Will "WannaCry" attacks bode ill for BTC?

[deisik]

It's very bad news for me since I'm try to ask my friend to invest on bitcoin but my friend show me this "WannaCry" attack , it surely will impact on them for not investing or involving bitcoin things too much

It cuts both ways in fact

Many youths, especially those wannabe hackers may hear about Bitcoin and start thinking how kewl it is to use Bitcoin, the hackers' money. In this way, it cannot be said with certainty whether such events contribute to Bitcoin popularity or take away from it. But in any case, they make Bitcoin more widely known and famous, so after the dust settles and sun shines bright again, this publicity may eventually turn into popularity ("at first publicity, then popularity")

[Qunenin]

Does this make BTC look bad to the masses.....

Why you think this will make BTC look bad to the masses  It's not bitcoin that have enabled this hackers to put this ransomeware in computers worldwide, NSA must be blamed for this and windows for not warning their users about this vulnerability.

I agree too that bitcoin has nothing to with this ransomware attack but the point to note is that why the hacker choose payment in bitcoin rather than in any other currency like dollars etc. The only answer to this is that payment in bitcoin is easy without revealing the real identity. If you see this in this pint of view, then surely bitcoin has a part to play in this hacking.

[amacar2]

Could this be a false flag to make it look as if BTC is a currency only to be used by criminals?

Even fiat and bank wire are being used by criminals so i don't think anybody will blame bitcoin for this mass ransomeware attack but yes due to anonymity bitcoin transaction will provide, it has been favorite tool for hackers and criminals to collect ransom.

[btcforall777]

It will raise awareness for the next wave o volume and  price increases. Any negative short term effect, if any will be good for 6 months down the road.

[cellard]

There's no doubt in my mind that this is going to be used by the states to propagate his anti bitcoin agendas, so expect anytime now that TV programs start making bitcoin specials where they talk shit about it.

It would be great if panic selling idiots stop panic selling every time a ransomware attack happens, maybe we'll keep going up then.

Why is it that if there's is a negative news about bitcoin, the media is all over it? I only see one article about getting a new ATH, but when something like this happened, all mainstream media sensationalized this kind of negative news? That's why country like India and Russia became reluctant to really fully adopt bitcoin because all the government heard is that bitcoin is being used for illegal activities like ponzi, hyip, terrorist funding and now ransomware.

It's pretty obvious, the mainstream media is controlled by the same people that want bitcoin dead, so they are going to keep attacking bitcoin no matter what, and this is a fantastic opportunity for them to use ramsomware as a way to throw bad publicity on it.

It all comes down to the people, if holders don't panic sell, then the media will be useless. Of course, it's unlikely that people don't react to the media, so I don't see a way out but to exposed numerous times until it loses the shock factor. Just like the PBOC news. They used to cause massive crashes, after a number of times, people get tired.

[stompix]

...

To me ransomeware attacks are a perfect excuse for government intervention into slowing down Bitcoin (or at least making it harder to use).

Please note that almost every .gov in the world has been tightening the screws on our freedoms, both financial and general personal liberties.


Got groped?

Yeah.. it makes perfect sense...
Launch an attack that cripples thousands of companies, making them lose a lot of money which will also cause tax loss just to paint bitcoin in a negative way and maybe people will turn away from it

Or...
Just freeze for a few months the bank accounts of the top exchanges and see the bitcoin price collapse and 10x more people labeling it again as a ponzi scheme..

Or..
Seize the domains of exchanges and demand the isp to block ips that match bitcoin full nodes.

What would I choose if I were an evil reptilian angry an bitcoin?

[iluvpie60]

I dont think so. Most people already heard about bitcoin awhile ago and forgot about it. A lot of people forget things if it is not on their mind at all within a year. People.prolly.forgot about bitcoin bad stuff theh heard awhile back. They will forget again this time.

[deisik]

Or...
Just freeze for a few months the bank accounts of the top exchanges and see the bitcoin price collapse and 10x more people labeling it again as a ponzi scheme

Didn't we discuss that point recently?

We had (and still have, by the way) the bank accounts of the top exchange frozen (I refer to Bitfinex, obviously), though, despite your claims, Bitcoin went exponential, not crashed down as you had been preaching. So this point is shaky in the very least, and reality seems not to support your sweeping generalizations. I know what you are going to say but if what you are about to say were actually true, we would have Bitcoin go down at other exchanges (apart from Bitfinex) which is nowhere near the case. Regarding your other points, to have any noticeable effect they require a concerted effort by all major governments likely at the level of the UN Security Council, but we are unlikely to see a consensus there any time soon (as the recent history shows)

[stompix]

And there we have deisik again posting four lines of nothing to make his quota
Really?

What's wrong, you're not allowed to make posts under 4 lines?
Stop acting high and mighty, and stop pretending you're polishing your ingliz skillz cause you sound like siri having a romantic talk.

Don't bother in the future cause you're on my precious list where only lambchop and his clones have managed to get

[gentlemand]

It's pretty obvious, the mainstream media is controlled by the same people that want bitcoin dead, so they are going to keep attacking bitcoin no matter what, and this is a fantastic opportunity for them to use ramsomware as a way to throw bad publicity on it.

I've seen barely a mention of Bitcoin in the media coverage. At best it gets a footnote.

I don't give a shit what the masses think. They don't count yet. As for what The Man thinks, the most likely course of action is ever increasing heaviness on the off ramps but that was inevitable anyway.

[Mometaskers]

Sigh, looks like we need another thread for this no? Oh well, I probably wouldn't have heard of it if not for this forum. (Yes, I live under a rock like one of your fave characters.)

This is publicity - though the negative kind. It might cause people who heard of the attacks to check out bitcoins, which would be good for us. Those poor souls that got hacked though, they'll probably curse btc. They'll make a wallet and use that to pay the hackers and then swear never to use btc again (unless they get hacked again).

Will anyone trade a cow, 14 eggs, 2 chickens 2 goats, 4 pigs and a half decent wife for a car? I can't use monies. They r evil.

Switch out the wife for a bull and an extra rooster and it's a deal!

[jaberwock]

Soon they will realize that their destination addresses will be known and will be very hard for them use the Bitcoin they stole without being tracked or at least losing them.

Maybe they could try something in the dark markets, or if they only want to spread chaos and not get people's money.

[Kakmakr]

My concern is not the bad publicity, but more the magnet affect it creates to pull in more criminals towards Bitcoin. Every person who gets away with this, signals that Bitcoin is ideal for such kinds of criminal behavior and then we get a situation where more "bad" people starts to use this technology and it starts to snow ball into a much bigger problem.

We need to assist governments and law enforcement agencies to catch these bad actors, because we have the knowledge and the experience to do that. ^grrrrrrr^

[freedomno1]

Does this make BTC look bad to the masses.....

Thoughts?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-13/24-hours-later-unprecedented-fallout-first-global-coordinated-ransomware-attack

Could this be a false flag to make it look as if BTC is a currency only to be used by criminals?

I watched a skit of this just a few minutes ago on Late Night with Trevor Noah (Bleh)
It looks like the Joke is targeted to the hackers and the fact it affects work PC's more and people can go home and chill instead it was more like
I hope the hackers have tech support if they wanted to do this ransom and the need for hacker tech support and to use Visa lol
Corden was like my life is only worth $300 I feel insulted

I have ransomed your computer you must send me a cryptocurrency "Hacker voice"
I am on bitcoin.org what do I do now and the page isn't loading "Confused citizen"
Uh did you turn on the router did you check the switches etc. "Hacker voice"

Goes on for a bit eventually hacker gets bored is like screw it i'm done with this phone call and the confused citizen responds to the hacker and the hacker is surprised and says wait a minute what do you mean I owe you $300 for this phone call.

Basically they were joking that the ransom was to technical for normal people to use to pay ransoms.

(Clip works on American proxies Only comedy central)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6bfi1k/thank_you_trevor_noah_for_sending_users_to/

[Amph]

the value on the market speak for itself, if these ransomware were a problem and a threat for bitcoin, the investors would not invest what they have invested so far

people are not so stupid to think that if someone use bitcoin for criminal activity then bitcoin will be useless, that was a thing of the past i remember some panic dump because of this reason some years ago, but now they learned

[Mometaskers]

My concern is not the bad publicity, but more the magnet affect it creates to pull in more criminals towards Bitcoin. Every person who gets away with this, signals that Bitcoin is ideal for such kinds of criminal behavior and then we get a situation where more "bad" people starts to use this technology and it starts to snow ball into a much bigger problem.

We need to assist governments and law enforcement agencies to catch these bad actors, because we have the knowledge and the experience to do that. ^grrrrrrr^

True, criminals tend to be early adopters of new technology, anything that would give them an advantage, especially if that would help them evade authorities. I'm sure there are already hackers that made use of bitcoin years before this became a "thing" in the media. I suppose they kept their operations modest, sorta like choosing to counterfeit smaller notes. Less rewards but also smaller risk.

Now this is sorta out though, we can expect others to follow, and this would be made worse that many governments are just beginning to recognize bitcoin and probably not yet well prepared to track down these transactions.

[deisik]

My concern is not the bad publicity, but more the magnet affect it creates to pull in more criminals towards Bitcoin. Every person who gets away with this, signals that Bitcoin is ideal for such kinds of criminal behavior and then we get a situation where more "bad" people starts to use this technology and it starts to snow ball into a much bigger problem.

We need to assist governments and law enforcement agencies to catch these bad actors, because we have the knowledge and the experience to do that. ^grrrrrrr^

True, criminals tend to be early adopters of new technology, anything that would give them an advantage, especially if that would help them evade authorities. I'm sure there are already hackers that made use of bitcoin years before this became a "thing" in the media. I suppose they kept their operations modest, sorta like choosing to counterfeit smaller notes. Less rewards but also smaller risk

This is not your assumption (of sorts), this is a fact of life

Bitcoin did actually first start as a currency of criminals in the DarkWeb, and ironically, this period was the time when Bitcoin had in fact been used almost exclusively as intended by its creator, i.e. as a currency. That likely gave Bitcoin a boost as an investment asset as well after it had gained some traction and notoriety between criminals. Maybe, some of them, after "earning" enough coins, decided to get done with their criminal past and become respectable investors and otherwise respected members of society ("just don't ask me how I made my first million dollars")

[paul gatt]

Does this make BTC look bad to the masses.....

Thoughts?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-13/24-hours-later-unprecedented-fallout-first-global-coordinated-ransomware-attack

Could this be a false flag to make it look as if BTC is a currency only to be used by criminals?

This is a global scale attack, it caused great economic losses. And bitcoin is the means for them to do it. It is being exploited. The security of bitcoin has created a flaw.

[bamboylee]

Bitcoin was regarded as money for illegal activities a long time ago. Yet bitcoin endured and look at it right now. People are finally seeing the use of bitcoin.wannacry using bitcoin as payment method will not anymore damage to bitcoin.

[unisilver]

i am so curious about this "wannacry"
what is this by the way? is this the same with the ransomware?