Can bitcoin be stolen?

[MorganaX]

We all know that bitcoin was earlier stolen by James "Jimmy" Zhong
James Zhong is an American man who was convicted in 2022 for stealing over 51,680 bitcoin (then worth about $620,000; value as of 2023 approximately $3.4 billion) from the online black market Silk Road between 2012 and 2014.He was also involved in the early development of bitcoin,he found an error on Silk Road that allowed him to withdraw more funds than what was initially deposited. This was activated by repeatedly double clicking the withdraw button, and further abused by using multiple accounts on the website. Zhong managed to conceal his identity and elude detection for nearly 10 years. He lived a luxurious lifestyle, using tools such as cryptocurrency mixers to obscure the origin of the bitcoin he spent. In 2019, he made a mistake by transferring a small amount of stolen bitcoin to a cryptocurrency exchange that followed know-your-customer rules. The IRS's criminal investigation division then tracked him down.
Source link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Zhong#

It turns out that Bitcoin stealers target not only big companies but individual users with modest amounts in their crypto wallets.

Now bitcoin is one of the safest way to invest digital currency. Because of its new and improved security system it makes it hard for hackers and thief to access

So now the question is bitcoin safe from hackers?, can it be stolen?

[Mia Chloe]

Yes it is an asset a digital one for that matter so it can be stolen

All the hacker has to do is get hold of your private keys or seed phrase and they can sweep the funds to their personal wallet.

After that they can even use mixers and other privacy measures to mask any traces of the coins.

So "Don't forget to keep your keys safe mate"

You can even store you seed offline for it is a safer choice.

[BlackBoss_]

So now the question is bitcoin safe from hackers?, can it be stolen?

That mean was arrested and police got his private keys and his bitcoin was not stolen. He just had to give his bitcoin to US. government.

You lose your bitcoin if you are bad in your practice to store it. If you use centralized exchange to store it, that exchange can be hacked, your account can be hacked. If you use close source wallet to store bitcoin, developers can have backdoors to steal your coins.

If you use non custodial, open source wallet to store your bitcoin, but if you have weak password, don't have backup, you can lose your coins.

[AHOYBRAUSE]

We all know that bitcoin was earlier stolen by James "Jimmy" Zhong
James Zhong is an American man who was convicted in 2022 for stealing over 51,680 bitcoin (then worth about $620,000; value as of 2023 approximately $3.4 billion) from the online black market Silk Road between 2012 and 2014.He was also involved in the early development of bitcoin,he found an error on Silk Road that allowed him to withdraw more funds than what was initially deposited. This was activated by repeatedly double clicking the withdraw button, and further abused by using multiple accounts on the website. Zhong managed to conceal his identity and elude detection for nearly 10 years. He lived a luxurious lifestyle, using tools such as cryptocurrency mixers to obscure the origin of the bitcoin he spent. In 2019, he made a mistake by transferring a small amount of stolen bitcoin to a cryptocurrency exchange that followed know-your-customer rules. The IRS's criminal investigation division then tracked him down.
Source link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Zhong#

It turns out that Bitcoin stealers target not only big companies but individual users with modest amounts in their crypto wallets.

Now bitcoin is one of the safest way to invest digital currency. Because of its new and improved security system it makes it hard for hackers and thief to access

So now the question is bitcoin safe from hackers?, can it be stolen?

Of course it can be stolen. Have you every seen the news?
Even the story you mentioned showed that btc was stolen, even when it was through an exploit.

I mean what are the most common ways for stolen btc. Most I guess would be fake wallets for example. Like making a copy of an existing wallet, fake a homepage or an appstore site. Once somebody downloads it and deposits btc, it's gone.
People can also get their phone, computers infected with any form of malware and where their seed phrase is just stored somewhere on the device it can easily be found and used to access the wallet and transfer the funds.

I think most things that could happen can be prevented if you are careful. Only download wallets from original sources, keep your see phrase secure, keep your devices secure. If you follow these rules you should be good.

[Charles-Tim]

All the hacker has to do is get hold of your private keys or seed phrase and they can

You have your seed phrase on a cold wallet and you backup its strong passphrase differently in different locations. Such wallet will be difficult to compromise.

You have a cold wallet and a hot wallet to create a 2-of-2 multisig wallet. That is very safe if you know what you are doing.

Online wallets are the ones that are vulnerable.

2-of-3 multisig wallet will be difficult to compromise.

I have many ways that no malware can get to my wallet or able to steal from me. 100% certainty.

[dimonstration]

So now the question is bitcoin safe from hackers?, can it be stolen?

This is subjective because the answer relies on the capacity of the owners to protect their coin but assuming the owner will 100% guaranteed to do their part to properly keep their Bitcoin on a non custodial wallet then the answer is Bitcoin can’t be stolen.

No hackers can brute force someone else private key as it will take a lot of time of power just to hack someone else private key. This discussion was discussed already in the past.

Here’s the explanation of @Blackhatcoiner on the probability of hacking someone’s private key.

The odds of guessing someone's private key... Let me put it in this perspective. There are estimated to be 7.5 quintillion grains of sand in the Earth; that's 7.5 x 10^18. Now ignore the shape of our solar system, and make the hypothesis that there are a trillion clones of Earth, spinning around the Sun. That'd make the total grains of sand in our Solar system about 7.5 x 10^30. Stupidly large number there. Imagine if I told you to guess my chosen grain of sand, across this uncountable set of grains, and that I picked one at random, maybe at some corner of an ocean from Earth #623,546,123,002, or at a replica of Egypt from Earth #881,239,303,566.

Guess what. The number of these grains are not even the 0.0000000000001% of the total valid Bitcoin private keys.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Your question is confusing, but still, the answer you are looking for depends totally on the kind of stealing you mean.
If you are talking about hackers hacking the bitcoin blockchain and stealing bitcoin from there, then I would say it's impossible, for if it was, it would have happened a long time ago, for I believe that hackers have with all efforts tried to hack the bitcoin network, but they have never succeeded.

On the other hand, if the stealing you mean is like, hackers or scammers getting into a user's wallet and stealing his or her bitcoin, then "yes" is the answer to your question, if you loose your guide and expose your bitcoin wallet seed phrase or private keys to anyone else aside from your self, the person who finds SP or PK may likely use it to get into your wallet and move your bitcoin to their own address.

Or if you have your bitcoin on any centralized platform like exchange or casino (this is highly discouraged), and you allow scammers or hackers to gain access into your exchange account, then they are likely to steal your bitcoin by withdrawing it to their private wallet.

So if you don't want your bitcoins stolen, keep your private keys and seed phrases private to yourself, and keep the login details to all your accounts private as well..

[God bless u]

Yes it is a digital currency any time it can be stolen but I think its security is very tight I have been watching it for a long time it is very well secured but it can be stolen because I have seen many such coins like you did not take the example of luna that happened and then the USTC which was a stable coin was also hacked.

If the security is tight, I think there is a very low chance of theft, but at the same time, the arrangement of these people is that they will have their own team.

[Ambatman]

No it isn't safe from hackers except the blockchain itself
But this unsafeness usually comes as a result of carelessness on the holders end
You gave a proof that Bitcoin can be stolen and you asking if it can be stolen.
Like almost if not everything it can be stolen.
Like I said earlier, it is usually caused owners negligence.

[Crypto Library]

So now the question is bitcoin safe from hackers?, can it be stolen?

Of course, bitcoins can also be stolen. And I also want to say that Bitcoin is not safe from hackers in all public hands. Because there are many people who are connected with bitcoin holding or bitcoin trading but they don't browse safely while browsing, their bitcoin is definitely not safe from hackers. Because currently there are reports of huge amounts of bitcoin stealing through phishing attacks like clipboard hacking etc.
I have lost funds from myself due to phishing attacks. So in real life, just like our physical and virtual fiat currencies can be stolen, cryptocurrency or Bitcoin can definitely be stolen if we do not follow enough security. I would like to mention a proverb here, 'not your keys, not your coin' or wallet, whatever you say. And if the private of your wallet somehow goes to someone else, then the second person will be also the owner of that wallet same like as you.

[Solosanz]

There's nothing completely safe in this world, there's no one can guarantee your funds is safe 100%.

Hot wallet can be hacked, anyone can brute force someone else private key although it takes more than a century. Someone can kidnap you and steal your private key or cold storage.

Despite there are few chances Bitcoin can be stolen, but it's way way more trustworthy than trusting your funds with centralized banks/institutions.

[Dr.Osh]

It's very difficult to say that Bitcoin is completely safe because I think there are still many cases of Bitcoin theft. Apart from that, I also think that as long as she is online and in the digital world, nothing will be safe. In fact, we know that many cyber companies continue to improve their security because they know that hackers will continue to develop. However, we are only required to protect our assets as best as possible.

[criptoevangelista]

Bitcoin is the safest thing there is, it is pure mathematics, there is no way to cheat the mathematics...

all cases of theft were due to third-party security issues.

If you keep your seeds offline and follow the security protocols recommended by the bitcoin world, it is impossible to get stolen.

[Assface16678]

Sadly, yes, well, because bitcoin is digital and anything that can be accessed on the internet can be stolen by someone. For example, if you put your assets or bitcoin in a scam wallet or if the security of the application is compromised and hackers or people with malicious intent could get all your assets, they can be stolen physically. I remember seeing a topic about him being afraid of his boldings, and because of the people around him, he is afraid that they might do something to him just to get his asset or bitcoin. Well, it can happen. Like I said, there are many reasons for a bitcoin or cryptocurrency to be stolen, but those things will happen if the owner or investor is not careful about what they are doing. You know that anything that is connected to the internet is not safe, so it's up to you to make sure your assets are safe.

[PX-Z]

Found and discussed about this guy here before, i remember he even have physical bitcoins which was seized on his apartment/house the day he was arrested. If i remember correctly, it was mentioned he was mentally ill that's why he only sentenced in 1 year in prison, idk if this is true though i didn't research this info, just a memory what discussed/ i read before.

But, yeah, bitcoin can be stolen, social engineering takes a lot of statistics about it in the previous years.

[Orpichukwu]

Bitcoin can only be stolen from you by hackers if you, the holder, are not careful enough or if you are not using a strong network that can allow them to penetrate your wallet.
 
from the story you narrated, which is a well-known story among other crypto-holders and the community, and this case is different as what the hackers only needed to do was discover what could help them hack the Silk Road system, which they did, and they took advantage of that.
 
On the aspect of having my bitcoin on my personal storage, the hacker needs a means to have access to my wallet, from which they can try to infect my device without my knowledge, which is still not possible for anyone who is careful enough.
 
Aside from that, as Charles has mentioned above, using a multi-signature wallet is the safest way to be free from these hackers, as you need authorization from more than two devices in order to get that transaction authorized.

[pakhitheboss]

Can gold be stolen? If your answer is yes then Bitcoin can be stolen. Bitcoin has become a commodity and stealing commodity is a history, this time it is a digital commodity that is being gathered by those who can afford to buy it. There is nothing wrong when I look back at the ways Kings and the lords used their influence to buy gold. In a similar manner with different abbreviations in today's world Bitcoin is being bought and kept in a secure vault like gold used to be kept for the future. Those who are trying to steal Bitcoin should not be called as scammers, they should be denominated as BTCpirates.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

So now the question is bitcoin safe from hackers?, can it be stolen?

Yes, your Bitcoin can still be stollen through different means. In another words, you can lose your coin to hackers or scammers in different ways. First, if you store your coins on exchanges and the exchange gets hacked, you can lose your coins. If your device gets infected with some malware such as a Clipboard-Virus, you will end up to send your coins to a wrong address, if you are not careful. Malwares can also cause you a security bridge, that can result in Lost of assets.

[PrivacyG]

So now the question is bitcoin safe from hackers?, can it be stolen?

I can take a Polaroid of my private parts and a Hacker could still steal them should I be dumb enough to take a Polaroid only to then take a photo of it using my Smart phone and upload it in my Private Collection of my Facebook profile.

Bitcoin is very safe from Hackers.  But it is not fool proof.  If some body holds their Coins in the Wallet of a stranger, takes a photo of their Seed or saves their Private Keys in a Google Drive then I am sorry but what did you expect.  It is a time ticking bomb.  While Bitcoin itself can not be tricked, a fool can be tricked into giving up information they were warned not to.

[blockman]

Bitcoin itself is safe so as its network. What's not safe is the way you use your devices when you're connected to the internet. If you're reckless and you're like the other people that don't give importance to your browsing activities then you're prone of getting targeted by these hackers and there's a tendency that your wallet might not be safe as well and so as your private keys. As in being reckless even with how you keep your private keys, you don't mind storing it on a safer storage.