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Author Topic: Trust No One  (Read 161183 times)
TreeFrito
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April 03, 2013, 02:05:28 AM
 #1761

One person you can trust is ny2cafuse! I just trader Litecoins for a retail copy of Bioshock Infinite. He responded very quickly, and I'm installing the game now.
Thank you, I will post this in your thread when my Newbie status is revoked!

The thread in question: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=162826.0
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btchaver
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April 03, 2013, 02:13:44 AM
 #1762

Seriously. Don't trust the exchanges, don't trust online wallet services, don't trust your anti-virus software, and don't trust anybody online.

If you absolutely must trust someone with your bitcoins, for the love, choose carefully!

  • Do you know their full name?
  • Do you know where they are located?
  • Have they demonstrated trustworthiness in the past?
  • Are they asking you to trust them? (red flag)
  • Do they have insurance?

Insurance? Impossible, you say. Not so!

When I needed people to trust me to hold bitcoins for a contest, I deposited 50 bitcoins as a bond with a well-respected forum member, so that even if I did something stupid and lost people's money, they would still be reimbursed. You can read about it here: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=10008.0

Consider carefully who you will trust. With bitcoins, elaborate scams may be profitable. For instance, someone may develop trust for their user name over many months with small transactions on this forum, then take advantage of that trust to make off with a lot of money. Such a scam would only be worth doing on this forum. No other forum in the world would be worth the effort.

If you want someone to hold your bitcoins for you, there are NO online services that have the transparency and security to make me comfortable using them for storing bitcoins for more than a short time in small amounts. The only way to do it is like I did - choose someone whom you believe to be trustworthy, and approach them. If they approach you, or in any way say or insinuate that they are a trustworthy person to hold your coins, STAY AWAY.

If you are thinking that I might not be trustworthy, since I am writing this post about the issue, you are approaching the appropriate level of paranoia.

If you want to store your bitcoins with maximum security, there are lots of resources about how to do it, such as this: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet

Here's my summary:

1. Put all your coins in a new wallet that has never connected to the network
2. Encrypt that wallet with the maximum security you can find, using the most secure password you can keep track of
3. Delete the plaintext wallet, and distribute the encrypted wallet to every piece of physical media you own, store it online, and send it to several people you trust

Don't think you can generate and remember a secure enough password? Create a super-long password, and store clues to help you remember it. For instance, your password clue file might say:

My standard password + My throwaway password (backwards, all caps) + &#$%@ + First two sentences of first paragraph of page 19 of my favorite book (include all capitalization and punctuation) + My wife's mother's middle name + My son's favorite superhero + My favorite number times 8734 + food my wife hates (backwards, all caps) + 9-digit number stored with my paper will + 10-character password stored in my safety deposit box + . . . .

You can go on in this way to create as long a password as you want. Store this password clue file with your encrypted wallet, and optionally encrypt both with a simple standard password to keep out snoopers.

In this way, not only can you recover your coins from your "savings account" at a later date, if you get hit by a chicken truck tomorrow and die, your loved ones can probably piece together your password and recover the coins too (better make sure you trust them, and that between them they have or can get the answers to those clues).

I recommend that you practice your wallet encryption and recovery a few times with a small number of coins, until you are very comfortable with the process before you try it with the bulk of your savings.

And remember, this is how most bitcoins services get started:



Comic from: http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=13903.0







good infromation
daviducsb
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April 03, 2013, 02:36:20 AM
 #1763

This is an interesting thread, are there some of the exchanges out there that should be considered most worthy of everyone's trust?

brickhouse464
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April 03, 2013, 05:03:16 AM
 #1764

man I was looking for a place to store some bitcoins while i updated my wallet on my PC.

I found a site claiming to be instawallet at a hidden onion address: 3rlqkicvauds47ch.onion i clicked around until it gave me a fresh URL not the first one from the link on ahmia.fi. 

I did everything it said and i kept a written record of the url to save and i sent to the address my bit coins.  The transaction went through with 39 confirmations and it has been hours since the transaction. I checked       blockchain.info and verified the transaction.

From:

16U7oGXbGZrMPcExLH4X3znG7eqTuFkKfM

To:

1L9LtdNgS9fsbkenEszHNHBthuZMGgJUok

in the amount of 1.0169586 BTC.

it has been hours and the funds still have not appeared.
There is an email address at the bottom of the site that i actually took time to write to but was returned as invalid. that email is instawallet@tormail.org.
can someone help me or did i just get screwed.


You got screwed, but not for much.  I've lost a lot more than that.
mountainskyman
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April 03, 2013, 05:04:21 AM
 #1765

Thanks.. useful advice to say the least.
manface
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April 03, 2013, 05:07:02 AM
 #1766

It is good information, thanks! Sometimes we must remember there are a lot of bad people out there.
PrimalHoss
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April 03, 2013, 05:13:30 AM
 #1767

In Debt We Trust.  Grin
j28
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April 03, 2013, 10:54:14 AM
 #1768

Good ideas in this thread now wheres my wallet  Huh  Cheesy
CaperAsh
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April 03, 2013, 11:20:13 AM
 #1769

That all seems fine.

However, it is FAR TOO COMPLICATED for anyone wanting to use bitcoin for ordinary, everyday transactions.
And if you can't use it for such things, what good is it?

Finally, although I am no expert and therefore might well be wrong, I simply don't trust any encryption since somebody somewhere always has the key and it can be given. Furthermore, I don't believe there is such a thing as secure online cyber anything.

The internet is a great way to exchange information, but because of it's all being digitally encoded, it is also the most efficient surveillance system ever invented. And given it was funded mainly by intelligence agencies (and/or their think-tank, university proxies), anyone who thinks there is such a thing as security online is, I think, being naive.

Put another way: if Bitcoin takes off to the point of being a serious threat to fiat, privately issued currencies, it can be closed down instantly at the touch of a button.

I gather the inventors of Bitcoin say that isn't so. But the material is too complex for me to understand and/or there is so much of it I can't be bothered to find a simple one-page explanation if one exists.

So I don't trust anyone.

Especially online.

Nor Bitcoin.

Though I hope for all of our sakes that I am wrong in this case and that you guys end up making a viable alternative.

Until it has been firmly established for several decades, however, at which point I will be long dead no doubt, I won't trust it!
siennamarshalllee
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April 03, 2013, 12:00:52 PM
 #1770

Why are there so many newbie restrictions?
mrbitbank
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April 03, 2013, 02:33:36 PM
 #1771

bitcoins are a scammers dream
aslam268
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April 03, 2013, 03:50:01 PM
 #1772

You're saying.. 'Do you know their full name?" and that kind of things. But aren't Bitcoins supposed to be anonymous? So that doesn't really make any sense..
aslam87
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April 03, 2013, 03:55:08 PM
 #1773

cool stuff
aslam56
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April 03, 2013, 03:57:19 PM
 #1774

Goes for online and offline in life.
 
FJBourne
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April 03, 2013, 04:00:38 PM
 #1775

Thanks for the info!

BTE- 8UvdysHU3HugiAGSWDn9hTvEbCe1kJmkZ5
gtrslayer
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April 03, 2013, 04:02:14 PM
 #1776

Thank you for the info... newbie here. So, yeah!
HATA28
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April 03, 2013, 04:03:16 PM
 #1777

Allright, sounds like everything I need to know. Thanks
suvegastar
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April 03, 2013, 04:24:28 PM
 #1778

Very reasonable... but I have to agree... this is a little extreme for most users.

If you are a hard core BTC or [ltc] trader... take these precautions.  If you are a casual user... back up your wallet.  That is about all you need to do.
fireball74
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April 03, 2013, 05:25:12 PM
 #1779

I don't trust the exchanges. For the most part, I don't trust people in general. I'm just starting out in all this, but it's not like I'm a total noob. Money is money, be it electronic of paper. At some point you have to trust someone, even just a bit, to trade what you have for what they have. Getting screwed over and theft happens in all forms of currency. It's a gamble you eventually have to take.

--Jay
btmstr
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April 03, 2013, 05:37:10 PM
 #1780

Trust and confidence is the underpinning of any currency. If trust cannot be established somehow, then  i doubt bitcoin can succeed as a viable alternative to fiat money.
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