As crypto-currency becomes more and more mainstream with every passing month, people need to be aware of the increasing dangers of theft and extortion. People are being held against their will and forced, in some cases, by gun point to transfer their entire crypto wallet contents to that of their captor. Just last month a Russian tourist was robbed of $100,000 after being blindfolded and kidnapped in his own apartment in Phuket, Thailand.
Don't think for a second that this couldn't happen in a first world country either, a New York man was forced by his "friend" to hand over $1.8m of ETH and this is a growing phenomenon.
This brings me to the lack of privacy in your Steemit wallet. I think it is very dangerous to openly advertise exactly how much someone has in their account and I understand that it may have been a decision around transparency in the early days but now as people flood to this amazing platform, it is long overdue to have the discussion around hiding these private details to the public. The potential harm that could be caused is nothing short of devastating, could you image if your bank account details were visible to the public?
SO WHAT CAN I DO TO HELP?
- First upvote and share this post. We have to spread the word and get more people talking about this
- Write comments/posts to @ned and/or @sneak that we want this changed
- Vote for @fyrst-witness, as he is a witness that cares about our privacy
- Follow @fyrstikken and upvote his post here
Greetings @simondocherty.
Thank you for posting about this important topic.
Saw your post title and thought....'must direct him to @fyrstikken's post'.......I was glad to see you had already discovered it.
Yes.....freedom and the right to privacy stand or fall together.
Thank you for bringing awareness to Steemians.
Welcome to Steemit.
Cheers.
Post hasn't had the traction I would have liked but needless to say if one person then spreads the word then I feel I am helping. Thanks for your coments.
yes I often thought that it was a little odd how everything was so visible.
I support this and resteemed
Thanks mate. Hopefully some of the big boys will take notice.
Interesting post @simondocherty privacy is a concern! I agree with @gohba-handcrafts and I agree with @choogirl and you know how crazy that makes me.
Just got to weigh it up. What harm could come of privacy around people's wallet now compare that to the harm that be could be caused to making it public..
A no-brainer for me.
Just about as crazy as me love lol 🥂
I totally agree. There's all kinds of reasons that all the transaction information should be kept private. Good point and one I haven't seen mentioned much on here before.
Thanks, while I know I am not the first, I think it needs to be said and said often until changes.
Even the comments etc... I can see it becoming an issue for people with crazy exes, or maybe court cases etc... Of course "don't put anything on the internet you wouldn't want on the front page of teh newspaper" but,the fact that wallets and all comments and interactions are publicly viewable should be made more known at the very least to newbies before they get themselves in trouble lol
I posted about this exact same thing a little while back. I agree with you. There should at least be an option to make your wallet private if you so desire. The entire internet has access to each individuals wallet. Transaction history would be fine to keep open for transparency but there definitely needs to be a function to remain private on the balance.
Maybe our little voices just don't get heard in the big sea of whales with all their woooooooo'ing (that's a whale noise lol)
An interesting perspective that I'd not really thought of. However, you can't transfer anyway if it's locked up in SP. They are gonna have to wait a while, in which case you've got some time to do something about it.
I kinda think that makes it worse. Do you really want to be kidnapped for weeks on end? Desperation, motivation and opportunity are powerful forces, people, can do some pretty crazy things. Just look at the Somali pirates, they take on massive ships in these tiny little fishing boats that have ex-army security personnel. They wouldn't hesitate to kidnap someone for months.
A man just escaped months of torture today in Brisbane.
On a daily basis in Australia you hear of someone getting kidnapped, home invaded, stabbed in their home or worse and the media never report the reason why. However it would be my guess that it is either, women, drugs, or money.
True, but you could get kidnapped if someone thinks you have a lot of fiat money as well. They could dig around in financial records if they really wanted. If people want to find out information about you and then hold you to ransom, they are going to find a way to do it.
I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'm not necessarily agreeing with you that everything should be private either. It goes against the whole point of public, open blockchains IMO.
BTC = Serious investigative research to even remotely try and link a wallet to a person. Doable but skills are required and transactions are still fully transparent
My bank account = impossible to know, massive assumptions would need to be made
Steemit = A big fucking banner with fireworks and neon lights saying rob me.
lol
If steemit hid the wallets on the website doesn't mean that the blockchain is hidden. People would still be able to follow the money so to speak
True. Although you could still make some assumptions about who has money and how doesn't by the size of their upvotes.
Great idea! But I doubt it will be hidden.
I think what people need to do is not tell via a public forum where they are at any one time or your address, ever!
One of those Kardashians kept instagramming or tweeting what she was doing as she was doing it, then she got attacked and robbed in her hotel. Now she doesn't. Was that Russian tourist tweeting or instagramming?
There are already so many websites showing net worth of the famous and rich. It's not a new practice.
I don't think our earnings will get hidden, we've gotta do the hiding and not be so public or transparent with our intentions etc...
While I agree with your sentiment, that people should be more careful about what they post online, the way the platform currently displays it makes us all a target without us volunteering that information. I would be especially concerned if I was youtube celebrity as you could possibly be recognised or what if someone organised a steemit meeting in your city, you could be walking into a trap simply because you have no control over who see's account.
Bitcoin was designed to give control back to the people and I feel that this kinda goes against that mantra. I think in the long run people will see this as reason to not join or alternatively withdraw their steem entirely.
Yeah, I'm not concerned about those people, they have more than enough money for body guards and the best security money can buy.
Then common sense needs to prevail. Don't go to any meetups unless you know it's a genuine group meet in a very public place. Definitely food for thought. One day at a time. I'll cross these bridges as I get to them. Today was one little bridges as its given me some thought on my security. You have certainly got me thinking more about it. Thanks!