BITCOIN- new virtual currency? Amero, move over

exiledking

Rising Star
OG Investor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Bitcoin is a digital currency created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto. The name also refers to the open source software he designed that uses it, and the peer-to-peer network that it forms. Unlike most currencies, Bitcoin has no central authority or issuer. Bitcoin uses a distributed database spread across nodes of a peer-to-peer network to journal transactions, and uses digital signatures and proof-of-work to provide basic security functions, such as ensuring that bitcoins can only be spent by the person who owns them, and never more than once.

Bitcoins can be saved on a personal computer in the form of a wallet file or kept with a third party wallet service, and in either case bitcoins can be sent over the Internet to anyone with a Bitcoin address. Bitcoin's peer-to-peer topology and lack of central administration make it infeasible for any authority, governmental or otherwise, to manipulate the quantity of bitcoins in circulation or induce inflation by producing more of them.[1]




 
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Nah. I'll pass. Sounds to much like those Ron Paul dollars and coins. It was cool for a second until he got raided by the Feds. And everyone else lost their money.
 
A risky currency? Alleged $500,000 Bitcoin heist raises questions

bitcoin-heist-poster-intro-thumb-640xauto-22595.jpg


Bitcoin, the decentralized virtual currency whose value has skyrocketed in recent weeks, faced a key test Monday as a veteran user reported that Bitcoins worth hundreds of thousands of dollars had been stolen from his computer.

Ars Technica was unable to independently verify the user's story, and he did not respond to our request for an interview. But whether the story is true or not, it highlights a major disadvantage of the currency's much-touted lack of intermediaries. Bypassing middlemen frees users from government meddling and bank fees. But it also deprives them of the benefits those intermediaries provide, including protection against theft and fraud.

As we reported last week, Bitcoin's key selling point is its clever peer-to-peer scheme for recording transactions. Rather than relying on a centralized database, the Bitcoin protocol allows any computer on the Internet to participate in the payment clearing process. At the end of each 10-minute round, one of the nodes is chosen at random to receive a payment for his contribution to the process. For this reason, participating in the clearing process is known as "mining" Bitcoins.

Wiped out

The user known as "allinvain" is a long-time contributor to the Bitcoin forums. He says he's been mining Bitcoins for over a year, and had amassed a fortune of 25,000 BTC. This was a modest sum a few months ago, when Bitcoins were worth pennies, but over the last two months the value of a Bitcoin skyrocketed to around $20, which means 25,000 BTC would have been worth half a million dollars. "I remember watching the price like a hawk," he wrote.

And then disaster struck. "I just woke up to see a very large chunk of my bitcoin balance gone," he wrote. "Needles [sic] to say I feel like I have lost faith in bitcoin." He speculated that a Windows security flaw may have allowed the culprit to gain access to his digital wallet. "I feel like killing myself now," he said.

Some other members of the Bitcoin forum expressed skepticism about allinvain's story, but most believed it. Another member of the Bitcoin forums chimed in to report that he'd lost a smaller amount of money to the same Bitcoin address.

Forum members discussed several options, including calling the police and asking MtGox, the popular Bitcoin currency exchange, to block the funds from being converted into more traditional currencies.

"An expensive test case"

Ars Technica talked to Gavin Andresen, the leader of the Bitcoin software project, about the incident. Andresen said that it would be difficult to confirm the authenticity of the report. "All Bitcoin transactions are broadcast on the network," he said. "So if someone wanted to claim they lost a bunch of bitcoins, they could claim that any transaction on the network belonged to them."

Still, the kind of attack described in the post is certainly possible. Andresen says he always emphasizes that Bitcoin is an experiment, and not (yet) for the faint of heart. "Unfortunately, this is an expensive test case for the guy who lost the Bitcoins," he said.

Andresen says that there's currently no good infrastructure for tracking down stolen Bitcoins. And, he said, there may never be a good mechanism for reversing unauthorized transactions because Bitcoin transactions are designed to be irreversible. "Once a transaction hits the network, you can generate other transactions that depend on that transaction," he said. "So Bitcoin transactions get tangled up fairly quickly."

Even if it were technically feasible, adding a mechanism for disputing transactions would create headaches of its own, because that mechanism could be used fraudulently as well. "Merchants like that there are no chargebacks" with Bitcoin transactions, Andresen said.

Right now, then, Bitcoin is a "work in progress" only suitable for the most technically savvy users. Will Bitcoin eventually be ready for the masses? Andresen thinks so. He told Ars that the Bitcoin protocol is flexible enough to support clients that handle security in a more sophisticated way. For example, a future client could split a user's private key between his PC and his cell phone. As long as no one compromised both devices simultaneously, the user's bitcoin would be safe.

The benefits of intermediaries

Still, a financial system without intermediaries has some inherent downsides. Splitting a Bitcoin user's private key between a computer and a cell phone makes it harder to compromise, but it also creates new risks. For example, unless the user backs up his cell phone separately from his computer, losing the phone would mean losing the Bitcoins. A multifactor authentication scheme also can't protect a user who is tricked into authorizing a payment to the wrong party.

Indeed, the traditional banking system offers consumers protections against fraud that are hard to replicate in any system without intermediaries. For example, federal regulations limit consumer liability for fraudulent credit card transactions to $50, and some banks offer cards that reduce the consumer's liability to zero.

And because liability for fraud falls mostly on the banks and credit card networks, these parties have invested in infrastructure to detect and deter fraud. They set minimum standards for getting a merchant account to exclude fly-by-night companies. They carefully monitor their customers' transactions and investigate any that look suspicious. And with the help of law enforcement, they aggressively prosecute fraud, both to recover lost funds and to deter other potential criminals.

Of course, some anti-theft and anti-fraud services can be built on top of the extant Bitcoin infrastructure. For example, Clearcoin holds payments in escrow for sellers until buyers receive their orders, making Bitcoin purchases less risky. And services like MyBitcoin hold Bitcoins on their customers' behalf. Presumably, these "online wallet" services can invest more heavily in securing their systems than individual users would.

But this is just to say that the disadvantages of an intermediary-free banking system can be mitigated by reintroducing intermediaries. And if most users are interacting with Bitcoin via intermediaries like ClearCoin and MyBitcoin, it's not obvious how many of the system's much-touted advantages are preserved. If your Bitcoins are held by a third party like MyBitcoin, then a government can force MyBitcoin to freeze your account just as it can force a traditional bank to do so.

In any event, Andresen seems unfazed by the heist and confident of Bitcoin's long-term viability. "These problems will get solved," he told Ars, arguing that the Bitcoin community simply hasn't grown large enough to throw serious engineering resources at them. And the broader Bitcoin community seems to agree. The market price of a Bitcoin has been stable over the last 48 hours at just under $20.
 
Is this the oldest post for BTC we have around here. I know Malaki made a thread, but it might be later than this one. :eek:
 
Looool yea definitely sucks to be this guy :roflmao:
Nah. I'll pass. Sounds to much like those Ron Paul dollars and coins. It was cool for a second until he got raided by the Feds. And everyone else lost their money.



Did he do it? And if so did he keep em? Dammit man I gotta know! lol
i'm gonna buy like $100 worth just in case it skyrockets in value.



Shakingmymuhfuckinghead this is so crazy
That $100 worth is worth $1m today.
 
This bitcoin thing seems like one big scam to me, stay away from it
Nope, I've doubled my money.

Bought $2k more of LTC on 28th.

Think about this... it's better to have you money sitting in an investment vehicle thats moving. The bank aint got no wheels, is rooted in the ground, and tied to the federal government.

Even if I make ~12% I'm ok with it, that's more than the bank will give me in interest.
 
Nope, I've doubled my money.

Bought $2k more of LTC on 28th.

Think about this... it's better to have you money sitting in an investment vehicle thats moving. The bank aint got no wheels, is rooted in the ground, and tied to the federal government.

Even if I make ~12% I'm ok with it, that's more than the bank will give me in interest.
You're preaching to the choir, I was being sarcastic. I've been in heavy since Jan, using Gunbot daily, on average was making half to one percent a day.
 
You're preaching to the choir, I was being sarcastic. I've been in heavy since Jan, using Gunbot daily, on average was making half to one percent a day.
Well shit... maybe you can teach me a few things.

What's Gunbot?
 
Looool yea definitely sucks to be this guy :roflmao:




Did he do it? And if so did he keep em? Dammit man I gotta know! lol




Shakingmymuhfuckinghead this is so crazy

It's highly unlikely that he kept some bitcoin til now, we know he definitely wouldn't have kept all of them.
Around the time of this post the price had shot up to $31 then fell as low as $2 for the rest of 2011, then climbed back slowly to $13 by the end of 2012. He'd be one hellava patient investor if he held on to them from then. He wouldn't be a millionaire though being that it wasn't a $1 at the time of the original post.
 
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It's highly unlikely that he kept some bitcoin til now, we know he definitely wouldn't have kept all of them.
Around the time of this post the price had shot up to $31 then fell as low as $2 for the rest of 2011, then climbed back slowly to $13 by the end of 2012. He'd be one hellava patient investor if he held on to them from then. He wouldn't be a millionaire though being that it wasn't a $1 at the time of the original post.

It's all speculation but usually Bitcoin enthusiasts keep accumulating over time. He should be set.
 
https://99bitcoins.com/obituary-stats/

Bitcoin Obituaries Bitcoin has died 200 times Obituary Stats | Submit Obituary | Obituary Generator Stats:Bitcoin has died:200 times (and counting...)

Most Recent Death:December 1, 2017 - There's a 'fatal' flaw in cryptocurrencies which means they can never be real currencies

Oldest Death:December 15, 2010 - Why Bitcoin can’t be a currencyDeaths by Year:2017 (82)2016 (28)2015 (39)2014 (28)2013 (15)2012 (1)2011

“Bitcoin is an amazing example of a bubble” – Robert Shiller | $797.71 Jan 14 “Bitcoin Fails As A Currency And The Bubble Will Eventually Pop” – Seeking Alpha | $912.84 Jan 08

“Why Bitcoin Is Doomed as a Currency” – Fool.com | $821.39 Jan 08 “An early obituary for bitcoin” – Reuters | $821.79 Jan 04

“One Thing You Can Bank On: The Bitcoin Currency Is Doomed” – Valley News | $798.02 December, 2013 Dec 13

“Bitcoin Will Crash To $10 By Mid-2014” – Business Insider | $887.63 November, 2013 Nov 27

“A Prediction: Bitcoin Is Doomed to Fail” – The New York Times | $955.67 Nov 26

“Once You Use Bitcoin You Can’t Go ‘Back’ — And That’s Its Fatal Flaw” – Wired | $835.11 Nov 24

“How bitcoin is going to fail and why it is not a gold equivalent” – Fester’s Den | $787.05 Nov 16

“Bitcoin Is A Joke” – Business Insider | $433.57 October, 2013 Oct 16

“Bitcoin Is A Remarkable Innovation, Here’s Why It Will Fail” – Salon | $145.16 September, 2013 Sep 30

“A Bitcoin FAQ” – Broken Librarian | $122.50 August, 2013 Aug 11

“Why Bitcoin Is Doomed To Fail” – moneygeek | $93.43 Aug 08

“The SEC Shows Why Bitcoin Is Doomed” – Bloomberg View | $93.57 Aug 03 “Why Bitcoin will fail” – DailyPaul.com | $105.39 June, 2013 Jun 20

“Bitcoin Sees the Grim Reaper” – NY Mag | $105.70 May, 2013 May 21

“Game Over, Bitcoin. Where Is The Next Human-based Digital Currency?” – OUI Share | $122.30 May 20

“Beware of This Insidious New Currency Scam” – Salon | $117.06 April, 2013 Apr 12

״The Bitcoin Bubble Has Burst״ – Whistling In the Wind | $84.59 Apr 05

“Why Bitcoin Is Doomed to Fail” – Chron | $141.32 December, 2012 Dec 24

“Wired, Tired, Expired for 2012: EXPIRED – Bitcoin” – Wired | $13.30 November, 2011 Nov 23

“The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin” – Wired | $2.37 August, 2011 Aug 09

“The Bitcoin Is Dying. Whatever.” – Gizmodo Australia | $10.95 July, 2011 Jul 13

“Why Bitcoin Will Fail as a Currency” – The Calculating Investor | $14.01 June, 2011 Jun 20

“So, That’s the End of Bitcoin Then” – Forbes | $15.15 Jun 07

“Why Bitcoin Will Fail As A Currency” – Tav’s Blog | $19.73 May, 2011 May 08

“Why bitcoin will fail” – Apenwarr | $3.12 December, 2010 Dec 15

“Why Bitcoin can’t be a currency” – The Underground Economist | $0.23

Read more: Bitcoin obituary stats | 99 Bitcoins | 99Bitcoins
 
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