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Topic: What are the most convincing arguments against Bitcoin? - page 7. (Read 9236 times)

legendary
Activity: 1162
Merit: 1004

The other big problem with Bitcoin is that it isn't legal tender, and thus it is taxed on changes in its value unlike legal tender. Thus Bitcoin can NEVER be a non-anonymous currency.

So Bitcoin has very powerful arguments against it. The OP is naive.

In Germany, neither Gold nor Gold 2.0 is taxed (VAT).

http://www.welt.de/finanzen/article120823372/Zahlungen-mit-Bitcoins-sind-umsatzsteuerfrei.html
http://www.zerohedge.com/node/477785
legendary
Activity: 4410
Merit: 4766
Re: What are the most convincing arguments against FIAT?

1.pickpocketing
2.card cloning
3.bank robbery
4.minimum wage
5.taxes
6.fraud
7.government control
8.bank double spending
9.government debt
10.bank freezing accounts
11. banks emptying accounts (cyprus)
12.money laundering
13.fiat used for illegal activities

so many more, but i think you get my point
hero member
Activity: 492
Merit: 503
HERETIC!!!

BURN HIM!


(Actually I don't know the first thing about economics. But apparently neither do economists so that's okay then)
legendary
Activity: 3598
Merit: 2386
Viva Ut Vivas
Maybe Keynes was right?

Perhaps a currency that loses value is better?
sr. member
Activity: 241
Merit: 250
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.


1. People are, in the majority, pretty fucking thick.
2. Majority Rule is the system of governance in most Western nations.

full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
I'm not talking about the short-term, not the medium-term, but the long-term.

1. 51% attack
2. Centralization of the coin due to various factors which undermines its purpose (it will continue to exist, it just won't be good anymore)
3. Ever growing chain length does not recognize the ending of moore's law.
hero member
Activity: 772
Merit: 501
A risk exists that copycats will fragment the market for Bitcoin-like currency and reduce the value of bitcoins, making them a poor store of value.

I too think the arguments for Bitcoin greatly outweigh those against, and that the aforementioned is unlikely, but of all the risks Bitcoin faces, I think it's the least insignificant.
hero member
Activity: 1492
Merit: 763
Life is a taxable event
I'm with the guys who say security for the average Joe is the biggest obstacle.  I work with many business people on a day to day basis and most of them have no clue about even the simplest of security measures and what the consequences are if their data is stolen.  With bitcoin, we are talking about securing wealth.  People MUST understand it.  They would not understand that no one should ever see that private key printed on their paper wallet.  No camera of any type should come near your paper wallet.  Trojans, man-in-the-middle, etc are all potential threats that could potentially wipe out a life's savings in a heartbeat with no recourse.  It is for these reason i have yet to encourage anyone to try it.  Let the pros work out the kinks first.  I believe a viable solution will come but until then bitcoin is not ready for mainstream.

I agree. Another serious problem is the distribution. Some early adopters may hold a ridiculously large amount of BTC that may make them some of the richest men in the world. Most people have to buy bitcoin from those who have them which are, early adopters (since half the bitcoins where mined in the first 4 years). These people have got an unfair advantage over others.

The only way to fairly distribute bitcoin would require the mass scale infrastructure of the goverment. And we all know how much goverments would like to see their currencies become useless.

If someone has 1 Million BTC and the price goes to 10k then they will have more monetary power than Bill Gates. This money however hasn't been created in goods and services but has been redistributed almost arbitrarily. I somehow doubt really early adopters will just give away 99% of their wealth. Even if they should. 
legendary
Activity: 1638
Merit: 1001
Too complex to use for people as dumb as me.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 521
I'm with the guys who say security for the average Joe is the biggest obstacle.  I work with many business people on a day to day basis and most of them have no clue about even the simplest of security measures and what the consequences are if their data is stolen.  With bitcoin, we are talking about securing wealth.  People MUST understand it.  They would not understand that no one should ever see that private key printed on their paper wallet.  No camera of any type should come near your paper wallet.  Trojans, man-in-the-middle, etc are all potential threats that could potentially wipe out a life's savings in a heartbeat with no recourse.  It is for these reason i have yet to encourage anyone to try it.  Let the pros work out the kinks first.  I believe a viable solution will come but until then bitcoin is not ready for mainstream.

I am proposing a physical solution.
hero member
Activity: 622
Merit: 500
I'm with the guys who say security for the average Joe is the biggest obstacle.  I work with many business people on a day to day basis and most of them have no clue about even the simplest of security measures and what the consequences are if their data is stolen.  With bitcoin, we are talking about securing wealth.  People MUST understand it.  They would not understand that no one should ever see that private key printed on their paper wallet.  No camera of any type should come near your paper wallet.  Trojans, man-in-the-middle, etc are all potential threats that could potentially wipe out a life's savings in a heartbeat with no recourse.  It is for these reason i have yet to encourage anyone to try it.  Let the pros work out the kinks first.  I believe a viable solution will come but until then bitcoin is not ready for mainstream.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
Bitcoin could be superseded by another technically superior cryptocurrency. Smart analysts could be rewarded handsomely by being early adopters of such a currency. Technological lock in could help keep bitcoin "numero uno" for some time however.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 521
The best argument I've seen against Bitcoin is that it'll be another cryptocurrency that we use mainstream in the future. Just because Bitcoin is first, doesn't mean it's the best.
What about the infrastructure, the mining power, the network effect and that Bitcoin could be adapted?

I and others refuted that in the Problem with Altcoins thread. Not the OP, see our comments downthread.

There are serious problems with Bitcoin in terms of mining, transactions fees, anonymity, and cartel takeover. I've covered these in detail in my November posts. I am not going to resummarize here. Suffice it to say I am nearly certain a new altcoin will seriously challenge Bitcoin in 2014.

The other big problem with Bitcoin is that it isn't legal tender, and thus it is taxed on changes in its value unlike legal tender. Thus Bitcoin can NEVER be a non-anonymous currency.

So Bitcoin has very powerful arguments against it. The OP is naive.
newbie
Activity: 2
Merit: 0
Two major obstacles:
      1.Lack of trusted exchanges to properly trade bitcoins.
Me sent money orders (significant amount) to those crooks at Camp BX.
They don't answer phone, no email return and keep claiming not received money.
Next week I'll call FBI to put these scammers where they belong.
     2.Lack of proper info. on line(even this board is not caring about) how to open a stuping wallet and get keys for it.
For. ex. I downloaded one from bitcoin.org but unable to get the keys of that stupid wallet.
Very frustrated process and ended up to uninstall the software .
hero member
Activity: 740
Merit: 501
The only real arguments is that Gavin could be convinced to include hidden backdoors/weaknesses in the client and so on.

The second is that the price would drop so low that it would no longer be profitable to mine with the increased difficulty, the currency could then potentially die from what I understand.
sr. member
Activity: 354
Merit: 250
Most people are not technically savvy enough to store their bitcoins themselves.  Without a trusted, insured deposit institution, they'll lose their savings to trojans, social engineering, and computer failures.  There may be regulatory difficulties in creating such a service down the line.
This argument is not true. Anybody can print a paper-wallet for storage of wealth from blockchian.info, if they know how to do it (which is simly the case of watching a 30sec youtube video. For spending money you can have some change in an e-wallet.).

Yes, blockchain.info is probably the best out there for now, but long term it might not be enough.

First of all, someone has to know that taking those steps is even necessary.  I've made a special effort to convince the people I've introduced to bitcoin, but it's a hard sell.

Second, as malware becomes more sophisticated attackers may well gain the ability to capture a user's blockchain.info decryption key. 

Down the line, as paper wallets become more common, burglars will learn to recognize them, and even they won't be safe if you live in a high-crime area and lack access to a vault.

There's also the risk that blockchain.info might be compromised, and the attacker could insert some malicious javascript to gain the coins that way.

You also completely ignored the possibility of phishing/social engineering.

Think about how many people are victims of identity theft as it is, then consider that bitcoin offer zero of the protections that existing financial institutions do.  A lot of people don't even know how to create a secure password. 
sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 250
christians are less likely to adopt it when giveen the choice of choosing JesusCoin vs. bitcoin.
sr. member
Activity: 255
Merit: 250
Most people are not technically savvy enough to store their bitcoins themselves.  Without a trusted, insured deposit institution, they'll lose their savings to trojans, social engineering, and computer failures.  There may be regulatory difficulties in creating such a service down the line.
This argument is not true. Anybody can print a paper-wallet for storage of wealth from blockchian.info, if they know how to do it (which is simly the case of watching a 30sec youtube video. For spending money you can have some change in an e-wallet.).
hero member
Activity: 826
Merit: 500
the way it is right now it will always just be a proxy-currency.
sr. member
Activity: 255
Merit: 250
when prices crashed cause of china whole reddit sub talked about india and downvoted china-posts. bitcoiner are trolls with money and promoting bitcoin only to become rich. with every wave of incomers greed and stupidity grows. new bitcoiner are fanatic to promote btc. only reason is greed. btc is no ponzi, but bitcoiners behave like it is one.

Many Bitcoiners might behave like cultish people but many of them are hard-headed independent-minded people who think for themselves, this can be inferred through the ways of thinking that lead people to learning about Bitcoin as a technology. In other words, I don't think i people here are as sheepish as they many look, and there are many objective careful people here. In addition there is good reason to believe Bitcoin is going up, and telling other people about it is naturally something one would do, not out of greed but because how great it is. If I was greedy I wouldn't tell anyone about it so that I can buy more cheap.

Quote from: Itcher
only criminals NEED to use bitcoin.
This is not true. People need faster, cheaper and easier ways to use money. Also criminals make a lot money using cash or greedy bankers, strawmen and financial engineering to make money, they don't need Bitcoin.
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