Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
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Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#2I like the presentation style.
The particular phrasing of "assesses with low confidence" took a bit of twisting to understand, though. Its just a convention you have to get use to in these kind of reports, I guess.
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#3Impressively crafted document. Found it to be very concise and educational.
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#4This was leaked quite some time ago and determined to be genuine.
Wired's original article: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/fbi-fears-bitcoin/
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#5Nice 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, services, or a national currency at a later date."
People do not trust "Federal Reserve notes" (or any other official currency) - they are forced to use it, since they must pay taxes in it.
But it is good, that at least some people realize that there is no such a thing like US dollar, only those "notes" printed by Ben Bernanke and his pals.
If one day Bitcoin gets truly popular governments will be in trouble. How to tax that beast? I wonder if there is any other solution then poll tax.
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#6Interesting that they don't address whether there are concerns about it eroding tax revenue or if it is a threat to federal reserve notes.
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#7> 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 me? In that case the "malicious actors" would actually be performing a useful service for the bitcoin ecosystem.
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#8Interesting that they don't address whether there are concerns about it eroding tax revenue or if it is a threat to federal reserve notes.
I'm guessing it's because that's not something the FBI cares about. The FBI is just a police force; it ain't the Federal Reserve.
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#9Nice 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…
People arguably trust FRN's since the majority continue to save in FRN's/bank credits (I agree the trust is misplaced).
Re: Internal FBI risk assessment of Bitcoin network [pdf]
#10> 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…
It's malicious in the sense that infected machine resources are being used to directly turn a profit for the controller.
Other ways of profiting off botnets include renting out DDoS and spam capabilities.