Revisiting the Risks of Bitcoin Currency Exchange Closure [pdf]
tylermoore.utulsa.edu
tylermoore.utulsa.edu
Failure seems to mean 'closed' but there's no reason to expect such a short lifetime of exchanges that they would all close already (an exchange can be immortal) and even if you think that, the exact number of 48% is useful as it gives you an idea of how informative the dataset is due to right-censoring (the closer to 100%, the closer to a complete dataset in which all deaths have been observed).
That's safe. Convenience depends on how often you need it (and so there's not one standard of convenience you can quantify without being the actual person who's using it.)
> That's safe.
It is quite safe, but still not as safe (World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, ...) as your money in an account with insurance. And much more inconvenient.
You can also replace "one" with an arbitrarily-large number, depending on how many locations you want to store the money in.
It's not. But compared to storing large amounts of dollars, pounds, or euros, it is easier.
> Yes, you can set up a system that is very resistant to failure. But my grandma doesn't understand the difference between minimizing a window and deleting her facebook account. I'm not excited about explaining SSS to her.
Your grandma won't need to know about any of that, because she'll probably continue to trust an organisation to look after her money for her.
Just because cryptocurrencies make it feasible for people to not trust other entities with their money doesn't mean that everyone will.
You can read books yourself but it's so much easier to just listen to the vicar reading them out instead.
People learn things that are helpful to them.
I'm not entirely convinced it isn't for some people. USBs can break, keys can be lost. Exchanges can be insured and put a lot more time and energy into keeping things secure.
There have definitely been a few tremendous failures, but there's an argument for keeping it in a trustworthy big exchange, if such a thing exists. Same reason banks hold money - you don't want your house burning down or burglary to pose a problem. If someone stumbles upon your recovery keys it's game over.
To protect myself from fire or flood, I have one of these: https://cryptosteel.com/ in a safe deposit box.
Hardware wallet sits in my desk and is protected by a pin.
Both the 24 security words and hardware wallet are protected by a password.
I can use a different password to access different wallets.
I can back up my account balance by simply saving a copy of the blockchain.
Banks suck. I can't wait for them to die.
And yeah, cryptosteel. What's the difference between that and a post-it? It seems like pretty much a really small movable type. Their site reads like a Franklin Mint commercial.
If bitcoin becomes currency like you hope, you're going to run into the same problems, security versus convenience.
Um, no. When I spend bitcoin, I'm not exposing myself to the risk of someone having complete access to my account. When I use a debit card I am. Huge difference.
> What's the difference between that and a post-it?
Post it notes burn. Also, cryptosteel is only for the security words. It still won't give access to my wallet's private key.
> If bitcoin becomes currency like you hope, you're going to run into the same problems, security versus convenience
First, it already is a currency. Second, the security model of bitcoin is infinitely better than that of a bank.
So it's a post-it that won't burn.
And if it doesn't give access to your wallet, how does it protect your wallet? If it can be used to gain access to your wallet, then how is writing it down safe?
Huh? I think this comment shows you don't know what a hardware wallet is. When I spend bitcoin, I spend it using my hardware wallet.
> If it can be used to gain access to your wallet, then how is writing it down safe?
You need a passphrase along with the security words to figure out the private key. Passphrase = something long that I can easily remember.
There are good options to avoid leaving currency on exchanges.
Using a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor (which I assume is what you're referring to) is not like storing your currency on a USB.
The wallet facilitates access to your private key. If the wallet is damaged, access to your private key can be restored using a passphrase.
2) Your insurance only applies up to 250k. So keep 250k in your bank, and the rest in bitcoin since it's more secure.
Who told you to invest your entire life savings in crypto? That seems like a foolish strategy even to someone who is quite bullish on cryptocurrency in general (me).
As for "something you need to keep on a USB key", that's just silly. If you take responsibility for the security of your own funds it's really not difficult. Buy a hardware wallet and back up the keyphrase in a safety deposit box. There, you're done... now you'd have to both lose/break the wallet and have the bank's vault go up in smoke simultaneously to lose your funds.
It would be great if comments here could be limited to substantiated technical and market analysis. Comments on ideology (again if substantiated) would be useful too but right now these discussions just degenerate into shouting matches with very low signal:noise.
Was there anything before bitcoin that could have been defined as such?
Edit: Source: The 2008/09 financial crisis. You really don't need a specific source here as it's clear to everyone that Banks have done great dishonest disservices to their customers. Wells Fargo's latest news is case and point.
This is a fun statement, because it's vague enough to be defended with "oh, but I meant <foo>".
Yeah, Wells Fargo got caught making accounts people didn't know about. There are cases like Enron. Financial crises, overdraft fees inflated by ordering transactions maliciously, etc.
In the grand scheme of things, though, Wall Street tends to work, and fairly well, and when it has an issue it winds up recovering eventually so you're fine if you're well diversified and don't need to retire next week. The various stocks in the DJIA and the NASDAQ are making real products, have real value, and will mostly still be here in a few years.
You can't say the same for the ICO world.
The only caveat I'd make is that if you have dependents then this sort of fatuous ignorance is nigh on criminal. Otherwise, good luck and I hope you don't completely fuck up your life.