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Submitter here - I hate, hate, hate this post. It is the worst FUD I have seen in some time, and I'm only posting b/c I think it needs the full HN lens. Please don't think I agree with a single word.
This sort of article appears with each new technological invention. Go ahead and re-read it, replacing "Bitcoin" with "Motorcar".
-Buggy Whip Manufacturers Association, circa 1890's
"Stop Bitcoin. Save the children (and rhinos, too, while you're at it)!" When will we learn that money and systems (especially X new technology) aren't the issue (or the solution)? People are both. Until society admits both its faults and its failed solutions, it probably will be plagued with deplorable crimes such as those facilitated by Bitcoin (and USD and CAD and CHF, for that matter).
In 30 years time, you consider retiring, and you have a significant portion of your savings in Zerocoin. Someone, somehow, manages to fraudulently acquire your Zerocoin savings, perhaps through a flaw in the Zerocoin system itself. You go to the authorities, and ask them to help you recover your stolen retirement savings. They reply, "Sorry, as you know, Zerocoin is completely anonymous. We can't help you, no-one can."
What do you do?
Playing the devil's advocate here: In 30 years time, you consider retiring, and you have a significant portion of your savings in Zerocoin. Someone, somehow, manages to fraudulently acquire your Zerocoin savings, perhaps through a flaw in the Zerocoin system itself. You go to the authorities, and ask them to help you recover your stolen retirement savings. They reply, "Sorry, as you know, Zerocoin is completely anony…
Playing the devil's advocate here: In 30 years time, you consider retiring, and you have a significant portion of your savings in Zerocoin. Someone, somehow, manages to fraudulently acquire your Zerocoin savings, perhaps through a flaw in the Zerocoin system itself. You go to the authorities, and ask them to help you recover your stolen retirement savings. They reply, "Sorry, as you know, Zerocoin is completely anony…
Digital currencies are the online equivalent of cash, not of a savings account or stocks. Like regular cash, it can be stolen (e.g., by hacking into your computer) or lost (hard drive crash with an outdated backup), and thus, you shouldn't have more on hand than you can afford to lose.
Different rules apply to speculators, of course, but you are talking about retirement savings. Putting your retirement savings in a Bitcoin wallet is about the same as having a pile of cash under your mattress.
Submitter here - I hate, hate, hate this post. It is the worst FUD I have seen in some time, and I'm only posting b/c I think it needs the full HN lens. Please don't think I agree with a single word.
Agreed. I'd be interested in hearing Prof. Green's rebuttal -- I'm sure he's long since thought these issues through very carefully. One of the commenters to the article mentioned, money was never designed to be a tracking system. That "feature" has only been added over the past few decades. And law enforcement will always be inconvenienced in a free society, the kind our founding fathers most definitely envisioned h…
In this case, since Zerocoin is actually a university-sponsored project (from the Johns Hopkins Information Securuty Institute), we can hope for a response... hopefully it will be a rebuttal from the researchers and not a kneejerk response from administrators.
Even beyond its obvious utility (for good or ill), zerocoin is a fascinating problem in cryptographic research, and we should be grateful it's occuring in the light of day and not as some super-secret project.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/10/nsa-mat...
Playing the devil's advocate here: In 30 years time, you consider retiring, and you have a significant portion of your savings in Zerocoin. Someone, somehow, manages to fraudulently acquire your Zerocoin savings, perhaps through a flaw in the Zerocoin system itself. You go to the authorities, and ask them to help you recover your stolen retirement savings. They reply, "Sorry, as you know, Zerocoin is completely anony…
Simple: You don't invest in Bitcoin/Zerocoin in the first place. Digital currencies are the online equivalent of cash, not of a savings account or stocks. Like regular cash, it can be stolen (e.g., by hacking into your computer) or lost (hard drive crash with an outdated backup), and thus, you shouldn't have more on hand than you can afford to lose. Different rules apply to speculators, of course, but you are talking…