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"This has some very neat advantages, the largest being that no one entity controls Bitcoin, instead it is a community all agreeing to use a currency with partic
by jusben1369 14y ago
"This has some very neat advantages, the largest being that no one entity controls Bitcoin, instead it is a community all agreeing to use a currency with particular rules, with some clever algorithms keeping everybody honest. No single government, much less corporation, can dictate what happens to Bitcoins."
- I'm not sure about the construct of your argument. It appears that this is indeed the biggest disadvantage with Bitcoin, not an advantage. The very thing holding back adoption of Bitcoin is this sense that there is no single entity that can ensure the offering functions as hoped.
I wonder if Bitcoin isn't the Napster and somewhere out there is a Steve Jobs ready to launch an iTunes version.....
- nicpottier 14y agoMaybe advantage is the wrong word, maybe it is just what makes Bitcoin even possible. Centralized digital currencies (eGold?) have been around, but their problem is twofold in that they are more vulnerable to single points of attack and more importantly, can be shut down by governments. I don't know if there have been any real efforts yet to crack down on Bitcoin but it seems well positioned to survive such an attempt.
- jusben1369 14y agoYes, maybe it's "Bitcoin has some very unique characteristics that are either it's biggest advantages or drawbacks, depending on your point of view" Full disclosure. I work for a payments startup. We have a tug of war around Bitcoin. We're fascinated by it's potential but also fear tying our brand too closely to it as it seems to receive bad press around something every 90 days.