Bitfinex bị hack

     
More than $60m worth of bitcoin was stolen from one of the world’s largest digital currency exchanges yesterday, & nearly 24 hours later, the event is still shrouded in mystery.Bạn đang xem: Bitfinex bị hack

What is clear, though, is that the impact is far-reaching.

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The Bitfinex theft represents the largest loss of bitcoins by an exchange since Japan’s infamous Mt Gox lost 744,408 BTC in early 2014 (worth $350m), a breach that would ultimately cause it to lớn cease operations.

At press time, the value of the 119,756 BTC stolen from Bitfinex stands at roughly $66m, or about 18% of what was lost by Mt Gox.

Given the size, the theft has sparked confusion and frustration aý muốn market traders & observers since it was announced.

Sources cthất bại to the exchange have sầu largely avoided offering bình luận on whether the 119,756 BTC stolen represents the full extent of the haông xã, & Bitfinex itself has yet lớn publish any findings from its ongoing internal investigation.

Here’s what we know (& what we don’t know) so far:

What we know

Multi-signature accounts were impacted

The source of the vulnerability appears to lie in how Bitfinex structured its accounts và its use of bitcoin wallet provider BitGo as an additional layer of security on customer transactions.

Announced in 2015, Bitfinex và BitGo created a system whereby multi-signature wallets, those where keys are divided aý muốn a number of owners lớn manage risk, would be provided lớn each customer.

The exchange declared at the time:

“The era of commingling customer bitcoin và all of the associated security exposures is over.”

As referenced in the quote, the companies sought lớn find an alternative sầu to lớn the standard process used by exchanges at the time that saw customer funds co-mingled in larger offline wallets and connected or “hot” wallets used to lớn meet liquidity demands.

Rather, each Bitfinex user has their own mix of keys created on the platform, using a 2-of-3 key arrangement whereby Bitfinex held two of the keys (including one offline) and BitGo used the third to co-sign transactions.

In order to lớn withdraw such a large amount of funds, BitGo would likely have sầu had to sign off on those transactions.

Bitfinex customer losses significant

While the full extent of customer losses on an individual basis is unclear, signs indicate a significant subphối of the bitcoin trading community was impacted.

In the hours following the news, community members took to lớn Twitter và Reddit khổng lồ report that their accounts had been drained.

Some users expressed exasperation despite having security measures lượt thích two-factor authentication in place, in which secondary devices (lượt thích a di động phone) are used lớn provide an additional passkey layer.

On the other hvà, funds transferred khổng lồ the exchange following the hack are said to lớn be secure, but the exchange has yet to lớn release details on both when và how withdrawals will be managed.

Bitcoin prices have sầu fallen sharply

One of the most direct impacts of the Bitfinex hachồng could be seen in the price of bitcoin, which plunged after the news broke.

Prices fell by nearly 20%, tumbling as low as $480 USD before recovering.


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At press time, the price of bitcoin is approximately $552, according khổng lồ the bacninhtrade.com.vn Bitcoin USD Price Index, up roughly $70 from yesterday’s low.

Bitfinex remains offline

Alos at press time, Bitfinex remains offline, with its message announcing the haông xã still visible lớn users.

Statements from Bitfines suggest that the company is looking khổng lồ initially bring the site online so that users can check their balances & determine whether their accounts have been drained.

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What we don’t know

Who is khổng lồ blame?

Yet despite the assurances, some observers have blamed the service for “blindly signing” the withdrawal of nearly 1đôi mươi,000 BTC và wondered why no potential countermeasures were in place in the event of a movement of funds of that form size.

With 30-day transaction volumes just above 600,000 BTC, the haông chồng was roughly one-sixth of the kích thước of the exchange’s monthly orders.

When will fiat funds be accessible?

One prevailing question among customers is the status of deposits not denominated in bitcoin. Since the haông chồng was first revealed, Bitfinex stated that only its bitcoin holdings were impacted.

More than a few customers are now taking to lớn social truyền thông to lớn ask when they’ll be able khổng lồ access or withdraw those funds.

Answers may be coming soon, however. Representative Zane Tackett, who has been responding to lớn queries via social media since the incident first came khổng lồ light, said that more updates are forthcoming.

Were other exchanges impacted?

Other market observers were quiông xã to lớn speculate on whether the outage could lead lớn complications at other exchanges that may have sầu been using Bitfinex as a source of liquidity.

It is known that Bitfinex did offer an API and that it was at one time used by exchanges, though the primary over markets appeared to be brokers & traders.

Such an issue was exposed by a hachồng at Bitstamp in early 2015, when exchanges, merchants & ATM providers connected khổng lồ the exchange experienced a notable disruption.

At press time, it’s unclear if any smaller exchanges were impacted, và smaller exchanges contacted by bacninhtrade.com.vn reported no disruptions.

In statements to bacninhtrade.com.vn, however, exchanges Kraken và Bitstamp indicated that their approaches to lớn implementing BitGo’s multisig công nghệ differed from that of Bitfinex.

“For now I can already say that Bitstamp’s implementation of BitGo’s MultiSig technology is fundamentally different from the one at Bitfinex,” Vasja Zupan, head of business development for Bitstamp, told bacninhtrade.com.vn.

In an gmail, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said that while he couldn’t offer details on the exchange’s security measures, he remarked that “we’re confident in our configuration” in light of the Bitfinex breach.

Is BitGo’s business Mã Sản Phẩm at risk?

Whether BitGo is deemed at fault, it may be losing the battle of public opinion.

Sources suggest BitGo’s business Model was primarily based on charging enterprise clients for services, and that bitcoin exchanges were the company’s primary target market.

One major exchange representative sầu said that the incident had raised issues with the multi-sig security Mã Sản Phẩm và that further rollout was likely be delayed as a result of the breach.

Yet statements from exchanges about the viability of their own BitGo implementations suggest that at least some of the service’s customers aren’t looking khổng lồ make any changes, at least for now.

Is the CFTC khổng lồ blame?

Bitfinex settled with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) earlier this year over alleged trading violations, paying a $75,000 settlement while neither admitting or denying the charges.

Press materials from last year also indicate that Bitfinex’s relationship with BitGo predates the CFTC’s investigation.

Image via Shutterstock

Disclosure: bacninhtrade.com.vn is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in BitGo. 


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