Is this all just one big joke?

[$tr3tch]

I want to believe that Bitcoin is strong and will rebound, but its really hard to have faith in it when recently it has been hacked for a huge sum of coins. http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=771&doc_id=231208&f_src=internetevolution_gnews and now the most attractive feature of Bitcoin is now nule and void. http://gizmodo.com/5824503/anonymous-bitcoin-purchases-arent-actually-anonymous You are not anonymous on the Bitcoin network and that makes it very unattractive to me. Im so glad I did not spend hundreds of dollars on Bitcoin when it obviously is not secure or anonymous like it claims. I really wanted to be apart of this. I think its a great idea and it the future of currency. Can someone please convince me to look past these major flaws.

[Xephan]

I want to believe that Bitcoin is strong and will rebound, but its really hard to have faith in it when recently it has been hacked for a huge sum of coins. http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=771&doc_id=231208&f_src=internetevolution_gnews and now the most attractive feature of Bitcoin is now nule and void.

Bitcoin is still unhacked, what was hacked is MtGox and their silliness in using unsalted password and md5 which had been discouraged for years from use for hashing sensitive data.

http://gizmodo.com/5824503/anonymous-bitcoin-purchases-arent-actually-anonymous You are not anonymous on the Bitcoin network and that makes it very unattractive to me. Im so glad I did not spend hundreds of dollars on Bitcoin when it obviously is not secure or anonymous like it claims. I really wanted to be apart of this. I think its a great idea and it the future of currency. Can someone please convince me to look past these major flaws.

Bitcoin does not claim to be anonymous like cash, just closer to anonymity. If you don't put your identifiable information all over the place and take special care, then even that research analysis method would find it close to impossible to pin you down.

[gizmo256]

Bitcoin as a system hasn't been hacked. MtGox is not the Bitcoin system, they only deliver a service related to Bitcoins and their website has been hacked. When a normal bankwebsite got hacked, that would not make the Dollar of Euro or any other currency a joke would it ?

[mrbashfo]

yup the bitcoin itself is fine, it was mtgox that got hacked. Its like a person who gets robbed...

[davidsmcnally]

Hacking:
If you keep important files on an computer that isn't secure, you can lose those files. If those files are literally a pile of money, then people will try to get them. If you keep them on a secure computer, then (for the most part) you have nothing to worry about.

Anonymity:
It's not perfectly anonymous. Anyone can see your BTC address, and they can see what BTC addresses you send money to, but they don't necessarily know your name unless you make that public.

[istar]

You will also soon be able to exchange bitcoins completly anonymously with the open transactions project.

https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions

[gizmo256]

One could put a fully loaded wallet.dat on a USB-stick, SD-card or something like that and simply hand over or snailmail the stick. Not a global (fast) working solution but a 100% anonimous transaction if you asked me.

Or am i wrong ? (I'm a bit new on Bitcoins and the system)

[xcarbon1]

no i dont think so. Bitcoins are fine, just that mtgox was hacked. This is open source software and anyone can look at it.

[Oldminer]

Mt Gox was originally a gaming site trading in virtual currency similar to Second Life or World of Warcraft.

When it started trading Bitcoin it had no real value. When the value suddenly skyrocketed up overnight due to an influx of interest, Mt Gox was totally unprepared for the inevitable (and somewhat successful) hack attempt that followed.

[Johnny Pizza]

Yeah the fact that BitCoin was  so easily hacked kind of has me a bit suspicious too.   

[NothinG]

Yeah the fact that BitCoin was  so easily hacked kind of has me a bit suspicious too.   

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet

[joulesbeef]

Yeah the fact that BitCoin was  so easily hacked kind of has me a bit suspicious too

are you trolling? did you just decide to not read a thing people posted here?

bitcoin wasnt hacked.

a user was hacked which happens all the time at banks and everything else

mtgox was hacked, MTGOX was a trading site for magic the gathering cards. The guy converted it into a bitcoin exchange when bitcoins were pretty much worthless. People were trading change, not dollars. Then suddenly bitcoin exploded. MTgox was hacked and yeah the price at the mtgox exchange dropped to nearly 0 and mTgox had to shut down and fix up it's security but for the most part besides for a 6 day slow down, no one was really effected.,

now mtgox isnt the only exchange,  tradehill got a bunch of business since mtgox was hacked. There is also Ruxum, which is a more professional(and expensive) exchange that has wall street level protections and was started by a former vp to citigroup.

Bitcoin is actually probably more secure than many of the other methods  you pay with online, as the block explorer is there for you to see your transactions, and you arent susceptible to phishing attacks and right now though their is a bitcoin trojan in the wild, we arent as big of a target as major banks and paypal.

Really it is kinda amazing how much money goes through bitcoins these days and we havent had more growing pains. You can only point to two major cybercrimes and for the most part they didnt effect anyone in the community... except for the victim who had his wallet stolen and Mtgox who probably lost a little business but not much by looking at trading the day they reopened.

[$tr3tch]

I want to thank all of you for responses. I might have sounded a little bitter in my original post, but I just want to make sure im making the right decision to support the mining community. I'm gonna do some more research and see where it takes me.

[ampirebus]

i wonder some times

[Dextro]

I just wanted to put my idea out there but, isn't losing faith in Bitcoin because of hacked exchanges basically the same as losing faith in the dollar because of some robbed banks? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Tronlet]

To help you with comprehension a little more, $tr3tch, I'd like to point out that whenever any news story says "counterfeit Bitcoins" in relation to the hacking scandal, they are not referring to actual faked bitcoins. They are referring to the fact that the hacker made Mt. Gox, and Mt. Gox only, report more bitcoins than they actually had, so that he could continue with his theft and hijacking with more phony bitcoins than he otherwise could have.

Actual counterfeit Bitcoins are impossible so far. You can't guarantee anything in the world, no matter how secure, but so far Bitcoin's been fully secure in regard to counterfeiting.

I just wanted to put my idea out there but, isn't losing faith in Bitcoin because of hacked exchanges basically the same as losing faith in the dollar because of some robbed banks? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

That's about it, although I think a better metaphor would be if someone hacked an ATM to report more funds than they actually had, so they could then withdraw more funds than they were supposed to have access to.

tl;dr, Bitcoin is secure, Mt. Gox's database was just deceived by a hacker.

[mc_lovin]

Mt Gox was originally a gaming site trading in virtual currency similar to Second Life or World of Warcraft.

When it started trading Bitcoin it had no real value. When the value suddenly skyrocketed up overnight due to an influx of interest, Mt Gox was totally unprepared for the inevitable (and somewhat successful) hack attempt that followed.

Ahhhh..  I seeeee...  I didn't know that Gox was not originally a bitcoin site.  Wasn't there like, millions of dollars changing hands every day on Gox though?  In the embarrassing video they posted, the whole thing looked like a 2-man operation in some apartment.  I would like to think that today things are a bit more secure than they were. 

[makomk]

Ahhhh..  I seeeee...  I didn't know that Gox was not originally a bitcoin site.  Wasn't there like, millions of dollars changing hands every day on Gox though?  In the embarrassing video they posted, the whole thing looked like a 2-man operation in some apartment.  I would like to think that today things are a bit more secure than they were. 

Yep. Over 90% of the total volume of Bitcoin currency exchange was through Mt Gox, so they were the site to go to if you needed to buy or sell large quantities of bitcoins.

[JoelKatz]

One could put a fully loaded wallet.dat on a USB-stick, SD-card or something like that and simply hand over or snailmail the stick. Not a global (fast) working solution but a 100% anonimous transaction if you asked me.

Or am i wrong ? (I'm a bit new on Bitcoins and the system)

You can do even better than that. You can send bitcoins in such a way that a "code phrase" (like 'My plaid socks don't fit me well!') unlocks them. (The client doesn't provide an easy way to do it, but that's an easy fix.)

[johnyj]

It's just a game, enjoy it