Bitcoin Forum

Someone posted this address in a comment on some article. He said that was the address where his bitcoins were sent to. from his bitstamp address. (something like that).

1L2JsXHPMYuAa9ugvHGLwkdstCPUDemNCf

So thief as 18,000 bitcoins from the alleged theft of bitcoins from bitstamp?

Is this true or not?

Article:
http://www.coindesk.com/bitstamp-reports-hot-wallet-issue-tells-customers-not-deposit-bitcoin/

Confirmed:
http://www.coindesk.com/bitstamp-claims-roughly-19000-btc-lost-hot-wallet-hack/

True. Stolen coins will be dumped immediately on Huobi, China and BTC-E within the next hours.

Bitcoin is not hackable with the private key kept private.

Exchanges are hackable because of poor security and/or shitty passwords.

See where the weak link is?

When you send your stash to an exchange you risk losing it all. That is why Smart Contracts and Automated Transactions have been born. It will eliminate all exchanges once this goes mainstream.

and what do we do meanwhile? Short with a target of 220$?

Isn't that address is bitstamp cold wallet
They said they already moved all customer bitcoin to their cold wallet

Hope what i heard is true :)

bitcoin itself is not hackable of course. but if the scams keep happening and criminals get hands on all of the free money. Then bitcoin will go no where. And also the exchanges that handle so much money should be careful. While they don't give a fuck because this community as a whole is careless, And only runs to exchanges to short their btc. And do nothing about the issues.

Wouldn't that give the hacker away? Do the exchanges apart from BTC-E require KYC documents? They might have to report big transactions like someone dumping thousands of bitcoins.

well, at least this explains the recent price drop!

Therefore, no need to panic...watch the market and come out on top :)

It does not really matter whether you short now or buy now. The price will apparently drop further and pop back up once the bitstamp issue is resolved.

Keep cool

KYC must be used where fiat trades are involved.

https://blockchain.info/address/1L2JsXHPMYuAa9ugvHGLwkdstCPUDemNCf


timestamp of the last trascaction -> 10:12.

bitstamp down from 10:12.

so they sent the funds to cold storage. And there is no issue I am hoping.  :)

the question here is whose cold storage is that.

doesnt mean anything really, because someone could have sent his coins to the stamp's hacked hot wallet addresses.


in fact, I will send 1 satoshie to my old stamp address right about now just for fun.

Just saw the bitstamp being closed part .
 I don't think anything has been stolen . 18000 is a large amount, if hacked, but I think, its probably them moving around coins for safe keeping incase hacking attempt gets serious.

Well, I'm fairly certain that Bitstamp holds more than 18k BTC of their customers. That being said, there's no reason to panic as of now. Compromised can mean anything. And even in case of a downright theft of coins from the hot wallet, this doesn't mean that they have lost so many Bitcoins, they won't be able to reimburse their customers.

This corresponds well with timestamp of last transactions for 18k address, so this seems to be Bitstamp cold storage.

I heard that one feather has become five hens already and it´s actually a question of 1.8 Million Bitcoins.

no it doesnt. 2 more transactions after that.

youse gotz proofs?

So far nobody or representative from their side has released confirmed figure on how much has been lost. Just speculation for now. But if it is true, that 18000 would translate close to almost 5 million which I have doubt they will be able to stomach the loss.

Of course. But alas, NDA.

Nono, all bitcoins ever mined have been stolen, even those which have been stolen previously are now stolen again!

Sorry, it was a misunderstanding

1.8 Million of that smiling dog coin went missing along with 180,000 bitcoins.

Bitcoin Exchange Bitstamp Withdrawals and Deposits Stopped after Possible RNG Attack

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-exchange-bitstamp-withdrawals-deposits-stopped-possible-rng-attack/

Wallet Breach Causes Bitcoin Exchange Bitstamp to Temporarily Suspend Service

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wallet-breach-causes-bitcoin-exchange-bitstamp-to-temporarily-suspend-service/

No, it was more bitcoins than that.

I just hope and pray that my 6000 bitcoins there at bitstamp weren´t among

those stolen  ???

Their cold wallet would hold A LOT more than 18,000 BTC.

It takes 6 blocks to confirm.

After 9:00 UTC, these are:

337587   16b31eefe6...   2015-01-05 10:11:44 6
337586   16ff08b25a...   2015-01-05 10:04:46 5
337585   16465ee71b...   2015-01-05 09:52:23 4
337584   12006e66ec...   2015-01-05 09:46:56 3
337583   7730199b94...   2015-01-05 09:27:59 2
337582   ac693e4185...   2015-01-05 09:18:58 1
337581   6b1fd11dad...   2015-01-05 09:00:15

So transactions sent in block 337581 (up to 9:00:15) could only have been received by 10:11:44

Bitstamp has been around for a while, this would look bad if it's true.  Another piece of bad publicity for cryptocoin.

no. it doesnt work like that.

that transaction was included in block 337588.

...


also I noticed random miner fees included with transactions. some transactions got random 0.1~0.5 btc fees, another one 1 btc!


https://blockchain.info/tx/07a78d55fc17a2809e031116e71ac63faa6c2ea9e29480b4fa59031683b506b8


someone was in a hurry. :D

They had to have been sent by 9:00 (337581 block) to source address, to be able to be sent (from source) to 18k address at block 337588.

All the transfers to that address have insanely high fees not just that transaction.

Another thread to follow about this subject:

https://nxtforum.org/general-discussion/bitstamp-in-trouble/

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=914622.msg10045302#msg10045302

Fucking disaster.

https://blockchain.info/address/1JoktQJhCzuCQkt3GnQ8Xddcq4mUgNyXEa ?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/2re2pw/18864_coins_stolen_from_stamp_that_doesnt_look/

ETA later today. I sure hope so...
https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric

The rumor machine hasn´t even bothered to shift to second gear

so it´s most likely just a storm in a teacup.

If you trust the auditor, "Bitstamp proved its ownership of 183,497.40310794 BTC to Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn."

It seems this audit was end of Aug / Start of Sept 2014, if done around the same time as Huobi. But I can't see exactly when the audit was.


If this is a loss of some kind, then it is ~10% of all BTC Bitstamp had.


https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/wallet-breach-causes-bitcoin-exchange-bitstamp-to-temporarily-suspend-service/

That 18k BTC wallet could also be Bitstamp moving coins around or to safety, where's the proof those coins are in the hands of the supposed hacker?

There is none, also look my posts in this thread.

timestamps of the transactions match perfectly with the attack

huge and non standard miner fees

Real question is, where's the proof that Bitstamp holds them? We can't get the hacker to sign addresses, but Bitstamp could do it.

https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric/status/552091195795845120

There is no proof either way, but last transactions on that address correspond to this:

"Customer deposits made prior to January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC are fully covered by Bitstamp’s reserves. Deposits made to newly issued addresses provided after January 5th, 2015 9:00 UTC can be honored."

This could mean that transactions before Jan 5th 9:00 UTC are safe (this also explains high fees, they had to transfer from hot wallets to cold quickly).

But those after are lost and will be paid for by Bitstamp.

That's not proof. Stamp could have set high fees also to move those coins as quickly as possible after they discovered the breach.

So there's two possibilities:

1) Bitstamp are being stupid
2) Bitstamp were hacked by someone stupid

Well, that's encouraging. :D

twitter from Bitstamp's CEO

https://i.imgur.com/sYzyHUI.png

Still all talk and no proof. We have address signing, time to make use of it.

no. coins will not move any faster if you put 1 btc fee.

someone was generous with the fees.

Well people generally act stupid in a state of panic. A wallet breach sure must have sent Stamp owners' heart rates to new all time highs. :P

no panic dude, that address was collecting bitcoins from compromised bitstamp addresses for 24 h.

That's a cold storage address of bitstamp.
They started to move coins as soon as they found the hack.
They moved the last coins as soon as they closed the website.

Unless it's 100% clear what happened and what parts of the system were compromised, I don't think
it's a particularly good idea to load the cold private keys onto any electronical system (and, so, make
them hot) just to sign a message and calm people down. That the cold private keys remain private
is the most important thing now.

Maybe a typo then or just generosity, either way it says nothing about who the wallet's owner is.

well, we do know that stamp uses standard fees 0.0001 when moving coins.

here we have some transactions with 0.55, 1 BTC, 0.1 BTC fees.

You can't use standard fees when moving that many coins from that many addresses in one go
Gonna take too much time to confirm

But no way you need 1 BTC. There's only one reasonable explanation: Someone was in a rush.

not true.

the fees have nothing to do with the number of coins.

With size of transaction, many addresses -> large size.

You don't have to load your private keys to an online system in order to sign a message for an address. You could just as well sign that message on a computer not connected to the Internet whatsoever and then just publish the message, the address, and the according signature.

Wow,

Could this be the reason for the dump? The thieves want to convert to fiat as quickly as possible, they clearly dont wanna be caught with their pants down! Stuff of pot boilers but just may be true. Just maybe Bitstamp is also playing a game here, after the great Gox debacle, this would have to rank as the next big heist in BTC history. Ofc this is excluding the greatest robbery ever - USMS stealing SR bitcoins!  ;D

https://i.imgur.com/sYzyHUI.png


"the bulk" meaning some coins are indeed missing.

so it is confirmed.   ;D


0.1 btc fee is huge for any transaction.

also, I noticed that only addresses who had bitcoins deposited in the last 24 h are on the list. so I guess those addresses were compromised.

not good, not good at all

bitstamp do appear a very professional exchange though, so am sure anyone with losses will get reimbursed

wondering if hackers will sit on coins or immediately dump, as that will crash price further

If the address with 18k BTC is indeed an address held by the attacker, then they definitely haven't dumped the coins yet. How could they? At least the price-decline over the past few days didn't have jack to do with this incident.

I guess thieves would mix the coins then sit on them for a while.

A big dump after a security breach would looks very suspicious and they risk having their funds frozen before they can withdraw

Certainly, but any computer in the vincinity of any person affiliated with bitstamp is to be considered a possible attack vector (even the
smartphone of the cleaning lady) until it's 100% cleared up what happened. They could buy a new computer in a local shop, take out the
wifi module and then do all the signing by hand and later destroy the computer. That would be ok. But I still think the marginal benefit simply
doesn't justify the risks involved with loading the privkey to any computer at this moment.

We don't know if it's a hack or a technical problem, anyway.

I am trying to reach Nejc Kodrič, Bitstamp CEO, because if it's a hack, I may be able to help.
I did help a lot with the BTer's hack of 51M Nxt (http://cointelegraph.com/news/112356/exclusive-key-negotiator-in-bter-nxt-hack-speaks-out), and that experience may be profitable.

But I don't know how to contact him. Anyone has an idea?

twitter maybe? https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric

are you from China?

This year did not start the best way to Bitcoin.

I hope it is settled.

And this is why bitcoin is dropping. Totally insecure. Can't use it, only store it. Else its susceptible to hackers

Just to be clear, if bitcoins are stored on an exchange, they are not "his" coins, he is merely a creditor - an entry on their books.

No one should leave coins on exchanges - perhaps once an exchange is insured by a reputable company it will be different.

FUD. Bitcoin is not bitstamp. Saying Bitcoin is insecure is just ignorant.

Holy crap thats a ton of coins, customers are lucky bitstamp are very rich to cover the cost.

To tarmi : Some new transactions can be seen on the "Hack" address. Could you see if some of these satoshis come from your address?

So merchants cashing out, speculators, miners cashing out, normal market influence etc, have nothing to do with it.

Phew, luckily the world is extremely simple instead of complex!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_the_single_cause

He is not one of ma followers, so I can't send him a DM (that probably would get lost in the mass, I suspect people to be spamming his account...)


No, Switzerland. Why ?

hope that's bitstamp's cold wallet address.

Bad and sad news.

Hopefully 2FA will be incorporated into Bitcoin at protocol level if it proves to be a success for Darkcoin.

Imagine that...stolen coins unspendable...

The lack of clear and timely communication from Bitstamp is disconcerting.

I agree but sometimes it is necessary if you have been attacked or are still under attack.  Law enforcement could be involved.  There are all kinds of reasons why they might want to keep quiet for now.

Better to speak occasionally and accurately than regularly and speculate. 

When techs are at work, there's not much more to say than "We got it covered, working 100% on it, will keep you informed asap"

And that's basically what they said...

It might put peoples mind at ease if they state how much they have in cold storage, and they should have an idea of how much was stolen.

That wouldn't have helped here. It was Bitstamp's hot wallet that was compromised, the main reason to have a hot wallet is to be able to automate transactions. If 2FA was enabled, they'd either have to manually approve each transaction, which defeats the point of having a hot wallet, or automate that part too, which would negate the benefits of 2FA.

That's what multisig is for...

There was a story about a dark market silk road successor site that was busted, but the feds could not get users bitcoins because the site used multisig. If a dodgy website like that can use multisig why can't the legit exchanges? They could at least offer it as optional.

Clearly profits outweigh security. It's all speculation at this point and there is a serious lack of information, but my guess is someone screwed up some code somewhere that was creating the hotwallet key pairs and they didn't realize until it was too late which is why they cannot honor any transactions sent to those addresses.

no.

As I see it, there are three scenarios.

1. Bitstamp is pulling a runner, or has otherwise been fraudulent and can no longer cover it up. See Gox.

2. Bitstamp was hacked.

3. Your scenario, where an error was made and keys were lost. Edit: Possibly the keys might also have been made openly available through a server misconfiguration or such.

If it's a hack, they may or may not have lost funds. They may have been compromised in a way that might in principle expose the hot wallet keys to an intruder, but the intruder didn't or couldn't yet spend the BTC. Or they may have simply been robbed.

If it's #3, the BTC is probably lost. Now, in either scenario, #2 or #3, it makes sense for them to shut the service down. The system is compromised one way or another and can't be trusted to function properly. But Bitstamp remained open for business for some time after their announcement about the keys being compromised was made.

Wouldn't you pull the plug on the exchange immediately, if you knew you'd either been hacked or had been exposed to some kind of systemic flaw that might repeat itself? Why wait?

Shutting down impacts the reputation greatly.  Perhaps they tried to mitigate the risk in other ways first.  These exchanges depend of their reputation.

Because the analysis may take time. So you start communicating, then you realise the extent of the problem, and then only you pull the plug...

Everything sent to that address since this morning is dust, apart from a 0.79556526 BTC deposit an hour and a half ago. Why would someone send 0.79556526 BTC there?

Bitcoin, the new digital currency of the Internet age!

Just don't ever store them on the Internet, or on a computer connected to the Internet. And when you set up your cold wallet, it's best to use a computer that's never been connected to the Internet before. (and if you print it with a network enabled printer, make sure that the wallet isn't stored in the cache).

News from them  :  https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric/status/552091195795845120

Hacks on exchanges are complicated. A hack on Bitstamp, which takes security seriously, it's extremely complicated.

So, if this happened, I would assume the hacker would have acquired access at least few days earlier. I would also assume code has been tampered with someway, and some audit has to be made. Even if they use strict change management policies, a full code audit is a must.

That would suggest Bitstamp's system must be partially running, and it has not been given a new hot wallet address to use. I would have expected Bitstamp to update it's system to use a new hot wallet address if it had lost control of it's old one.

if they lost control of the old wallet that doesnt mean that old addresses arent valid. they are, but I assume they are compromised.

They said new deposit addresses were forthcoming and nothing has happened... this is what leads me to believe they might have a coding problem with address creation.

Maybe nothing's coming for the simple reason that they have a lot on their plate at the moment?
Maybe it's more urgent to them to secure their assets than offereing frightened people a possibility to send them more bitcoins.

Just my 2 satoshis...

Here's to hoping bitstamp bucks the exchange "oh no our site was hacked. .your burnt" scenario.

Twitter blocked by work proxy.. can someone please repost on here?

"To restate: the bulk of our bitcoin are in cold storage, and remain completely safe."

There is also:

"Thank you all for your patience, we are working diligently to restore service and hope to have an ETA later today."

Yes of course :


https://i.imgur.com/e26MY6T.png

I love it when people who know nothing about a problem speculate about what it can or cannnot be.
It's funny when it happens on a forum.
It's pathetic when it gets published : http://www.c[Suspicious link removed]m/id/102309754

My link is not suspicious...
It's on cnbc dot com
then /id/102309754

i think this is the reason behind recent bitcoin price drop
still bitcoin needs a lot of work to be done before most merchants accepts this

Yes it is. I suspect it is full of crap :)

Usually, the cause precedes the conséquences...


OK, that's true... :D

I wanted to get this suggestion to Bitstamp:

If you publish the btc addresses that were in the operational wallet that was compromised, then everyone running a mining rig with a client that has an exclusion list file can avoid providing confirmations to the thief until and unless Bitstamp publishes a solution. Some exclusion lists might also feature the ability to allow exceptions when a transaction spends an output into a specified set of addresses, which would allow Bitstamp to request of all interested miners to allow only those transactions that move the bitcoin from their compromised operational wallet into a new protected address.

No, it's fact. It's extremely insecure at the consumer level.

135k address sent 5k in December

https://blockchain.info/tx/9d25b5eaa65de602fe6a11ba9db83f3b1105899b12664f3302a5ccf1cff955d8

here
https://blockchain.info/address/1Drt3c8pSdrkyjuBiwVcSSixZwQtMZ3Tew

which sent this today to the 'hack address'
https://blockchain.info/tx/bd1182f6b676c13dfc0ab28097dc43eac43554006854ab785b20b4a6bb307b73

interesting...
or I got something wrong?

i remember when browsing the internet before windows 3.1 was released and we even knew what a graphical web browser was.
i had a hella time trying to bank in that insecure environment let alone try to buy something on the internet.
hell back in 1990's companies actually thought that adding a DSL modem as your ISP was happen thing to do.
it sure beat the slow 14.4k modem dial-ups which were actually more secure than a DSL modem.

don't make panics and misinformation

"Bitcoin Protocol is so secure guysh!!"



























"You just can't use a computer attached the internet, your phone, or any other communication device, a online service, online wallet, or any other 3rd party service in which trust is required, always use MULTI-SIG!!! and 2FA, ESCROW, and make your buyer take a picture with a shoe on his head and ID next to his face (only so he can still default on the loan)!" "Bitcoin is the future, hold onto your hats! Moon ahead!"

-Bitcoin proceeds to crash for 1 straight year, bagholders unite-

"It doesn't count till they sell guysh!" "Look at all them weak hands selling" "Pssh noobs, don't understand the market!"

TL:DR, Yes the protocol is secure, its the idiots around bitcoin that have the problem.

So many people's futures are dependent on the next bitcoin bubble, its almost a self fulfilling prophecy.

if one plans to steal big from an exchange like stamp, why would he collect all stolen coins in ONE address? it would be much more confusing to use tons of addresses and keep switching the coins around.


edit:
well, guess i was wrong:
http://www.coindesk.com/bitstamp-claims-roughly-19000-btc-lost-hot-wallet-hack/

 - one or tons of addresses -> it does not matter, it is recorded in blockchain.
 - maybe it is only manipulation  or it is insider job

If it was an RNG attack - then it could be used on their cold storage as well as on their hot wallet. If the attacker can predict the private keys - then the fact that these keys are stored on something detached from the internet does not make any difference.

Who knows where this statement was made: http://www.coindesk.com/bitstamp-claims-roughly-19000-btc-lost-hot-wallet-hack/

I think the same  , it was not an attack to their how wallet but  a problem with the generation of the various addresses.




On their homepage :  https://www.bitstamp.net/

No, that still has the old statement. The coindesk article contains a new one from Bitstamps CEO admitting the 19000 BTC are lost.

Maybe through email , try to check because I'm not registered on bitstamp.

Impossible to login on their homepage, you can check that yourself :-)

so if bitstamp is going to refund the stolen bitcoins arent they going to have to repurchase 19k bitcoins from somewhere #slippage #rally

An huge dump will start very soon , people are very tired....

They have enough money to cover this loss.

I just hope they don't spend it all. In this case, I claim this car.  8)

http://cdn.kme.si/public/images-cache/750xX/2013/12/18/36025dbe8663ff565475ac75d251530e/52b1bf4763e1f/36025dbe8663ff565475ac75d251530e.jpeg

PS.: They have each one car, so second one is still unclaimed.  ;)

aaand its gone.

my satoshis are gone.

confirmed.

I can view a statement on their site. It just shows a maintenance page at present with a short statement about the compromised wallet. It's the original statement released, with less information in it than the one in the coindesk article.

https://www.bitstamp.net/

Miners raking it in on these fees dang...

Right, i did notice that. That statement hasn't been changed since this morning. The statement on the coindesk article is (according to coindesk) an official statement from the CEO of Bitstamp. My original question was where coindesk got this statement from. It has no source but does contain new information which i cannot find anywhere else. My guess is Coindesk has spoken with him at CES but if so that, imo, should be added to the article.

This site says they were given the statement directly. I assume they mean by Bitstamp.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241432

"In a statement to Entrepreneur late Monday, Bitstamp said that less than 19,000 BTC, or about $5.1 million at today's pricing, was lost and assured that all customers will be able to recover the balances they held before service was halted."

Bitstamp might have been issuing the same statement to a few Bitcoin news sites.

the question is real stolen or just statement they got stolen?

I will be open here and say that a few days before this hack happened I was tinkering with the idea of cashing out a hefty sum of my Bitcoins to speculate with and I would have sold at a good price but would be stuck with " fiat" stuck in bitstamp while they recover from said hack.

Glad I didn't follow through on this. Dodged a bullet there.

Small transfers over time are better risk management than sending one large chunk of BTC to cash out.

Coins are safe in cold storage in my possession.   :)

If they got robbed, you would think they have some form of insurance covering the losses.
Fees they get per trade should IMO cover any flaw or hack that gets exploited.

If they have learned anything from GOX they will give people their money without fuss and bite the bullet.
If they do that trust in Bitcoin will remain and they will be a trusted and respected exchange.

For now they are taking the only valid approach and that is shutting it down to stop any secondary hacks and scan for forensics.

I have no money in Bitstamp but I am looking how Bitstamp resolves this problem.  :)

Thanks, thats exactly what i did do...  ::)

I would imagine there would be a run on coins and fiat to get out of bitstamp as soon as f*cking possible.

If I had a hefty sum of BTC and/or fiat I would want 100% of each out of there as soon as possible

If bitstamp doesn't have enough of their own stash to cover the losses and a run on coins and fiat withdraws they will be mtgox 2.

Biting the bullet would be ideal for trust of their customers.

If they don't bite the bullet and cover the losses and allow full BTC and fiat withdrawals with no unnecessary delays... I will never use them again and will do the same as I did with mtgox and post all over this forum how they are hiding their insolvency.

Let us hope they step up to the plate and take the loss from their own funds and let people get their money out.

Are you saying you were considering cashing out a nice chunk about the same time I was?

Just to not follow through?

For me it was the holidays spending time with family and being busy making coins that stopped me from sending BTC to bitstamp.

This article says Bitstamp got $10m investment from Pantera Capital in 2013. That alone's enough to cover a $5m loss.

http://www.coindesk.com/paypal-bitstamp-chief-compliance-officer/

The new statement appeared on https://www.bitstamp.net/ at 12:34am UTC.

If you have reliable information when or if at all Bitstmap will return and withdrawals will be possible you can directly earn money on our prediction market: https://www.fairlay.com/event/category/bitcoin/bad-news/

If not you can at least have a look what people are thinking how are willing to put money on it.

is this figure accurate? 18,000BTC  :o mtgox2
where should we trading the next?

Was that SR2 ? Didn't realize that they were using multisig. It's clear it should be the standard ASAP.

yes im sure their investors will be "okay" with taking half of their capital investment to cover their incompetence in this latest hack.  ::)

While in fiat land...$31 mil was stolen from XOOM ("thieves impersonating employees transfer money to overseas accounts" ...hmmm.. bizzaro)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/xoom-shares-drop-after-31-million-stolen-2015-01-05

WTF is this? Who is this guys?


So effectively someone managed to stole the hot wallet. This is a shame again for bitcoin. We should move on to multisig exchanges and p2p exchanges with FIAT assets like BitShares bitUSD.

So, the 18,867.63256844 BTC are sitting here

https://blockchain.info/address/1L2JsXHPMYuAa9ugvHGLwkdstCPUDemNCf

What´s the problem then ?

This is why people will lose faith in BTC businesses. Always getting hacked like what happened to Mt.Gox

* 18kBTC that will make the price go down..

Yeah, like a bird landing on an elephant.

Anyway, since the bitcoins are accounted for and sitting there in a wallet for all to see

what exactly is the problem ?

If I am not mistaken they do not control that wallet.

At least the loot has been located. That would seem to be a positive sign.

True. but they will find a way to move the coins around via mixers to avoid being caught.

The coins are not in bitstamp's possession as far as I can tell.

It´s sitting there at blockchain.info marked

Bitstamp Hack

Unless that site is run by retarded people the funds must be frozen.

tell me how can that wallet be frozen? Just give it a time and you will see how those coins will be moved.

I take it that those idiots at Bitstamp contacted some law enforcement

which then are in all likelihood aware of the location of the loot.

If thieves can deposit loot in a wallet for all to see specially

marked LOOT and then calmly take their time withdrawing it

then bitcoin is doomed for sure

poor daytraders.  i feel sorry for them being ripped off.... not. 

so they're definitely stolen.

http://www.coindesk.com/bitstamp-claims-roughly-19000-btc-lost-hot-wallet-hack/

unfortunately, this news has been confirmed

really? that's pretty cold. they are helping to provide liquidity, and helping overall price discovery. why the hate? ???

They can't be frozen, but any miner who solves a block can exclude expenditures from that address from the blocks they work on, if they have mining software that allows it.  I believe LukeJr created a bitcoin client that had such support.  This means the thief has to wait for a miner willing (or unawares) to confirm any transaction spending the loot.  Every attempt he makes to broadcast a transaction helps everyone pin down where his transaction is originating, and this may lead to his capture.

This would be a dream come true for me, probably severely tainted with government interference.

I would prefer that the thief find spending these coins to be so difficult that he will prefer to admit the theft and accept a small reward for giving himself up instead of frustrating ignominy, but that requires that everyone working on solving blocks who solves one to exclude his attempts to spend the loot.  Unfortunately, my willingness to forgive is quite rare.  The fact is, Bitstamp had a vulnerability.  It has been exploited.  The "evildoer" has proven this.  Bitstamp should offer him a reward, and the miners can help push the thief to accept this offer.  I propose that it go like this:

Fungibility of bitcoin will be forever tainted/questioned if this ever happens

I think quite the opposite. Thats how bitcoin is intended to work. This instance is unfortunate yes. But it doesnt change anything to me. If they can NOT do that it is doomed in my mind.

EDIT:

There are ways the network can stop it But it would need to be the network deciding not the developers

Actually, the protocol allows any miner to exclude any transaction he wants.  There is neither a requirement that every valid transaction be included in a block, nor a punishment defined for someone who doesn't.  So the fungibility you cherish is already tainted/questionable.

Perhaps fungibility to you is worth more than the human cooperation that can make a decentralized system discourage theft?  It's an odd position to take, but I understand (and disagree with) it.  If that is the case, perhaps you should create your own alt-coin with valid-transaction-inclusion police to threaten miners into maintaining fungibility.  I don't think it will do very well.

I smell Gox  :(

Why don't we just make a central organization that decides which transactions get approved or denied.... oh wait....

Most hackers use mixer services before sending those coins directly to exchanges.

Although there's no guarantee the hackers would use any reputed exchanges after mixing the coins. They may as well sell them offline.



 :D  :D   :D

This is bad news, I didn't had anything there but I think the site will most probably be shut-down now, if it isn't already. And there is no way of really knowing whether it was really a loot or just another inside job.

bitstamp is working on it and it will be recover soon (if possible)

Honestly its crazy why they would hold so much bitcoins in their hot wallet.

Its reasons like this why BTC is in the dumps because everybody is a crooks and steals from one another.

You really need to stop embarassing yourself here and go read an intro to what bitcoin is. If you still fail to understand why the funds can't and won't be "frozen", then go read again. And again. Then, when you understand at least something, come back to share your precious insight on whether or not bitcoin is doomed.

No you are wrong. The money is traceable right now but if the person sends it to an exchange and changes it to DRK and then send the DRK to himself its completely untraceable.

Looks like they usually kept BTC2000 in that wallet for operations, but more was swept into it just before it was cleared.... which looks like a bigger problem than just losing control of the keys to that one wallet...

Or he can just use a Bitcoin mixing service?

And BTW, there is no way an exchange can have 18000 BTC volume for DARK. Nobody buys/sells that many Dark.

Ouch. Well, it seems to be confirmed:

"Bitstamp customers can rest assured that their bitcoins held with us as prior to temporary suspension of services on January 5th (at 9am UTC) are completely safe and will be honored in full.

On January 4th, some of Bitstamp’s operational wallets were compromised, resulting in a loss of less than 19,000 BTC. Upon learning of the breach, we immediately notified all customers that they should no longer make deposits to previously issued bitcoin deposit addresses. As an additional security measure, we suspended our systems while we fully investigate the incident and actively engage with law enforcement officials.

This breach represents a small fraction of Bitstamp’s total bitcoin reserves, the overwhelming majority of which are are held in secure offline cold storage systems. We would like to reassure all Bitstamp customers that their balances held prior to our temporary suspension of services will not be affected and will be honored in full.

We appreciate customers’ patience during this disruption of services. We are working to transfer a secure backup of the Bitstamp site onto a new safe environment and will be bringing this online in the coming days. Customers can stay informed via updates on our website, on Twitter (@Bitstamp) and through Bitstamp customer support at support@bitstamp.net."


Unfortunately, I think exchanges will continue to exist, whether we like it or not. Even if smart contracts and automated transactions are developed to the point where they can provide all of the functionality of centralized exchanges, there will always be the less technical people who prefer the simplicity and familiarity of centralized exchanges.

EDIT: Also, smart contracts and automated transactions won't solve the fiat problem too. As long as there are still people who want to buy bitcoins with fiat or sell bitcoins for fiat, some form of centralized exchange that deals with "real" money (e.g. dollars, pesos, yen, etc.) must exist.


Technically, the funds can be "frozen". But doing so would require the cooperation of the devs and miners. Blacklisting of coins would also destroy the fungible nature of Bitcoin and most would agree that the repercussions of doing so would outweigh the benefits.


Only if it was a small amount. Definitely not the whole 18,000 BTC. In the past 24 hours, DRK has had about 120 BTC volume. Trying to buy 18,000 BTC worth of DRK would drive up the price of DRK to insanely high levels and you'd probably exhaust all of the DRK that's sitting on the exchanges as well.


This would only work if the hacker mixed a tiny percentage of his funds. The more coins he tries to mix, the less effective it would be. Trying to mix the whole 18,000 BTC in one go would be impossible. 99.99 percent of the output would be tainted coins. The hacker would simply get his coins back mixed in with a tiny percentage of coins from others who were unlucky enough to use the same mixing service when he did.

Actually, there would be a way:
If the guy sends 10 btc to account A on an exchange
He then buys 10 btc Worth of DRK.
Next he sends those DRK to a DRK wallet, the moves around a bit.
From thew last DRK wallet he sent to DRK to, he sends them to account B on an exchange
And puts his DRK for sale.
Back to account A. He send 10 more btc, and buy his own DRK from account B
And all over again.
But:
It takes a lot of time.
He could be caught going through the exchange...

So confused  ???

yeah right, he should bust you for taking drugs ;D

18k in a hot wallet is something to be ashamed off. No excuses for that. Terrible news for the image of Bitcoin as well. I read things from some guys like ‘they handled it professionally’. I have no idea what these guys are drinking every day, but it must be something bad.

I feel for the people that has money on that exchange, they must live in fear since the news of the hack started to spread out. When and if Stamp will be back online I suggest to all of them to withdraw all what they have from that exchange.

It is a terrible image to bitStamp , the bitcoin as protocol is very fine ... The error/mistake is from the negligence of bitStamp.

Here is guy;

  ::)

http://pastebin.com/6Gc1Zh2g

Yeah, someone made a stupid joke :D It would be particularly clever to sign with the
real name but use bitmessage.

True, Bitstamp is the one to blame and Bitcoin is a good protocol, but that is not what most people going to read. The people that are not on the forums and only get the highlights will read there was another theft of Bitcoins. Which is not the whole story with all the in and outs, but still it’s the truth. It’s more negative news.

might be but bitcoin address seems to be real one....

He should at least sign a message from the address , something like that :



Or a better thing.

What I can gather from your post:

1. Your dad works in UK police department, but your username sounds Russian
2. Your dad busted BitStamp owner over a $100 theft (I was hoping this figure would be in Pounds instead of Dollars since it was UK)
3. You are saying that point #1 & 2 given true, there is high possibility that BitStamp's cold wallet was hacked.

I want to smoke what you're smoking.  :P

Obviously someone faking it.

I just Googled the name and it belongs to a Senior Hezbollah member, who was killed in 2013
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dd7_1384692467

"Kaczynski" sounds more like a Polish name than a Russian one. The languages are very similar though.

Of course that's a joke. How could anyone believe that for one second?

Imagine this: thief already had some other coins ( i.e. LTC, DRK etc. ) an can mix it all ?

Will bitstamp ever come back online after this?

Yeah you effectively still have to deal with centralized exchanges and thus depend on their trustworthiness. People will furthermore confuse things. This is pretty bad PR for Bitcoin. Nothing positive about this. Still, Bitstamp is handling the whole situation okay. Not good, but not bad either.

This BTC exchange supports multisig (from 3 servers) >>> http://multigateway.org/


Bitcoin, Litecoin, BitcoinDark, Doge, Blackcoin, Viacoin and Nxt are currently supported (others listed on the site above). There are plans to offer asset to asset trading in the future (i.e. BTC to LTC).

Support can be found here, if required >>> https://nxtforum.org/nxtservices-releases/multigateway-user-support-thread/

i suppose i had a lucky escape, i never saw reason to keep coins in the bitstamp exchange. i traded out of my bitstamp iou's on rippletrade when the prices went out of sync. i had to take a poor ask price in ripples but at least i got my money. the bitstamp gateway was open long after the initial announcement, and i thought i was being a little paranoid by bailing out with a haircut of about 2%.

now my ~bitstamp iou balance is nil, i had some dust in there. will be interesting to see if it comes back. anyone else see this?

Bitstamp has 200,000 BTC in reserves. Unlike Gox, they only lost a small percentage of total bitcoins during this hack so I think customers' deposits are safe. Poloniex suffered a similar hack which saw them lose 12.3 percent of their total BTC. They made it out fine.

Smells like fractional reserves...

Bitstamp was audited by Mike Hearn, a Bitcoin dev back in May 2014. He said that everything seemed OK and all the funds were fully backed in their cold storage wallets. This was just 8 months ago and I'd be surprised if the situation has changed since then.

From what i can read this only pertained to the BTC balance, not the USD balance.
On the other hand i don't think Pantera would have invested $10 million without a proper audit.

obviously.... that is Adam Guerbuez.

from the sound of what the ceo said that they are moving the bitstamp environment to a more secure server location means that the physical servers were not so secured.
where do they keep their physical servers ?? in their moms basement ?? seems like bitstamp should at least be PCI compliant which means their servers need to be physically secured.
when they do an 'audit' then they need to do a security audit. if their stuff is not secure then they should not be in the business. hiring the engineer is expensive but cheaper than losing 5M a year.
from what i have read it sounds like someone walked in to their datacenter (or moms basement) and stuck a flash drive into the server and walked away with the wallet.dat file.
i not saying that is what happened but gathering what the ceo said and what i have read it sounds like maybe that what happened. whatever the case is they did not have sufficient security.

yes, i agree. it is similar. now, a hacker cannot steal a digital iou, as they could only redeem it from the issuer who would recognise it as stolen and not accept it. the often cited weakness in ripple iou's has benefit in this case.

VCs might not be happy about it but what choice do they have?  If they don't allow the 5 mil to be used to make users whole then bitstamp dies and they loose 10 mil.  They have to pick the lesser of the two evils.

I dont think that the police can help at all.  They simply have no experience dealing with cryptocurrencies with the exception of a few people in the DEA and FBI.

If it was an inside job why not say that more of their BTC were stolen?  Go big or go home.  They are claiming that only approx ~12% was absocnded with.

and what to do if the engineer or auditor cannot resist £5m?

if someone walked into their datacenter and used a flashdrive, then they are probably in a police cell as we speak. unfortunately the law in the uk takes a long time, which doesn't bode well for a quick resolution.

Wow, so these stolen btc have been in a wallet during this crash? just a coincidence, not related.
Gee things are looking swell for btc right now.  :'(

They could have installed simple software that blocks access to USB devices. It's basic security for secure servers and I would be surprised if Bitstamp's servers wern't protected. Here is a very basic example of such software.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/giliusb.html

GiliSoft USB Lock enables you to block access to USB and CD/DVD drives as well as other PC devices, including printers, modems, Bluetooth adapters and more.

People are speculating that the crash was caused by people with inside knowledge selling their BTC in anticipation of a crash due to the news of BitGox being revealed and not due to the actual stolen coins being sold off.

definitely a very sad story.
luckily I had no bitcoin in  bitstamp.
anyone have any news on how walking the investigation (if, there is some investigation)?

Maybe not directly with cryptocurrency but if this is a result of a serverhack there is some real expertise nowadays. We need to consider those BTC lost but there is real experience with internet crime.

They do have expertise with Internet crime you are right however I am betting that whoever was sophisticated enough to perform this hack would be sophisticated enough to cover their tracks ex: TOR, VPN, etc.

If this was perpetrated by an individual gaining physical access to their server(s) then its likely that it could result in a fruitful investigation.  Access to most data centers is logged and monitored.  I cannot see VC investing 10 mil without performing due dilligence which would at the very least uncover sub-standard hosting practices.

well that is why we only have one engineer and we keep everything in house rather than in someone elses "cloud" .
if you have your stuff in someone elses 'cloud' then you have a security weakness right there.
if you have a 5M file then that datacenter should have guards behind plexi glass, metal detectors, revolving doors, badge swipes, and video surveillance.
if your running a fly by night operation then you got your stuff in moms basement or in someone's cloud who promised your stuff was secure.
if these guys had their physical servers secured then no one could walk in and insert a flash drive and take their stuff.
of course if your security is too good then nothing could happen to the bitcoins. i mean its not their fault they were hacked right ??

from the sounds of what the ceo was saying these guys security was seriously lacking.
these guys probably were not even close to PCI compliant. (they probably dont have to be by law but they should strive for it anyways)
if they were then they wouldnt need to move their servers to.... "a more secure server space" -bitstram CEO
these guys have not been taking security seriously.

Apparently they say they will resume operations in the next 24 hours:

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitstamp-resume-operations-next-24-hours/

That webpage refers to a translation of this link as it's source.

http://www.rtvslo.si/gospodarstvo/bitstampu-hekerji-ukradli-za-stiri-milijone-evrov-bitcoinov-borza-zacasno-zaprta/355142

Chrome could not directly translate that webpage, so I ran the text directly through Google translate. This is the result.

Bitstampu hackers stole four million euros bitcoins , exchange temporarily closed
The coins are stored on servers that are not connected to the Internet
January 6th, 2015 at 10:25 ,
The last intervention : January 6, 2015 at 11:14
Kranj - Reuters / STA
Slovenian Stock Exchange of coins bit Bitstamp remains closed - to hackers would steal from its servers bit about 19,000 coins ( € 4.3 million ) .

" Bitstamp remains liquid, more because of the investigation itself difficult to tell , " said co-founder Exchange Damijan Merlak , adding that the site stopped , " because it is the continuation of the operation of the servers erase important tracks" . " Currently in San Francisco with experts put a duplicate of the entire infrastructure, which is expected to be regulated in the next 24 hours . Then we can restore service " for clarification Merlak .

The stock market has asserted that " more than enough reserves " to cover the lost coin bit . Hackers should be taken away only " small proportion " bit of coins - Stock Exchange of Bitcoin is precisely because such cases the majority bit of coins stored on computers that are not connected to the Internet .

As they wrote on the website , you should restore the functioning of the stock exchange within a few days of the invasion have already informed the competent authorities .

Based in Kranj , now works in London
Bitstamp was created in Kranj in 2011 , and then as the founder Nejc Kodrič and Damijan Merlak headquarters moved to London . After the collapse of the Japanese stock exchange Mt Gox at the beginning of last year, Bitstamp some time held the position of largest stock exchange in the world in the last month with a market share of around šestodstotnim occupied third place.

Bit coins peaked in December predlani when the value of one bit of the coin rose to more than 1100 dollars. This was followed by a sharp decline and collapse of some of the exchanges, including even the largest stock exchange Mt Gox , in April last year declared the course. Today, it is a bit coin worth about 270 dollars.

Digital currency in spite of difficulties starting to take off . Payments to accept all coins bit more established companies - in mid-December the payment of Bitcoin allow US technology giant Microsoft , online encyclopedia Wikipedia but donations bit accepts coins since August last year.

T. K. B.

so they are actually running forensics, good, about time some exchange hacker left a footprint and got caught, maybe will cool other young heads a little.

So 24 - 48 hours to go.
https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric/status/552615256452001792

Thanks, I was looking on the website which is only showing the statement from last night. If they simultaneously put their tweets on the website it might calm a few nerves faster.

Yeah, well... This was before the hack, huh...

Now, there are not a million options here:
1. Bitstamp pays $5M with the fees they charged. That's tough, because they had about $1.5M worth of trading each day. At a 0.3% average, that gives $4500 per day. It would take them 1111 days of such fees to pay for those $5M, running costs non accounted for. Impossible.
2. They get $5M from their insurance. I've been working with insurers for such matters myself. Can't find one that would do that, so I'd bet they weren't insured for such a hack.
3. They get $5M from investors. That's tricky. New investors won't be stepping into this mess, so that leaves the previous VC that brought $10M. But this money was probably spent. If not, why bringing it in in the first place? Maybe they'd add $5M to protect the $10M they invested prior to the hack, but that's a dangerous move. Not impossible, but doubtful...
4. They run on fractional reserves. Easy, as long as 88% of the funds remain there.

On which option would you bet?

would bitstamp be relaunched in 24h~48h?
https://twitter.com/nejc_kodric/status/552615256452001792

How shall them deal with this loss? BTC18,000

the owners are millionaires. they are some kind of stars of the slovenian (IT) economy and have won shiny international awards for their company. concerning reputation, much is at stake for them. how much of their wealth would they sacrifice of get out of this mess without becoming karpeles like persona non gratas for the rest of their lives? all of it ? maybe not ... half of their stash? well, i would speculate they'd do that.
if they get this solved they'd be heroes for many people.
It is not 20 or 50 mio, so my bet is that there is good motivation for them to do everything to get it fixed properly. this is pure speculation, i know, but hey... ;)


edit: i have coins there so maybe hope is influencing my judgement

Their volume was much bigger.  http://www.bitcoincharts.com/markets/bitstampUSD_trades.html (http://www.bitcoincharts.com/markets/bitstampUSD_trades.html)

I guess they didn't spend much (didn't see any improvements or anything new). So I think they have a big reserve in coins and $. The problem can be future volume - will people still trade there. I think everything will be OK, but they might lose some customers.

PS.: They each own for 23 mil€ (43. and 44. on chart)  http://www.siol.net/novice/gospodarstvo/2014/11/lestvica_najbogatejsih_slovencev.aspx (http://www.siol.net/novice/gospodarstvo/2014/11/lestvica_najbogatejsih_slovencev.aspx)

I submitted withdrawal request on my account between 4:00 and 5:00 (GMT) that was never processed.  I think they started blocking withdrawals fairly soon after.  They only announced that (via the email) >24h later though.  Of course they could not block the thief's withdrawals as he somehow has the private keys.

Usually, it doesn't work that way.
There's a difference between personal wealth and corporate wealth. Fortunately, would I add... ;)

But I take that argument: Since they are so rich (but then, why asking for VC to invest in Bitstamp? I don't understand the need. But that's another story...), they may want to save their company.

Looks like I had my numbers wrong. Thanks for pointing that out.
at 0.3% average fees, they got over $7M of fees in a year.

That, you don't know.
There are plenty of improvement that are not immediately visible.
Dare I say: Security improvements (!), data centers, procédures, documentation, regulatory compliance, development, partnerships negociations, etc.

Yep, that's the big risk.
But, looking back at BTer, they finally got out of the storm OK, volume globally maintained.

wow, they got THAT rich via bitstamp ??
if really "only" 5 mio got stolen, this is peanuts. thanks for that, made my day. i will crosspost this.

I think from Bitstamp, yes. They were not on the list in 2013. They also invested 700k in http://newsbtc.com/2014/06/20/bitstamp-founders-invest-700k-worth-bitcoin-slovenian-start-cubesensors/ (http://newsbtc.com/2014/06/20/bitstamp-founders-invest-700k-worth-bitcoin-slovenian-start-cubesensors/). Maybe some more, I don't know.

This numbers are from finance journalists (from official data and journalistic research - tax havens, anonymous accounts ..). People usually do not dispute this numbers, so they are quite reliable. But I guess they didn't check bitcoin wallets, so there must be even more.

Bitstamp's also a ripple gateway, so it also makes money selling ripples (XRP), and through trades and withdrawals from ripple's distributed exchange. I don't know how much they make from ripple, but it takes your total over $7M a year.

Yes.

And still a bit more I didn't include: deposit and withdrawal fees.

But again, they pay for servers, employees, electicity, taxes, etc.

Finally, they are moving the coins from the hack address, splitting them.

11k coins moved away since this morning, 7,7k coins left

https://blockchain.info/es/address/1L2JsXHPMYuAa9ugvHGLwkdstCPUDemNCf

4k left now.

Only 159 left.

One thing is sure, when they dump all those Bitcoins on other exchanges, they will push the price further down.

Why would Bitcoin enthusiasts dump their coins? They must be very interested in and involved with Bitcoin so much so that they made the effort to figure out a way to steal them.

why do a thief rob you off, he's in so much love with the dollar that he finds a way to rob you?  :D

Option 4 seems most likely.

Doesn't this prove that bitstamp controlled the address which the hacked coins were sent to?

I think your numbers are very misleading. At a price of $300, thats 5k coins a day. Most of the time they are doing significiantly higher volumes than this and the price was higher. I think you could reasonably double your volume estimate and the average price for last year for a more reasonable estimate, quadrupling your total, and quartering you time estimate. Not impossible.

Agreed.  

The average weekly volume for 2014 was ~BTC 96 000 (~BTC13 700 per day) . (Based on raw data from http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/bitstampUSD)
0.3% x2 of 96 000 * 52 =BTC29 952 in fees.  I'm not sure about the 0.3% number.  The times two is because it's charged on both sides of the trade.
You are assuming they have to repay the full loss.  We can reduce the loss by any safety margins they have already, although they may wish to re-establish those (at a higher level?).
The fee number needs to reduce by operating expenses.

So we have 19 000 less what they have already vs 30 000 less opex.

Where it lands up after those adjustments is anyone's guess.

If they had been converting to USD at higher prices then that would reduce their burden significantly (if they can buy back at current low prices).

And Bitstamp's profits from selling ripples needs adding to the total. You could buy ripples directly from Bitstamp at a price they decided, which was always way above the going market price.

yes

Bitcoin was supposed to be decentralized, but people flocked almost entirely to a single exchange
:-X

yes yes and yes. If you didn't notice this yet, here a link-->https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=919036.0

Inform yourself before making stupid comments: http://bitcoinity.org/markets/list
 ::)

Yup, seems to be plenty of exchanges that people are using.

http://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#markets

http://s7.postimg.org/twhndzx7v/bitcoin_Markets.png

OK, so after BitStamp was hacked, people have been posting posts over posts and threads over threads about it and even making scam accusations about the exchange. Some even called it the next Gox. But all of a sudden all threads have gone silent after the exchange came back online just fine, within a small time window.

No problem.

At least I would take this opportunity to actually give some postive feedback to BitStamp team who worked hard and delivered on my personal expectations after the hack. They made sure to keep the users informed of the progress via Twitter too. And they surely didn't "Gox". I have an account with them and thankfully I didn't lose anything because I had emptied my balance in September but in future I'm gonna trust them as good as I did previously - or even more than that, because I'm sure their security is now far better than what they had before. And they mean serious business.

They're here to stay and make Bitcoin ecosystem better.

Kudos to team BitStamp.

I'm sure many of you won't agree with me, but this is just my opinion, and you have yours.

Since you brought it up:
1.  The "small window" was a business week.
2.  No confirmed fiat withdrawals.
3.  No [previously promised] audits => fractional reserve possible.
4.  Re. "better security":  As long as you're sure.

TL;DR: Let's not start stroking them just yet.

They cannot start processing fiat withdrawals until Monday when the banks open.

Why would they process btc withdrawal but not fiat? You could just convert your $$ to btc, withdraw them and exchange them elsewhere.

With that said, I'm still waiting for my btc withdrawal to process...
EDIT: Received :)

1. OK, but does it matter? They need their time, if it's a busines wekk or not
2. Let's wait until working business day - Monday
3. Agree with you - I have no idea

4. I'm believing in this: Source (http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-exchange-bitstamp-resumes-services/)

But that alone definitely does not mean better security, it's just some reassuring words for now. Migrate a complicated project to a completely new cloud infrastructure in under a week, which have it's own quirks and gotchas including new rule-based security and ephemeral storages, while also changing the underlying transaction signing technology, I wonder what could go wrong? For comparison, banks take months if not years for a similar change of software. Yeah, bitcoin is much better fitted for software than banking, but there are still countless ways they could've fucked up, week is too short for proper implementation & testing.