BitCoin : Account hacked, coins dumped = BTC Crash

[BeauJangles]

That's really the only argument there needs to be in my opinion. All of the negative 'Silk Road' attention is really a non issue. You could just as easily snail mail somebody an envelope full of cash in exchange for the drugs ( which plenty of people do on a regular basis ) or use western union, again which lots of people already do.

So, your a Bitcoin expert now that the media has mentioned it? Silk Road is the least of the concerns centered around what Bitcoin has been used to transact. The CIA / NSA are far more concerned about how the hacking community has embraced it since the get-go. The fear among those agencies is that Bitcoin gives hackers a secure way to receive payment for stolen information, for DDOS attacks, and for the buying and selling of things like weapon plans. Since its inception, Bitcoin has been embraced by the hacking / cracking community.

That is their fear, not that people are using it to buy drugs.

An unfortunate misconception. Again, back to my initial posting... simply replace BTC with USD in any negative thing you're saying. The USD is mostly used for nefarious purposes.. this would be an accurate assessment whether you mean war, drugs, or terrorism. Terrorists aren't out buying weapons with BTC.

The US economy is over 11 trillion dollars per year. The vast majority of USD is used for legal transactions. As for the USD being used for illegal industries, at least that currency involves other participants and can, for the most part, be tracked. Laundering money is actually quite difficult and doing so in a way that nobody can trace it is even harder. If you look at American prosecutions of terrorists and supporters of terrorism, many of them are caught trying to send money to organizations in Yemen / Pakistan / etc. Bitcoin would potentially give them a way to do this completely anonymously.

I'm not in favor of the government stepping in and shutting down Bitcoin, I just think you're incredibly naive about the potential problems it poses for security.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Just like how lots of people had ample opportunity to expose Madoff but never got around to it.

Just because it is "open source" doesn't mean that is what is being used on everyone's system, or if someone else can decipher every intricacy of exactly what it does.

And if it truly were open source, then everyone has the means to create their own competing bitcoin currency, thus massively deflating the value of everyone's bitcoin currency.

And in the end it all relies on a large system of other people willing to accept your bitcoins in exchange for goods, services, or other forms of currency.


We have the Secret Service that works to maintain the integrity of the U.S. Dollar, as well as shared confidence in the integrity of the U.S. Government. Bitcoins have neither. Anyone wants to invest in this currency go right ahead!

do you know anything at all about what you have just typed here?

And the bit about the secret service maintaining integrity of the dollar....wtf planet have you been living on since 2008?

 

[airdata]

beaujangles : must we do this in every thread we both post in? No need to come in w\ your cunty statements.

So, your a Bitcoin expert now that the media has mentioned it?

I pose the same question to you, except without the extra bit of cuntiness you add to your posts. I've at least been using bitcoin for 2-3 weeks and am by no means an expert on the subject. What experience do you have with bitcoin?

I see the potential it has for bypassing restrictions put in place on cash. But I've heard nothing about that from the media... All the senators are in an uproar about is silk road as far as i've seen. Could just as easily consolidate pallets of cash into a small bag of gold coins. How much is a roll of Krugerrands worth? pre-paid cc's are also nice.

 

[BeauJangles]

beaujangles : must we do this in every thread we both post in? No need to come in w\ your cunty statements.

Cuntiness? I'm just calling out the fact that it doesn't seem like you have any idea what you're talking about. If you do, show it. If you don't, quit name-calling.

I pose the same question to you, except without the extra bit of cuntiness you add to your posts. I've at least been using bitcoin for 2-3 weeks and am by no means an expert on the subject. What experience do you have with bitcoin?

Been using and following Bitcoin since it first launched. A friend of mine uses it for the exact nefarious purposes I outlined in my post above. Another friend works at a security firm who pays a lot of attention to Bitcoin and its users.

I see the potential it has for bypassing restrictions put in place on cash. But I've heard nothing about that from the media... All the senators are in an uproar about is silk road as far as i've seen.

Right, because the media has no idea what they're talking about, neither do Senators. Silk Road is the least of the problems presented by completely anonymous transactions.

The bigger concerns are how easy it makes it for people (esp hackers) to buy and sell data that they've hacked. Unlike cash, it leaves zero paper trail, so it becomes incredibly difficult to follow where a piece of data or information went after being compromised out of a secure system. Because of its lowered risks, it creates greater incentives for hackers to not only target more valuable networks, but also to sell the data that they acquire.

From 2009 until recently, all of this was less of a concern because the number of Bitcoins in existence was too low for large-scale transactions, but now that the currency has taken off, those transactions are possible without the buyer losing a huge percentage of his or her investment.

 

[NoStateofMind]

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=21877

This Friday the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was hammered, losing 172.45 points (approximately a 1.4 percent dip) to close below 12,000 for the first time since March 18, 2011 -- nearly three months ago. Traders greeted signs of slowdowns in global markets with serious concern.

But as bad a day as Friday was for NYSE traders, it was far worse for those who invested in an increasingly popular digital currency -- Bitcoins (BTC). At the opening bell at Mt. Gox, the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, a single BTC cost $28.919 USD. By mid-day that total had plunged to $20.01 USD -- a drop of 30.8 percent.

 

[ultimatebob]

Hmm... something tells me that the banking lobbyists had more to do with the US senate's sudden interest in Bitcoins than SilkRoad did. I'd think that large banks are scared of the concept of peer to peer currency, and their PR departments are coming up with tons of new and creative ways of discrediting it.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the next story that I see about Bitcoins will be about them funding some underground child porn or hacking ring. Nothing like a good child porn or prostitution story to scare the uneducated masses.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Hmm... something tells me that the banking lobbyists had more to do with the US senate's sudden interest in Bitcoins than SilkRoad did. I'd think that large banks are scared of the concept of peer to peer currency, and their PR departments are coming up with tons of new and creative ways of discrediting it.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the next story that I see about Bitcoins will be about them funding some underground child porn or hacking ring. Nothing like a good child porn or prostitution story to scare the uneducated masses.

Yeah that may happen if its seen to be a threat. But honestly I see them putting pressure on those who convert the currency into USD. Once there isn't anyone to exchange funds BitCoins may die quickly. Hopefully not though.

 

[dmcowen674]

Senators seek crackdown on "Bitcoin" currency

Drugs and cyber terrorists are on the growing list of reasons for shutting down the anonymous digital currency. Shutting down the "Silk Road" may be a start but not the end of this battle.


Well if you've been living under a rock go over to the Video Cards and Graphics subforum and catch up. For those in the know it looks like the untrackable BitCoins are changing hands without any government oversight and now has started to land into known "cyber terrorists" hands. They may not be labeled that now but they will be. LulzSec just received a donation of BitCoins for about $7200 in U.S. currency. Many are saying this cannot be stopped much in the same way Bittorrents cannot be stopped. The virtual currency has spiked in value over the past few weeks and continues to grow in popularity.

How long before its deemed a crime to exchange virtual currency for the sake of stopping terrorism funding? Should the government regulate BitCoin transactions?

How many rogue IT admins have been using this nefarious software?

 

[piasabird]

Why does the government need to know what you spend your money on?

How is this different than the government using Debit cards to pay people. Money, after all, is a virtual concept!

 

[ultimatebob]

How many rogue IT admins have been using this nefarious software?

Probably not... most servers and business class PC's have lousy video cards, and would be useless for bitcoin mining.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Why does the government need to know what you spend your money on?

How is this different than the government using Debit cards to pay people. Money, after all, is a virtual concept!

Well 9/11 of course!

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Yeah that may happen if its seen to be a threat. But honestly I see them putting pressure on those who convert the currency into USD. Once there isn't anyone to exchange funds BitCoins may die quickly. Hopefully not though.

They will just take their operation offshore. There is nothing(legal or otherwise) that can stop this at this point short of everyone abandoning it.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Hmm... something tells me that the banking lobbyists had more to do with the US senate's sudden interest in Bitcoins than SilkRoad did. I'd think that large banks are scared of the concept of peer to peer currency, and their PR departments are coming up with tons of new and creative ways of discrediting it.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the next story that I see about Bitcoins will be about them funding some underground child porn or hacking ring. Nothing like a good child porn or prostitution story to scare the uneducated masses.

They are probably more scared of losing their own money laundering operations. That cash flow is the only thing keeping these shady banksters afloat

 

[CitizenKain]

Hmm... something tells me that the banking lobbyists had more to do with the US senate's sudden interest in Bitcoins than SilkRoad did. I'd think that large banks are scared of the concept of peer to peer currency, and their PR departments are coming up with tons of new and creative ways of discrediting it.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the next story that I see about Bitcoins will be about them funding some underground child porn or hacking ring. Nothing like a good child porn or prostitution story to scare the uneducated masses.

So you think a giant multi-national company worth billions of dollars is frightened of Butttcoins? It seems untreated mental disorders are rampant in the Buttcoin community.

 

[WelshBloke]

Its open source, so if it was a ponzi scheme it would be exposed by now.

Hasn't the guy that invented it made something like $3mill out of it? Or controls that amount of currency?

That there kind of sets off my scam sensors.

 

[BansheeX]

Bitcoin is pretty cool because it has no godlike issuer unfairly benefiting from the creation of new money. But because of that fairness, the banking elite and the politicians in bed with them are going to try and demonize it or make it illegal or something. They're already freaking out, it looks like, and the general populace is so ungodly stupid and gullible and dependent at this point that they may succeed.

 

[YoungGun21]

Hasn't the guy that invented it made something like $3mill out of it? Or controls that amount of currency?

That there kind of sets off my scam sensors.

Lots of early adopters have made over 6 figures from this. Several have made over $1 million.

 

[JSt0rm]

 

[BansheeX]

Lots of early adopters have made over 6 figures from this. Several have made over $1 million.

So have early investors in anything that's gone up. Apple, for instance. What's your point and how does a new currency become popular without benefiting its early adopters?

 

[Generator]

Suppose these bitcoins fall to user corruption or government persecution. All that matters is that the idea is born. Bitcoin going down is irrelevant when dozens more other virtual currencies can take its place. If some hackers can come up with a currency so can Google, Apple, or Microsoft. With the facade that is the US dollar, we may very well have a future with Bill Gates on our Bing coins.

The more I think about its, the more dangerous this currency becomes to the US dollar. The government would have to resort to house by house tax appraisal and collection. Only after realizing that threats against merchants for accepting bitcoins still won't work.

Regardless this is just another player on the field in the currency war. Who fucking knows how it plays out.

 

[WelshBloke]

So have early investors in anything that's gone up. Apple, for instance. What's your point and how does a new currency become popular without benefiting its early adopters?

So it's OK to invent a currency which is made by arbitrary rules you pulled out of your arse, "print" off about $3mil then let your mates print off a few millions then release it to the public and not expect a few raised eyebrows?

And it's nothing like buying Apple stock.

 

[halik]

So you think a giant multi-national company worth billions of dollars is frightened of Butttcoins? It seems untreated mental disorders are rampant in the Buttcoin community.

Haa how bitcoin exclusively attracts ron paul econ-devoid conspiracy nuts is absolutely beyond me.

 

[NoStateofMind]

Suppose these bitcoins fall to user corruption or government persecution. All that matters is that the idea is born. Bitcoin going down is irrelevant when dozens more other virtual currencies can take its place. If some hackers can come up with a currency so can Google, Apple, or Microsoft. With the facade that is the US dollar, we may very well have a future with Bill Gates on our Bing coins.

The more I think about its, the more dangerous this currency becomes to the US dollar. The government would have to resort to house by house tax appraisal and collection. Only after realizing that threats against merchants for accepting bitcoins still won't work.

Regardless this is just another player on the field in the currency war. Who fucking knows how it plays out.

Well right now most pools and Mt Gox (BTC Exchange) are gettiing ddos attacks. Who has the motives for such things?

 

[yllus]

So it's OK to invent a currency which is made by arbitrary rules you pulled out of your arse, "print" off about $3mil then let your mates print off a few millions then release it to the public and not expect a few raised eyebrows?

And it's nothing like buying Apple stock.

Sure it's okay. What's wrong with it? Nobody's being promised anything that they're not getting.

 

[WelshBloke]

Sure it's okay. What's wrong with it? Nobody's being promised anything that they're not getting.

Your statement works for any pyramid scheme at the beginning.