Bitcoin Forum

Friends, I am mesmerized by Bitcoin, it's a great currency alternative and lots of innovation going around but to be honest everywhere I see people's are fearing a lot, they want to invest in bitcoin and yes they already invested but still fear is prevalent. Everybody fears and they are afraid mostly about the following:

1) What if someone hacks and steal my bitcoin.
2) What if government shut down bitcoin.
3) What if I buy something via bitcoin and the seller doesn't send me what I paid for.

This list goes on....  What do you guys have to say about it? Why so much fear around Bitcoin? is it time to centralize the Bitcoin so that we could shop freely so that we could have purchase protection just like visa and mastercard Chargeback policy. Decentralization is good but it truly sucks.

there's no way for the government to shut down bitcoin. With a little bit of computer savvy, it's not hard to protect against theft. If the seller doesn't send you what you asked, you find out their home address and dump sugar in the gas tank of their vehicle.

No, we don't need to centralize bitcoin. If you want to pay with MasterCard, than use a MasterCard and not bitcoin. I bought rhodium with Provident Metals, used bitcoin, and got my merchandise just fine. Centralized solutions already exist and there's no reason we need more of them. If companies want to use the blockchain tech to increase scalability that's their own prerogative.

Next question please.

1) What if someone hacks and steal my bitcoin.

It's our responsibility to keep our money safe. Even if you have either fiat or gold, then someone steals it what you will do?

2) What if government shut down bitcoin.

Currently, also many governments are not regulated bitcoin in many countries but many people already making a lot of money from these crypto-currencies. You just need to learn where you can trade these coins.

3) What if I buy something via bitcoin and the seller doesn't send me what I paid for.

This is an issue with bitcoins. You shouldn't send bitcoins to an unknown person to buy things online. You should always need to use reputed escrow to send bitcoins to protect your money.

What I have to say is that the risk worth the profit.

It can be a high risk investment for most common people without much knowledge about investments, internet and Crypto-Currency. However, I don't know anyone who invest in Bitcoins and regrets about it, I only know people who regrets about selling their Bitcoins.

People should decide by themselves if they want to invest in Bitcoins or not, but if they choose to don't invest they will lose an opportunity to make a lot of profit. Worse for themselves.

Well same on what happened in the development of computers. As we can all see computers make our work easier and human work more faster, it also make every calculations accurate and set the motion of technological evolution in a very fast pace. These changes or these computers have been used to do good work but it also being used in bad works. More powerful weapons and planned terrorism's are being executed at ease because the good guys and the bad guys are both using these technologies. Same to bitcoin, it mustn't be at fault in what we called " what ifs " because even if we have bitcoin or not the dangers still lies here in every corner of the world.

1) What if someone hacks and steal my bitcoin.
The moment we stepped into this field we must know all the risks and be responsible for it.

2) What if government shut down bitcoin.
Be updated in the crypto news, if BTC became a threat then withdraw all your BTC before that happens.

3) What if I buy something via bitcoin and the seller doesn't send me what I paid for.
some ICO have that goals ----- transparency and credit risks, were still in the development age so be still.

Today Bitcoin isn't a great tool for everyday transactions. That's fine, it's great as a permission-less store of value. Regarding the government, they're not shutting down Bitcoin.

I think I can answer some of your worries in the simplest way:
-What if someone hacks and steal my bitcoin: No one has hacked Bitcoin at all, the Bitcoin creators assure you this.
- What if government shut down bitcoin: In my country, the government does not regulate Bitcoin but I'm still making money from Bitcoin.
-What if I buy something via bitcoin and the seller does not send me what I paid for: simple, you were scam. Why do not you trade through intermediaries or partial transactions?

the fear is always going to be with people. there is nothing anyone can do about it. and also this fear is not a bad thing actually. at some level it is still even a good thing to have. it keeps you alert. of course as long as it is not irrational.
these are the answers i give to these fears:
1) then learn basic security which is not hard either. and then risk is 1000 times less than losing your credit card.
2) nobody can shut down bitcoin. also since bitcoin is global and many countries have already adopted it fully then one government "banning" bitcoin has no effect. they will just fool themselves.
3) usually businesses plan on staying around and making money so they don't scam. checking their history, how long they have been around,... helps. for example you never say what if Steam didn't give me the game that i bought! or Microsoft didn't give me my windows that i bought!

That's the problem with Bitcoin right now. Everyone wants to invest, but nobody wants to actually use it.

Good to see that you're interested in bitcoin, even though you have some doubts, it's good to ask questions.

1. If someone hacks your computer, then you can do nothing. There is no magic dispute button like the ones in paypal.
2. They can't. Bitcoin is decentralized and p2p therefore, if they want to shut down bitcoin they'd have to shut down every single computer that is running bitcoin.
3. Nothing you can do, therefore, do your own due diligence and use escrow.

Decentralization has its benefits and downsides. I think that the benefits of not having a government controlling your future far outweighs the fact atht you can't reverse transactions. Plus, bitcoin is fungible, meaning that two units of bitcoin are worth the same. So as a seller of goods, you have 100% confidence in receiving bitcoin, knowing that nobody can dispute it wrongfully.

By using bitcoin you are basically saying that you want to be the one that is solely responsible for any losses, you are saying that i don't want anyone else making decisions for me, judging whether or not a good arrived as described or not(cough cough paypal).

Obviously this financial freedom comes at a cost, as you said if you get scammed, then there is no way to recover your bitcoins.

But rest assured - if you do just 5 minutes of research and make sure that you only deal with trustworthy people, 99% of the time you're going to be trading with ease. Plus, you're only taking into account the side of the buyer here. What about a seller? A seller selling legit goods wouldn't want to take paypal because there is just so many things that could go wrong, for example someone claiming they didnt receive the goods or it was broken when they actually broke it themselves.

Those fears may have some bases, sound bases even. But if you let those fears take the better of you then you might as well stay away from bitcoin. But take a look at here, after almost a decade, after bitcoin's value has grown so huge it seems unbelievable, do you think those reservations play a very big role that they will appear as serious threats to bitcoin? The answer is no. 

there is indeed some confusion here, first you just store your bitcoin in  cold storage, so no hack is possible

second the government can't shut down anything about bitcoin, bitcoin is decentralized, at best if all government work together they might hinder bitoin adoption

third don't deal with sellers withotu escrow, or use service like purseio or caseking that have escrow

1) What if someone hacks and steal my bitcoin.
Secure your own Bitcoin, if that scares you then you could let someone else do it for a price and risk, but Cold Storage no ones getting them anytime soon so its cheaper and a safer alternative than trusting another organization with it.

2) What if government shut down bitcoin.
They would need to shut down the internet, restrict connections globally while restricting transfers so its an illusion and psychodrama of the past.

3) What if I buy something via bitcoin and the seller doesn't send me what I paid for.
It is an elaborate venture that involves risk, but their are debit cards that use Bitcoin that work like Visa so the concern has been addressed to an extent, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be cautious though and should still rely on reliable vendors when possible.

Why so much fear around Bitcoin?
People still remember the days of drug dealers and it takes time to remove the stereotype, it is never time to centralize Bitcoin ... we are not the Fiat system nor do we wish to be. If you want to deal with the intermediaries that is a persons choice but when your bank shutdown aka Greece then your stuck, at least with Bitcoin decentralization is freedom and it is up to you to make yourself secure. Not to transfer the responsibility to others.

Look mate, sometimes it sucks to have your coins stolen or scammed by someone knowing that you cannot recover it. However i haven't actually been scammed once this year, because after a while you get a pretty good feel about who's a scammer and who is not.

Every payment method is a trade off between decentralization and reversibility. If you want a freer payment method, aka bitcoin, which is completely decentralized, then you're not going to be able to reverse any transactions. Paypal on the other hand is based off fiat which i don't like at all, but is reversible.

Let me answer your questions now.

1. You'd be surprised to hear that there are many more times in terms of dollars in stolen credit card funds than in bitcoins, i have never gotten my bitcoin wallet hacked.
2. Government can't do that. Bitcoin is decentralized.
3. You didn't use escrow, did you?

Decentralization is great. I would choose decentralization above reversibility anyday, especially if i'm on the other end as a seller.

I think you're right mate and that's also a big no for me because bitcoin threats has nothing to do with the investments which people were now focused of. Talking about deadly, well it's not that to be feared of and all we must do now is to make a firm trust of bitcoin's capability to grow for tomorrow's better future. Since from the previous years passed around bitcoin economy those said fear came  from speculators who always did negative speculations and no fair moves towards investing with bitcoin; all they know is to criticize.

Too bad, really. It all boils down to what steps you take to secure your Bitcoins and computer. Its very easy to do so. Personally, I don't have an antivirus but I keep my Windows up to date and only surf and run programs that I know are safe.
The probability is VERY low. The decentralised nature of Bitcoin makes it such that Bitcoin is almost impossible to shut down. You can make it harder for your citizens to use but you can't ban all the nodes from accessing your country.
Unlike Paypal, Bitcoin doesn't have an escrow system due to its decentralised nature. If you want to be secure, use an escrow on bitcointalk, one that you can trust.
Frankly speaking, they don't have a perfect system either. Merchants are susceptible to the loss incurred by consumers charging back when they purchase. The merchants often have to bear the loss too. If you can get a third party, you can use Multisig to secure the transaction such that the seller cannot run away with your funds.

Yup. This is the thing everyone is worried about. What happens when Bitcoin tickles the higher-ups enough to make a move. The government runs the internet and basically has the power to shut the whole thing down, then what happens?

Yes your right guys, from now on we only trust bitcoin that it is still be there and can never replaced. From the previous years even bitcoin before is not yet well known to people, bitcoin are still there until bitcoin reaches its own goal from time to time' now it is almost well known and knowable in some people and its price is now higher than before. Don't focus on deadly even they are talking about that just focus to the present and the big future of bitcoin. I encouraged you to still invest in bitcoin don't panic they are only criticised just think about the positive future of bitcoin.

The government shutting down the internet for the sake of bitcoin is an illogical notion. To a large extent all the current centralized payment systems are dependent on the internet. Why would the government mess up their own monetary system. Assume, from a total population of 100, 30 are bitcoin users, would government go to the extent of denying access to Internet to these 30 people, selective shutting down of internet and on what grounds. UN has declared internet access as a basic human right.


Like I said, the whole concept of government shutting down the internet for just banning/blocking bitcoin is too irrelevant. If any government takes an extreme step as shutting down the internet, there would be a lot of things to worry about than bitcoin.

Yeah, government of any country can pass a law against bitcoin and proclaim it illegal, but still a global ban is an impossible scenario. Right now, I can't find a single country that is so hostile against bitcoin that it would directly attack bitcoin. In fact, more and more countries are becoming bitcoin friendly.

There is really no way to address the issue of no chargebacks with bitcoin.

I think that your main concern is that either the governments are going to shut down the bitcoin network or if you get scammed when buying something with bitcoin, and you are not able to get refunded like you usually do, right?

First of all, bitcoin is decentralized. Being a p2p network, it cannot just be shut down by the government. To do this, the government needs to shut down all nodes, which is impossible to do without shutting down teh internet.

Irreversibility in my opinion is actually one of the beauties of bitcoin, and one of its main benefits as well. Fiat currency is not perfectly interchangeable, but one bitcoin is just the same as any other bitcoin. It means a lot less risk for you to accept bitcoin. It means that there are no more "stolen credit cards" that chargeback on your business. As a buyer, use 2-3 multisig escrow, and you're good to go. I've never heard anyone getting scammed whilst using 2-3 multisig escrow because there is simply no way any of the parties can run away with the funds.

Your bitcoin is only as secure as your computer. So protect your computer and you're all good. You'll only lose coins on a secured machine if you are using an online wallet, and the wallet gets hacked. So always hold your own private keys.

I think you are paranoid, there are so many people already invest in bitcoin but never had that problem, there are some ways to handle your fear
To prevent someone to hack your wallet just don't click on any unknown link always change your password and used 2fa or you can used offline wallet
The government can shutdown but it won't be able to control the user so when there are still people using bitcoin then bitcoin won't be die, so you still can used it
If you want to buy something and afraid being scammed then search for escrow or buy something in a reputable store

It is a bad idea to make bitcoin into centralised currency, many people used it because the anonymity, if it's centralised bitcoin could lose its users