Quote from: ranlo on March 13, 2015, 01:06:48 AM

Quote from: Possum577 on March 13, 2015, 12:22:37 AM

Is there any information how heists, thefts, hacks, and scams have been avoided, fought or resolved?

A list of violations this long doesn't help entice the new user to the Bitcoin system. (Of course the list of violations in cash is endless...so likely will bitcoin.)

I think it's a dual-edged sword.

On one hand, you're showing potential users the dangers. You're teaching them ahead of time what there is to lose, so they're aware of the implications of using Bitcoin.

On the other, you're right: it puts out the message that Bitcoin is nothing but a scam (which is what I hear non-stop from outsiders I speak to about cryptos).

The only way to fight this is centralization/government interference, which is what Bitcoin tries to steer away from. Essentially, these scammers are screwing over the entire community (including themselves) to get a few extra dollars.

Dual-edged is the best way to put it.

It doesn't mean we should just ignore the scams in question and forget they ever happened rather we should remember to try and avoid future ones.
It does hurt the ecosystem to see so many scams and hacks but an awareness is beneficial to try and prevent repeat occurrences.

As for fighting it, to an extent you need to trust others if your using their services exchanges etc as they control your coins same as any bank.

Centralization is where it gets complicated more advanced Bitcoin development is looking to resolve the hacking issue with Triple Sig or Quad sig verification aka multisig, and to my knowledge Ethereum/Maidsafe outside Bitcoin are trying to develop distributed smart contracts that act as virtual companies, with tokens of value etc instead.

So in the future security developments will make it safer, but it could make it easier to run with coins if the operators themselves are untrustworthy, about half of that long list is operator failure the other part is primarily security breaches not including lost coins.

In regards to security breaches solutions can be found, but with a shady operators it's still at present difficult to implement a tracking system that everyone agrees on and will use.

(Bitcoin-OTC and Web of Trust technically exist if your going to argue Mircea's point but not that many people use them, didn't work on Pirateat40 though)