Bitcoin Forum

for those who don't know, there are 220 of us over at getting ready for the interviews in 20min. that is 6/19 9:00ET jered from tradehill is on at 9:00 and someone from mt gox @ 10:00(presumably Mark aka.MagicalTux)

This should certainly be... interesting.

Server's down.  I think 60,000 bitcoin users all showed up at once.

its not down. im there with the max 250 ppl in chat and 650 watching the video.

Guest724 (guest): this stupid chat is full, join IRC instead!

this was just said in the chat for those interested

here too, i got 430 / 830

When's it going to start? It's 9:12 EST

The guys setting it up seem rather...laid back.

A bit disturbing considering these are basically the "bankers" of this generation  :D

I'm watching it, nothing too exciting yet. Trade Hill guy is reluctant to speculate on exactly what happened. I'm more looking forward to listening to Mt. Gox's explanation.

Can't believe the Adam Stradling from TradHill couldn't answer the question, "if they will do something if there is multiple failed attempts at loging in." Basic security measures to counter brute forcing...

apparantly drone_fragger is on the audience in this chat and claimed credit for hacking the website?

also this chat doesn't inspire confidence, the guy doesn't seem to know anything about securing a website properly and doesn't know even basic security terms and covers it up appalingly.

Well Jered is doing better in answering questions and doing a basic interview. Guess the Adam guy just got choked up.

He also announces that if "something they don't like is going on they'll close the exchange"

ie, if someone decides they need some cash to pay rent it's perfectly possible they'll close the exchange because he tried to sell a large number of bitcoins.

+1. Listening to the interview, it's not confidence inspiring for tradehill. On the other hand, it feels like this guy has a lot of sympathy toward mtgox and seems to think same thing can happen to tradehill.
I am having 2nd thought on the next exchange I am moving to.

They also said they will ask the community if they should have a kill switch, I'm sure they will work around legitimate transactions and something that looks suspicious.

claims only 100-200 bitcoins stolen.....

Bitcoins held off site, mostly.

I sure hope so.

That would be great news for everyone.

yea if its true then they lost very little and this is all news of a vulnerability that spread like wildfire. I hope that is true.

Wow, do these guys not get that this interview is one of the most critical PR exercises they'll ever face.  This is really not inspiring any confidence that they know what they're doing.  They supposed to be exchange operators for fucksake, they sound like a bunch of kids who don't know how to work their new toy.

I love the bitcoin show but we might have to pitch in to get them some good audio equipment.  Just a room mic would be a huge improvement.

my sound failed right after he was asked about the 432,000 transaction block.

What did he say about it?

That is of great concern because it was transferred right after the sell off and buyback.

They should really prepare questions before the show. And technical stuff...

Amateur hour. Where are the professionals? Getting a bit tired of this Romper Room routine.

They said it was Mt. Gox transferring the coins to protect them

Okay. I hope that's the case. Thanks

Following the somethingaweful thread I found him to be one of the most vociferous against bitcoins.

So tradehill is just a bunch of hackers, huh?  ??? - No computer degree backgrounds. That's odd.

Audio of Interview with Adam Barr of Mt Gox

http://media.bitcoincommons.org/?q=node/26

Our lead programmer Mike:

MJD Co-founder at TradeHill.   Serial entrepreneur having started multiple successful companies including an automated trading firm, an engineering consulting firm, and a mobile software company boosting over 300 iPhone Applications.  Previously the head of software development for a Los Angeles based start-up commercial spaceflight company. Background in cognitive science and computer engineering.

Mike has a BS and an MS in computer engineering.

Mike spoke at the end but Adam and I spoke in the beginning because he was reviewing our security as that was a priority.
Adam and I are not programmers so have directed all questions to Mike and he will be able to provide better answers from a technical standpoint in the future.

Adam on the other hand is an engineer (BS from RPI a top 10 school) and has a background in quantitative finance.  


http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19537.0     who we are

nevermind

My apologies, That's what I thought I hear on the show. I could have sworn someone was talking to someone from tradehill and they stated something to the effect that they were made up of some hackers. I guess I heard it wrong. I'll go back and double check.

Jered,

Mike really did a disservice to Tradehill in that interview, I think (I can empathize, as my communications skills aren't great either). The question regarding SSL is, I believe, referring to client-side certificates. Which can be had for free, by the way - but the comment about cost effectiveness and the repeated "strapped for resources" comments just sounded like no one wanted to pay for it. They're also stupid easy to use for the most part, but of course they don't prevent smart malware on my desktop from doing actions on the site in my name. I think support for client SSL certs, combined with some form of two-factor auth and you should be looking pretty good from the client-side security angle.

The fact you guys are using SHA-1 (I apologize if that's not the case, but that's what I think I heard) is a little disappointing. While it's not 100% broken like MD5 is, SHA-1 has been not recommended for at least a few years now. Salting and whatnot is not something you want to be doing yourself ideally - there are decent password storage mechanisms out there, peer-reviewed by cryptographers. I'm sure there are python bindings for either bcrypt or scrypt, you guys really should check them out. Reinventing the wheel with things like MtGox's planned 1,000 iteration of SHA-512 is just silly, and while I'm not really equipped to make a firm statement on it, my intuition tells me it's probably not as badass as they think it is.

It seems like your ducks are much more in a row than MtGox's were, but I was still a lot more optimistic before I heard these answers.

I really hope someone gets their shit together and that in 10 years time we'll look back on events like these as the "wild west" of crypto-currencies, but again I must stress I'm mostly someone who's in this for giggles and not really any financial loss/gain. Keep up the good work though, and keep your noses to the grindstone.

Why was Mt Gox script lifted and used for Tradehill?

SSL Certs certainly can't be had for free if you don't want to alarm your customers.

Bullshit (http://www.startssl.com/).

They're not as ubiquitous (notably, OS-level support in Windows XP is an optional MSKB update) but Firefox, Opera, et al support them natively. Regardless, I was talking about client sided certificates, so even if TradeHill's server didn't support StartSSL out of the box (doubtful, honestly, as most Linux distros do) they could trivially add it if clients wanted it.

Hi Pokerman,

When I don't know something, I just say so. This way inaccurate information is not disseminated. Additionally, I handle staffing resources, sales, customer service and general business strategy. During the later part of the show, our senior programmer Mike came on and answered those questions. We have been in business for two weeks and my trust is with our technical staff.

Regards,
Adam Stradling

Hi Onesalt,

Thanks for the feedback.

As posted previously, I handle business strategy, staffing, sales and customer support. Our technical leadership came on later and answered such questions.

I didn’t cover anything up; I said ‘I don’t know’, when I didn’t know. We believe this is a better policy then providing inaccurate statements – check the tapes.

The community wanted to know about security and I wasn’t best equipped to discuss that. Our lead programmer couldn’t join until later because he was attending to our systems. We wish he had started the conversation rather than ended it.

I am sure this was a bit frustrating to some viewers but please understand we have been getting an email a minute.

Thanks,
Adam - TradeHill

Hi TriumVir,

Thanks for the feedback. We want honest opinions since that is what makes us better.

As posted previously, I handle business strategy, staffing, sales and customer support. Our technical leadership came on later and answered such questions. I come from a banking and finance background - not IT. I am also currently being paid as a consultant to work with the largest global investments banks and IDBs to form a new exchange dedicated to clearing and execution of OTC FX and IR derivatives - the IT is standard with the challenge being risk analytics (yet to applied to any BTC exchange) - the Risk Committee of the exchange is formed of the CROs from each of the top ten banks by revenue. This exchange will process at least 15 trillion in notional of OTC derivatives contracts per year (see my linkedin for more info). Mike, our senior developer, was the Head of Software Development for Space X, the Manhattan Beach commercial spaceflight company. SpaceX is changing the world of aerospace and they employ the brightest rocket scientists. Mike has also built over 300 iPhone apps for his other company.

We have been open and forthright about our qualifications. You can find them restated here: http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=19537.0;all

Thanks again for your feedback.

Regards,
Adam Stradling

The founders are listed here. That's a good start on who you are but is a little light.
For example:
"Serial entrepreneur having started multiple successful companies (like?) including an automated trading firm (named? current status of company?), an engineering consulting firm (named? current status of company?), and a mobile software company (named? current status of company?) boosting over 300 iPhone Applications (like?).  Previously the head of software development for a Los Angeles based start-up commercial spaceflight company. Background (educational achievement? peer reviewed articles? employment?) in cognitive science and computer engineering."

Some other things that I think would be worth knowing to instill confidence for people who are putting money on deposit with your company:

How is the company formed? Limited Liability, Ltda? Corp?
In What Country is that entity formed? Chile? US? Caymans?

Who are your board members and what are their qualifications?

How are you funded? "innovative way" sounds like trying to avoid saying bootstrapped.

Who is your legal representation?

Who is your liability insurance provider? What is your level of liability coverage?

What regulatory body oversees the operation of your company?

I'll leave others to drill down on the technical questions around salting, hashes, etc. since you handle business strategy, staffing, sales and customer support.

So what you're saying is instead of a security expert you hired a guy who founded a whole load of companies? That really does no inspire confidence at all. I want someone who actually knows about security and how to secure websites against hackers, not someone who can write comercial applications and run a company.

Digging the unprofessionalism of the video overall so far, like homemade porn, still watching now, surprised this doesn't have more views.

+1. LOL. Love your sig. BTW.
Like government stimulus is the essential drug for the mainstream economists, Bitcoin is the best made financial porn for geeks, I am lovin' it. 

Please donate to keep the signature alive :p

Yeah, as someone who has enjoyed the stock market, video games, and of course porn, I really like that analogy.