BitCoin, the Most Dangerous Project Ever?

Jamie found a followup to the bitcoin story we've been following awhile. The article talks about the untraceable, un-hackable nature of BitCoin. They can't be locked down like PayPal, and the article predicts that governments will start banning them in the next 18 months.

Re:Tabloid trash

[torgis]

Welcome to /. where the motto is "Badly written sensationalist stories, like something from the Daily Mail."

Re:Not over the top at all!

[rudy_wayne]

And how is the world economy going to function with a currency that maxes out at 21 million?

And that 21 million won't be reached for another 130 years. Bitcoin is some sort of retarded joke.

Just like Disney Dollars or Canadian Tire money

[Anonymous Coward]

They absolutely DESTROYED their respective economies.

ABSOLUTE DESTRUCTION!!!!

aieeeeeee

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Tabloid trash

[Coisiche]

What a badly written sensationalist story. It's like something from the Daily Mail

Oh, in that case without even reading it I know that they'll be some evil dreamed up by the rest of Europe that will be widely used by terrorists and will enable lots of immigrants to sneak into the UK and live a life of luxury funded by the toils of the UK taxpayer.

Am I right?

Re:Tabloid trash

[_0xd0ad]

The guy who was printed Liberty Coins (99% pure silver)

No wonder ink cartridges cost so much.

Re:Tabloid trash

[Slashdot Parent]

You do realize that that "precedent" was set in the US Constitution, right? Congress has the sole authority to coin money. Oh right, this is cpu6502 who is nothing but an idiot troll. Post some more prisonplanet and infowars stories for us. Those are highly amusing.

I think that the difference between this and other digital currencies is that bitcoin is totally decentralized. The US Government will be able to shut down bitcoin approximately as easily as they can shut down file sharing. As in, not very easily.

Still, I don't think bitcoin will become much of a thorn in the rump of any government-issued currencies. It has a pretty steep learning curve, and it doesn't really provide any benefit over government-issued currencies for 99.99% of the population. I think the only types of people who will bother learning how to use bitcoin would be, in decreasing order of value to society: privacy nuts, criminals, or economists.

Re:Tabloid trash

[delinear]

Almost. You forgot to mention what affect it will have on house prices.

Re:Magic: The Gathering

[TaoPhoenix]

That's actually a very good example of a "pseudo-currency".

(Lawn)
I once bought a pizza from Papa Ginos with two Sengir Vampires. (The register guy agreed to repay the pizza out of his own pocket.)
(/Lawn)

The fascinating thing there is how Wizards "tricked itself" by misreading how certain cards form gamebreaker combos. So then they embarked on an elaborate "currency value adjustment" program, aka Type 2. (With all the spinoffs etc. In my areas "1.5" and "Legacy" and so on were never very popular.)

By being relegated to "Type 1" All those power cards were effectively cordoned off into a backwater, and lost most of their effective value. Then as the years rolled on, once cards left Type 2, they also dropped in value like a stone.

What's to keep the BitCoin administration (does that make sense?) from "adjusting" it later to suit some agenda?

Re:Tabloid trash

[datapharmer]

Oh, that's nothing. I heard from someone who has a friend that met someone ones that said they had used bitcoins. This guy said their is a rumor they aren't mined digitally at all. They are actually processed from aborted children. That's right bitcoins kills babies! When will this end? The horror!