Bitcoin Forum

Does the U.S. Department of Justice's recovery of the Bitcoin ransom mean that Bitcoin and even blockchain security have fallen off the altar?

No, but it can be a nice FUD indeed.
Probably DoJ have intercepted communications and found the private key(s) there.
And BTW, that "altar" is constituted of math, well written code and peer review. Just FYI.

I don't understand why is everyone is panicking over this. From what I read, no information was given on how the authorities got access to the funds so are many possibilities, centralized services, weak passwords, etc.

And if you think that the code is not that safe, don't you think that someone would've found that out by now?

Does the U.S Department of Justice have a proof that the block chain technology is weak in terms of security? Lots of authorities want to spread FUD right now to create temporary dips, including DoJ. I won't be surprised if this summer they'll all get into Bitcoin strongly.

Even if these weren't lies, the person who lost the bitcoins could have simply not managed them properly.

Exactly, and this is what I assume happened in the last 24 hours. After the news has been released to the public, the price suddenly plummeted to $32k. And maybe some anti-bitcoin or people with narratives behind spread FUD.

And I don't think that blockchain has been broken, DoJ may have find ways on the group of hackers, hence they were able to extract the private keys.

What do you pertain by the word "safe" in your question? That word has so many meaning in bitcoin community. I suggest you clarify so the readers can answer directly on what you are trying to ask. But to answer it, generally speaking, yes, bitcoin is safe as long as you know what you are doing.

In terms of privacy, bitcoin provides anonymity that secures the identity of the person having a transaction. It doesn't require a KYC (unless you are using a platform that requires it) that stores your personal data and is prone to hacking that leads to identity theft and such. This is a plus because it provides a safety net to the users.

In terms of having it as a storage of funds, it is safe as long as you secured your device as well as the pin you used. They can't just open your wallet and steal because it is secured with unique cryptography.

In terms of having it as an investment vehicle, it is safe as long as you are knowledgeable enough about its nature. Bitcoin is volatile so you should manage your expectations. It is risky especially if you are just following the hype. So you should really know the basics and fundamentals before risking.

I hope I managed to answer your question. You can also research to verify and to gain more knowledge about it.

Everyone just looking at btc from different angle and trying to find loopholes where there isn't, btc will be safe if you keep it safe or as long as you don't indulge in any illegal way of getting it, the government will always want to portray a different picture but it all depends on the user, btc provide privacy unlike fiat that requires kyc but still people don't get scared of using fiat, then why would you think btc is not safe.

They didn't edit the blockchain. They didn't crack the public key cryptography. They just hacked their servers and found private keys there, which means that Bitcoin security as strong as ever. This is why people oppose altcoins, a lot of altcoins are centralized and would allow government to seize funds without private keys. Tether is known to freeze balances on demand from law enforcement, because it's not a decentralized cryptocurrency, it's a company.

Bitcoin and its blockchain technology is a way far from what you've been expected meaning, the security and safety of the bitcoin is very high in which a normal person cannot walk in to this kind of security. The thing is that we need to be more careful on our private keys and assets so that our funds on our wallet or in our ledger will be more safe, aside from the security that we have we must also double or even triple our own security by not given to anyone our private keys and etc.

There is no safer alternative, in terms of technical ability or pure brute force attacking power, which really now is the only way to crack any kind of network like this. There is no safer alternative in terms of having the financial might to 51% attack the network either (which, even if somehow achieved, would be ignored as the good actors reorg).

Seizing private keys is really not overcoming the security.

The security of Bitcoin is relatively dependent on the holder of the private key, because the negligence of the user itself makes it insecure. This returns to the user, because then the ownership is already in the hands of the user without any intervention from any party.

about loss and so on, regardless of how the user saves it.
not saying that blockchain has failed and such. what needs to be tracked is the holder of the private key itself.

Everyone worrying about this FBI private key FUD needs to read this topic: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5342645.0

It's ridiculous that investors are selling on news like this. This just proves how clueless they are about Bitcoin's fundamentals.

No definite answer is why they are panicking.
Fear is a powerful catalyst and so called diamond hands are very very few out of the total.

And yet people havent realized these things and instead they do freak out whenever they do see these kind of headlines without even realizing on whats had been done.Bitcoin cant be cracked nor cant really make out some alterations on code and this is where it do get that main support throughout the community because of this aspect.

People should learn on to read up headlines on whats the real story. There's no bypass that do happen on here in talks about recovery and as stated

it was just basically the retrieval of those keys via bypassing those common databases and stuffs.

Actually if you are right, it means bitcoin password security is not as strong as ever.
IF FBI , got access to the actual wallet on a VPS, only a moron does not encrypt their wallet password,
meaning the FBI broke the encryption to get the password, meaning any wallet, they get physical access to becomes accessible, and that is not supposed to happen.
What should have happen is they find the encrypted wallet and should be unable to hack the password within our lifetimes, but that is not the story they are putting out there, so somebody is lying.

How did they recover it?
How about the wallet maybe it isn't the blockchain that have a problem but the wallet where it was been sent?
And maybe it could just be FUD or another publicity for them to gain people's trust.

Bitcoin is safe if the user knows how to secure his private keys so that no one can have the chances to steal or hack it. Blockchain has nothing to do with it since its a great innovation itself.

The only time where bitcoin becomes unsafe is the user itself is not responsible to secure his private keys due to his carelessness and irresponsible user.

They hack the server and found those private keys. This is usually will happen when we are too careless with our keys and we don't blame the blockchain because it is our fault.

Maybe we could say it was just a FUD but we can't deny that this has already happened several times. We are prone to hacking incidents and the DoJ or the government are also using their people to do this. But it doesn't mean that this was a sign of an end, we're not.

If there is one thing your thread pointed out is about its believers. If you don't believe, you still won't until you've found a way to convince yourself otherwise. Of course bitcoin is enjoying the dividends that comes with being a pioneer cryptocurrency and not just a pioneer, it's a perfected coin and has a genus strategy about it. So, every crypto enthusiast has got yo recognise it. The only reason why some persons may not invest in BTC is because, they feel its too late with the price way up to thousands of dollars. So, many seek opportunities with the altcoins but I still think, bitcoin is the best and safest of all.

"The FBI Secretly Ran the Anom Messaging Platform, Yielding Hundreds of Arrests in Global Sting
Monitoring of encrypted communications yielded over 800 arrests in 16 countries of suspected members of crime networks" - WSJ

Maybe related?

I absolutely believe bitcoin is safe depending on the user. The level of security a bitcoin wallet has is dependent on how security conscious the user is.
If a user becomes so careless as to lose his private keys to scammers, it isn't bitcoin's fault, neither is it anybody's.
This is exactly why private keys and seed phrases are absolutely important and are meant to be kept safe. Once they are lost, a user runs the risk of losing all his funds to a scanner who are so many these looking for ignorant victims to scam.

The DOJ is intentionally being misleading and vague. We don't know how they recovered this BTC. Some speculate that they only got the password to a Coinbase account for one of their associates. If they had actually broken Bitcoin's cryptography then obviously they would've taken the hackers' entire Bitcoin stash but they only recovered a partial amount.

bitcoin will be safe if you store it safely, and do not take illegal methods, because bitcoin will be safe depending on the owner how to store it, because if you are good at storing it you can say it is safe.

Nope. The US Department of Justice successfully recovering the Bitcoin ransom means centralized exchanges are under the power of government authorities. Or perhaps you might want to take it a notch higher and say that centralized exchanges cannot be trusted, because anytime the government could say, "Hey, that's exactly the Bitcoin we're looking for. Give it us!" And they would fully comply. Remember there's a license to be revoked, CEO to be arrested and even imprisoned, books to be audited, and so on. They simply cannot say no.

If you don't have any idea about how bitcoin works then you will say that bitcoin is really easy to access by other people.

Like what most of the people said, that will not happen if they don't have the private key of the owner in the transaction.

Maybe they got its private key that's why they have an access in its coins. Sometimes it is easy to conclude without even knowing the real story.

Bitcoin is safe for me because I know what I am going to do with my bitcoin. I can keep my bitcoin in a safe place that only I will know. I can convert bitcoin to fiat money and transfer it into my bank account.

I do not know what the other government will do with bitcoin, but so far, I can use bitcoin without a problem. Maybe each country will have different regulations about bitcoin.

Definitely, the only reason it gets compromised is because the people that are hodling them are really lousy with their security and they are not cautious when clicking links online that could lead to malwares.

People are just over reacting about the issue. Its still vague and still no recent explanation about FBI actions. And they have protocols to be followed. Its indeed reasonable to act that way like cracking their server. Afterall, they are just getting that from the hackers.

Safe? Its all about tight security system or where to put that private key not to be seen if someone try to crack over your files ot server.

I do think it's safe and the believers are right, and they aren't just any believers that doesn't know a shit, they are developers and programmers that have tried to break bitcoin but they didn't find any weakness in it so I guess I will probably take their word more than your stupid claims.

They will just take action once there is a report, that was their job. What they have done was to believe to have a reason and if that has proven that it runs illegally, their Bitcoin must be confiscated otherwise, it will still use for illegal activities again.

It guaranteed safe if we know how to manage our keys/password. It is to find risk saving our keys in our laptop/PC especially when we are not the one who uses it coz that will be one factor that hackers could track our key/passwords.

BTC is now a subject and need concentration to understand it.Everyone has own perspective about Bitcoin,Some take it as an asset and some as medium of exchange and some as a tender but i think its all about in BTC.Btc give protection not at all like fiat that requires kyc but still individuals do not get frightened of utilizing fiat, at that point why would you think btc isn't secure.Main reason of BTC is to believe blindly is that BTC is decentralized.

The private keys that were taken by the Department of Justice were taken from the guy's hard disk and he was using coinbase, so that goes to show you how naive some poeple can be, if you are doing something illeagal you probably should be more carfull where you put your money and how to secure it, peopel are making such a thing out of this and blaming bitcoin and thinking that blockchain can be hacked and intercepted by goivernmmnet agencies when its literly the guy who owns the key's fault for not securing it.

Everyone has kept an eye on bitcoin so bitcoin user should always be extra careful in doing all his transactions and should always secure his private keys all the time.

The government has always bad to say when it comes to bitcoin and this is the reason why they are not yet legalizing and adopt bitcoin as a currency. Bitcoin will always be safe unless someone manage to steal from it from the owner and used as a means for illegal things.

It is a sort of evidence and the authorities will have to take it and brings it to court. This could be the worse scenario as everything that you have will be confiscated even it was no used for illegal activities. Anyway, we really don't know what is the problem with that person. We never know why the government sued him and get the hard drive.

But this is not the way we think that Bitcoin is not safe, it was just the person who holds has done something not acceptable to the government or he violated the law.

I think it is a very elegant way of doing FUD, but above all this FUD there are also investors who come out to make statements, who even regret not having bought much cheaper, in this case we have the example of Marc Lasry, co-founder and director Executive of Avenue Capital Group, in which in 2018 he did not invest as much as he wanted and now he regrets:

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/i-should-have-bought-a-lot-more-laments-billionaire-investor-on-bitcoin (https://cointelegraph.com/news/i-should-have-bought-a-lot-more-laments-billionaire-investor-on-bitcoin)

Now the US if you try to do more FUD I think this will get interesting, because the believers, whales and Btc defenders could get into action.

As long as we don't have the knowledge about how to use Bitcoin properly, then there will always be opinions that Bitcoin is not safe to use.
As you said very many people especially newbie, not be careful when doing online activities. Such as the intention to click on the link is not careful,
which eventually leads to malware. Before we want to access the address of the exchange or wallet site to be able to make Bitcoin transactions,
make sure the link we are going to click is correct. We have to be careful in this online world, where many scammers and hackers are roaming around.

Should really be verified first before making any sentiments which arent actually true because this would really result into a FUD but the truth is when you do know on what the actual thing happened then you would find out that this doesnt talk particularly about bruteforcing a certain address.

It is just the keys had been retrieved out no matter what kind of hacking or methods that they do used.It is just people do make out some false news
for public to believe on that it did really happen.

There's no way you can retrieve out coins as long those keys are kept out of sight on others peoples awareness.

Yes, the security of Bitcoin is well known. It has its own anonymity and protects the transactions made by users. His strong technical support gives him his own reserve force, which almost no one can tamper with.

FBI cracking FUD was already debunked which the FBI actually asked the court to access the file server of the exchange to access the hacker's BTC. It's over no one can crack BTC, they would have to crack every single machine connected to its blockchain before they could which is close to impossible. The believer says YES. They may try ETH or other crypto but not BTC.

If they could really do it, they should first try the wallets that have a bigger amount of BTC than the hackers that only have 65+ BTC.

from the current phenomenon because bitcoin has matched real money we use for payments or transactions for purchases, therefore automatically security is more sophisticated, but it's not as safe as cash that we use everyday..

In terms of security we can say bitcoin and blockchain are really safe, because their security system are very strong and can't be hacked except the private keys are being shared or misplaced, but in terms of investment! We all know that the market price is volatile which means it's also risky, so to be on the safer side all you got to do is invest with caution and try as much as possible to grab much information and knowledge about crypto because it  will really help alot in the crypto space. So it could be said bitcoin is safe in terms of security.

The security of the cryptocurrency bitcoin is very strong due to the security of cryptography. It is completely impossible to break the security of the bitcoin network due to the use of bitcoin mining in other words bitcoin itself is unlikely to be hacked but for some other reason the security of bitcoin's storage came to the fore the bitcoin user may forget his password because the private key is too large it is not possible to recover bitcoin in any way. And the only way is to write down the password or save it properly bitcoin investing is much safer if you do not share personal information with anyone.

When I read comments on Twitter from people who were doubting Bitcoin, I couldn't believe it. I quickly thought that I should look up the source to make sure what people were talking about. It was bad news towards Bitcoin one after another and I found the most sensible and accurate as this tweet from Adam Back.

This just FUD. The only thing that could potentially be compromising to bitcoin in terms of hacking it is the advent of quantum computing, but by the time quantum computers are a household item, surely the security measures in bitcoin and the like would have caught up to them.

Yes it is. Compared with legal currency, Bitcoin does not have a centralized issuer, but is generated by the calculation of network nodes. Anyone can participate in the manufacture of Bitcoin, and it can be circulated all over the world, and it can be on any computer connected to the Internet. In trading, no matter where you are, anyone can mine, buy, sell, or collect bitcoin, and outsiders cannot identify the user's identity information during the transaction. On January 5, 2009, Bitcoin, which is not controlled by the central bank or any financial institution, was born. Bitcoin is a kind of digital currency, which is composed of a string of complex codes generated by a computer. New Bitcoins are manufactured through a preset program.

the US DOJ does not disclose how they manage to recover the Ransom bitcoin meaning the possibilities of them having either conversation being tracked or they have insider can happen.

Bitcoin is still safe but the way you put this thread proves that you are not a Bitcoin believer and you only posts this to spread FUD.

We are free to express our opinion, any negative thoughts on bitcoin, I will not right away conclude that it's a FUD as I'm a believer that in order for the community to progress, we need to listen to everyone's opinion, whether bad or good about bitcoin and we have to educate them the right thing.

There are so many ways in which they could have seized those bitcoins. Let's say the hackers were dumb enough to transfer those coins to a hardware wallet and they raided their house and they got hold of the Seed.

They can also have transferred it to a paper wallet and the authorities might have found the Paper wallets (A lot of people store those wallets in a Safe ... or somewhere obvious.)  ::)

I am also a conspiracy nut... so I do believe some of these "Mixer" services are "Honey pots" for the NSA ...so they might have used that to track them down.  ;)

Well, nothing is one hundred percent or perfectly secured and safe. Even the tightest security system can be broken, thus bitcoin is also able to be hacked. The blockchain technology is sure great, and have a great security as well, but it's still able to be infiltrated. Even i think there are many cases with the wallet, although it might not be the blockchain fault but well everything in internet is vulnerable to hack.

what you said is true, as long as we keep our bitcoin private key securely our wallet will be safe but
if we are not careful the hackers usually give phishing web and without us knowing.
there we usually lose control if we have entered their fake website

I think the safety and security of bitcoin fully relies on the owner. There are a lot of ways on how you can secure your bitcoin like the best wallets and if you simply pick carelessly. There are a lot of people who suddenly blames crypto without considering the fact that it is their doing and carelessness that led them to that situation. Bitcoin will be safe if you make sure it is well-secured and well defended. There are a lot of scammers and frauds out there waiting for you to let down your guard and steal all of your belongings. So you should not ask anymore if it is safe as the users say, it relies on you.

A hacker can't gain access to a Bitcoin wallet without the private keys, to me, is impossible. A wallet getting hacked depends on how the holder secure it private keys. And also, I see the Blockchain to be very secured and won't get hacked easily.

There is no 100% safe in the crypto. However, at least, Bitcoin is the safest crypto among them and one of them is from the way how BTC can really survive after a very dip market.
In this case, many FUD like what you mentioned is exactly a FUD that will make many more people to be more careful and also smart in order to check for the further investment in Bitcoin

How can you say that bitcoin is not safe to be used as a cash ? Do you mean that its volatile and ts price changes frequently, its not safe to accept it as a payment or you think that it take more time in transaction to be completed ?

no

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We made our rule. we bitcoiners love it, and live on it. I’ve been holding strong since last June, this is nothing to be shook out on and I have believe that other genuine lovers won't give up. I'm buying now and later cause I do trust on Bitcoin and blockchain technology. Ignore the noise. Stay comfy. Hodl.

Several developed countries, including the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and most others, have legalized bitcoin as of June 2021. Bitcoin is still illegal in some emerging markets. ... Currently, Indian banks cannot deal in bitcoins and there is no clear legal definition of the general status of cryptocurrencies.

But not all payments or buying and selling transactions accept bitcoin, only a few countries actually accept bitcoin as payment. For security issues Bitcoin still has a very big risk, because if you forget the key to the wallet containing the bitcoin then no one will be able to open it again or if the private key is hacked no one will guarantee the full asset back
The safest is still Fiat or real money managed by banks. Bitcoin is still optional and can't really match real money.

The vulnerability used to recover the bitcoins wasn't on the bitcoin blockchain, it was on the server where the node was running. So, it wasn't a Bitcoin Vuln, it was a server vuln. And we know how FBI has some zero-days to exploit any OS and any device. That isn't new. The problem here was the way that the scammers hold their coins, they should do some paper wallets and that would be a secure way for them to store those coins.

Trust is hard to get unless those who have dived into deep experience.  If you don't believe, you won't believe until you find a way to convince yourself otherwise.  Of course bitcoin enjoys the dividends that come with being a cryptocurrency pioneer and not just a pioneer, it's a refined coin and has a genus of strategy about it.
     Bitcoin is the best coin compared to other coins.  Even many people are deceived by the appearance of bitcoin. And those who are poor suddenly get rich with bitcoin.

safe? in here you must first clarify what is meant by "safe" in what form?
and of course when talking about btc safe it is far from safe because there are so many thieves and fraudsters who are after our wallets and assets so we have to be extra in key security. this is the first
for the second is safe to invest in btc? Of course, there is also a risk that one of them takes from fud and a decline because bitcoin is fluctuating so there is no safe word in this case.
but for price stability I think it's safe here. because the fundamentals are already visible and you don't have to worry about FUD or falling prices because this investment is based on a long term basis, not just buying at that price and selling at a higher price

First of all we have to know what why bitcoin is created?  Obviously,  for transaction security perpose plus transaction creator or reciever secuirity. And lots on anonymous perpose. If a thing is made for security perpose then why we Should think about is it safe or not? Now comes your your government statement. Just tell me one thing when government say anything posetive about bitcoin. They always try to stay away their people from bitcoin so that they can get more taxes of people’s income. Plus stock market tax. But in bitcoin they are unable to do it that's why they are spreading security type rumers. Its my opinion yours can be different.

Some countries are still restricted of bitcoin, and only few can actually use it for transactions and most of these countries needed a third party application to do so such as online wallets. I mean right now the only way you might lose your coins is by either sending it to a wrong wallet address forgetting your private key, or losing your hardware wallet either way it feels the same way as cash where you can lose it. So I think cash doesn't necessarily offers more security than bitcoin but I see your point.

Bitcoin might need to tighten its security sooner or later since more people will get interested in finding a way to breach it.

  Yeah I tend to agree, just too much unsaid on what or how the authorities retrieved the funds, but nothing points to or indicates bitcoin is not safe.  Hopefully we will at some point know what retrieval method was used :)

It can be a FUD or not but I'm still believing that Bitcoin is safe.
We can force people to trust Bitcoin, it was their choice not to do it even we show some proof to them. Their mindset is negative and we have nothing to do with them until such a time that they will change their mind. I tend not to argue with them coz that only causes misunderstanding.

But FUD could never win against us. We know crypto and these people talking negatively, they are the Fudders and they will continue doing it no matter what it takes.