[2016-08-09]The $65 million Bitfinex hack shows that it is impossible.......

[CrimBit]

The $65 million Bitfinex hack shows that it is impossible to tell a good bitcoin company from a bad one

Bitcoin suffered yet another blow last week when Bitfinex, one of the cryptocurrency’s largest exchanges, suffered a hack that cost its users about $65 million. Every one of its investors saw their funds suddenly drop by 36%, as the company decided to “socialize” the losses.
The source of the security breach remains unconfirmed, as Bitfinex continues to work with “authorities” (it’s not clear which ones) to pinpoint what happened. But the details of the hack aren’t its only mystery. Burnt traders are now struggling to figure out something even more basic—who exactly is behind Bitfinex and where are those people located?

http://qz.com/753958/the-65-million-bitfinex-hack-shows-that-it-is-impossible-to-tell-a-good-bitcoin-company-from-a-bad-one/

[Carlton Banks]

Banks have the same problem. One minute you've got 100,000 EUR in Bank of Cyprus..... and the next minute, it's gone.

Bitcoin blockchain doesn't have that problem (indeed, it solves the problem permanently).


The take-home is this: don't keep your money in any kind of bank, Bitcoin bank or otherwise. Assuming you want to keep your money.

[coinzat]

this accident teaches every bitcoin users that he should never store. funds in any exchange even if they have very high reputation. your bitcoin will be safe only if you are controlling them in your secure wallet

[Kprawn]

Damn this sounds dodgy to say the least... If I had to use these services, I would chose one with a well known CEO in the public eye... not some company with secret employees. This just serve as a

warning to people who store large amounts of coins on these dodgy operations. Keep your coins in cold storage and have control over your own private keys... if you have to trade, go with regulated

exchanges. These hacks are suspect !!!!!

[BellaBitBit]

this accident teaches every bitcoin users that he should never store. funds in any exchange even if they have very high reputation. your bitcoin will be safe only if you are controlling them in your secure wallet

Exactly.  What Bitfinex showed us is that we should not store large amounts of funds on ANY exchange, no matter how good the reputation.  I am not perfect in this aspect as I currently have a bit of bits all over the place. 

[panju1]

Leaving bitcoins with an exchange is a high risk, no return game.
Just for the sake of convenience, why would anyone risk huge sums of money?

[Lucius]

It is possible that this hack is actually an inside job,simply take the money and tell you hacked.Then instead of compensation loss every user will pay from its pocket so that Bitfinex can continue operating.

Anyone with common sense should withdraw funds from there,if this happened once, it can happen again.

[vitod]

Always store your bitcoin only in your personal wallet (blockchain) It's safe at this time. As above user said stealing bitcoins from bitfinix was an insider job it's possible as they've said money was in cold storage if that's true no one can take bitcoins from there unless the person who knows their security very well.

[richardsNY]

It is possible that this hack is actually an inside job,simply take the money and tell you hacked.Then instead of compensation loss every user will pay from its pocket so that Bitfinex can continue operating.

Anyone with common sense should withdraw funds from there,if this happened once, it can happen again.

People will never learn. Especially when there still are a lot people that keep their coins sleeping in their exchange account. And when you ask them what the reason for that is, they answer that it is easy to sell them when needed. It's quite sad to see people do that. Just ask yourself, what's worse, selling your coins a few percent lower because you have to deposit and wait for the confirmations to come through, or risk seeing your coins get lost for ever? Trust in exchanges was already low, but after this hack the trust is probably the lowest it has ever been.

[yayayo]

Banks have the same problem. One minute you've got 100,000 EUR in Bank of Cyprus..... and the next minute, it's gone.

Bitcoin blockchain doesn't have that problem (indeed, it solves the problem permanently).

The take-home is this: don't keep your money in any kind of bank, Bitcoin bank or otherwise. Assuming you want to keep your money.

Well said. However I'm afraid that people are still showing significant resistance to learning or are simply to lazy to care about the security of their funds. It's somewhat paradox that almost everybody wants to own as much money as possible but often hands it over carelessly to third parties that simply claim to be able to keep it more safe than the original owner.

Bitcoin offers the unique opportunity of full control over individual funds and the ability to instantly use these funds for worldwide transaction. All that users have to do is installing their own wallet software (preferably a fully validating one like Bitcoin Core)...

ya.ya.yo!