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I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosure

(jonathanclark.com)
685 points jclarkcom | 21 comments | 16 Nov 25 20:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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chaps ◴[16 Nov 25 20:59 UTC] No.45948347[source]▶
Once did some programming/networking work for a company that did the networking of a office sharing building that Coinbase was running out of. Early in my work there I noticed that the company had its admin passwords written on a whiteboard -- visible from the hallway because they had glass for walls. So I sent them an email to ask that they remove it (I billed them for it).

Their fix was to put a piece of paper over the passwords.

What a time.

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650REDHAIR ◴[16 Nov 25 21:08 UTC] No.45948413[source]▶
This doesn’t surprise me at all.

Bitcoin, and really fintech as a whole, are beyond reckless.

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KetoManx64 ◴[16 Nov 25 21:16 UTC] No.45948453[source]▶
Bitcoin is a crypto-currency/blockchain. Coinbase is a corporation that allows users to buy/trade crypto-currencies.

With Bitcoin you do not get government bailouts like what happened with the beyond reckless banks in 2008.

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dahinds ◴[16 Nov 25 22:09 UTC] No.45948881[source]▶
"With Bitcoin you do not get government bailouts" -- yeah maybe not yet? Is it beyond belief that a government with leadership deeply invested in crypto currencies might take action if something super disruptive happens?
replies(1): >>45948937 #
1. KetoManx64 ◴[16 Nov 25 22:15 UTC] No.45948937[source]▶
Possible. But Bitcoin is hard capped at 21 million coins. The government can peint more paper money to bail a company out if it makes stupid decisions, but they cannot print more Bitcoin. This will devalue the paper currency even more and also increase the value of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is called a hedge against inflation for a reason.
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2. robocat ◴[16 Nov 25 22:24 UTC] No.45949012[source]▶
At present BTC is usually denominated in USD. Until I start to see BTC used as the cross-rate I'm sceptical. Presuming it occurs, it would occur relatively quickly?
replies(1): >>45949420 #
3. kibwen ◴[16 Nov 25 22:25 UTC] No.45949015[source]▶
> But Bitcoin is hard capped at 21 million coins

Bitcoin is not an immutable law of nature. If the coin minting cap is reached, all that needs to happen is for miners to start running a fork with a higher cap. Tada, more coins conjured out of the ether, just like all the previous ones. If you want enforced scarcity, you need to be tied to something physically scarce.

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4. rcxdude ◴[16 Nov 25 23:19 UTC] No.45949357[source]▶
It would require the market to move as well to consider those new coins worth anything, though. Miners do not have enough control of the chain to make such changes on their own.
5. KetoManx64 ◴[16 Nov 25 23:20 UTC] No.45949359[source]▶
The miners can totally start mining a fork, in fact they can start doing so today, but it doesn't matter because nobody will use their fork and then they will have lost out on their hundreds of millions of dollars of investments into mining equipment.

The node operators play just as critical of a role in Bitcoin as the miners.

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6. rcxdude ◴[16 Nov 25 23:22 UTC] No.45949378{3}[source]▶
It's not the node operators either, it's the people who transact on the chain that determine the value of the coins. The miners can disrupt the ability of the chain to transact to some degree, but they can't make people think their fork is worthwhile (why anyone still thinks BTC has much long-term value is beyond me, but...).
replies(1): >>45949394 #
7. Sargos ◴[16 Nov 25 23:23 UTC] No.45949382[source]▶
all that needs to happen is for countries to destroy their nuclear weapons

all that needs to happen is for governments to stop burning fossil fuels

all that needs to happen is for researchers to publish boring papers replicating others results

all that needs to happen is for fishermen to stop overfishing

Coordination problems seem easy but never really are. The chance of all the miners just suddenly agreeing to do something all at once is pretty low to impossible.

replies(1): >>45953140 #
8. KetoManx64 ◴[16 Nov 25 23:24 UTC] No.45949394{4}[source]▶
Yes! Thank for that correction.
9. KetoManx64 ◴[16 Nov 25 23:28 UTC] No.45949420[source]▶
Square just pushed out the ability to pay in Bitcoin to millions of retailers this last week: https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/11/11/bitco...

We're right on the corner of that very day that you're talking about.

replies(1): >>45951273 #
10. mindcandy ◴[17 Nov 25 03:05 UTC] No.45950527{3}[source]▶
> in fact they can start doing so today

In fact they already have. There are 10s of thousands of forks of Bitcoin. Only a handful ever got significant attention. And, the original is still much larger than all of the forks combined.

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11. shadowgovt ◴[17 Nov 25 03:36 UTC] No.45950653{3}[source]▶
"I tell ya, everything will be perfect again if everyone would just migrate to BCv6."
12. majormajor ◴[17 Nov 25 03:52 UTC] No.45950718[source]▶
You say "devalue the paper currency even more" but if bitcoin holders need to be bailed in any given country aren't we talking about a scenario where bitcoin is the thing that's lost a bunch of value? Some sort of "it turns out shady bitcoin holders or companies were artificially pumping up the value in a sneaky way and then someone connected the dots" situation?

First thing that comes to mind off the top of my head as a US-Govt option here would be something like: bail out US people/companies of bitcoin holdings in USD in conjunction with banning bitcoin in the US going forward. So that would be quite the string of events at that point for non-US bitcoin holders: first a crash that caused all these US bitcoin holders to go screaming to the government for help. Then the overnight removal of a huge chunk of the bitcoin market, coupled with either a firesale to comply with the ban or US gov seizure of a bunch of the coins, which will push the price lower for anyone who hasn't sold yet since their buyer pool is now much lower.

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13. KetoManx64 ◴[17 Nov 25 04:32 UTC] No.45950864[source]▶
I wouldn't be surprised if the US government doesn't attempt something just like this in the next 3-5 years. There are a lot of people fleeing the very inflationary US dollar for BTC. I think at this point it would be too late though. There are too many countries, individuals and corporations around the world that own BTC for it to be successful. There was a long term holder that dumped 24,000BTC onto the market in August and the price dropped down about 5% for maybe half a day before recovering, and it's not going to be long until other countries follow El Salvador's lead and invite Bitcoin owners to live there tax free. If the USA bans Bitcoin there will be a massive brain drain of very intelligent people who will just move to those countries.
replies(1): >>45951655 #
14. arcticbull ◴[17 Nov 25 06:28 UTC] No.45951273{3}[source]▶
That's yet another example of denominated in USD, and converted to BTC at the last second. Obviously, because of the insane volatility.
15. fmbb ◴[17 Nov 25 07:04 UTC] No.45951419[source]▶
The government can bail Bitcoin owners out by buying a lot of Bitcoin and holding it, or even burning the wallets.
16. ab5tract ◴[17 Nov 25 07:40 UTC] No.45951595{4}[source]▶
Right, but a counter point is the etherium fork. Only a handful of people stayed on the “classic” chain after that first DAO turned out to have a massive extraction bug in it.
17. CPLX ◴[17 Nov 25 07:55 UTC] No.45951655{3}[source]▶
> If the USA bans Bitcoin there will be a massive brain drain of very intelligent people who will just move to those countries.

Is that really possible? Can we do this today?

replies(1): >>45952454 #
18. pavlov ◴[17 Nov 25 10:47 UTC] No.45952454{4}[source]▶
It sounds rather wonderful, all the very intelligent crypto people voluntarily deporting themselves to El Salvador.

Everybody who ever created a meme coin should also be put on the same plane, voluntary or not.

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19. windward ◴[17 Nov 25 12:35 UTC] No.45953040{4}[source]▶
The original died in 2010. It was replaced with a very significant, large fork.
20. mjhay ◴[17 Nov 25 12:52 UTC] No.45953137{5}[source]▶
Oh no, not the “very intelligent” crypto people!
21. mapt ◴[17 Nov 25 12:52 UTC] No.45953140{3}[source]▶
A million times this.

The point of a hypothetical suggestion is to direct a specific course of action. I am simultaneously amazed at how complex the 'hypothetical' construct is, and also how many people aren't able to reason around them... since this is basically what our big brains are for.

If you assume everybody involved just stops responding to their current incentives, you can solve any coordination problem, in a manner of speaking. But it's useless as a battle plan. Operationalizing a change demands that you pick a party you're talking to, and with full view of their capabilities and limitations, modify their current course of action in the smallest possible way that accomplishes a change.