re: Here's why Bitcoin is the future of money

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Yet, the free market has produced a system that has run reliably for almost 5 years now, is secure, and gives people what they want.

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Secure? Really? I'm not going to rehash all of the security lapses and issues I've already pointed out. I'm just going to call bullshite.

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Have you seen the abyssal failure that is Canada's MintChip digital currency so far? That's a highly functioning western government and they can't even get their shite together enough to produce a secure system that people want to use.

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Is Bitcoin the first attempt at a digital currency by the free market? What happened to those earlier attempts? Adopting a new currency is not a trivial exercise. I am not familiar with Canada's attempt, so I can't comment as to why they had problems. Maybe they just tried before the technology was advanced enough.

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Secure? Really? I'm not going to rehash all of the security lapses and issues I've already pointed out.

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Please link me to the "security lapses and issues" involving bitcoin.

I swear to a deity, if you link to an example of an exchange being hacked or to an individual getting their wallet hacked or something else like that, I'm going to flip my lid because it will become clear that y'all truly have no desire to understand the technology and discuss it honestly.

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I swear to a deity, if you link to an example of an exchange being hacked or to an individual getting their wallet hacked or something else like that, I'm going to flip my lid because it will become clear that y'all truly have no desire to understand the technology and discuss it honestly.

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And what you seem to misunderstand is that nobody GAF about the technology per se, they care about the usefulness of the medium. Failures of exchanges or individual hacks are failures of bitcoin, and your repeated refusal to admit that fact makes you by far the most dishonest person in the bitcoin debate, precisely because you are so invested (figuratively, but also I suspect literally) in it.

It's like if I had a computer with the best specs in the world, but the only OS it ran crashed every 30 seconds. I would say that computer sucked. You would "flip your lid" and go on about my failure to honestly admit what a great piece of technology it was. Just look at the specs!

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And what you seem to misunderstand is that nobody GAF about the technology per se

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That's not true. Many people do GAF greatly about the underlying technology because that is what is most important.

A secure and stable protocol, which bitcoin is, is needed for others to develop on top of that.

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they care about the usefulness of the medium

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And as I've stated all along, bitcoin is in its infancy. Why can't y'all grasp that? I have said many times that it is not ready for prime time.

HOWEVER, due to it being a secure and stable protocol, layers and layers will be built on top of it that will eventually fix the issues you are talking about.

It's not about being dishonest....it's about understanding the growth and production of technology.

The internet in 1993 sucked. There wasn't much on it. It was expensive to get on. And you needed strong technical skills just to get on.

Now it's much different, because although the internet sucked in 1993, the underlying protocols, like TCP, UDP, IP, etc. were all very good and allowed others to build on top of them.

This stuff takes time. Be patient. We are in the process of moving past amateur hour in the bitcoin community to the VC phase. The next few years will likely have you changing your mind on bitcoin.

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Hackers created the Internet

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Nope, it was ARPA. I walk past the building where it was done every morning on the way into Rosslyn, there's a marker in front about it too.

LINK provides a start on security lapses and issues.

And for you to suggest that wallets being hacked is not a problem with Bitcoins is disingenuous. The entire system must be considered, and that includes how Bitcoins are stored at the user level. Even users who try and protect their anonymity with Tor exist at an exit node where information is transmitted unencrypted. What is to prevent governments from establishing exit nodes for purposes of monitoring such transmissions?

If I intended to be a Bitcoin thief I would attack a successful merchant who accepts Bitcoins. They have to estasblish routine procedures for processing multiple transactions. Thus they will likely be concentrating many Bitcoins into a single wallet. And lifting a single purse is easier than lifting several.

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And as I've stated all along, bitcoin is in its infancy.

This stuff takes time. Be patient. We are in the process of moving past amateur hour in the bitcoin community to the VC phase. The next few years will likely have you changing your mind on bitcoin.

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Isn't btc the third or fourth (fifth?) generation/attempt for a digital currency? Wasn't there a private digital currency back in the 1990's called DigiCash or something like that?

Why yes, there was!

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DigiCash[9][10]- DigiCash Inc. was a pioneering electronic currency corporation founded by David Chaum in 1990. DigiCash transactions were unique in that they were anonymous due to a number of cryptographic protocols developed by its founder.

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And then there's this....

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DigiCash declared bankruptcy in 1998

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ETA: Link to above, which also describes the junk pile of other failed digital currencies.

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So 23 years from the first crypto currency until today. Not one of them has been able to get their shite together. Infancy huh?

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Yeah, infancy.

Wiki wants to believe bitcoin is THE digital currency experiment and that's why it is so slow in developing. His whole "it takes 10 years for a new product/idea to gain acceptance and be successful" meme excusing btc for its failure as a currency thus far is silly.

Government backed is not the key IMO.

The new currency, and IMO there will be one at some point, will:

1- Be simple to use
2- Be widely available
3- Derive value from a market mechanism
4- Be supportive of anonymous / untraceable transactions
5- Exist outside the boundaries of government reach

And don't give me the crap about it'll only be used for illegal activities.

It will be the cash-equivalent to today's shadow economy. The same one that has existed for 100 years.

Heck, even the Thai restaurant I love loves to get "paid in cash".

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And don't give me the crap about it'll only be used for illegal activities.

It will be the cash-equivalent to today's shadow economy. The same one that has existed for 100 years.

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Doesn't the shadow economy exist mainly for tax evasion, which is illegal?

ETA: Not saying that it's necessarily a bad thing. Doc Fenton raised some good points yesterday about the utility of a shadow economy. But the activity that drives it is still largely illegal no?