With security I'm interested in the situation right now, not what the plan is to do eventually. If I were to get ripped off, it's no consolation knowing that someone was planning to fix the bug later when they got around to it.
The attack described is a serious one. If someone compromises (or colludes with) the server, they could “buy” 100 BTC worth of stuff from you without really paying. You send the stuff, and you're 100 BTC poorer. In the end it's as if you'd been robbed. Same result.
With an online hosting service, like Coinbase, I think it's rather obvious you're trusting them, just as you would trust PayPal or a bank. You can make an informed decision whether you trust them (and their security) based on reputation.
The Electrum website, in contrast, hides the fact that I'm trusting a third party and makes no mention of who that third party is or why they deserve my trust. IMHO, they should disclose exactly what's going on very prominently. But they don't. As a person new to Bitcoin, based on what I know so far, I would sooner go with Coinbase than Electrum.
Comments
With security I'm interested in the situation right now, not what the plan is to do eventually. If I were to get ripped off, it's no consolation knowing that someone was planning to fix the bug later when they got around to it.
The attack described is a serious one. If someone compromises (or colludes with) the server, they could “buy” 100 BTC worth of stuff from you without really paying. You send the stuff, and you're 100 BTC poorer. In the end it's as if you'd been robbed. Same result.
With an online hosting service, like Coinbase, I think it's rather obvious you're trusting them, just as you would trust PayPal or a bank. You can make an informed decision whether you trust them (and their security) based on reputation.
The Electrum website, in contrast, hides the fact that I'm trusting a third party and makes no mention of who that third party is or why they deserve my trust. IMHO, they should disclose exactly what's going on very prominently. But they don't. As a person new to Bitcoin, based on what I know so far, I would sooner go with Coinbase than Electrum.