But seriously, both the mining methods and the crypto behind bitcoin WILL be broken. It's only a matter of time and I'd bet it will end up being much sooner than later. When either of those events happen the system gets fucked.
While government sponsored currency also has risks of counterfeiting and fraud, they rev the system so they don't tend to happen on a large scale. When Bitcoin breaks it's likely to break very badly. With governments, outside of failing ones, they have an incentive in making things right if you're a victim of fraud, who's going to do that here? If you get fucked you're probably going to stay fucked. [Reply]
LONDON (AP) — It's a promising form of electronic cash free from central bankers and beloved by hackers. It — Bitcoin — may also be in trouble, registering catastrophic losses that have sent speculators scrambling.
Although the cybercurrency has existed for years as a kind of Internet oddity, a perfect storm of developments have brought it to the cusp of mainstream use.
As currency crises in Europe piqued investors' interest, a growing number of businesses announced they were accepting bitcoins for an ever-wider range of goods and services. The value of a single bitcoin began racing upward amid growing media attention, smashing past the $100 mark last week before more than doubling again in just a few days.
Then came the crash.
The price of Bitcoin has imploded, falling from around $266 on Wednesday to just above $40 on Thursday, according to bitcoincharts.com, which tracks trades across the Internet. The best-known exchange, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, has suspended trading for what it described as a 12-hour "market cooldown." By late Thursday, the currency was back up to just more than $100.
Originally Posted by FD:
Its customer base is almost entirely composed of criminals and goldbug ideologues, which to me suggests its not very sustainable. Its an interesting experiment, though.
You are exactly are exactly right- in the future- the world will be in short supply of drug dealers and people trying to launder money-lol
The biggest prob is that is fluctuates from $50 to $250 back to $100 in a week-lol [Reply]
ok, there are a lot of people here who don't seem to understand bitcoin at all.
#1 YES it is vulnerable to hackers.. but not in the way you would think. Hackers don't attack the currency itself. (well occasionally they do steal wallet files just like real world pickpockets) What they do is attack the currency trading sites. This tends to drive prices down. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. When the prices go down, they swoop in and buy low then sell high. It's not really a big deal and likely will work itself out over time.
#2 yes someday the ACTUAL cryptography will be much easier to "hack" but we are not anywhere CLOSE to that right now. We are (at current rates) DECADES away from that being even a consideration. UNLESS people get off their asses and put out some serious quantum computers.
#3 See above for concerns about mining... it's the same issue. [Reply]
I do see this as useful for transfering money accross borders- western union charges a lot and has all kinds of restrictions. It wont be long before the Gov- clamps down on it and tries to tax it in some way or ban it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by FD:
Its customer base is almost entirely composed of criminals and goldbug ideologues, which to me suggests its not very sustainable. Its an interesting experiment, though.
This.
Until merchants start hopping on board (and no, I'm not talking about a random bar in New York, I mean Wal-Mart), this is going nowhere.
Bitcoin is being supported by crazy libertarian idealists, and as a way to launder drug money. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Halfcan:
I do see this as useful for transfering money accross borders- western union charges a lot and has all kinds of restrictions. It wont be long before the Gov- clamps down on it and tries to tax it in some way or ban it.
How could they possibly regulate it though? It has no connection to the Fed-that is the exact reason for it, to be a Fed killer. It can be traded through the internet or through an exchange off of a thumb drive, emailed, what-have-you. It has not physical presence to be confiscated. Because its not affiliated with a country, no country has the right to tax it.
Any action they took would be completely unenforceable. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Halfcan:
I do see this as useful for transfering money accross borders- western union charges a lot and has all kinds of restrictions. It wont be long before the Gov- clamps down on it and tries to tax it in some way or ban it.
The government can't touch this.
The deep web is a goddamn labyrinth.
And remember, this is the GOVERNMENT we're talking about. They couldn't stop their own http://www.ussc.gov/ site from getting raped by Anonymous, not to mention the hack of the Federal Reserve. [Reply]
It's not a Fed Killer. Don't believe the Alex Jones bullshit. There's no devious intentions at all other that establishing a global online currency system base free of government or territorial rule. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Fish:
It's not a Fed Killer. Don't believe the Alex Jones bullshit. There's no devious intentions at all other that establishing a global online currency system base free of government or territorial rule.
I really don't see it as one either, but for various reasons of varying legality, it would be nice to be able to move $10K without being scrutinized or taxed. The Fed killer idea is a mere pipe dream of only the most fervent state-of-nature advocates. [Reply]
I have 25 bitcoins that I've been playing with... bought a few months ago for around $10... I took a $250 risk and now it's worth over $2500.
I love the concept of it, since I hate the greedy international bankers in control of the central banks, fractional reserve banking, and fiat currency. [Reply]
