The Penny drops: $611 Million in cryptocurrencies stolen

[WolframaticAlpha]

On 8/11/2021 at 12:39 PM, SavageNeo said:

Well, im pretty sure they wont get it back. And even if they did, it wont be easy. thats the whole point right?

"Famous last words"

[tikker]

53 minutes ago, mr moose said:

When it hardly happened before and now happens en masse, one can only determine from the data available that without crypto much of the ransoms would not exist.

I think the pandemic also played a big role in that, but I agree, ransomware has become more prevalent with crypto. An anonymous crypto wallet is not much different from an anonymous bank account though.

53 minutes ago, mr moose said:

When crypto becomes manageable like current fiat currency, then it will hold zero value and likely cease to exist.   What would it offer over the $ or the pound when it has to be accounted for exactly the same way?

Which would be good, because then it'll be able to start functioning. The intention of crypto hasn't really been to become worth thousands per unit, but as with any novel, rare and speculative thing, people value it at what they value it. If dissappearing is the faith of crypto then I'm fine with that. It is too much power and risk for the average user in its current form, so I'm not sure if it will ever go truly mainstream. I do think blockchain and other ideas in the crypto sphere are interesting and could be worth implementing in the financial system, but more as a "backend" thing rather than a front end one. This is probably what spurred so many nations to start looking into digital versions of their currencies (or they just want to be popular); there is merit to the technology.

53 minutes ago, mr moose said:

That's a bit of an illicit major (all crypto is illicit and all computers enable crypto, therefore all computers are illicit).    Which is not true and does not follow anything that I claimed or formed the opinion of.   Crypto by its very existence has spawned a deluge of ransomware attacks that have serious repercussions on society.  Therefore the consequences of its existence seriously out weigh  the benefits.   

Yet the fraction of illicit activity in crypto has been estimated to be much lower than the amount conducted with the US dollar, so the all crypto is illicit starting point is also fallacious. This year will probably be more negative with the pandemic and all. The latest Chainlaysis reports indeed show a big >3x increase in ransom payments in 2020. Even with that mssive increase, the total fraction of illicit activity in crypto went down in 2020. So far the amount of ransom payments in 2021 this has dropped to just over 50% of that in 2020, but average ransom size has kept growing. They have no general crime report yet as the year isn't over of course.

53 minutes ago, mr moose said:

EDIT: just to clarify, basically crypto is unnecessary,  If the only consequence of killing it is saving a shit ton of energy that could be used warming houses or cooking food instead and reducing large scale ransomware then sign me up, I'll happily pull the trigger.

Also agree that the energy consumption of large scale mining is a problem.

[mr moose]

10 hours ago, tikker said:

I do think blockchain and other ideas in the crypto sphere are interesting and could be worth implementing in the financial system, but more as a "backend" thing rather than a front end one. This is probably what spurred so many nations to start looking into digital versions of their currencies (or they just want to be popular); there is merit to the technology.

 

Absolutely, Harvard Uni wrote a great article explaining the benefits of blockchain in corporate contracts and government policy etc.  The inability for people to change history and edit contracts has a huge implication for transparency and honesty  (not that it seems to make a difference when politicians get caught out making bold face lies).

 

 

10 hours ago, tikker said:

Yet the fraction of illicit activity in crypto has been estimated to be much lower than the amount conducted with the US dollar, so the all crypto is illicit starting point is also fallacious. This year will probably be more negative with the pandemic and all. The latest Chainlaysis reports indeed show a big >3x increase in ransom payments in 2020. Even with that mssive increase, the total fraction of illicit activity in crypto went down in 2020. So far the amount of ransom payments in 2021 this has dropped to just over 50% of that in 2020, but average ransom size has kept growing. They have no general crime report yet as the year isn't over of course.

Also agree that the energy consumption of large scale mining is a problem.

 

I agree the difference is massive, however  I personally just don't see enough advantage in crypto to justify keeping it when the side effects of its existence are so big.     Maybe (if we ignore the energy cost etc for now) if there was a way to reduce the illicit use of crypto to that of conventional currency in terms of large scale ransomware, then I would be more for it.

 

 

[Mihle]

Worth mentioning that multiple central banks are looking in to make/test crypto/Blockchain currency. They would obviously be centralised, but if any crypto gets used as a currency for the normal person in the future, it's those ones, not the ones that exist now.

[tikker]

9 hours ago, mr moose said:

I agree the difference is massive, however  I personally just don't see enough advantage in crypto to justify keeping it when the side effects of its existence are so big.     Maybe (if we ignore the energy cost etc for now) if there was a way to reduce the illicit use of crypto to that of conventional currency in terms of large scale ransomware, then I would be more for it.

I can totally understand that. Ransomware growing 300% in a year isn't something you want to ignore.