hence bitcoin is ridiculous. At least when you get fucked using your government backed funds, there is some recourse. When you money is imaginary....(I know...don't go there...you know what I mean) then you will have a tough time having anyone care.

Wow, a new technology has setbacks, shocker.

I'll never understand why old people are so proud of their ignorance and opposition to technological innovation.

Not afraid of new technology at all. I'm afraid of morons buying in to a "financial" system with no legal backing....sense, you know...

I'll never understand why young people are so stupid and trusting, even though they think everyone over the age of 25 is stupid. and untrustworthy....and yet the shit they put their trust in is created by 24 year olds that will be 25 next year...

Electronic money is by no means a new concept, PE, you moronic fucktard. Are you actually stupid enough to think that you live by little paper dollars and metal coins? I rarely have cash on me...

...I'm just not stupid enough to believe that my money...and let's be clear, "money" is what we use to represent the social trade value of our work (to use a very simple definition) ....my "money" is not secure when it is put in the hands of....bitcoins.

You idiotic belief that *someday* they'll create an unhackable system just makes you a chump.

Everything is hackable. Therefore I want the legal backing of my government to restore my losses when it *is* hacked...because it *will* be.

Duhhhhhh.....

I don't believe that at all, dipshit. You're just bashing something about which you're completely ignorant, which is pretty typical of you. Your own comments don't begin to make any shred of sense to anyone who has any clue about how bitcoin works or operates. This thread is just another example, again, of ignorant, clueless old people bitching and moaning about technology they don't understand. I've seen it way too many times out of self-identified older people who spout off similarly ignorant trash.

The bitcoin wasn't hacked. It was the system that held the bitcoin that was hacked. Blaming the theft on the bitcoin is like blaming a bank heist on the dollars.

Stop being ageist. There are plenty of old people who understand tech (Bill Gates is 50 something). Technophobes and technomorons come in all ages.

Bitcoin is an experiment. The learnings from the bitcoin experiment will probably eventually lead to a new type of crypto-currencies that may well succeed, but I think bitcoin itself will probably fail.

krellin wakes up.

krellin sees an article about somebody encountering failure and disappointment in a pursuit.

krellin feels happy, and better about his own life.

krellin makes a thread.

My *TC are encrypted on my computer. For them to be withdrawn from my wallet, it requires an email and a phone verification. Someone would have to steal my laptop, hack into my wallet, steal my phone, and hack into my email to take my coins. They're fairly secure.

*TC aren't the problem. Like usual, it's people being stupid that's the problem.

Not to mention this is a black market site we're talking about. What difference would paying in cash have made? Does the government reimburse you if your hooker cheats you the last 5 minutes or if your drug dealer cuts your coke with baking soda?

Hell, they don't even reimburse me if my investment broker cheats me.

Bitcoins are a bad idea because eventually the powers-that-be will start taking... drastic action.

Precious metals and ammunition are the only smart investments these days. Both are going up with no drop in value anywhere in sight, and both are hedges against economic/societal collapse.

There are, of course, some actually serious problems with *TC, such as the rapid growth of the Blockchain and the decreased motivation to maintain it as more coins are mined.

@abge, well...that's not the only way. There's multiple ways to get around any of those issues, but yes, for the amount you have stored (assuming you're not a hidden millionaire) I doubt it would be worth the excessive effort it would require to circumvent those measures.

http://iang.org/papers/BitcoinBreachesGreshamsLaw.pdf

This paper suggests that stolen electricity via botnets will drive out honest mining.

There are many many many problems with bitcoin, only one of which is what Krellin has pointed out - that it's a terrible store of value, which is essential for any currency.

"Bitcoins are a bad idea because eventually the powers-that-be will start taking... drastic action."

Already happening. Denmark, China, and Russia have banned bitcoin.

I mean, once they had access to my wallet, they could probably turn those verification systems off, but I'm pretty sure it would require physically accessing my computer or planting a virus on my computer that accessed my wallet. Of course, this *can't* be done, but it's orders of magnitude harder than hacking into a central server that is storing thousands of wallets.

Oops. Of course, this *can* be done...

My main problem with bitcoin is that it is such a waste of energy.

I'm man enough to admit that I don't fully understand bitcoins -- I wonder how many of the ridiculous arrogant youth around here are mature enough to admit when they don't know something? So if I'm wrong about bitcoins, so be it. That being said...I still reject the notion that the glorious youth have devised some system to free us from...from...

....and there is no answer to this question.

When there is a fraudulent charge on my electronic money, I contact my federally backed savings institution that backs my electrnoic money, inform them of the fraud, and it is wiped from my account.

Sorry, kiddies, but your silly notion that you have evented electrnoic money is simply ridiculous. that you have invented a *new* form of electronic money is not disputed. that it is in any way superior to existing systems is easily questioned.

My money has a value backed by society and global markets. You have a money that is backed by....by....

....ironically, it is backed by a free market concept that most of you, as died-in-the-wool Libtards, reject as unfair...

The irony is delicious.

So PE....big man on the street...tell us, boy, how much money do you have sinked in to bitcoins that you froth at the mouth like a two bit crack whore who dropped her pipe in the sewer when your precious experiment is questioned?

Krellin, not only do you misunderstand the specifics of BitCoin, you don't understand the general concept.

BTC are made to be an electronic equivalent to *cash*, which credit cards and previous electronics money systems certainly were not. Any fault you can find with BTC you can find with cash, but that hasn't stopped people from using cash for the last several hundred years.

"My main problem with bitcoin is that it is such a waste of energy."

Agreed. Probably the best point made in this thread.

"Precious metals and ammunition are the only smart investments these days."
He's a nucking futter

Malware is being used to use other people's computers for mining. I don't recall this being an issue with fiat currency.

Has any one else come across these guys:

http://www.ethereum.org/

The inventor of Etherium (Vitalik Buterin) claims that the bitcoin technology can be used to create a range of applications (not just money). One of the examples he gives is kind of decentralized dropbox type storage system

@Putin

Touche. I should amend that to say krellin's concerns apply equally to *TC and paper money.

Abge - then inform me.

Your assertion that "bitcoins = cash" I get, if by "cash" you are referring to the general concept of money, with an arbitrary value.

If your assertion is that "bitcoins = US dollars" then you are wrong...but I don't think you are doing that.

so essentially, PE, in deriding me for not comprehending bitcoins, is right, and wrong. I may not understand the exact mechanism of bitcoins -- I admit as much.

I do, understand, that what the glorious youth are flocking to is smoke in a bottle. it's a gee-wiz, look at me cool gadget upon which someone has placed an (almost abitrary) value. I once used to be able to buy and sell Magic the Gathering cards, too....I'm not certain how lucrative that is anymore.

So fine...you have your e-coin, and it's unpenatrable unless I bonk you on the head, steal your wallet and computer, etc. It is still a toy, a gimick. My US dollar, in its myriad forms, is quite safe, it is quite diverse in the many forms in which I can use it, either in "hard currency" (which I generally shun), credit cards, various on-line mechanisms which all tie in to my central computer storage....which is ultimately protected by a government back/created value, and is protected from theft...even if someone bonks me on the head and steals my wallet...

Just because someone has created a gee-wiz, look at me cool new gadget that they say can be used as a better currency...doesn't necessarily mean it is. Not anywhere in the near future, that is.

abge -- I will also not, again, that I shun cash. It is not safe, I can not reject it's use if it is taken from me, I can not track where it has been spent. I'd be more than happy if cash simply went away.

Perhaps I would be an advocate of a "bitcoin-like system"....e-cash of some sort.

My problem, specifically I guess, is the notion that bitcoins themselves...something PE is hording on his computer giggling over because he thinks they will skyrocket in value and he can retire to his private island with thucy in a thong...Not gonna happen.