EFF backs away from Bitcoin The Electronic Frontiers Foundation in the US has decided it will no longer accept donations via Bitcoin. While not itself a member of Bitcoin, the organization had been accepting donations via the currency through an account set up by an anonymous third party. However, only coincidentally following the Bitcoin Mt Gox hack-and …
"It cited questions about the legal standing of the crypto-currency with relation to “securities law, the Stamp Payments Act, tax evasion, consumer protection and money laundering”."
I have noted that *some* people here seem to get a little upset when one points out that an "untraceable currency" is, (how shall we put?) open to abuse. Indeed it is fairly obvious that that is its major attraction for some people given that it is in most other respects a *highly* risky investment proposition for any honest citizen.
A somewhat overly selective quote and a handy veiled villification in one comment. Well done sir.
Not quoted but in the original press release it does say that the EFF likes to help other people with their freedom, and doesn't like distractions like having to defend themselves. So, it says, it's naturally a bit leery about becoming a target itself. That, in the face of a lot of untested and absent case law, is what drove the decision; not any agreement with moral values in those laws or anything.
Why yes, "untraceable currency" is indeed open to abuse. Leaving aside that bitcoin does not quite fit that description, would you care to argue that getting robbed of a big stash of government-issued bits of stamped metal and/or bits of colourfully printed paper would be any different?
Would that happening to you also rob you of the presumed default state (as in, until proven guilty) of being a "honest citizen"? And if not, why would bitcoin do that in your eyes?
While cash money is basically untraceable it's still legal tender and good for all debts public and private. Bitcoin cannot make that make that promise and its a promise that it never will be able to fulfill. First it's not legal tender and it's also not good for all debts public or private.
But I assume what they mean is that if all else fails, and no one can prove ownership of an account otherwise, they will accept a notarized statement, probably "under penalty of perjury" proclaiming yourself to be the rightful account holder. That way at least if it's later proved you aren't, someone can sue your pants off. And keep in mind, that Mt. Gox accounts held not just bitcoins, but dollars as well.
EFF cites questions about the legal standing of the crypto-currency with relation to <various law and control-freak bullshit valid for the hoi polloi>
Yep, that makes sense. It's like a traveller in some dictatorship deciding that it would be a good idea to take a car for a trip to a nearby city, then deciding that after all, it won't because there are concerns about having the correct paperwork to show the blue-clad ones, there is actually no officially approved reason for the trip, and it may well be against the law forbidding wasting gasoline, too. And, oh, there is no reasonable explanation for the provenance that wad of paper money that he wanted to blow on this.
First the fact that anyone stealing you single bitcoin file has basically stolen all your bitcoins and now this...
Can't believe Bitcoin has been praised for so long as something supposedly so smart.
The number of holes in the entire Bitcoin ecosystem seems staggering.
Good move by the EFF to stop accepting these: not only is Bitcoin super-shaddy but also under-architected.
I wonder how many MtGox users through some sense of stupidity, paranoia or criminal intent have been registering with throwaway email addresses or (worse) mailinator like services. That might explain why MtGox can't unlock some accounts given that they can't send confirmation emails (that the perps can read), and they can't allow people to use their old password (that the perps have cracked).
The funny part is when these accounts are eventually unlocked they might discover that a mass selloff (caused by all the various woes of late) has wiped out the value of bitcoins leaving them with nothing. For accounts that have USD values associated with them I wonder also if MtGox can just keep the cash if no one comes to claim them.
I'd still like to know what would happen to the supply of bitcoins in the event a wallet becomes irretreivable for whatever reason such as corruption of the file or the user just ceasing to use the service without cashing in their coins?
Would this constantly reduce the available pool of coins leading to extreme scarcity of liquid funds? I mean, they shouldn't be allowed to simply zero off a persons stash.
Ideally it seems like there would be some way of detecting "lost" coins and reissuing new coins to miners to keep the supply steady, but there isn't. So instead the remaining coins became scarcer and therefore (assuming anyone wants them at all) more valuable. The good news is they can be divided down to something like 0.00000001 BTC, so theoretically the system is still workable even with only a few very valuable Bitcoins.
The difference being more physical money is printed to keep the market liquid and so can replace the currency that is slowly lost in the system. Being able to subdivide each coin would delay the problem, but when the currency is designed to only ever have a set amount in circulation then digital wastage is a problem that will only become compounded over time.
Unless everywhere you go is here and the KoL forums then it's more than just me asking. In fact, I just copied and pasted my comment from that initial post to here in order to get the opinions from a different section of people.
Instead, I find that I'm being stalked ;P
Bitcoin is in a speculative bubble. A serious one. It is pretty much only used to speculate and trade. There is virtually nothing you can actually use it for that approaches normal economic activity. Most of the currency seems to be in private hoards.
I don't imagine that the value will crash immediately the exchange opens up again, but I do expect it will crash when the current wave of media attention wanes due to press/public boredom. Unless a real economy starts to function in bitcoin it is not and never will be an actual currency.
The fact that most of its proponents are all treating it as an investment says a lot. Expect tears before bedtime.
And that's even if the current rash of hacks, breakins and trojans subsides.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
