Topic: Bitcoin should come with clear warning labels (Read 1138 times)

Even if bitcoin has some flaws, overall it's better than fiat any day politically, socially and economically.

1) Most people buy Bitcoins on exchanges with their real life identity linked. Therefore most people are susceptible to having their entire transaction history followed. Bitcoin claims to be anonymous but it really is not. Paper money definitely has the upper hand here.
2) Check the number of banks that have lost assets throughout decades and then check how many exchanges have been compromised in some form throughout Bitcoins brief history. I think Banks have been pretty trustworthy as far as keeping your assets safe for the most part.
3) Governments can ban merchants from accepting Bitcoin, they can make it illegal for exchanges to sell them, they can tax exchanges to the moon, they can tax Bitcoin to USD cashouts to the moon, they can ban use of bitcoins period or simply 'prove' it helps terrorism and essentially smear it to death. None of these would kill Bitcoin perhaps, but value would drop immensely.
4) Many tout Bitcoin's amazing technology and if it were impossible to copy in some fashion then it could derive value just from that, but that's not the case as many newcomers probably think.
5) Look at Litecoin's marketcap. Worth 1 billion without anything really all that different.
6) New users are being sold on the future of digital currency - in fact its probably just one of the early iterations before a better tech comes along and fixes some of the issues that BTC has.
7) Most people are pretty retarded when it comes to using their PC so this is a valid concern Id say
When you spend dollars, theres usually a physical address associated with it and over credit card there's a trail and possibility of chargeback.
9) At a future date when blockchain is so big or when mining profits dwindle or some supercomputers are put to the task, 51% attack is not out of the realm of possibility and there's not much that can be done if that happens. I've even heard that as little as 33% control is necessary to mess with the integrity of the blockchain.
10) Practically no one is using Bitcoin as a currency right now- Bitpay does less than $10 million of transactions per month.


Anyways my point is not that Bitcoin is bad or worse than fiat or anything like that - it's just that new users are not exactly being projected the truth which is kinda messed up and not a tactic that Bitcoin needs to employ.

There need to be services and clients that are more user friendly if the majority of people are going to use or own bitcoins.

Right now its difficult enough to acquire bitcoins and manage wallets that most who use them are well aware of the risks. Once it gets to the point someone creates really easy and intuitive bitcoin services then it will be a problem that people own bitcoins, but don't really understand the risks.

#9 is really two reasons. Quantum computers would wreck a lot more than just bitcoins, though. They would also crack SSL (the fundamentals of private internet communication). Quantum ASICS wouldn't solve this, because you could crack a private wallet key using only the public key.

1) Bitcoin is harder to track than credit cards and bank transactions. (and possibly even paper money)
2) Bank accounts can be frozen more easily than bitcoins can be stolen (ask cyprus). As long as you are secure with your private key, noone can steal a satoshi.
3) government can't do anything against bitcoin
4) really?
5) unlikely and it's basically the same as 4
6) if that's the case, you'll see it coming long before bitcoin will crash. also, it's the same as point 4.
7) user error maybe, if you're batshit crazy. computer error, no, not if you have cold storage.
noone will help you when you get scammed for dollars either.
9) by the time quantum computers would jeopardize bitcoin security, they would have already hacked credit cards and banks, as they are less secure, and also bitcoin would have already switched to a new, more secure protocol by then. (ASICs will become worthless than untill the new generation of Quantum ASICs gets developed, at which point the difficulty will become several yottahashes or even more.)
10) if you're using bitcoin purely as a currency, the price doesn't matter much, just like you don't care about the dollar to euro exchange rate.

These would indeed be good warnings for anyone not aware of what the dollar is about and is interested to invest in them. Bitcoin is a new/obscure technology so it needs the disclaimers even more than a 3 decade old worthless fiat currency.

Yup, any argument against Bitcoin can usually be applied to fiat.

There are plenty pluses for BTC against fiat though; can't be counterfeited, decentralised etc.

How about some warnings about the U.S. dollar:

1.) WARNING: Your dollar has a serial number which can be used to track marked bills.
2.) WARNING: Your money in exchanges, banks, annuities, etc. could be stolen or hacked or not easily withdrawable.
3.) WARNING: The U.S. dollar is not government-proof and could be easily debased by the government.  It is not backed by anything.
4.) WARNING: The concept of fiat sovereign currency is not protected by any non-expired patents and can be easily imitated by any third-world banana republic.
5.) WARNING: A developing country's currency might gain prominence and severely impact the U.S. dollar's value.
6.) WARNING: A better currency has already been developed (namely, Bitcoin).
7.) WARNING: Your entire retirement savings might be eradicated in case of bank error, user error (you forget where you put it), your company going bankrupt and defaulting on its pension fund, or politicians changing the terms of your social security program.
8.) WARNING: You are highly likely to be scammed at some point using U.S. dollars in cyberspace or meatspace and often there is nothing that can be done about it.
9.) WARNING: Too-big-to-fail banks and central banks can compromise the financial system's integrity, lead to financial crises and bailouts.  Quantum computers could crack systems used to secure legacy financial networks.
10.) WARNING: No one knows what the U.S. dollar is really worth since it is no longer backed by gold or anything else tangible and its price is purely being driven by Ponzi-natured speculation on the sustainability of the traditional financial/political system.

so you are saying you want to sell all your bitcoins to me cheap??  :-D

The latest attempt at trying to trick the masses into buying BTC by switching the units to mBTC reminded me of something: Bitcoin PR is pretty full of shit with the assertions it makes and as a result, the popular opinion around it. Bitcoin should have warning labels similar to cigarette packs - clearly visible on any exchange for first time 'investors':

1)   WARNING: Purchasing bitcoins may allow government agencies to track your every spending
2)   WARNING: Your money/BTC  in exchanges can easily be stolen or frozen or hacked or not be withdrawable
3)   WARNING: BTC is certainly not government-proof and can be severely hampered if wanted
4)   WARNING: Bitcoin has no patents around its technology and clones can be created instantly and at no cost – the network effect primarily is what gives it a higher valuation
5)   WARNING:An altcoin might gain prominence and severely impact Bitcoin value
6)   WARNING: A better cryptocurrency is probably in the process of being created
7)   WARNING: Your entire BTC wealth might be eradicated in case of computer problems or user error
   WARNING: You are highly likely to be scammed at some point using bitcoins in cyberspace and nothing can be done about it
9)   WARNING: Too large of Blockchain size/large mining pools can wreck Bitcoin integrity, quantum computers could jeopardize Bitcoin security
10)   WARNING: No one knows what a bitcoin is worth and its price is purely being driven by Ponzi-natured speculation