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Hackers stole billions in crypto to keep North Korea’s regime afloat

(www.wsj.com)
125 points Bostonian | 2 comments | 03 Apr 25 13:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.558s | source
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ForHackernews ◴[03 Apr 25 14:30 UTC] No.43570239[source]▶
Kim Jong Un's keys: Kim Jong Un's coins.

Blockchain is a perfect, transparent trustless global ledger that can't be hacked, so it's a misnomer to characterise these transactions as "cheating", "crimes" or "theft".

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cvoss ◴[03 Apr 25 14:51 UTC] No.43570603[source]▶
If you unlawfully or immorally gain access to information, such as my private keys, and then use that information to move money, you have absolutely committed a crime, cheated, and/or stolen from me.

If you deceive me into executing a transaction voluntarily by misrepresenting the destination (which is immoral and often illegal), you have absolutely committed a crime, cheated, and/or stolen from me.

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tgv ◴[03 Apr 25 15:20 UTC] No.43571042[source]▶
To add to the other comments: do you really have a right to whatever it is that the bits unlocked by that key represent? Who granted you that? AFAICT, it's the systems running the blockchain that grants you that, and it's not governed by any contract outside the blockchain.
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1. cvoss ◴[03 Apr 25 19:33 UTC] No.43574321[source]▶
What is your theory for why you own any physical possessions? Do you only own things at the pleasure of your government which bestows you that privilege? I would think that if a coup replaced your government by force with one that did not respect rights of private ownership, you would cry "immoral", would you not? Or would you shrug and say "might makes right"?
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2. tgv ◴[05 Apr 25 12:53 UTC] No.43593080[source]▶
Basically, you own what you control and can protect from leaving your control, by force, or punishment. The modern state is almost based around ownership and freedom, and takes the responsibility for a lot of that.

It may be immoral (not necessarily a crime, mind you) if someone deceives you, but so is using Bitcoin. You're burning the Amazon, while serving as a cash convertor for criminals. Just for personal gains.