Topic: Largest weekend discount so far :) - page 2. (Read 3856 times)

If he is, then so are many, many others. What you don't realize is that the success of Bitcoin is hinged on the ability of people other than pimple farming tech nerds like you being convinced of the utility of Bitcoin. Given that the "value" of Bitcoin (in terms of USD as it really has no inherent value at all, despite all the libertarian claims otherwise) is derived from its use as a commodity to day-trade with, there is no possible incentive for regular folks - who don't need or want to have to master the innards of computer security in order to "protect" their investment - to use these things. Bitcoin is currently for the cash-poor and time-rich, those who see nothing wrong wuth (1) spending hours watching MtGoxLive in hopes of being able to make a small margin on some volatility or (2) run 18 graphics cards with fans blowing in their dorm room.

Most people's time is more valuable than that, and these are the people - whether you like it or not - who have the money to make Bitcoin something more than the technerd's casino that it currently is. Making statements like "if you can't protect your bitcoin, you deserve to lose it" reeks of the adolescent mentality most of you have.

Yep, that's the niche for off-line wallet generators. If the private key never touches any internet-connected device before the coins are spent, you are perfectly secure. Storing large amount of coins on your computer (or phone) is a very bad idea indeed.

Lol, then you're doing it all wrong, trust me.

Seriously, our hardware and software stack is so tall now it's impossible to guarantee security.  With closed source hardware and software it's near impossible to prove there are no back doors installed for use by various gov't agencies or even the vendor.  Are you absolutely sure your camera drivers don't have a call home function for "support" and that feature won't be discovered and used by black hat guys?

My wife is an IT person.   She's been a computer geek and slinging code since she was six on an Atari 800.  We have a hardware firewall, she doesn't surf dodgy sites or install anything from the net and yet - her machine was pwned into being a botnet member.  Twice over 8 months.  One more incident for me, twice more at *work*, and another for my parents all over 3 years.

We've all been virus free for 18 months since then due to running 100% Linux instead of Windows, but that's not because Linux was written by gods.  But because it's less than 1% of the installed userbase.  We'd be getting 'pwned' all day long if Linux was 95%.  Back in 2000 I put a freshly installed copy of Red Hat on the net before I had a chance to lock down services and went to dinner.  By the time I came back it was already 'pwned' and running 'kokainekit.'

These are very personal anecdotes, but if you think your hardware and software solution is 100% secure and are willing to trust your entire financial wellbeing on that assumption -- well, you're just starting your voyage on the unsinkable Titanic.

It's pretty hard to get hit by a 0day when you run NoScript, sandbox your browser, run a registry monitor, and the latest AV/antiMalware right? Just a matter of taking the necessary precautions. Granted most people won't run shit like I do because I browse around dodgy shit, but if you're storing a virtual cash currency on your PC, it'd probably be smart to treat it like you'd want your bank to treat your money.

And again, irregardless of the degree of 0day exposure, this doesn't speak to Bitcoin as a protocol and currency infrastructure. When you see hackers counterfeiting BTC, then people will have an argument.

Try saying that after your computer gets pwned by a zero day exploit because you just happened to visit the wrong web site.  No need to download and install dodgy software, no need to click anything.  Software makers need several days to patch the hole while anyone is free to exploit it.  It doesn't happen often, but it most certainly happens.

Anyone that chalks up computer illiteracy as a strike against Bitcoin shouldn't be online to begin with... if your shit gets stolen by a virus, you fail at life; it says nothing about Bitcoin.

What? Nobody stole a single bitcoin off me or anybody else - anybody who deals with financials already and knows how to secure their computer. If you give attacker full access to your computer, you can as well kiss your bank money goodbye. You kids have to learn things the hard way I guess.

Imagine walking down the street.

Between the time you left your house and the time you arrive at the store, your money vanishes out of your pocket.

Hmm. An invisible robber stole your money.

You have no leads, you have no idea how they did it or when they did it. You have no idea how to stop them because you don't know how they did it or what you did to let them do it. If you had known, you would have stopped it before it happened.


Even if you track your money by the serial number and find the money, you can't take the money back. You can't go to his house. You can't call the police. You can't ever get it back.



Now, you are smart. You deposit the coins in the bitcoin bank. Now you're not carrying anything and use your account to access the bank. Oh shit, an invisible robber just stole all the bank's bitcoins.

Now everyone's fucked!

Ok, now I see what you're talking about. The problem isn't the money. Its the theft itself and the bitcoin online "banks" have proven to be less than reliable. Combine that with the no chargeback feature of the coin and confidence dwindles from multiple robberies that cant be recovered.

"Genius" here implies that several bitcoin-related projects have been hacked recently (MtG, Mybitcoin, bitomat.pl and some more lesser incidents). In his mind, those single-person-ran websites equal to Bitcoin project in general. I can't blame him, it's the interface between people and coins. Thing is, interfaces come and go, coins stay.

Ok, you've lost me. If you want to talk about that you need to provide some back information.

It's a response for people who establish a link between some amateurish websites that got hacked lately and Bitcoin at large. There is a connection, but its one way - derivatives are not influencing the currency.

What in the world are you talking about?

Right right so when blind Joe's tobacco shop is robbed, you blame USD for this? People are funny

Pretty much everything that has to do with bitcoin has failed. The only thing successful is SHA-256 coding, not bitcoins.

The party is over. All that is left are dead cat bounces and thats it.

I understand but bitcoin isn't big enough to follow standardized market trends. But the price of the exchanges is the hard value of the currency right now and its plummeting like a stone.

Right right, speculation based on firm observations though. And nobody has stopped the "buy low sell high" axiom so far. Now is low, in case you didn't notice Newbies like Genius, who invested at 15 and moved out at 7, will never make any money on BTCs (or any other market in fact, rules are the same everywhere).

No one can offer proof on that without violating trust in the exchanges. Its speculation, same as the person who thinks bitcoin is going to $15