2.7 million stolen in Citi hack

[foggyb]

Do you think we'll see a concentration of bitcoin wealth in the hands of hackers?

Darwinian analysis. As theft grows more widespread, at some point the average BTC is held not by an early adopter, but by a hacker who stole it from a late adopter.  What does this mean?  That BTC contracts are not between idealists, but thieves, making you much more likely to be ripped off if doing business in BTC than dollars because, as we all know, "there is no honor among thieves".

In the days of yesteryear, pirates (skilled navigators and seaman) roamed the ocean shipping lanes (a new frontier) and accosted any ships they came across and stole goods while in transit.

Piracy on the high seas is still a problem today. Estimates are 13 billion dollars in losses due to piracy worldwide.

Are the bitcoin "piracy" wars just beginning?

[TraderTimm]

(1) is true: everybody gets hacked.  But the risk distribution between traditional banking and bitcoin are totally different.

In traditional banking, when accounts are compromised, hackers win, banks lose, standard consumers don't win or lose anything: they remain as before and don't have to worry about it.

In the bitcoin economy, when accounts are compromised, hackers win, standard consumers / users lose, and banks are unchanged.

To me, that is the story.  The average Citi customer doesn't have to fight off the global collective IQ of the hacker community.  Citi bears that risk for them.  But they do have that job if they use bitcoins.

The gratuitous insults from the Aspy-types here are just icing on the cake.  Thankfully, not eveyone here is so callous.

(Full disclosure: I have yet to lose any BTC, but I do empathize with the posters here who've lost absurd sums of money to hackers.)

Ah, so it is okay and dandy that we print money to cover the loss, versus being anti-inflationary. Tell me why you use bitcoin again? Oh, and the average Citi customer doesn't fight off hackers, true -- they rely on Citi's IT department to do it for them. And when they fail....

It isn't an insult, its reality. I don't go into the bar after being mugged expecting people to buy me a drink and go "Awwwwww" when I've lost money. Maybe because I'm self-reliant and accept the responsibilities of my mistakes and actions. (Taking that dark alleyway shortcut when I should've known better.)

People who can't own up to the fact that they royally 'effed up, then come here for sympathy really don't deserve any.

[aral]

I have noticed a trend. Hackers are really starting to get their own if you know what I mean. Hackers are usually pretty intelligent individuals, are you guys curious as to what these people will do will all this money?

Hookers and blow?

Probably, though I didn't know escort services were in BTC yet.

Not escorts but there is a dominatrix here who will take BTC.  I can imagine hackers would be interested in that sort of service, perhaps seeking punishment for their wrongdoings.

[RodeoX]

That's nothing. Years ago the Russian mob got citibank for something like a million $/day for a month! I'm sure if you google it you will find that it is quite a story.

[barrymac]

One of the great things about the bitcoin system is that it's my choice in the end to choose to stuff it under the digital mattress or leave it in someone elses hands.

High end security services for bitcoin will surely come about given time, just as banks have become more secure since the wild west. In the traditional economy my choices are between trusting a bank who are more of societal parasite than anything else these days, paying for some kind of insurance or buying a load of gold and hiding it somewhere locked up. The third option is not exactly what I would call a liquid asset.

Personally I like being able to use my own cryptography and backups.