Second BitCoin exchange (FlexCoin) wiped out by theft

FlexCoin ^ | Mar 4, 2014 | FlexCoin

[Izzy Dunne]

On March 2nd 2014 Flexcoin was attacked and robbed of all coins in the hot wallet. The attacker made off with 896 BTC, dividing them into these two addresses:

1NDkevapt4SWYFEmquCDBSf7DLMTNVggdu

1QFcC5JitGwpFKqRDd9QNH3eGN56dCNgy6

As Flexcoin does not have the resources, assets, or otherwise to come back from this loss, we are closing our doors immediately. Users who put their coins into cold storage will be contacted by Flexcoin and asked to verify their identity. Once identified, cold storage coins will be transferred out free of charge. Cold storage coins were held offline and not within reach of the attacker. All other users will be directed to Flexcoin's "Terms of service" located at "Flexcoin.com/118.html" a document which was agreed on, upon signing up with Flexcoin.

Flexcoin will attempt to work with law enforcement to trace the source of the hack.

Updates will be posted on twitter as soon as they become available.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Starting my own currency called 'Poop Coin'. Buy in soon while supplies last.

[Vince Ferrer]

There is a future for this kind of thing, but it is not for the storage of wealth. It will succeed when the primary use is for the transmission of wealth, like in credit card transactions.

[cincinnati65]

If “they” steal all the Bitcoins, then how much will the Bitcoins be worth?

[Errant]

Thanks Izzy Dunne

Click to be Added / Removed.

[Red Badger]

Maybe ‘stealing’ the bitcoins was not the ‘object’ of the theft. Just maybe they whole purpose was to make them disappear into nothing, remove the value and cause exact circumstances that are happening now, total chaos and devaluation in the ether-currency.

Now, who do you suppose would want that to happen?..................

If you said, “Any government on the planet.” you win the kewpie doll.

If you said, “A co-operative of many governments on the planet.” you win the grand prize - a vault full of Bitcoins..............................

[djf]

The smart thing to do is to have a wallet on an exchange, and have a local wallet.

AS SOON AS ANY COINS ENTER THE EXCHANGE WALLET, you send them to yourself locally.

[Izzy Dunne]

There is a future for this kind of thing,

As a computer programmer, I understand the nuts and bolts of HOW the thing works.

But I have yet to figure out WHY I should use it.

I haven't see what it offers, beyond promised lower transaction fees (lower than CreditCard fees). And that it certainly not worth the risk I've seen.

The fact that it's outside government control is bait for all sorts of unsavory characters.

And the value of the dang things has gone from $500 to $800 and back in one day. Not what I would call a good investment.

It's all a chimera. So is regular currency to a certain degree, but this is further out there.

[House Atreides]

Folks, if you have Bitcoins, I’d suggest you keep them in YOUR OWN “WALLET” ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER. And then protect your own computer from attack or unauthorized access using standard security software.

[Portcall24]

Excellent point. This approach has pushed the concept back ten years...something that legal action could never have done as effectively.

[djf]

It is an anonymous, counter-party-less medium of exchange.

For instance, you might think you have a 100K account at Charles Schwabb.

But you only have that account if someone there AGREES with you.

And if for some reason, CS takes a hit, your money could be bye-bye before you even know it!

(I’m not dumping on Charles Schwabb, just stating the obvious.)

[thackney]

I mean you steal all of it. So it becomes worthless. So what was the point of stealing it?

Do you think the electronic transfers could be completed, or mostly completed to sell prior to the word getting out?

In the electronic age, how fast after theft could they be used (immediately?) to purchase a real currency?

[Portcall24]

Reminds me of the fellow selling rabbit droppings as smart pills. After a guy buys some and tries one he says, “This tastes like rabbit poop.”

Where upon the first guy says, “See, you’re getting smarter already.”

[Vaduz]

Imaginary Coins are used by Obama&Co all the time.

[DariusBane]

I don’t think it is necessarily the U.S. it could be any nation state. Could be international bankers. Soros. I can speculate. Russian Mafia is the Russian State.

[thackney]

It is an anonymous, counter-party-less medium of exchange.

For instance, you might think you have a 100K account at Charles Schwabb.

As with all mediums of exchange, you only have value if someone else thinks you have value. FlexCoin bit coin holders likely will have trouble today convincing anyone else they have value.

It would be far easier taking Charles Schwabb to court to recover losses than FlexCoin. They still own the "commodity", but the commodity now has no value.

[andyk]

Maybe because the sole purpose of government is to safeguard our rights, one of which is the right to property. JMHO.

[Izzy Dunne]

Folks, if you have Bitcoins, I’d suggest you keep them in YOUR OWN “WALLET” ON YOUR OWN COMPUTER.

TIP #2: Don't forget about them. I saw a story about somebody who dumped their old computer, not realizing it had a quadrillion bit coins on the hard drive.

OOPS

[PieterCasparzen]

Is it possible that the biggest interest in destroying bit coins would be Nation States? If Bit Coins works, and eliminates State control of currency that would be an unparalleled form of freedom.

Central banks "manage the money supply", not government departments like the US Treasury.

Central banks are a creation of the financial elites, who have business roots that go back to the old banking families.

In the US, this goes back to Rockefeller and Peabody/Morgan, which were financed by European banking families.

International banking needs to protect its monopoly on the the creation of money. International banking (in the US this was the "old money" families in New England/New York, with the Rockefeller/Morgan houses sitting atop it all) does not tolerate any challenge to their Federal Reserve central banking system, and (co-inkadently) they also always have placed operatives at the top of the US espionage operations. The old banking families were always the leaders in the espionage business, and their modern American "descendants" are aware of the need for this. Thus we see the Wall Street/CIA connections at the highest level. Of course, in the UK there is a parallel relationship between the leaders of UK finance and UK espionage. It comes in delightfully handy in cases like this, where this is without a doubt a "black" operation embarked upon to "safeguard the US dollar", as this is "key to national security".

The silliest thing about bitcoin was the people who created it thinking that financial elites would ever let it displace the major currencies of central banking.

Of course, if somehow it was technically infeasible to "attack" it in the way they did, they could always legislate it out of existence.

The best way to defeat central banking is, oddly enough, by accumlating their currency and not borrowing at all from them. As you gather cash, you'll get rid of your debt, and it's through debt that the financial elites actually enslave the "sheeple". Only borrow directly from other real people (appropriately) to acquire capital required to put to work in a business, do not borrow for consumer spending of any kind. If you borrow, borrow directly from a real person. Distribute excess cash to secure vaults instead of keeping it in bank accounts, or lend it directly to real business owners as an investment. Only use the banking system to conduct transactions, not as a place to park your money or borrow.

This is the only way "out" of the financial elites' capital markets and banking monopoly.

[djf]

Current Bitcoin quote is $664

That’s hardly “no value”.

Part of the reason for the recent spate of raids is the escalation of price.

These kinds of things will be dealt with.

[I want the USA back]

“bitcoin” is a cleverly-implemented ponzi scheme.

You don’t “mint” them. You run a program that conforms to certain rules, and another program “says” that you have a bitcoin.

You don’t have anything. They don’t exist.

That would be OK if it were only a game that people play. But some people foolishly traded in real dollars for cleverly-designed pixels on a screen.