Buttcoin

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Buttcoin is the future of online butts. Buttcoin is a peer-to-peer butt. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new butts or tracks butts.

A community for hurling ordure at cryptocurrency/blockchain dweebs of all sorts. We are only here for debate as long as it amuses us. Meme stocks are also on topic.

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Did you know anyone can freeze your account on an exchange with one unblockable trick? (universeodon.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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This week on "Unexpected Downsides To #Cryptocurrency":

Did you realize that you can't reject #blockchain transactions and therefore anyone who wants to harass you can more or less freeze your "bank account" at an exchange like #Coinbase instantly just by either:

a) sending a euro through a sanctioned mixer service like #TornadoCash before sending it to you or

b) sending a few cents to a sanctioned terrorist wallet before sending you a single cent

The automated systems used by Coinbase will immediately notice that you have interacted with suspicious or sanctioned wallets and Coinbase, which, like all crypto companies, spends as little as possible on customer support, will lock your account until you produce a passport for the person who sent you that tiny amount of money (often for months).

These so called "dust attacks" constitute revolutionary new vectors in harassment.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago (2 children)

No, I'm not really well versed in crypto. A friend of mine that works in offensive security mentioned this to me. Basically with how the algorithms behind cryptocurrency work, and with how the legal process works, you don't have control over any of your coins nor do you have legal avenues to correct any wrongdoing, nor does any human power or agency have the ability to forcibly correct actions taken by bad actirs. You MUST treat crypto like cash in a mattress and do everything yourself, anything else is a security theater facade.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

I see. You should maybe know that while it's true in a sense, a lot of people don't like that phrase very much. It's a cliché cryptocurrency fans recite in response to any issues with cryptocurrency exchanges and I among others feel it serves to downplay the responsibility of the exchanges and blame the victims.

Securely taking care of an offline crypto wallet is somewhat more complicated and technically involved than just having an account on an exchange site. That the easiest way to use cryptocurrency is also an insecure one speaks of a major usability problem in the whole ecosystem.

More importantly, exchange sites offer what is essentially a bank account with little of the accountability of an actual bank. If a bank gets hacked and loses all your money or freezes your account for frivolous reasons, people generally don't go "well you should have stored your money in cash inside your mattress instead". (I guess some do, but they deservedly get the stink eye from people in polite society)

I dislike cryptocurrencies and have little trouble having vindictive schadenfreude when coiners and their platforms keep being embarrassed time and time again, but I know the real problem are the corporations and the tycoons, so I don't like their responsibility being shifted on the least informed and most vulnerable group of retail users, who are also the most likely ones to use these exchange platforms and thereby not hold their own keys.