What happens when someone builds an autonomous Bitcoin exchange on Ethereum?
Decentralized exchanges are already in the works.
Even better, the 0x protocol.
Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
21–30 of 142 posts
Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#22> There are many legitimate uses of Bitcoin
What are those. I have claimed here and will repeatedly do so -- there are none. I mean, sure, there are a few companies which integrate the sell-your-bitcoins-buy-our-product in one go but the volume of that is near irrelevant. And no, international transfers do not count as a usage because not only the sender needs to buy bitcoins the seller needs to sell them too...
Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#23Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#24> There are many legitimate uses of Bitcoin What are those. I have claimed here and will repeatedly do so -- there are none. I mean, sure, there are a few companies which integrate the sell-your-bitcoins-buy-our-product in one go but the volume of that is near irrelevant. And no, international transfers do not count as a usage because not only the sender needs to buy bitcoins the seller needs to sell them too...
You mean, what are legitimate uses for decentralized internet cash? Besides everything that physical cash is good for, plus many more uses made possible because you can send money without exchanging physical tokens?
Come on...
Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#25This is what I never understood about bitcoins's reputation, especially earlier on, about its supposed anonymity. I suppose that's much less the case now. But it always seemed odd that people considered it at all anonymous when the blockchain kept a record of everything. Sure it might not be immediately identifiable with a specific individual, but unless it was a wholly closed system, entry & exit points would always…
This is a problem with the internet in general. In the future, we will have an archive of everything everyone did on the internet and can use stylometry, Facebook likes and clicks, and temporal association to uncover individuals. The only way to opt-out is to just stop participating.
All newer cryptography based systems for preserving privacy, like ZCash and Monero, are based around elliptic curve math that will one day be broken. As with 4chan or reddit, the belief that one is anonymous can lead one to engage in riskier or more controversial activity. This is at risk of being uncovered in the future, with potential for damage to the individual.
Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#26> There are many legitimate uses of Bitcoin What are those. I have claimed here and will repeatedly do so -- there are none. I mean, sure, there are a few companies which integrate the sell-your-bitcoins-buy-our-product in one go but the volume of that is near irrelevant. And no, international transfers do not count as a usage because not only the sender needs to buy bitcoins the seller needs to sell them too...
Very bizarre to state the obvious use cases, then nullify it with handwaving.
The current cost to move $10m of bitcoin across international borders is about $1. Attempt the same via conventional means and you'll quickly realise it's benefits go beyond monetary efficiency.
As for current working use cases Factom[0] stores an auditable timestamped data trail in a merkle tree structure, which is then anchored into the bitcoin blockchain.
This is a tech minded site, I would hope people here understand the value of immutability. Real immutability, data that can't be altered or undone in anyway.
Many seem upset at bitcoins meteoric rise and the rampant speculation for good reason, but make no mistake blockchains will be around long after we are gone.
[0] www.factom.org
Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#27This is what I never understood about bitcoins's reputation, especially earlier on, about its supposed anonymity. I suppose that's much less the case now. But it always seemed odd that people considered it at all anonymous when the blockchain kept a record of everything. Sure it might not be immediately identifiable with a specific individual, but unless it was a wholly closed system, entry & exit points would always…
Bitcoin was not designed to be anonymous but this seems to be really difficult to grasp.
You don't even have to scratch the surface of Bitcoin to learn that at its core Bitcoin is a distributed ledger, powered by the "blockchain" which is open book for anyone to follow every transaction ever made. This is not a separate tracking system, it's the very fundamentals of how Bitcoin is able to function and it makes no effort to attempt to keep its users anonymous.
I can only conclude that claims Bitcoin is anonymous when compared to cash is either propaganda or ignorance.
Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#28Did they get http://btc-e.nz also?
Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#29These domain name seizures from non US-resident entities keep coming. But more worryingly, "The language in the indictment about BTC-e’s “criminal design” mimics the indictment against Liberty Reserve". This also mimics the Kim DotCom / MegaUpload take down, along with a likely "FBI" operation in a foreign country. It seems there is now a policy of taking down things that are "criminal in design" - waiting for the ne…
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Re: Why the feds took down one of Bitcoin’s largest exchanges
#30>Money laundering is the process of transforming the profits of crime and corruption into ostensibly "legitimate" assets.
>A cryptocurrency tumbler is a service offered to mix potentially identifiable or 'tainted' cryptocurrency funds with others, with the intention of confusing the trail back to the fund's original source.
English might not be my native language but I can see lots of parallels.
I never actually considered this before but a mixer is the physical world would be getting mailed (by anonymous parties) 10 bags of money, 9 legitimate ones and one known to be from mafia and with sequential bill numbers known to feds and then repacking and mixing up the banknotes and receiving 10 visitors, each of whom gets one bag from you.
You just laundered the money, sort of... it gets screwy (that's a very technical term ;) although does it really? From 9 legitimate bags you made 10 (functionally) legitimate ones. You can't trace the mafia guy after your mixing, you can't pick a guy with a bag at random and say he is the mafia perp, you can't say each of these guys now has 10% of illegitimate money in his bag because they can't be responsible (and don't even know) about actions of other people who mailed you money. An entire money bag just got laundered (by the definition above, it was crime proceeds and is now ostensibly legitimate because it can't be distinguished).