[kictanet] World's biggest ever digital currency 'theft' + energy concerns

Mon Jan 29 13:53:46 EAT 2018

 True that.
1.  The bitcoin network uses quite a huge amount of electricity. But this is really not 'wasted' since its the price to pay for securing the bitcoin network.  
2. Not all Blockchain networks require excessive electricity/mining. There are other puzzle-based challenges that require less electric power and Ethereum with its 'Proof-of-Stake' instead of 'Proof-of-work' puzzle comes to mind.  Infact 'private' Blockchain solutions are not that much energy hungry - though that brings in a certain level of insecurity that must be accounted for.
3. Most crypto-thefts are happening 'off' the Blockchain, that is at the user or crypt-currency exchanges levels.  Its like losing your password and subsequently your money getting lost.  More awareness needed at that level.
walu.
    On Monday, January 29, 2018, 12:30:51 PM GMT+3, Mwendwa Kivuva via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:  

 On electricity, This group is slowly missing the problem blockchain is trying to solve - TRUST.
Country X does not trust that their voting platform will not be compromised when results start trickling in, so the results better be written real time on Ethereum blockhain where a transaction cannot be modified once written on a block. 
University X does not trust their employees to maintain a genuine database of graduates, and therefore they write the list of graduates on a public blockchain.
The nodes on public blockchains have to be decentralised and run by multiple entities, to approve transactions, to validate other nodes, and above all to avoid 50%+1 attack. 
There are centralised blockchain solutions with zero mining like Ripple network. It's controlled by one organisation, and all their tokens are pretty mined. Those too solve some problems in their niche market.  
@Ali, @Victor, it's not a design flow that transactions cannot be reversed. It is by design, because that is what is trying to be achieved in the first place. But reversal is actually possible, and that is what some soft and hard forks have done. A popular reversal was the DAO hack in 2017, Ethereum did a fork and reversed the hack. Only that the reversals are costly because there is not supposed to be any.
On Jan 29, 2018 11:45 AM, "Adam Lane via kictanet" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke> wrote:

That energy has a purpose, and provides value to a consumer somewhere. The energy used in “mining a currency” provides no value at all, but is calculating sums for no reason other than to control supply of such currencies. It’s not to say that banks, data centers or ATMs should not be more energy efficient, but it is important to question why a process is designed to waste resources.

Senior Director, Public Affairs

Huawei Southern Africa

Mobile: +254-7909-85886 

From: Sidney Ochieng [mailto:sidney.ochieng at gmail. com]
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2018 10:37 AM
To: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke >
Cc: Adam Lane <adam.lane at huawei.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] World's biggest ever digital currency 'theft'

I find numbers like this thrown around without context mean nothing. How much of the worlds current energy is used on other financial transactions, running banks, credit cards, atms etc? Would anyone say that energy is wasted? 

On 29 January 2018 at 09:41, Adam Lane via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

Let’s not forget the biggest flaw of all with crypto currencies is that they depend on basically wasting energy (Which may or may not be sustainably produced, even so it could be better used than on crunching pointless numbers):

·       In 2017:

   - 42.67 TWh: The annual energy consumption of Bitcoin and Ethereum combined
   - 0.19%: The percentage of the world’s electricity used by Bitcoin and Ethereum
   - 8.49: The number of U.S. households that could be powered for a full day with the same energy as single bitcoin transaction

Senior Director, Public Affairs

Huawei Southern Africa

Mobile: +254-7909-85886 

From: kictanet [mailto:kictanet-bounces+adam. lane=huawei.com at lists. kictanet.or.ke]On Behalf Of Admin CampusCiti via kictanet
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2018 6:12 PM
To: Adam Lane <adam.lane at huawei.com>
Cc: Admin CampusCiti <info at campusciti.com>
Subject: Re: [kictanet] World's biggest ever digital currency 'theft'

Lesson:-

That we are not safe anywhere from thieves? :-)

Seriously though one of the fundamental flaws of cryptocurrencies is that once you have been liberated from your cryptos you have no recourse. This is a design flaw that we are all hoping will be resolved. Sooner rather than later.

Ali Hussein

Hussein & Associates

+254 0713 601113 

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin. com/in/alihkassim

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought".  ~ Albert Szent-Györgyi

Sent from my iPad

On 27 Jan 2018, at 8:53 PM, Victor Kapiyo via kictanet <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke > wrote:

Dear Listers,

One of Japan's largest digital currency exchanges says it has lost some $534m (£380m) worth of virtual money in a hacking attack on its network. 

Coincheck suspended deposits and withdrawals for all crypto-currencies except Bitcoin as it assessed its losses in NEM, a lesser-known coin. If the theft is confirmed, it will be the largest involving digital currency. Another Tokyo exchange, MtGox, collapsed in 2014 after admitting that $400m had been stolen from its network.

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/ world-asia-42845505# 

What lessons can we learn from this?

Regards,

Victor Kapiyo

Partner |Lawmark Partners LLP

Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, Commissioner for Oaths & Notary Public

Suite No. 8, Centro House, Westlands, Nairobi | Web:www.lawmark.co.ke 

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