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Topic: PayPal set to suspend domestic transactions in Argentina (Read 4758 times)

legendary
Activity: 1008
Merit: 1023
Democracy is the original 51% attack
I recommend all of you upvote this right away (and contribute if you can speak spanish!):

http://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/ztf3h/bitcoins_che/
legendary
Activity: 1106
Merit: 1001

Well, i live in the netherlands and most ISPs throttle torrent traffic in one way or another.
There is nothing, besides their ethics and competition (ISPs are not very state controlled here), to prevent them from blocking it alltogether.


To my experience, ISP:s even advertise their services as a fast way to get movies and music. It is also highly competitive environment, at least in Finland. I'm pretty sceptical that ISPs would block bittorrent altogether, since bittorrent is one of the most important reasons why people buy fast internet connections from ISPs.

They are probably doing throttling because of profits, not because of censorship/laws.
Yes, but again, we are talking about the future of argentina here.
I gave the example of the netherlands purely from a technical point of view because people said it was technically unfeasible.


If you really think the Argentine government can block the Bitcoin network (or, for that matter, can do anything else that requires even a mildly sophisticated degree of organization), then you clearly have never been to the place  Grin

I suspect not even Germany would be able to fully block the network, certainly the Chinese haven't been, but Argentina? We are here, and you're out to lunch somewhere.
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 1000

Well, i live in the netherlands and most ISPs throttle torrent traffic in one way or another.
There is nothing, besides their ethics and competition (ISPs are not very state controlled here), to prevent them from blocking it alltogether.


To my experience, ISP:s even advertise their services as a fast way to get movies and music. It is also highly competitive environment, at least in Finland. I'm pretty sceptical that ISPs would block bittorrent altogether, since bittorrent is one of the most important reasons why people buy fast internet connections from ISPs.

They are probably doing throttling because of profits, not because of censorship/laws.
Yes, but again, we are talking about the future of argentina here.
I gave the example of the netherlands purely from a technical point of view because people said it was technically unfeasible.
hero member
Activity: 812
Merit: 1006

Well, i live in the netherlands and most ISPs throttle torrent traffic in one way or another.
There is nothing, besides their ethics and competition (ISPs are not very state controlled here), to prevent them from blocking it alltogether.


To my experience, ISP:s even advertise their services as a fast way to get movies and music. It is also highly competitive environment, at least in Finland. I'm pretty sceptical that ISPs would block bittorrent altogether, since bittorrent is one of the most important reasons why people buy fast internet connections from ISPs.

They are probably doing throttling because of profits, not because of censorship/laws.
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 1000
...
It's just as easy, but people generally think it's unethical and so usually ISPs only throttle it.
If a country realy wants to stop large scale distributed networks (and that is what we are talking about) then nothing can stop it.
...except for the general public. There where large demonstrations throughout Europe over ACTA and in some countries it came close to riots. Attempting to filter bitcoin, torrents etc. would, in effect, be an attempt to regulate internet access to only accepted protocols and require further regulation to only accepted addresses as those technologies piggyback onto the accepted protocols. It wouldn't get to that stage though, the civil unrest would get out of hand first.
We were talking about argentina.
You think that protests would prevent the government there from blocking something they wanted?
And i agree that civil unrest would escalate and bitcoin would not be the reason for it.
If information flow is hampered to such degree a country has bigger problems than their monetary system.
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 1000
Actually, if Bitcoin gained any momentum there, it is likely that their government would try to block it

How?
Blocking bitcoin traffic maybe?
If your answer is encrypted tunneling then they can block that.
If your answer is use Tor then they can block access to Tor.
In any case, they have enough points of attack to cripple general bitcoin use.


To those saying that bitcoin can be easily blocked: Shouldn't it be easier to stop bittorrent than bitcoin?
It's just as easy, but people generally think it's unethical and so usually ISPs only throttle it.
If a country realy wants to stop large scale distributed networks (and that is what we are talking about) then nothing can stop it.


Pics or it didn't happen  Grin

Well, i live in the netherlands and most ISPs throttle torrent traffic in one way or another.
There is nothing, besides their ethics and competition (ISPs are not very state controlled here), to prevent them from blocking it alltogether.
legendary
Activity: 1106
Merit: 1001
Actually, if Bitcoin gained any momentum there, it is likely that their government would try to block it

How?
Blocking bitcoin traffic maybe?
If your answer is encrypted tunneling then they can block that.
If your answer is use Tor then they can block access to Tor.
In any case, they have enough points of attack to cripple general bitcoin use.


To those saying that bitcoin can be easily blocked: Shouldn't it be easier to stop bittorrent than bitcoin?
It's just as easy, but people generally think it's unethical and so usually ISPs only throttle it.
If a country realy wants to stop large scale distributed networks (and that is what we are talking about) then nothing can stop it.


Pics or it didn't happen  Grin
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 1000
Actually, if Bitcoin gained any momentum there, it is likely that their government would try to block it

How?
Blocking bitcoin traffic maybe?
If your answer is encrypted tunneling then they can block that.
If your answer is use Tor then they can block access to Tor.
In any case, they have enough points of attack to cripple general bitcoin use.


To those saying that bitcoin can be easily blocked: Shouldn't it be easier to stop bittorrent than bitcoin?
It's just as easy, but people generally think it's unethical and so usually ISPs only throttle it.
If a country realy wants to stop large scale distributed networks (and that is what we are talking about) then nothing can stop it.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
AFAIK BitTorrent is far from being throttled. Arguably the exact opposite is true.

I don't know how you could possibly argue that the opposite is true unless you think that bittorrent traffic impedes other traffic, which is possible I suppose.

But ISPs have most definitely attempted to throttle bittorrent traffic.

http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-throttling-internet-providers-exposed-111020/
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1000
To those saying that bitcoin can be easily blocked: Shouldn't it be easier to stop bittorrent than bitcoin?

No one has made an effort to stop bittorrent that I know of, only throttle it.

AFAIK BitTorrent is far from being throttled. Arguably the exact opposite is true.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
To those saying that bitcoin can be easily blocked: Shouldn't it be easier to stop bittorrent than bitcoin?

No one has made an effort to stop bittorrent that I know of, only throttle it. And there are many legitimate uses for torrents. I don't see why one would be particularly easier or harder than the other to block.
newbie
Activity: 26
Merit: 0
UKash is not an option. There is just one company selling coupons and only in Buenos Aires.

Me and a few others are already buying/selling bitcoins at bitcoinary.

https://www.bitcoinary.com/en/users/718/profile
https://www.bitcoinary.com/en/users/1174/profile

As for the acceptance, a lot of us are confused and many think you can only get bitcoins by mining. There are a few discussions on reddit to read:

http://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/zrjma/hay_otra_soluci%C3%B3n_a_los_dolares_bitcoin/
http://www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/ztf3h/bitcoins_che/

We certainly need to promote Bitcoin here and make people understand it can really work.

Regards!
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1000
Actually, if Bitcoin gained any momentum there, it is likely that their government would try to block it

How?
Blocking bitcoin traffic maybe?
If your answer is encrypted tunneling then they can block that.
If your answer is use Tor then they can block access to Tor.
In any case, they have enough points of attack to cripple general bitcoin use.


To those saying that bitcoin can be easily blocked: Shouldn't it be easier to stop bittorrent than bitcoin?
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
Encrypted traffic like the SSL people use to access their banks? This doesn't work.

It does, actually, because encrypting the traffic does not hide the obvious patterns of that traffic. Encrypted bitcoin traffic will look much different from encrypted SSL bank traffic, and it will be pretty obvious until people start focusing their efforts on steganography and/or protocol obfuscation. Not simple tasks, and not efficient uses of bandwidth either.
sr. member
Activity: 444
Merit: 250
They can also recognise encrypted traffic and filter that.

Encrypted traffic like the SSL people use to access their banks? This doesn't work.

TOR servers are known and can be blocked on IP basis.
Far from all Tor relays are knows. Many are being kept secret and shared with people who need them. These relays are called bridges.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
according to google, argentina has a GDP of $445 billion.. 4000x more than all bitcoins Smiley

You are comparing apples and oranges here. The GDP is not an equivalent measurement to the number of a currency.
full member
Activity: 235
Merit: 100
F#$% I hate paypal.

Good attitude, but in this case hate corrupt Argentinian government. You can say many things about Paypal but not that they work towards reducing their user base (not consciously at least, lol).
full member
Activity: 235
Merit: 100
Actually, if Bitcoin gained any momentum there, it is likely that their government would try to block it

How?
Blocking bitcoin traffic maybe?
If your answer is encrypted tunneling then they can block that.
If your answer is use Tor then they can block access to Tor.
In any case, they have enough points of attack to cripple general bitcoin use.

At very least with minimal effort they could forbid cash transactions between banks and known Bitcoin exchanges and vendors. This is quite effective, won't stop everybody but it will work for majority of people.
BCB
vip
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1002
BCJ
here is a new service. 
https://qikcoin.com/verify

requires a verified account and a mobile phone.

it is still in beta so there are only nominal amounts available
but it is fully functional and secure.
donator
Activity: 980
Merit: 1000
Why haven't we seen, for example, a wallet client with built-in buy/sell bitcoin function? As in, Mt.Gox in your wallet. I am a 100% sure this would greatly facilitate life for new adopters.

This is pretty critical, if something goes wrong the wallet is responsible for your loss. Also, you still need to set up your personal data and bank account to transfer to MtGox or whatever exchange it is.

Showing the current exchange rates should be easy enough though. That and a couple links to exchanges and sites like bitcoincharts. The wallet could come with some introduction and a few pointers.

Exchange clients and wallets are very distinct things.

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