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Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

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SeraphimLabs:
That clear-cut divide in bitcoin's community is quite obvious too, and it extends all the way down to the altcoins where new features are born. Some people see the future, and are working hard to keep crypto honest and enjoyable so that it can be for anyone. Other people are strictly business- and they are not afraid of fraud and criminal acts to get what they want.

I'm on the side of it where I see what could become one of the biggest economical overhauls since Fiat currency was invented. Bitcoin is a solution to many problems that exist in existing currency infrastructure. But it introduces complications of its own, not all of which are easily solved.

Right now the biggest thing hindering bitcoin is the fact that its greatest selling point is also its own worst enemy - its decentralized architecture.  There is a sort of fundamental human need to blame somebody else when things go wrong. With Fiat currency, you can blame the banks or blame the government, or invent some imaginary conspiracy group to blame when the usual suspects don't fit the bill.

The lack of a central authority in bitcoin means that if it implodes there is nobody to blame but the userbase in general for it. That's a downright scary thought to a lot of people on almost every level of thought. The fact that they might have to actually be responsible for their own actions, because if they mess up they can't blame someone else to cover it up. And with the bitcoin blockchain being a public record of all transactions, your mistake is not only your own fault but everyone can see that you made that mistake and it will never be forgotten.

That makes things really scary for people who only know the basic concepts of bitcoin.

Then you get advertising like a recent Master Card campaign calling out 'trust issues' with bitcoin, even though I would gladly put more faith in the algorithms and mass-validation system bitcoin utilizes than the proprietary, exploitable, and politically corrupt system in use by Mastercard and the other major processors. But to someone not familiar enough with bitcoin to laugh at such claims, this is a very scary idea and effectively a FUD campaign to discourage people from using bitcoin.

I think 2015 is going to be very exciting for Crypto, but right now my long positions in bitcoin are all in the red due to the recent price drop. Kinda not amused.

40hz:
That makes things really scary for people who only know the basic concepts of bitcoin.
-SeraphimLabs (December 17, 2014, 12:01 PM)
--- End quote ---

And I would guess that those people represent somewhere north of 85% of all the people who might be using Botcoin currently - and possibly 99% of those who would be using it if (or once) it went mainstream.

Simple fact is most people are not sufficiently up on data signal security and cryptographic methodologies to have a considered opinion - let alone be able to adequately evaluate somebody else's opinion of it.

In the end, it all comes down to a matter of trust for most people. Whom do you trust about this?

Or, if that's too much to ask for, to SeraphimLabs earlier point: Who will be blamed??? Who will be held to account if it ever goes sideways big time? For the average Bitcoin user (who has little hope of understanding much of this technology) the response is a resounding: "Not I!"

With a decoupled currency system such as we now have, the collapse of one currency system does not necessarily bring down all currencies. Governments worldwide will step in quickly to shore up the global monetary system until the problem gets resolved. But with a distributed, "non-fixable responsibility" system that is only protected by encryption and some clever algorithms, and no governmental sanction to date, it is very possible a systemic breech or failure could bring the entire system down in flames. And lacking government sanction, it's doubtful many governments would intervene should it ever happen. Many might even conveniently argue a lack of legal jurisdiction because Bitcoin is not a 'recognized' or 'registered' investment vehicle, commercial paper, or currency. A case could be made for intervention on the grounds of wire fraud perhaps. But that would be about as good as it gets. And from my experience with government agencies, their feeling about something like Bitcoin will probably be: "You wanted to operate independent of government? OMF-YOYO!"

Now some may well believe Bitcoin can't be compromised due to the programming cleverness behind it. But up until recently we believed Tor was extremely secure, digital certificates were an excellent safeguard, and random numbers really were random. Complex engraved artwork and special paper was considered a foolproof check against counterfeiting until photo offset printing came along and counterfeiters discovered they could bleach single denominated paper currency and reprint them as hundred dollar bills.

Whatever is made by human design can be undone by humans, given time and sufficient motivation.

And it will be interesting to see how crypto-currencies fare over the long run since there are sufficient humans and motivation on both sides of the equation.

Renegade:
The frist 2 are NSFW, but very fun! :)

NSFW
Putin on Bitcoin

From that link, this video by (Famous Amos) Mr. iPad Chain:

NSFW


And his first bitcoin, someone tipped him! AN ENTIRE BITCOIN!

SFW

wraith808:
Bitcoin hit with tax blow in Australia

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/dec/19/bitcoin-hit-tax-blow-australia

40hz:
^What is it with Australia (and New Zealand) lately? They went from being two of the coolest most laid-back countries in the world to being participants in the footrace race to see which so-called "Western Democracy" can be the first to fully embrace totalitarianism. So sad. :(

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