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Do you think regulators protect Etrade from security vulnerabilities? Do you think government is required to provide insurance? If the consumers demand these

by pdq 13y ago

Do you think regulators protect Etrade from security vulnerabilities? Do you think government is required to provide insurance? If the consumers demand these of their merchants, it will happen in the long term on their own accord, and government is not necessary to make it happen.

matwood 13y ago
Do you think government is required to provide insurance? You mean like the FDIC or SIPC?
- pdq 13y ago
  You misunderstood the question. Do you think that only the government can provide this insurance?
  - smtddr 13y ago
    Who else commands that kind of money to be able to ensure a bunch of exchanges and other bitcoin-holding businesses? Just MtGox alone needs somewhere around 400 million USD right now. I guess if someone like Google, or Donald Trump, decides to start a bitcoin insurance company... but that sounds unlikely. The 2nd problem and more serious problem is insurance fraud. You cannot be sure the people claiming to lose the coins actually lost them. In fact, forget my first point. The insurance fraud aspect renders any hope for bitcoin insurance void. If someone has any ideas how to even begin to run an FDIC-type thing on bitcoin, I'd love to hear how one would deal with insurance fraud.
    - icebraining 13y ago
      Who else commands that kind of money to be able to ensure a bunch of exchanges and other bitcoin-holding businesses? Insurance companies. Where do you think that consumer insurances companies insure themselves? Companies like Lloyd's and Munich RE have dozens of billions of dollars in insured amounts.
      - notahacker 13y ago
        Someone else posted a study suggesting the average Bitcoin exchange lasted 381 days before disappearing with most of their users' money. The notional dollar-denominated value of Bitcoin lurches all over the place on a daily basis. Insurance companies are generally quite conservative and regulated institutions and like to make a profit. Sure, they'll insure some crazy things like satellite launches where one launch vehicle explosion means the space insurance industry as a whole makes a loss that year, but they'll only do that because of enormous premiums. Tack those enormous premiums onto Bitcoin exchanges' costs of doing business and suddenly Western Union money transfers would look cheap.

by pdq 13y ago

matwood 13y ago

Do you think government is required to provide insurance? You mean like the FDIC or SIPC?

pdq 13y ago
You misunderstood the question. Do you think that only the government can provide this insurance?
- smtddr 13y ago
  Who else commands that kind of money to be able to ensure a bunch of exchanges and other bitcoin-holding businesses? Just MtGox alone needs somewhere around 400 million USD right now. I guess if someone like Google, or Donald Trump, decides to start a bitcoin insurance company... but that sounds unlikely. The 2nd problem and more serious problem is insurance fraud. You cannot be sure the people claiming to lose the coins actually lost them. In fact, forget my first point. The insurance fraud aspect renders any hope for bitcoin insurance void. If someone has any ideas how to even begin to run an FDIC-type thing on bitcoin, I'd love to hear how one would deal with insurance fraud.
  - icebraining 13y ago
    Who else commands that kind of money to be able to ensure a bunch of exchanges and other bitcoin-holding businesses? Insurance companies. Where do you think that consumer insurances companies insure themselves? Companies like Lloyd's and Munich RE have dozens of billions of dollars in insured amounts.
    - notahacker 13y ago
      Someone else posted a study suggesting the average Bitcoin exchange lasted 381 days before disappearing with most of their users' money. The notional dollar-denominated value of Bitcoin lurches all over the place on a daily basis. Insurance companies are generally quite conservative and regulated institutions and like to make a profit. Sure, they'll insure some crazy things like satellite launches where one launch vehicle explosion means the space insurance industry as a whole makes a loss that year, but they'll only do that because of enormous premiums. Tack those enormous premiums onto Bitcoin exchanges' costs of doing business and suddenly Western Union money transfers would look cheap.