Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote:
> scottlowther@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax<dirk.bru...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>> What Are Bitcoins?
>
>> Site got hacked, demonstrating a serious weakness in the concept.
>
> No, that was the equivalent to a bank being robbed.
> Bitcoin has bounced back.

What was demonstrated is the weakness of on line data. It's too much
like banks storing gold in paper machet vaults. It's good to deal with
the security issue - Credit cards see constant on line use. At some
point on line data will be secure enough for such ideas to work.

But let's think about a privately issued currency. Just how much is
that from a government issued fiat currency? The government version is
controlled by elected representatives who are pressured to disburse the
public treasury. Many world currencies are in trouble and the history
of fiat currencies is clear that none last longer than half a century.

On Jun 25, 2:09�pm, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> On 25/06/2011 20:56, scottlowt...@ix.netcom.com wrote:

> > While outright theft may be a bit of a challenge, fortunes in Bitcoins
> > can be easily wiped out with properly designed malware. Gets into your
> > computer, looks for Bitcoins, erases or rewrites them. Boom. Gone. Yer
> > broke. And don't pretend there aren't a million little hacker pissants
> > who'd love to create just such a virus for no better reason than Teh
> > Lulz. Never mind *governments* who'd do it for Teh Fed Lulz.
>
> Well, it does not take a genius to:
> a) encrypt the coins
> b) have a backup copy of them on removable media

Nor does it take a computer genius to create malware that will hunt
down and destroy anything that looks like an encrypted bitcoin, or sit
and lurk waiting for a removable media device to get plugged in to go
huntng there, too.

On 24/06/2011 00:17, Doug Freyburger wrote:
> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax wrote:
>> scottlowther@ix.netcom.com wrote:
>>> Dirk Bruere at NeoPax<dirk.bru...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>> What Are Bitcoins?
>>
>>> Site got hacked, demonstrating a serious weakness in the concept.
>>
>> No, that was the equivalent to a bank being robbed.
>> Bitcoin has bounced back.
>
> What was demonstrated is the weakness of on line data. It's too much
> like banks storing gold in paper machet vaults. It's good to deal with
> the security issue - Credit cards see constant on line use. At some
> point on line data will be secure enough for such ideas to work.

But most money *is* stored in electronic format.
The amount in gold or cash in vaults is only a small fraction of the total.

> But let's think about a privately issued currency. Just how much is
> that from a government issued fiat currency? The government version is
> controlled by elected representatives who are pressured to disburse the
> public treasury. Many world currencies are in trouble and the history
> of fiat currencies is clear that none last longer than half a century.

A currency is basically a medium of exchange whose value is determined
by its scarcity. The classical example is gold. Lately it's paper
promises from govt. Bitcoin is a scarce resource that serves the same
purpose. Money itself, even gold, has no intrinsic value other than that
agreed upon by a community.

The problem with the Bitcoin bank raid was that they did not even take
the simple precaution of encrypting the coins (as everyone who owns or
stores any should do).

--
FFF
Dirk

http://www.neopax.com/technomage/ - My new book - Magick and Technology

On Jun 23, 7:42�am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax <dirk.bru...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> No, that was the equivalent to a bank being robbed.

A bank robbery is generally something that requires expertise, effort
and risk on the part of the robbers... not to mention a willingness to
murder your fellow man. The Bitcoin debacle requires no more
expertise, effort or risk than is demonstrated by Anonymous or
LulzSec. Plus, there are a boatload more hacker wannabes willing to
steal online than people willing to steal face-to-face with a gun. As
memory serves, you yourself have expressed a willingness to pirate
information online... movies and music and such. It's not great leap
from a willingness to steal online propety to a willingness to steal
online currency.

While outright theft may be a bit of a challenge, fortunes in Bitcoins
can be easily wiped out with properly designed malware. Gets into your
computer, looks for Bitcoins, erases or rewrites them. Boom. Gone. Yer
broke. And don't pretend there aren't a million little hacker pissants
who'd love to create just such a virus for no better reason than Teh
Lulz. Never mind *governments* who'd do it for Teh Fed Lulz.

On 25/06/2011 20:56, scottlowther@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> On Jun 23, 7:42 am, Dirk Bruere at NeoPax<dirk.bru...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> No, that was the equivalent to a bank being robbed.
>
>
> A bank robbery is generally something that requires expertise, effort
> and risk on the part of the robbers... not to mention a willingness to
> murder your fellow man. The Bitcoin debacle requires no more
> expertise, effort or risk than is demonstrated by Anonymous or
> LulzSec. Plus, there are a boatload more hacker wannabes willing to
> steal online than people willing to steal face-to-face with a gun. As
> memory serves, you yourself have expressed a willingness to pirate
> information online... movies and music and such. It's not great leap
> from a willingness to steal online propety to a willingness to steal
> online currency.
>
> While outright theft may be a bit of a challenge, fortunes in Bitcoins
> can be easily wiped out with properly designed malware. Gets into your
> computer, looks for Bitcoins, erases or rewrites them. Boom. Gone. Yer
> broke. And don't pretend there aren't a million little hacker pissants
> who'd love to create just such a virus for no better reason than Teh
> Lulz. Never mind *governments* who'd do it for Teh Fed Lulz.
>

Well, it does not take a genius to:
a) encrypt the coins
b) have a backup copy of them on removable media

--
FFF
Dirk

http://www.neopax.com/technomage/ - My new book - Magick and Technology

http://launch.is/blog/l019-bitcoin-p2p-currency-the-most-dangerous-project-weve-ev.html

After month of research and discovery, we’ve learned the following:

1. Bitcoin is a technologically sound project.
2. Bitcoin is unstoppable without end-user prosecution.
3. Bitcoin is the most dangerous open-source project ever created.
4. Bitcoin may be the most dangerous technological project since the
internet itself.
5. Bitcoin is a political statement by technotarians (technological
libertarians).*
6. Bitcoins will change the world unless governments ban them with harsh
penalties.

What Are Bitcoins?
=========
Bitcoins are virtual coins in the form of a file that is stored on your
device. These coins can be sent to and from users three ways:

1. Direct with peer-to-peer software downloaded at bitcoin.org
2. Via an escrow service like ClearCoin
3. Via a bitcoin currency exchange

Each owner transfers the coin to the next by digitally signing a hash of
the previous transaction and the public key of the next owner and adding
these to the end of the coin. A payee can verify the signatures to
verify the chain of ownership.

The benefits of a currency like this:

a) Your coins can’t be frozen (like a Paypal account can be)
b) Your coins can’t be tracked
c) Your coins can’t be taxed
d) Transaction costs are extremely low (sorry credit card companies)
...

--
FFF
Dirk

http://www.neopax.com/technomage/ - My new book - Magick and Technology