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Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and You: Navigating the Future of Tech (a NeoGAF discussion thread)
Porcile
Member
Crypto is a much worse product/service than the early internet was, and companies who survived the .com bubble, or were established after, offered stable services and an actual product to already financially well off societies. There are still almost zero real world mainstream uses for crypto. The people who use crypto for practical purposes are for whatever reason (voluntarily or involuntarily) mostly on the fringes of society or in a situation where crypto might literally be their only option (a warzone or a highly corrupt country. Great). Other than that, it's just speculation. It wouldn't even be fair to call it gambling like in a casino, because there typically guaranteed odds over the long term, even if they are against the player. This shit is just random mostly or the odds of success can literally be manipulated by anyone provided they have enough invested in it.
6502
Member
My opinion has changed in the crash. Bitcoin is nowhere near big enough to be an exit out of the flaws fiat system.
Like all products it needs demand to survive. It could easily be usurpt by cdbc or some other mobile banking technology if they fill that demand (regardless of how shitty they are).
However right now it is still worth my supporting, even if just to do my bit for plucky nations looking to get out of banking instrastructure issues and debt traps. It is a moral gamble that may just payoff compared to a horse where the money is lost forever.
Like all products it needs demand to survive. It could easily be usurpt by cdbc or some other mobile banking technology if they fill that demand (regardless of how shitty they are).
However right now it is still worth my supporting, even if just to do my bit for plucky nations looking to get out of banking instrastructure issues and debt traps. It is a moral gamble that may just payoff compared to a horse where the money is lost forever.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Are blockchains decentralized?
A new Trail of Bits research report examines unintended centralities in distributed ledgers Blockchains can help push the boundaries of current technology in useful ways. However, to make good risk…
blog.trailofbits.com
Over the past year, Trail of Bits was engaged by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to examine the fundamental properties of blockchains and the cybersecurity risks associated with them. DARPA wanted to understand those security assumptions and determine to what degree blockchains are actually decentralized.
To answer DARPA’s question, Trail of Bits researchers performed analyses and meta-analyses of prior academic work and of real-world findings that had never before been aggregated, updating prior research with new data in some cases. They also did novel work, building new tools and pursuing original research.
The resulting report is a 30-thousand-foot view of what’s currently known about blockchain technology. Whether these findings affect financial markets is out of the scope of the report: our work at Trail of Bits is entirely about understanding and mitigating security risk.
The report also contains links to the substantial supporting and analytical materials. Our findings are reproducible, and our research is open-source and freely distributable. So you can dig in for yourself.
Key findings
- Blockchain immutability can be broken not by exploiting cryptographic vulnerabilities, but instead by subverting the properties of a blockchain’s implementations, networking, and consensus protocols. We show that a subset of participants can garner undue, centralized control over the entire system:
- While the encryption used within cryptocurrencies is for all intents and purposes secure, it does not guarantee security, as touted by proponents.
- Bitcoin traffic is unencrypted; any third party on the network route between nodes (e.g., internet service providers, Wi-Fi access point operators, or governments) can observe and choose to drop any messages they wish.
- Tor is now the largest network provider in Bitcoin; just about 55% of Bitcoin nodes were addressable only via Tor (as of March 2022). A malicious Tor exit node can modify or drop traffic.
- More than one in five Bitcoin nodes are running an old version of the Bitcoin core client that is known to be vulnerable.
- The number of entities sufficient to disrupt a blockchain is relatively low: four for Bitcoin, two for Ethereum, and less than a dozen for most proof-of-stake networks.
- When nodes have an out-of-date or incorrect view of the network, this lowers the percentage of the hashrate necessary to execute a standard 51% attack. During the first half of 2021, the actual cost of a 51% attack on Bitcoin was closer to 49% of the hashrate—and this can be lowered substantially through network delays.
- For a blockchain to be optimally distributed, there must be a so-called Sybil cost. There is currently no known way to implement Sybil costs in a permissionless blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum without employing a centralized trusted third party (TTP). Until a mechanism for enforcing Sybil costs without a TTP is discovered, it will be almost impossible for permissionless blockchains to achieve satisfactory decentralization.
Novel research within the report
- Analysis of the Bitcoin consensus network and network topology
- Updated analysis of the effect of software delays on the hashrate required to exploit blockchains (we did not devise the theory, but we applied it to the latest data)
- Calculation of the Nakamoto coefficient for proof-of-stake blockchains (once again, the theory was already known, but we applied it to the latest data)
- Analysis of software centrality
- Analysis of Ethereum smart contract similarity
- Analysis of mining pool protocols, software, and authentication
- Combining the survey of sources (both academic and anecdotal) that support our thesis that there is a lack of decentralization in blockchains
Direct link to the report itself (PDF warning):
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
MastaKiiLA
Member
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
One of Celsius’ Old Partners Calls Crypto Exchange ‘Ponzi Scheme’ in New Suit
The CEO of KeyFi, which helped yield farm Celsius users’ crypto, has claimed that Celsius had no real investing strategy and did not hedge against market turns.
gizmodo.com
Not good. I wonder how many others will follow suit in the coming months.
I wound up cashing out a while back because I wanted to buy some stuff so I avoided this whole mess by some luck. I wasn’t on Celsius, but I suspect most of these companies will not survive.
HoodWinked
Member
Ethereum Classic ripping up.
HoodWinked
Member
lol since my last post.
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Yeah, overall the market seems to have stabilized back out to the same values from a few years ago (2020). I suspect we will see another resurgence in another year to 5. Crypto is still a long-term bet for me. Not sure when I will dip my toes back into the water but the looming recession (maybe not so looming anymore) will most likely keep prices low, as there will be fewer buyers. I might wind up putting some money back into the market here in the next 6 months or so and just let 'er ride for a few years.lol since my last post.
ThatStupidLion
Member
In my armchair crypto enthusiast opinion:
Keep your distance. MAYBE you can sell the news and make a profit, but not expecting huge gains.
Eth classic is a dangerous token imo since eth forked from it due to security/bug issues iirc.
Anyone who currently owns eth should expect their eth to fork after move to pos. Then itll be your decision to keep or sell your eth(pow). Personally im planning to dump all of my eth(pow) asap after the merge.
Post merge eth is going to become very centralized, but its too far gone and out of our hands for eth pow to be anything more than miners scraping by before the difficulty bomb gets harder and harder
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Ironbunny
Member
Yea I read about the 51% attack on it and have no real trust for its future.
The fact so much ETH is locked up until the merge does feel ominous and I wouldnt wanna be holding at the time of transition.
chromhound
Member
Irobot82
Member
We in sat stacking mode good sir.Haven't looked at any Crypto news for the last 6 months.
I assume everything on the up?
chromhound
Member
Haven't looked at any Crypto news for the last 6 months.
I assume everything on the up?
Little Mac
Gold Member
TransTrender
Gold Member
At least you can take solace knowing Tom Brady had some skin in this game.
IWasInSeinfeld
Member
Do you really *need* cold wallets like Ledger?
thefool
Member
IWasInSeinfeld
Member
Can you explain to me the proper advantage and disadvantage? What is the difference between cold wallet like ledger and me having an app installed on my phone, in a way it makes it a hardware wallet, right?
Artoris
Gold Member
What a plonkerAt least you can take solace knowing Tom Brady had some skin in this game.
A phone app is known as a software wallet. It's connected to the internet so can be hacked to gain access to your private key.
thefool
Member
The advantage is that they are more secure. Hardware wallets are designed to generate your private keys and store them in the device, in an encrypted and offline environment and, when interacting with contracts, that information cannot be extracted.
The disadvantage is that whenever you interact with a contract you need to confirm in the device the acceptance of the transaction, (the keys, which are needed to verify transactions, are stored offline in the device).
Mobile wallets, that will depend of which ones, first of all. If, for instance (not all are like this), the private keys are stored in the secure enclave, then yes the storage is very safe (if the phone is offline). But the issue is how that information is shared when you're online and/or interacting with contracts, phones have much more software complexity, leading to a much wider attack surface. I do expect them to be extremely safe in the future but, as it stands, we're not there yet.
Hardware wallets are great crypto security hygiene. No reason not to practice.
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Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
Maiden Voyage
Gold™ Member
If you don’t have your keys, the answer is no.
Sybrix
Member
Binance CEO - ‘Crisis not over’
www.thestreet.com
Binance's CEO Warns Crypto Crisis Is Not Over - TheStreet
The demise and bankruptcy of crypto brokerage FTX will not be the last downfall in the industry, Binance's CEO predicts.
www.thestreet.com
IWasInSeinfeld
Member
Well, apparently not.
HoodWinked
Member
they seem to be the most legitimate of the exchanges but there will always be risk, timestamped:
It seems that it's a self custodial wallet so they don't have the keys to it. (edit: the wallet can be linked to coinbase exchange so you still would need to send your crypto to your coinbase wallet for it to be outside of coinbase)
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daveonezero
Banned
Sybrix
Member
Sam Bankman-Fried is ‘under supervision’ in Bahamas, looking to flee to Dubai
FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and two others are reportedly currently being detained by Bahamanian authorities.
cointelegraph.com
Ellery
Member
Good video (and segment) and reflects a lot of what I think regarding digital assets in a central platform. Or any sort of assets in "street name" and not in your own.
One has to wonder how much more contagion/danger is in the market regarding players like that. Even outside of the "crypto space.
Even though I am not a really a crypto investor I dislike the dishonest discussion and narratives floating around about crypto being the problem when it is very clear that this is human criminals stealing money.
chromhound
Member
Binance CEO - ‘Crisis not over’
Binance's CEO Warns Crypto Crisis Is Not Over - TheStreet
The demise and bankruptcy of crypto brokerage FTX will not be the last downfall in the industry, Binance's CEO predicts.
Irobot82
Member
I know we're all in a tizzy and shit coins are finally collapsing, but it's the New Year!
I still DCA Bitcoin weekly. I'm trying to see if anyone knows of a lower cost solution than my current method.
As it is right now I'll add USD to Coinbase then trade it into BTC.
If I use $100 It'll translate into $99.40 of BTC for a fee of just $0.60. Anyone know of a better method?
I still DCA Bitcoin weekly. I'm trying to see if anyone knows of a lower cost solution than my current method.
As it is right now I'll add USD to Coinbase then trade it into BTC.
If I use $100 It'll translate into $99.40 of BTC for a fee of just $0.60. Anyone know of a better method?
Tams
Member
Kraken have decided to give up on Japan after only a year. Glad I didn't bother putting any money into them, but finding an exchange that'll take non-Japanese people in Japan is stupidly hard.
Glad I'm moving back to the UK, where this will be much easier. But I'll probably get involved in stocks and shares instead, which has become much more accessible in the UK than 10 years ago.
Glad I'm moving back to the UK, where this will be much easier. But I'll probably get involved in stocks and shares instead, which has become much more accessible in the UK than 10 years ago.
HoodWinked
Member
Bitcoin finally broke past 24k ceiling.
ThatStupidLion
Member
We should get a mod to update this to be a crypto OT, maybe put it in the communities section.
Also, what are americans doing in regards to their eth? Are you going to diamond hands through to the other side of regulations and hope it gets relisted? Do you plan to sell/trade it before its declared a security once it goes 100% pos with shanghai? Or going to ride it through shanghai and put it on a dex later on once it gets delisted?
Also, what are americans doing in regards to their eth? Are you going to diamond hands through to the other side of regulations and hope it gets relisted? Do you plan to sell/trade it before its declared a security once it goes 100% pos with shanghai? Or going to ride it through shanghai and put it on a dex later on once it gets delisted?
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ThatStupidLion
Member
Whats people thinking about the xrp decision.
No way Torres rules against the sec in NY imo
No way Torres rules against the sec in NY imo
daveonezero
Banned
I don’t follow regulated crypto so no opinion
HoodWinked
Member
ipukespiders
Member
Shanghai hard fork Apr 12 (US CPI day too).
Good day to hide.
Good day to hide.
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
I didn't care as much before, but after the statement of moving to POS, I did pick up ETC and hold it. I think ETH should have stayed POW and it highlights some of my problems with ETH.
I agree, I went looking for a sort of "general perma discussion thread" and this is where I ended up.
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ThatStupidLion
Member
nice! thanks mods for at least moving this to communities
