101–107 of 107 posts
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> This means bitcoin is the only electronic payments and storage system where your funds are not subject to seizure by a central authority. Unfortunately, Bitcoin is not "men with guns entering your house or server location and taking your drive" proof.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deniable_encryption
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You could try following up with this guy: http://falkvinge.net/2011/05/29/why-im-putting-all-my-saving... (for reference, HN discussion was here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2596475 )
That guy is just buying bitcoins, he's not interested in writing put options.
But... the guy has made it clear he believed bitcoin's value would rise, so selling a put option at - say - current value would be advantageous to him. Offer a low enough strike price, high enough premium, and word your offer in layman's terms ("you get money now and might get money later if bitcoin rises or might have to pay money if it falls") and he could be tempted to enter in an appropriate contract.
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Most exchanges are outside the USG's jurisdiction. Even if the USG tries to crack down, there will always be workarounds. The USG has been cracking down on online poker and gambling sites fir years, but that has never stopped the growth of the online-poker market in the US (to this day, online poker sites continue to sponsor poker tournaments that are aired on ESPN). The USG has been successful killing payment compan…
The agencies fighting against online poker are much weaker; also, poker is a profitable business that can defend itself. The US dollar is a centralized system. US financial regulation is in effect worldwide (except now Iran, I guess). If you have a decentralized system dependent on a centralized one, it's a centralized system. Bitcoin is not dependent on the USD for its operations, just for its value. The day after M…
I wouldn't say 'big' exactly, but the participation is non-zero: http://blockchain.info/nodes-globe?series=48hrs
Two questions: 1. When a country limits capital flow, it sometimes becomes impossible to move your money out of that country. Doesn't Bitcoin solve that problem? 2. I have very little knowledge about how it actually works and how secure it is. How secure is Bitcoin ? Are governments via ISPs able to recognize packets that contain Bitcoins ? Or do you need to use ssh ?
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There's no other decentralized e-currency. This means bitcoin is the only electronic payments and storage system where your funds are not subject to seizure by a central authority. You won't wake up one day and find your account frozen (cf paypal, bitcoins are safe in the blockchain as long as you have your wallet) or be totally helpless if the domain name of some fly-by-night startup goes down (cf e-gold, bitcoins a…
> This means bitcoin is the only electronic payments and storage system where your funds are not subject to seizure by a central authority. Unfortunately, Bitcoin is not "men with guns entering your house or server location and taking your drive" proof.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/12/brainwalle...
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> This means bitcoin is the only electronic payments and storage system where your funds are not subject to seizure by a central authority. Unfortunately, Bitcoin is not "men with guns entering your house or server location and taking your drive" proof.
Yes, bitcoin is exactly "men with guns entering your house or server location and taking your drive" proof." http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/03/12/brainwalle...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most exchanges are outside the USG's jurisdiction. Even if the USG tries to crack down, there will always be workarounds. The USG has been cracking down on online poker and gambling sites fir years, but that has never stopped the growth of the online-poker market in the US (to this day, online poker sites continue to sponsor poker tournaments that are aired on ESPN). The USG has been successful killing payment compan…
The agencies fighting against online poker are much weaker; also, poker is a profitable business that can defend itself. The US dollar is a centralized system. US financial regulation is in effect worldwide (except now Iran, I guess). If you have a decentralized system dependent on a centralized one, it's a centralized system. Bitcoin is not dependent on the USD for its operations, just for its value. The day after M…
But what about your neighbor Bob's place? You buy him dinner, and the next day a string of bits comes your way via Tor (or somesuch.) There is no need to utter the word "Bitcoin" during said dinner. A wink, a nudge, etc. will suffice. The next day, Bob does the same with his neighbor Charlie. And so on.
And, naturally, if Bob were a traitor, he could rat you out to the Gestapo. But he could just as easily rat you out for [insert extremely popular but highly-illegal-in-the-USA activity here.] No digital cocaine required - the analog kind will do. And if you haven't any under your bed, Bob will helpfully leave a kilo in your toilet tank.
Most people have already had plenty of practice exchanging highly-illegal strings of bits. Now they will just need to learn to give each other "free" stuff as well.
Bitcoin hasn't reached the critical mass needed for this kind of thing, but there is no reason why it could not.
Consider hawala (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawala) which is doing quite well despite draconian bans. On which currencies do hawala transactions depend? All of them and none of them.