[darklajid]

I'd argue this isn't about bitcoins. A (popular) VPS provider, according to that article, had a security problem that allowed some idividuals to access the VPS management interface for any machine they cared for.

They could've defaced your site in high traffic times. They could've logged in and delete your projects on the VPS. Depending on your setup (they had root) they could've searched for your backups. They could've read your mail, if that machine is your infrastructure service - and continue from there (password reset, amazon, buy expensive stuff. password reset, twitter, damage your reputation).

In this case the bits modified were part of a virtual currency and had a more or less clear value. I'd say there could've been worse results of that security hole though and 'don't put anything on a vps' is not a solution.

[klodolph]

It's not about "don't put anything on a VPS", it's about "don't put money on a VPS."

[darklajid]

I'm sorry, but you just said the same thing again that I was arguing against. 'Money' is not as clear cut as you'd like it to be.

Bitcoins are no real recognized currency. So you can trade them for USD -> Don't store it?

What about this great project I'm working on? All my stuff on the VPS, because that's convenient and accessible from everywhere. I spent a double digit number of days on it. I have a daily rate for working as a programmer. Don't store it?

You totally ignored (so hard, that I think you didn't read it fully) my post about issues that are harder to value even. Access to your mail can be devastating. Even if you don't store 'money' on that VPS. Putting a dent into your online reputation by messing with your life on the net is hard to value, but certainly damaging. Again, no 'money' stored.

Bottom line: You ignored my point or didn't read my post at all. You picked a line out of context and refuted it with a pointer to the argument _I explicitly tried to prove wrong_.

[TomGullen]

Bad comparison in my opinion, BitCoins can be stolen (taken away and become unrecoverable) whilst your project you've been working on is recoverable.

Also the value something is worth is what someone else will pay for it. You can't value a project you're working on as your hourly rate * hours worked, it doesn't really work like that.

[darklajid]

1) Recoverable: Only if I have backups (which I excluded in my comparison, and would be a fault on my side. But go with me here..). Otherwise I'd need to invest (see the word I used here?) time to create it from scratch. That's equivalent to an amount of money (the exact amount is hard to define, granted).

2) 'You can't value a project you're working on as your hourly rate * hours worked, it doesn't really work like that.' Right. But it's totally okay to value ~worthless~ stuff you have according to market rates, although you didn't sell them yet? Why are we talking about ~12k USD here? That's just a couple of bits and bytes on a disk. Yes, he _could've sold_ that at a specific time for a specific amount equaling ~12k USD. He didn't. Why do you assign this value to a highly fluctuating 'currency' on your disk, but don't like me assigning value to a 'yet to be successful' project on disk?

[TomGullen]

Point 1 isn't really debatable in my opinion, you make work, you back it up and if someone deletes it off your server you just move it back on. Bitcoins by design don't allow you to recover them.

Point 2, back in the day when currency was backed by gold reserves would you have said the coins and notes people had were also worthless? As they are not 'sold' yet into gold?

Also I don't say a project on your disk has no value, a project on your disk has worth, the amount it's worth is how much someone will pay for it. Because the project on your disk doesn't really abide by any fixed standards you will probably find it's quite difficult to sell it.

[res0nat0r]

Then this conversation should be about the security breach and the BitCoin aspect should be a side note. The data lost is not what is important, just how the breach should be resolved and prevented in the future yes?

[sgornick]

Or passwords, or medical records, or anything confidential or of value?

[bigiain]

I bet people think twice before storing medical records on services like Linode. At least I _hope_ they do?