Online Cash Bitcoin Could Challenge Governments, Banks

Hackers Break Into Bitcoin Exchange Site Bitcoinica, Steal $90,000 in Bitcoins dtd May 14, 2012.

-- Tom

 

Man!

The thread, pretty interesting read:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81045.0

PD

 

Ouch!!! PD I hope you keep your BTC offline and off of these online sites; I frankly just do not trust them.

~h

 

I'm a local kind of guy...no cloud, no way, for nothin'

PD

 

Neither do I

 

Bitcoin: The Cryptoanarchists’ Answer to Cash.

Note: This is an IEEE Spectrum article and discusses the origins of an independent digital currency back to 1992 - i.e. good historical perspective.

-- Tom

 

...Bitcoin as the 'Net's Wild West.

-- Tom

 

Understanding Bitcoin.

-- Tom

 

Why Bitcoin lives in a "legal gray area".

-- Tom

 

Hacker steals $250k in Bitcoins from online exchange Bitfloor.

is under development.

-- Tom

 

Bitcoin Exchange Loses $250,0000 After Unencrypted Keys Stolen.

-- Tom

 

Bitcoin - a Means for Redistribution of Wealth.

This is an interesting article about achieving fiancial independence by the author whom is the founder of the first African Bitcoin exchange, Fikisha Africoin, having formerly worked as an IT Consultant in the banking industry in Germany, Switzerland and Singapore. It takes a long view of the topic. Caveat Emptor.

If you are a fan of Lord of the Rings, there is a great image of Gollum holding up a Bitcoin as "My precious".

-- Tom

 

Bitcoin Foundation launched.

Bitcoin makes bid for respect with new foundation.

Bitcoin Foundation vows to clean up currency's bad rep

-- Tom

 

Bitcoin exchange Bitfloor attempts comeback after $250,000 heist.

Note: See post #61 above in this thread.

-- Tom

 

I never understood how Bitcoin works, anyone care to explain?

 

-https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#What_are_bitcoins.3F-

Also read the links that I've bolded in the above quote.

Basically, it's a peer-to-peer transaction accounting system.

 

would be interesting if BitCoin idea could work but i think once govt's see it as a serious threat to their tax base, they will begin to undermine public confidence in it with various attacks. Maybe its already started with the latest "heist". or maybe they just outlaw it.

 

I seriously doubt that govt's will see BitCoin as a threat to their tax base. When salaries are given in a nation's currency, and sales taxes are collected at a register - will there be new registers to contain acutual BitCoins and/or will BitCoin paper money denominations be printed as legal currency for any country in the world?

-- Tom

 

yeah you might have a point there.

i was going to say this:

the gov't wants a cut of every transaction. what happens when BitCoin starts gaining acceptance and you can pay your lawn company, plumber, electrician, etc in BitCoin?


but i guess you can already pay these folks in cash. You could be right.

EDIT: could be useful to purchase some things on the internet, like software. If you're a software
author getting paid in BitCoin then how would an IRS go after you unless they could trace the transactions?
i guess the problem is the author has to try to buy something useful with the BitCoins or maybe they can be
cashed out anonymously for local currency?

 

Bitcoin is perfectly legal in the U.S. (I can't speak for other countries). Many people think that because the "Liberty Dollar" got shut down by the DOJ that this would apply to bitcoin. It wouldn't. Indeed, the press release from the DOJ after that incident even said that only the government can create currency. That's false.

What happened with the Liberty Dollar is that it was a physical currency that was printed and minted. The problem was that some people were confused thinking it was U.S. government issued legal tender. Therefore, the DOJ charged the owner with counterfeiting, saying that his coins were too similar to U.S. government minted coins. Such a case could not be brought against bitcoin because it is not printed and has no way to "resemble" U.S. currency. Besides, there have been other digital currencies in the past which have had varying levels of success. The main difference is Bitcoin is not centralized (the others were backed by one organization).

So as long as you don't pass your currency off as "U.S. legal tender" and as long as you don't make it resemble physical currency (i.e. make your coins look like U.S. coins or dollars), then you are fine. This could change with new laws in the future, but for now it is legal.

 

i don't think you can predict what this gov't or DOJ will or would do and who knows what any courts will rule. They all seem to do whatever they want now and the media just goes along with it.

and if you go back to the 1930's where supposedly Roosevelt confiscated most of the gold or gold coins or whatever, by what authority did the federal govt do that? i can't see how that would be legal. we have a constant erosion of rights.

 

They passed a law, making the possession of gold and silver illegal. It's illegal in the US to possess many things. It may become illegal to possess some crypto software, for example. That's already the case in many nations.

 

Doubtful. That would be against the 1st amendment and would never fly. Besides, they tried it already in the 1990's and gave up the idea. And even if they did outlaw crypto software, how in the world would they enforce it? You can download it from anywhere.

 

How many other things lately has the government shot down that is covered under the 1st Amendment due to "national security" or has some organization sued over because they, well, quite frankly got "butthurt"? You're right about the 1990's, but one could easily argue we had a lot more rights and protections left to turn to. That's all going away, not fast enough to cause mass outrage but not slow enough to not be noticed by those paying attention.

Quite honestly our rights and protections are a court ruling and a presidential executive order away from being gone. I hate to sound like a pessimist bunker-dweller, but we're seeing it all erode away over time like a beach.

 

78 percent of Bitcoin currency stashed under digital mattress, study finds.

Related publication download: Quantitative Analysis of the Full Bitcoin Transaction Graph (PDF: 1.8 MB 18 pages)

-- Tom