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Touche. The attack you mention could happen. In fact it's impossible for anyone to to prove that it can't, other than by removing the script running capabilit
by awt 13y ago
Touche. The attack you mention could happen. In fact it's impossible for anyone to to prove that it can't, other than by removing the script running capability. I suppose I should be more convinced now. I guess what I would really need to be convinced is to be shown a flaw in the fundamental idea of Bitcoin that could not be fixed, rather than in specific features of it's current implementation that can probably be fixed. Is it worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater for something fixable like this?
Wouldn't it be great if Bitcoin worked? Wouldn't it be great if it didn't take several days to move a few grand from one account to another? Wouldn't it be great if no one could take your money without your permission? Wouldn't it be great if you never had to touch physical currency again? Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to fill out a piece of paper and sign it to give someone else a significant amount of money? And then they didn't have to scan it into their phone, or shove it in an ATM or wait in line to deposit it? Why do I still have to do that? Wouldn't it be great if it wasn't so expensive to send money with Paypal?
Bitcoin has a sordid history of theft and fraud -- not more sordid than any other currency/commodity I can think of though. There will continue to be thefts and fraud. People will probably pay for better security. Who knows maybe people will end up paying as much for bitcoin security as they do now for the privilege of using visa/mastercard/etc.
Let people play with their Bitcoins -- the results might not be all bad.
- mechanical_fish 13y agoI know nothing about Bitcoin, but here are some questions I can answer! Wouldn't it be great if it didn't take several days to move a few grand from one account to another? Absolutely not! I want the bulk of my life savings kept in an asset that is only liquid on the timescale of days, or even longer. I have seriously contemplated trying to find a broker that has no web presence at all, one that would refuse to execute a trade unless I turn up in person - ideally with three forms of ID and a DNA sample. I'm not a criminal, I don't live in a failed state and the odds that I'll need to flee the country on 24 hours notice are very low. So I want my retirement money to be hard to move. If one day I decide otherwise - perhaps taking up high-stakes casino gambling, or day trading - I'll withdraw a bunch of cash and bury it in the backyard or something. This will take considerable time and preparation, making it very hard for me to take up high-stakes gambling on a whim at 3am late one night, but that is not a bug but a feature. Wouldn't it be great if no one could take your money without your permission? What defines "my permission"? Is Bitcoin a mindreading technology? If someone steals and/or cracks my computer with my Bitcoins on it, they don't get my Bitcoins? Or, rather, deprive me of my Bitcoins, which is exactly as bad from my perspective? If Bitcoin were a mindreading technology, even that would only go so far. We don't even need to invoke wacky movie-plot truth-serum scenarios, or torturers armed with five-dollar wrenches, to see the problem: I have, alas, extensive life experience with Alzheimer's patients who slowly but surely stopped being "themselves". There's a large and evil cottage industry built around bilking such people. As someone with no kids and no plans to have any, this is actually an important practical issue in my life: I'm going to grow old (hopefully!), I may well become senile, and the day may come when the safest place for my money is in a trust, where even I can't give permission to spend it without first convincing an independent trustee.
- awt 13y agoBut you know why it takes that long right? It's not for security reasons. It's because they're holding it to earn interest on it -- while you wait.