Steemit got Hacked ?!?!?
I was surfing around steemit as always, Looking for kinds of help for minnows to grow like @randowhale, @minnowsupport, @minnowbooster and @booster. when I read a update post from @minnowbooster saying they are down due to solve some issue that was happening is his bot that was allowing people abuse from it and they show this post as an exemple.
So I decided to have a look at the wallet of this person too see what else was he doing, and I end up finding a transference to an account called @null. I thought it could be anotter minnow's help account so i decided have a look on it.
when I opened the @null account some several things make me feel uncomfortable:
- Null have no posts or comments
- Null have no steem, steem power or steem dollars not even 0.001
- Even Null look as a brand new account it has 244 followers
- Null's followers are constantly sending SBD to him
and here is where I really start get worry
- It is registered that null has Join in steemit in January 1970!
when we look at null's wallet we can see hundreds possibly thousands of transferentes to him with a cut link as memo a little similar to what happen to that minnow help accounts.
I tried to check some memo's links who send like around 10 SBD to null with and there are no vote up in Null's name. and even if it have the vote up should worth like 0.000 since null has not even 0.001 SP.
So this makes me ask some questions
1- why does someone would transfer money or even follow an account that has absolutely 0 engagement and SP on steemit?
2- where does that money goes ?
3- how is it possible for an account have been registered as "Joined January 1970" ? If Bitcoin the first cryptocurrency has invented around 2009 and Comercial internet itself only began to appear in 1991 ?
4- is it just a innocent program error or is there someone doing something malicious against Steemit community ?
I hope none of you get me wrong, I'm not Accusing anyone of doing nothing wrong, I'm just a steemit newbie who singed up in less then a month and are just celebrating my 400 followers today.
I'm just truly worried because the country where I live in Is having a lot of economical problems right now, which makes me, a jobless college student feel a little bit hopeless about achieve my life dream which is to continue my studies in Japan, when I discovered Steemit and its potencial I suddenly saw my hope growing again, so today I see steemit as the mais tool which can lead me to achieve my biggest dream to save up 20,000.00 US $ in order to be able for the Japanese immigration to get the student visa, which would be impossible for me to save just working in my country.
So if I see someone or something who could be using this amazing tool in a wrong way I'll try to show it to all you people who have more Knowledge about it to analise.
I'll tag here some of the "steemit specialist" that i know, if you know someone who could answers this questions please tag him/her here, if you don't just you could just resteemit couse someone who follows you could know.
could you help me to understand this ?
@steemitblog
@aggroed
@furion
@good-karma
@jerrybanfield
@kingscrown
@papa-pepper
@roelandp
@gtg
@timcliff
@jesta
@pharesim
@clayop
@wackou
@bhuz
@klye
@xeldal
@pfunk
@anyx
@witness.svk
@roadscape
@arhag
@abit
@smooth.witness
@riverhead
@thecryptodrive
@blocktrades
@busy.witness
@liondani
@ihashfury
@someguy123
@ausbitbank
@bitcoiner
@steemychicken1
@datasecuritynode
@joseph
@chainsquad.com
@lukestokes.mhth
@curie
@cervantes
@boatymcboatface
@delegate.lafona
@steempty
@aizensou
@charlieshrem
@complexring
@bacchist
@fyrst-witness
@cyrano.witness
@chitty
@krnel
@theprophet0
@au1nethyb1
@bue
@steemed
I make sure I have tagged @null couse if it is just a misunderstand you could just come and tell us what happen, and I'll be sorry for bothering you.
Nobody owns the @null account. It is built into the blockchain and all coins that are sent to it are destroyed. It is also used as part of the post promotion feature. It is not a bug or a hack - it is by design :)
Thank you for explain it, Now that so many people are saying the same thing I fell more relieved =D
send me 5sbd or steem and ill use full power on u.
I tryed your offer, if its works good I'll surely use your service often
Can i also try your service @dang007
you surely can but you should to ask directly to him in one of his posts,
make sure you read his last posts couse he often make some upgrade on the rules
Haha, “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature!” I have fond memories of one Mary Null wreaking all sorts of havoc in the back end of a big e-commerce platform I used to work with…
If I understand correctly, sending to null is what happens when you burn steem. For example when you're spending steem to promote your post. It's not a hack, it's a feature
Yes, the null account is designed to take Steem and nullify it.
Found this in the FAQ,
"Steem Dollars spent to promote a post are paid to the account @null, which nobody owns or controls. Once a user transfers SBD to @null, the Steem blockchain removes them from the currency supply."
Does that mean all accounts that do this kind of stuff will be tagged as "join before 2000 ?"
correct
Oh, that really makes sense!
thank you to make things clear !!
More about 1 january 1970 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time
That's a really cool explanation too, I guess now everything is explained =D
Hacking a blockchain is somehow impossible, don't worry about that... There are many accounts like @null that are used by the system for many different things...
BTW, don't use those whale and booster thinks for now, they are not worthy, as the steem price is low and the pool is draining, your payout will decrease, so any "boost" you could get from those bots are going the get lost after the 7 days ends...
Minnowsupport is the only good bot that doesn't charge you anything, use that one!
I was realizing this too, So if i understand well we should wait until steem price rises again in order to use this accounts in a more profitable way right ?
Yep pretty much... But honestly i don't think there is a real profit in using those paid bots, they continuously decrease their voting power in order to vote more post and earn more money, so each post will get less payout, they don't care about giving you poor payout... Those bots are business, but you can use minnowsupport which is a real minnow helping trail with not monetary interest...
Did you know you can edit your posts?
Maybe edit at the top and say "@null is not bad, no need to worry. I learned it is part of the program to 'use' spent steem. Please see the comments below."
Anyway, I like your spirit and I'm Following!
thank you for your reply ! ^^
yeah I know, when I made this post The title refletes what I was feeling at that moment, I thinked people would see the answer at the comments, but I guess you are right, I think i Should say not in the beginning but in the end as a "PS" that the question is already answered, and what null really is,
I guess I'll do this, once more thank you for the reminder ^^v
Hi andyluy,
First, thanks for your support and help. I really appreciate it.
Have you tried Japanese government scholarships? I know Korean government is giving out pretty good scholarships with monthly stipend.
Check out Korea, if you are open to the idea. It is right next to Japan so you ca visit.
Here is there website- http://www.niied.go.kr/eng/contents.do?contentsNo=78&menuNo=349
They give roundtrip air, settlement allowance, language program-korean for one year, monthly stipend and ...
Good luck my friend.
Rooting for you.
Yeah I have tried to get a scholarship in here, but the competition in here for this is really brutal, up to now I was not able to get it, but you can be sure I'll keep trying. is just that i can just invest all my trust that I'll be able to get the scholarship that's why I'm trying to get to study there for myself too.
As I told It is very hard, like nearly impossible to gather this money just by working in my country, (if I made a miracle to get a job in this crisis) but I believe the secret so success is never give up and i know I can do it !
Thank you very much for the link I surely will have a look on it, I really rather study in Japan but korea could be a great side plan. Also, my sister want to study in Korea so I will show this link to her too !!
once again thank you very much for your help it was really gentle of you =D
I am always amazed to see how attentive people are on this platform. Thanks for sharing. I follow you.
Thank you @johano I think this is one of the magical thing about an platform decentralized everyone can be a fiscalize and share immediately with others, this make it much more safe, couse if one tries to do something wrong there will be hundred of thousand others to checking.
we are all Brothers and sisters in here who protect and grow with each other o/
I think the @null account is used by Steemit, Inc to receive the SBD when sell the Promoted Posts tab. I believe it is that some witness call "burning SBD". I saw that info in the Steem.center wiki page about Promoted Posts. Thanks and good luck again!
Thank you for your explanation, it seems you guys are right about it!
this is amazing I'm every day learning a new thing with steemit !!
I am glad that this issue has been cleared up and there is no hacking involved.
me too I was really worried, but now I'm relieved knowing it is all ok ^^
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