On tonight’s episode of Tales from the Crypto…
Yeah, this will totally replace real money. Any day now.
Cryptocurrency: like regular currency, only even more imaginary.
$200+ million of customers’ Bitcoin
Come on, you’re better than this, Boing Boing.
“Bitcoin” isn’t a catch-all term for cryptocurrency. And in this case, there was “only” 92.3 million USD of straight-up, actual Bitcoin involved.
All the rest consisted of various Bitcoin spinoffs, Litecoin, Ethereum, et al.
I’ve been wondering basically the same thing. What purported advantage do these online lockers offer, beyond the chance of irrevocably losing all your digital money?
According to this discussion on Reddit, the allegedly lost funds are moving and the “lost access” part may thus be a simple scam: https://www.reddit.com/r/QuadrigaCX2/comments/amg266/quadrigacx_litecoin_cold_wallet_address_found_and/
Alternatively, they might have their accounts in complete disorder like Mt Gox and now the shit is hitting the fan, customers want to withdraw and the exchange misplaced the money, hence the lies.
I think I read on BB about this guy who found an encrypted laptop hidden at the back of a closet in his new house. Can anyone find that thread?
It’s so much worse (better) than it seems at first blush, even.
Apparently the whole damn thing was a pyramid scheme and they couldn’t pay out the money they owed people after the values of cryptocurrencies started going down. The CEO “died” several weeks after extensively putting his affairs into order, setting up his will, trusts, etc. before “dying” prematurely of a known, preventable cause while in a foreign country. I read something that suggested that there was movement with some of the “inaccessible” coins, as well. The CEO may, indeed be dead. He also might not be, and he absconded with the “lost” tulips coins.
Whatever the situation, I can only but laugh.
Piggy bank hidden in the laundry basket under the dirty socks doesn’t look so bad now, huh.
Nope. I think it’s hilarious too, particularly given that he might not actually be dead.
Yeah, people really do die, and I’m not happy that anyone dies. I guess my question would be: those passwords that you need to get the money… do you also need them to verify the money is still there? I think the way blockchain works they would notice if the money came out of the wallets, but I’m not an expert. (and maybe no one will be looking for the money a year from now)
This makes more sense. The story even while I was reading the headline smelled very fishy.
Who would run a 190MM tech company with no contingency plan? Nobody. That’s who.
I have a hard time believing that this does not involve fraud.
It’s only a matter of time before modern-day treasure hunters start using quantum computing to crack wallet passwords.
Tissue paper is kleenex and a copy machine is a xerox and a cryptocurrency is a bitcoin.
Wikipedia says that roughly 20% of all Bitcoins are lost and impossible to retrieve. That sounds like a big, highly deflationary problem, especially in a currency that limits how much new currency can be minted.
And I just inadvertently wrote the reboot of Goldfinger.
I think it’s for people who have money to burn and want in on crypto, but are either not tech savvy enough to set up their own wallets, or like “having people” to handle stuff like that.
I have a client right now who literally doesn’t know the particulars of several six and seven digit unsecured loans she made as investments in start ups; “my accountants know the details” (except they actually don’t 
). So not inconceivable to me that some rich folks would send this guy money to “get into crypto” without knowing exactly what that entails.
When you care more about encryption than you do accountability, you’re gonna have a bad time.
