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by silverpikezero 4042 days ago
You forgot the most damaging one: - security

It is impossible on a practical basis to secure any significant amount of cryptocurrency. Even the most secure known methods of storage have been compromised [1], and computer security has reached a state which means everything is hackable. Every Bitcoin exchange I can think of has lost some significant amount of coins to hacks. I see no reasonable solution for this problem.

[1] http://leaprate.com/2015/02/is-bitcoin-safe-yet-bter-exchang...

EDIT: I have always liked your posts on bitcointalk.org

2 comments

> Every Bitcoin exchange I can think of has lost some significant amount of coins to hacks. I see no reasonable solution for this problem.

This is a problem for Bitcoin, but not a problem of Bitcoin.

The major fallout that I see from those hackings isn't so much that they occurred, but that unlike an attack on accounts held by, say, Bank of America or Citibank, there's no recourse once the funds have been siphoned out of the Bitcoin exchange -- they are just gone.

Is that the problem that you're describing when you talk about there being no "reasonable solution"?

It's a problem of bitcoin because even professionals whos job is to keep bitcoin secure are unable to do it. What hope is there for the casual user with 12 toolbars in their web browser?
And there being no recourse is a problem of bitcoin.
Agreed.
BitX is apparently using multisig technology as well as cold storage. I don't know if they're unshackable, probably not, but it could be a way forward.