Now, before I say anything else, let me insert this caveat here: Obviously, bitcoin theft is a big deal to anyone who loses money from it. That's not what this article is about.
Alright, on to the stuff that matters.
Sure, someone hacked them, or maybe it was an inside job, or maybe someone was careless and left some files in plaintext with private keys somewhere they shouldn't have. Bad things happened, especially from BitfinEx's perspective, and the perspective of their clients. No argument.
And of course, as soon as it made headlines, we all saw the posts and articles about how bitcoin was ruined, how this was the end, blah blah blah.
Most people who have been with bitcoin for a few years know it's nonsense. For those of you who -haven't- been with bitcoin for years, let me tell you this: It's going to be fine.
A server got compromised. Not a good or nice thing, certainly.
But servers get compromised all the time, and it doesn't bring down anything, except possibly the owner of the server, and maybe people who were using the services it provided.
Bitcoin wasn't hacked. As far as I'm aware, and obviously, I could be wrong, but as far as I'm -aware-, the bitcoin network itself have never been compromised. Ever.
And this wasn't a compromise of the bitcoin network. It was simply a server with financial information being compromised. Unfortunate, but it does nothing to bitcoin that won't disappear into a tiny little blip on the charts in the long term.
So hold your coins in your cold wallets, and rest easy.
I upvoted You
Word. Something I commented earlier which falls in line with what you're saying: the situation with bitfinex is like a bank having 100 dollar bills in a cardboard box at the bottom of a broom closet. When someone breaks into the closet and still the money it's not the trust in the U.S. dollar that gets ruined, it's the trust in the bank stupid enough to store the money in a closet.
Exactly. and I'm sure they did all their due diligence. I mean, the amount of money that was stolen? Exchanges are prime targets for unscrupulous hackers. they'll poke and prod and pick until they find a loose board to pry open.
The best part is all the people claiming this will be the end of bitcoin... a few years ago bitcoin had nowhere near the support it does now and Mt. Gox lost 400 million or something... investors still got interested in bitcoin. This isn't even a quarter of that and they're saying this is the end? Right... no where near it. It's okay though, let 'em sell. Then there's just more for us to buy!
Yeah. The mainstream is always ready to pounce on anything and declare it the end of bitcoin. That's what soros pays them for, you know :P