[Tangent:] "Calling a Hack an Exploit Minimizes Human Error" -- But Renaming Theft As Either... Is Dishonest. And Crypto's Central Problem.

As long as I am ranting about crimes -- and people caught for them -- as well as some not yet aprehended. . . let us look in once more on the pirates' cove. . . that is "crypto-".

Coindesk's Daniel Kuhn offers an op ed that covers some good ground this afternoon, pointing out some of the "gilding of the lily" crypto-bros use to refer to the unlawful tactics many of them are known to employ, against one another. But it falls too short, by more than half -- in letting two classes of bad actors avoid admitting, even to themselves, that they are. . . crooks. Yes. CROOKED-EY crooks.

That is a central problem with the very fabric of these "markets". For instance, in securities trading (by contrast), "front running" a trade is clearly-unlawful, as a fraud against fair price discovery by honest unaffiliated purchasers and sellers. But in Bitcoin trading, these a-holes tell each other that it is just more "risk on". . . all okay -- if no one gets caught, they say.

The language. . . they employ -- embeds an Orwellian lie. These Ayn Rand-ians think outright stealing is a morally-neutral act. And they think that anyone who cannot protect themselves "deserves" to be stolen from. So -- into this warped, corrupt "market", appear at least some (or perhaps most?) 20 somethings -- who think of all of it as just a massive multi-player video-game -- to exploit. To trick.

But make no mistake -- both "exploits" and "hacks" do only one thing: they. . . steal. Steal real value (or at least steal stuff other idiots are willing to pay real fiat cash for).

So, Coindesk offers this, as its close out:

. . .[I]t’s worth asking if the language crypto uses to explain its myriad vulnerabilities (risks stacked on risks) contributes to the ongoing business made out of hacks [Ed. Note: "Theft" is the word you mean, here]. Or if sometimes we’re pulling definitions from hats. . . .

[Again, Ed. Note: here making up (from whole cloth) FALSE definitions; ignoring the actual conduct involved, and the bad actors' actual crimes.]

Dammit. Call. The. Thing. By. Its. Name.

Until all of these Randian-kids are willing to end the stupidly ineffective game of "rewriting history" -- to label a thief as a white hat "security researcher" -- and pay him/her/them (but it almost always turns out that it is a young white male) a "bounty" -- actually, a BRIBE/ransom, to get at least some of the value back. . .

This will be no real market at all. It is simply a pirate cove, with many a pirate just biding their time, lounging on the piers, in full view -- waiting... until enough value can be grabbed quickly, to make it worthwhile to undertake the pirate run, and sail out of the cove, under cover of darkness.

So -- Coindesk: stop calling it anything other than. . . felony theft. My advice? Call a cop -- immediately. End the bounties. Period. Full-stop.

A true white hat (in the land of software security research) shows the code, but does not steal the dough. Every one of these three years worth of attacks. . . have stolen the dough, at least for a time.

So -- get serious and grown up about it -- or get out.

And now, we will sit back and grimace, as tomorrow (in additional Randian gyrations, in these "markets") Riot Blockchain tries to make much more by NOT mining -- than actually mining -- selling its rights to draw electricity back to the broken, long-since privatized Texas grid -- again. Last time (February of 2021) it killed over 80 people.

They froze to death. What will be the total this time 'round, Gov. Abbott?

Out, not grinning this time.

नमस्ते