21–30 of 152 posts
> Since Bitcoin does not have a centralized authority, law enforcement faces difficulties detecting suspicious activity, identifying users, and obtaining transaction records Yeah. Difficulty obtaining bitcoin transaction records. Good on you, FBI.
> FBI assesses with high confidence that [...] malicious actors can [...] use botnets to generate bitcoins. As far as I understand bitcoin (which isn't too far, admittedly), the generation of bitcoins is actually encouraged, and only possible within some well-defined boundaries which basically just ensures that bitcoins are put into circulation up until it hits the fixed limit. Maybe someone could clear that up for m…
Interestingly botnets are probably a month away from being unprofitable for mining Bitcoins, in fact GPUs will be unprofitable for mining Bitcoins all-together. ASIC devices are being shipped over the next six months which will increase the mining difficulty substantially.
What does a botnet cost?
Nice document. It shows well the way of thinking of our governments. "detecting suspicious activity, identifying users, and obtaining transaction records is problematic for law enforcement." - That must deeply hurts FBI people :) "Despite the virtual nature of Bitcoin, users value the currency for many of the same reasons people trust Federal Reserve notes: they believe they can exchange the currency for goods, servi…
With so few people - in Germany at least - having their assets in Gold etc. but in bank accounts in $,EUR,... I assume most people trust the currency.
Nice document. It shows well the way of thinking of our governments. "detecting suspicious activity, identifying users, and obtaining transaction records is problematic for law enforcement." - That must deeply hurts FBI people :) "Despite the virtual nature of Bitcoin, users value the currency for many of the same reasons people trust Federal Reserve notes: they believe they can exchange the currency for goods, servi…
1) Bernake et al. are feckless idiots and will leave the money presses running long after inflation rears its head, a la Zimbabwe, causing hyper inflation and the destruction of the world economy
2) The economy picks up a bit and they stop printing. However, that huge pool of money they have created is enough to drive inflation so high that they are either faced with allowing a period of high inflation 70's style or breaking the economy again with restrictive monetary policy.
Outside wild conspiracy theories I don't think 1 is plausible and 2 is hardly likely to lead to the huddled masses attempting to warm themselves around a pile of burning trillion dollar notes. So I think confidence in the dollar is safe for the interim.
Nice document. It shows well the way of thinking of our governments. "detecting suspicious activity, identifying users, and obtaining transaction records is problematic for law enforcement." - That must deeply hurts FBI people :) "Despite the virtual nature of Bitcoin, users value the currency for many of the same reasons people trust Federal Reserve notes: they believe they can exchange the currency for goods, servi…
There are two obvious ways in which expanding the money supply can go wrong. 1) Bernake et al. are feckless idiots and will leave the money presses running long after inflation rears its head, a la Zimbabwe, causing hyper inflation and the destruction of the world economy 2) The economy picks up a bit and they stop printing. However, that huge pool of money they have created is enough to drive inflation so high that…
It sounds a little bit crazy to propose that hyperinflation would happen to one of the really big world currencies (euro, dollar, yen...). But I don't see any technical reasons why it couldn't happen at some point in the future.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
With so few people - in Germany at least - having their assets in Gold etc. but in bank accounts in $,EUR,... I assume most people trust the currency.
Doesn't Germany hold a huge amount of gold? Additionally, the only euro country not collapsing on itself?
> Since Bitcoin does not have a centralized authority, law enforcement faces difficulties detecting suspicious activity, identifying users, and obtaining transaction records Yeah. Difficulty obtaining bitcoin transaction records. Good on you, FBI.
Hang on, aren't the transaction records public and stored by the whole network?
> Since Bitcoin does not have a centralized authority, law enforcement faces difficulties detecting suspicious activity, identifying users, and obtaining transaction records Yeah. Difficulty obtaining bitcoin transaction records. Good on you, FBI.
Hang on, aren't the transaction records public and stored by the whole network?
> FBI assesses with high confidence that [...] malicious actors can [...] use botnets to generate bitcoins. As far as I understand bitcoin (which isn't too far, admittedly), the generation of bitcoins is actually encouraged, and only possible within some well-defined boundaries which basically just ensures that bitcoins are put into circulation up until it hits the fixed limit. Maybe someone could clear that up for m…
> Since Bitcoin does not have a centralized authority, law enforcement faces difficulties detecting suspicious activity, identifying users, and obtaining transaction records Yeah. Difficulty obtaining bitcoin transaction records. Good on you, FBI.