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Lead bitcoin developer invited into CIA headquarters

bitcoin.org

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Re: Lead bitcoin developer invited into CIA headquarters

#41

Post by wladimir »

bitwize wrote: post #25
danek wrote: post #18

"I think the goals of this project are to create a better currency, create a more competitive and efficient international payment system, and give people more direct control over their finances. And I don't think any of those goals are incompatible with the goals of government." Aren't these goals are completely at odds with the goals of the government, or do I read too much Chomsky?

If the government doesn't have a backdoor in allowing them to track and/or tax every transaction, you bet your ass it's incompatible with the goals of government!

With bitcoin, they do. No backdoor, but the entire transaction log is public. It's even easier for the tax man because they don't have to query data from banks. Bitcoin is not a tax avoidance scheme and never meant to be.

The sooner they come up with a legal way to tax bitcoins, the better it is for business adoption, I guess...

Re: Lead bitcoin developer invited into CIA headquarters

#43

Post by eof »

calebmpeterson wrote: post #12
eof wrote: post #9

Have to imagine they are heavily mining bitcoin as well.

To what end? Given that they're funded by the US govt. if they need more cash, they can just ask Uncle Sam to warm up the printer... Seriously though, why would mining bitcoins benefit them?

Let me answer your question with a question: Is it completely unlikely that having a large stash of bitcoin is going to be useful to them?

I think the answer is a resounding 'no.' If it put myself in their shoes, with unlimited resources, I would be like "throw a couple teraflops at this ASAP."

Re: Lead bitcoin developer invited into CIA headquarters

#44

Post by SkyMarshal »

danek wrote: post #18

"I think the goals of this project are to create a better currency, create a more competitive and efficient international payment system, and give people more direct control over their finances. And I don't think any of those goals are incompatible with the goals of government." Aren't these goals are completely at odds with the goals of the government, or do I read too much Chomsky?

More like, it's completely at odds with the BIS and their private reserve bank international monetary system. If bitcoin manages to disrupt that, hoo boy will we be living interesting times then.

Re: Lead bitcoin developer invited into CIA headquarters

#45

Post by pppp »

prodigal_erik wrote: post #40
daeken wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tor type attacks won't work here. Why? Because transactions go to everyone. Bitcoin "addresses" are really key fingerprints -- it's impossible to know who has the key to decrypt a given Bitcoin. It's equivalent to sending everyone in the world an encrypted email; if you send it to everyone, how do you know who the intended recipient is?

On the other hand, once you receive bitcoins at an address, you have to reuse that address in order to finally spend them, which interrelates the transactions in a way that's visible to everyone. The only way to limit traffic analysis is to use and trust some service like the bitcoin laundry, which will accept coins from one address and send distinct coins to another address.

Not true - you can generate a new address for each transaction without affecting your "wallet".

Re: Lead bitcoin developer invited into CIA headquarters

#46

Post by prodigal_erik »

pppp wrote: post #45
prodigal_erik wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, once you receive bitcoins at an address, you have to reuse that address in order to finally spend them, which interrelates the transactions in a way that's visible to everyone. The only way to limit traffic analysis is to use and trust some service like the bitcoin laundry, which will accept coins from one address and send distinct coins to another address.

Not true - you can generate a new address for each transaction without affecting your "wallet".

But the block chain remembers the current owning address of coins. You can't create a new address and use it to spend coins which you received at an old address, for the same reason I can't spend coins which belong to you. (You could transfer coins between your own addresses, but that's also publicly visible and wouldn't solve the traffic analysis problem.)
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