Dogecoin wallet hacked
In the words of the Register, "see if this sounds familiar."Not good times for the Dogecoin wallet provider DogeVault. This isn't news hot-off-the-press: Dogevault went offline on May 13th . They are hoping their backups work as they attempt to restore service. But who cares? Pundits are already singing their dirge for Dogecoin , or calling it doomed to failure .
So: what's next? Dogecoin was a fluke, right? A mirthful riff on the success of Bitcoin, that by luck or happenstance wound up becoming temporarily worth something? If you believe cryptocurrencies are the future, what's the plan, if hacks and wallet thefts become the almost unstoppable future? Or if you believe cryptocurrencies are a passing nerd fad, what comes next?
As for these online wallet services that keep getting hacked, taking the money and running, or otherwise failing... trusting your cryptocurrency to some random website is pretty much exactly like trusting your cash to some guy standing on a street corner with a sign declaring himself a banker. And, lest any object to "some random website", I must point out that "most users of FooCoins use BarExchange, therefore they must be trustworthy" is exactly as stupid as it sounds.
I think it's clear that, at least for now , if you're not enough of a nerd to be able to store your own wallet with enough encryption and redundancy to keep it safe from theft and data loss, you shouldn't be using cryptocurrencies for any sum of money that will hurt to lose. Wait till either they become popular enough that sufficiently-trustworthy-and/or-accountable banks or bank-like entities offer cryptocurrency-denominated accounts, or until some crypto-genius finds a technical solution to the problem of letting an untrustworthy entity keep your money in such a way they (or someone who hacks them) can't spend it.