That WannaCry ransomware has already reached our country, the Philippines. The recent attack on the United Kingdom has been very alarming and the threat is not all about bitcoins but the possible harm of this virus to the important data in the nations. And another thing it will give a huge problem on the reputation of bitcoin. But even though bitcoin will not stop to be on top and such kind of illicit activities are just impacts on the development of bitcoin.

"My big fear is that the government(s) are going to start trying to become involved to help curb situations like this. Does anyone else worry about this for the long term future of Bitcoin?"

Rationally, governments will really get involved because this is affecting security and can inflict harm to the very backbone of a country. We are already in a technology-dependent era and disruptions can cost millions of dollars in terms of loss and cost of repair. We just hope that authorities would not want to curtail Bitcoin and would instead institute changes leading to fortification of our walls. The recent WannaCry ransomware is only a foretaste of what hackers can do in the future.

Can't do anything, and likely it won't do anything to Bitcoin, for the most part.

Ransomware will always be a thing, Bitcoin is just slightly more effective for the people that design it because they are able to obfusticate their identity more and there is a smaller risk of something happening to their accounts (e.i. Paypal account being frozen).

If people continue to update their system and become technically literate, then it will be easier for people to avoid being hit by these things, although some of it is pure luck.

it is the "media effect" and if it weren't for this ransomeware it would have been for something else entirely. they just paint bitcoin in negative light as they please. and there aren't many things that we can do.

the only thing that can negate this is probably the rest of the news. for example when the only thing you hear in media is "bitcoin+ransomeware" then you obviously think bitcoin is only used by hackers.
but when in addition to that you keep hearing "Japan+bitcoin+legal way of payment" and then "Australia doing the same" and then "US thinking about doing the same (I read this on reddit yesterday)" and so on, then the negative effect will be far less.

Secure your computers and back up your data?

I hear news tha the Wannacry hackers didn`t get any money from the ransoms.
Maybe they don`t do it for money.
Anyway,the only solution is to refuse to pay the ransom.

What do you care if they're using it to ransom people?

Lets kill or at best shackle all the girls to the ground in the houses so they can never get raped.

Actually many idiots are doing exactly the same thing. :)

This is the world mate get used to it free will is what makes us human, if not Bitcoin they'll find something else, if not that then something else.

Why are we using Windows anyways, we should start using other operating systems, is Linux good?

The Decentralized network has nothing to do with this, it is the Pseudo-anonymity that seems to be the issue here. They hide their crime by using Bitcoin and this makes it easier for them to get away with it. Now they are hoping that they will not use a mixing service that are not a government front company that collects data for the special agencies.

There are many other Crypto currencies that are more anonymous than Bitcoin, so I do not understand why they used Bitcoin. ^IwanaCry^

they didn't say how they are getting infected is this again by a simply email? how they are sending them this malware? don't tell me that they are downloading unknown file from the web...


almost funny to be said, but apaprently they are not so intelligent if they can't even think about this simple thing to do any kind of malware like this could be rendered useless with a proper secure erase and a backup

- No if we look at marketcap it is growing because of new people buying bitcoin to pay for ransom.
- Anonymity and decentralization was designed to give financial freedom to people but this features have also been helpful for criminal purposes.
- Government can't shut down bitcoin network so we don't have to worry about losing anything.
- In long term, I think bitcoin will continue to be used for illegal transactions in more intense level.

Ransomwares are very difficult or almost impossible to cure when it has already encrypted your system.
It encrypts your files using an unknown algorithm that is almost impossible to reverse.
And then infiltrates the core of your system to display a message in the middle saying "We will decrypt your files after you pay bitcoin to this address..."
I have never experienced someone paying that then gets their file back.

In terms of system security, there are no existing antiviruses that can cure this kind of program though some of them can scan this beforehand. So make sure you have your virus definition database updated.
We must apply the "prevention is better than cure" principle in these circumstances.

(Source: 3 years experience as Tech Support)

there will always be people who will use bitcoin for foul reasons. this is for a hack called ransomeware, the other day it was for buying drugs from the dark net and next it will be something else.

what people need to understand that bitcoin just like USD, EUR, RUR, ... are just tools evil people use and that doesn't mean that tool is also evil. sadly the media doesn't want to know this at the moment. and unless we have a media like them our voice won't be heard.

The best way to solve this kind of problems is to get well educated to the things like how to secure their computers and what are the things that they need to look for if they want to be secured even they are using windows os. They should update their computers always and also use anti virus and do not just click and download any kind of software or apps online. If they really want to be secure then they just needed to switch to linux 8).

You can't prevent this to happen and Bitcoin could be abused just like anything else but that is not the reason we should stop using it. People should be more informed about Bitcoins and realise that it is not criminal currency and it could be used for very good purposes. And if are regulary doing back up on your computers and protect it with updates and antiviruses you don't have to worry about the ransome.

It's simple they will regulate the Bitcoin exchanges and use IP address tracing and KYC/AML to track the funds movements for Bitcoin transactions, then ask for IP logs to altcoin and money exchanges.
This will then be mitigated by hackers using mixers and converting coins into altcoins like Monero then putting the coins on the exchanges and selling them as is.

Which leaves the ball in the hands of the regulators to find a way to track Monero addresses instead of Bitcoin ones.

Will it effect Bitcoin negatively a bit but people will still adopt it and it also raises interest in cryptocurrency and sadly also forces companies to learn how to use it in case they get hit by ransomware again.

I think the main reasons is money however because of many complaints and rejection it made the hacker hesitate to make a move and there are so many people supervise and track the address
Refusing to pay ransom maybe a good solution for this case because the way to settle this case is already explained and it is quite simple, but for next ransomware I doubt we can used this method

That's why it was invented in the first place: to be able to pay those things society doesn't want you to pay, and to hide the payment of those things you don't want people to know you paid it.  Essentially, that's everything which covers dark markets, weapons, murder, terrorism, bribing, ransom, subversion, forbidden political action, hidden cartel formation, ....
It is exactly this kind of freedom of action for which crypto is invented, and one shouldn't be surprised that it finds its domain of application.  It is one of the reasons why I was enthusiastic about crypto, because it gives back this freedom to people, against society.

Youre basically asking "can/will people stop being scumbags?"

The answer is no

Oh yeah man, that would be a very good idea and one that can make one a mega-millionaire. Seriously speaking, am sure that anti-virus companies are already adding anti-ransomware feature on their respective products. My free SMADAV has already told me that they have this feature added to my  computer. It is always better to do something in this problem rather then be sorry later.