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>the govt can contact the bank and ask for acct details And the bank, being a website(quite possibly based outside the government in questions reach) can ignor

>the govt can contact the bank and ask for acct details And the bank, being a website(quite possibly based outside the government in questions reach) can ignore them. And that's if the "banks" really have any information about you besides your username and password. >they are worse than regular banks, being uninsured, unregulated, and unsecured. Why would a website(aka, the bitcoin bank) that stores a few bits, information(which is what bitcoins are, information) need to be insured, or secured(apart from backups). And being unregulated is a good thing, it allows the "bank" to provide the services their customers want. You do know that the reasons real banks have all these things is because they don't have all the money their depositors think they have right? > Also, real banks have men with guns (not to mention the capability to summon heavily-armed police officers on very short notice) to protect them. Because the criminals will "break" into your bitcoin "bank" with guns and steal your bitcoins... at gunpoint? What? Have you even read what you wrote? Encrypt the hardrive, and not even the might of the Soviet Army can get those bitcoins. Are you truely that stupid? Really? I don't know what else to say.

PostOnce 16y ago
Depending on the country, maybe. Every website is hosted somewhere, though. The reason a bitcoin bank needs to be insured and secured is so that someone doesn't gingerly walk in, pick the computer up, and take off with $40,000,000 of your customers' money. Part of the point of a bank is security. That's why people who earn no interest don't keep large sums of cash in their homes. And yes, using a gun to force someone to give you a computer with $40,000,000 in it is likely to happen. Clearly, I have read and understood what I wrote. Have you? You can encrypt a hard drive, sure, but do you? If the bitcoin bank isn't regulated, they don't have to encrypt their drives. Depending on the encryption, the same gun they use to steal the computer can be used to force you to give passwords. Or they can eavesdrop on you, or the account holder, or both, or an infinite variety of other things that I am not going to go into. I'm done with this argument; you are trolling.
- epscylonb 16y ago
  Invisible hand of the free market my friend. If a bank lets a thief get away with an unencrypted harddrive full of bitcoins who is going to ever use them again?. Bitcoin is a strange concept, I am not convinced it will take off but the potential is amazing.

PostOnce 16y ago

Depending on the country, maybe. Every website is hosted somewhere, though. The reason a bitcoin bank needs to be insured and secured is so that someone doesn't gingerly walk in, pick the computer up, and take off with $40,000,000 of your customers' money. Part of the point of a bank is security. That's why people who earn no interest don't keep large sums of cash in their homes. And yes, using a gun to force someone to give you a computer with $40,000,000 in it is likely to happen. Clearly, I have read and understood what I wrote. Have you? You can encrypt a hard drive, sure, but do you? If the bitcoin bank isn't regulated, they don't have to encrypt their drives. Depending on the encryption, the same gun they use to steal the computer can be used to force you to give passwords. Or they can eavesdrop on you, or the account holder, or both, or an infinite variety of other things that I am not going to go into. I'm done with this argument; you are trolling.

epscylonb 16y ago
Invisible hand of the free market my friend. If a bank lets a thief get away with an unencrypted harddrive full of bitcoins who is going to ever use them again?. Bitcoin is a strange concept, I am not convinced it will take off but the potential is amazing.