Hacker News Reader

Comment by bbbbb5 | Hacker News Reader

You can definitely steal houses though. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-59069662 https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/march/ho... https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/she-had-n...

You can also steal stocks. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/us-charges-ha...

> The vast majority of wealth in developed countries doesn’t rely on physical security to maintain ownership

Indeed, it relies on far sillier things like hoping that nobody spends $100 on a fake ID and pretends to be you.

View on HN

When this stuff happens, you can engage in a legal process that has the power to get your property back. The process to recover from this can be slow and difficult. I acknowledge that this is a failure of the institutions involved, which can and should be fixed. However, the existence of these avenues for recovery acts as a strong deterrent that limits the frequency of such crimes. That’s why I am slightly worried about the local gang stealing my TV (and my safe full of Kruggerands) but not at all worried about them stealing my house.

When your crypto is stolen, the theft cannot be reversed, by design.

The same legal processes that can be used to recover funds stolen from your bank account or stocks stolen from your brokerage account can be used to recover cryptocurrency.

>When your crypto is stolen, the theft cannot be reversed, by design.

If someone sends you a phishing link, gets your info, logs into your online banking and sends all of your money overseas, that theft generally can't be reversed either. (You'll find that the CFPB recently updated their Reg E interpretation on this, but that interpretation isn't binding and directly contradicts decades of practice)

If you're a business and get hit by banking malware, you're similarly fucked.

> The same legal processes that can be used to recover funds stolen from your bank account or stocks stolen from your brokerage account can be used to recover cryptocurrency.

If that is the case, then doesn't that destroy (at least) one of the basic principles of cryptocurrency that people constantly harp on?

No? Why would it?

The basic principle will be the same most of the time, you identify the thief and use legal measures to force them to return the funds.

But vast majority of banks will call you and go "yo, wtf", some even outright lock your account (with many false positives but still) from doing so.

There is zero chance that will happen for bitcoin.

OTOH essentially all relevant cryptocurrency exchanges will let you use security keys, most banks will not.

Not for Bitcoin no. For other more advanced currencies (everything that supports smart contracts) rules likes these can be coded into the wallet.

You can have a rule that allows spending <$1k at known places, but anything over that has to have approval from 3/5 board members, or your manager etc. Any spending rule can be coded like this.

But you can then by using law, unsteal it. If bitcoin's gone, it's gone. There is no recourse.

A house? Maybe. Hasn't worked out for the guy in the BBC story so far.

Brokerage account hacked, stocks sold and money wired away? Your chances of recovery are extremely slim. There's pretty much no recourse once that money has passed through a few hops.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com