Bitcoin Forum

Why do you trust BTC in one sentence ???

Bitcoin isn't run by people, who can be corrupted, bribed etc - it's run by math.

Math.

Free competition.

B00bies.

"Democracy" has been gamed to death, long live the blockchain!

Humans are flawed, math is pure.

cryptomancy and free market

Voluntary decentralized non-human controlled currency backed by people.

It's got everything that fiat-money doesn't have:
*centralized
*mandatory (for taxes)
*human-controlled (central banks, politics)
*backed by decree

Not created out of thin air like actual bank currencies.

If we want bitcoin to be popular we need a much wider set of reasons about why you trust bitcoin in one sentence we need the small details map that leading to the main reasons.
So Why do you trust bitcoin in one sentence. ???

I've read the white paper and know how it works.

Not only does Bitcoin have the potential to become a global currency without the backing of any government or organization, it eliminates the need to rely on payment processors for online payments.

Edit: I realize this doesn't quite answer the question but it was an off-the-cuff response. When I have a bit more time, I'll write a more accurate and concise statement.

Is gaining popularity all about trust?  Trust isn't needed for people to use it. They might use it because it's cheaper, more convenient and safer than alternatives.

Then there are two different levels of trust involved.
 
I trust the transaction system because it is completely open and understandable. No shady things going on. I can watch what's happening.

Do I trust that the value stored in my bitcoins will not evaporate one day? Not really. But I'll still use them because of these earlier mentioned three reasons.

Cryptography keeps it secure, decentralized keeps it from corruption, open source keeps it honest, and limited supply keeps it from inflating.

That is why I trust Bitcoin.

Who would have guessed that all the math we studied in college would lead us to a truly free market.

Can't remember where i saw this quote:

Mass collaboration around an open protocol.

I can be my own bank with the security of math.

by Roger Ver:

"If you point a gun at the rules of mathematics they are not gonna flinch. They don't care if you are pointing a gun at them or not."

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=52190.msg624861#msg624861

Why do I trust Bitcoin?

Because the keys are f....ing long!

'cause Bitcoin is way cool.

Also, it cured my apathy.

In cryptography we trust...

I don't.

Why do I trust it?

Because it's a peer-to-peer system that relies on math, not human behavior, to keep your money and transactions secure.

Why? Security, reliability, ease of use.

Open source.

To quite Linus Torvalds: "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow".

You can have no fees, almost instant payments, very good for business, and 1BTC = 6$ :)

Love the idea & design, on the other hand there hasn't yet emerged any reason why I shouldn't trust.

In Blockchain we trust.

Trust is not necessary.

I'm going to cheat.

I trust bitcoin because I read and understood this: http://www.bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf .

I trust it because there is no middle man :)

...or at least that's what i hope ;(

Because it's the only option for me :D

If we want bitcoin to be popular we need a much wider set of reasons about why you trust bitcoin in one sentence we need the small details map that leading to the main reasons.
So Why do you trust bitcoin in one sentence.  ???

Me neither. I'll trust it when a concrete solution to blockchain expansion is implemented (I know, it's been discussed quite a lot already and theoretical solutions have been proposed, but that's not enough yet IMO). That part on scalability is scary too: Buying a new hard drive every 3 weeks is annoying already, but adding it to the computer sounds even much worse... sounds like after a few months of blocks like that you'd need some funky hardware (NAS or whatever) just to store the blockchain. Clearly not an option...

This is the best one; it's the one I'm going to use on friends.

"I trust Bitcoin because it does not require trust."

I understand the OP his vision on this.
Why should you trust people that claim you should trust in the math it's build on.
I mean the only way you can confirm this is to take a look at the source code.
But what if you cannot read C++?
Well, then you need to trust the people that claim it's alright.
But those people will also probably have Bitcoin and won't say Bitcoin is a shitty currency since it's at there own intrest to make Bitcoin look good.

Right?

I trust in BTC because a wide community trusts in them. I mean: when they went from 30$ to 1$ all of a sudden, many bloggers claimed it was "the end of bitcoin". But it was not, people started to buy it again, and it's back to 6$ now. If it didn't fail that time, it will never.

On top of that, there are objectively some classes of people that need something like bitcoins, and will likely buy them no matter what. Criminals, for one: there is no other way to make big payments almost anomimously.
But also developing countries are a great hope. Right now if an emigrant wants to send money at home, they need to pay up to 25% to a money transfer agency, only to convert it to fiat money that will likely inflate at skyrocketing speed. That whole half of the world (the fastest growing, seen the situation of our "rich" countries) could move almost completely to bitcoin in the coming years, as soon as the price of a cell phone that can hold a bitcoin wallet goes down enough.
(http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/09/feature-phones-are-not-the-future/ (http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/09/feature-phones-are-not-the-future/))

Simple: Because it works.

Because I understand why it's completely safe, secure, fair, anonymous, and neither dependent on nor owned or controlled by a person or company or institution.

You're right to a degree; you do need a certain amount of trust in someone.  The beauty of bitcoin is that the Satoshi client is not all there is; plus there are customised versions of the client; plus there are those that can read C++ and do look.  You have to believe in a truly massive conspiracy to think that there is a maliciously inserted back door in Bitcoin.  Every single person involved in the conspiracy would need to have an incentive from it; and since that would include miners, and new miners can always joins, that is not a fixed pool.  That means the conspirators would have to be constantly recruiting, and recruiting in secret.

You're right then that we need to trust that the above isn't happening.  It's not an easy leap to make though.

Even given all that though; there is nothing to stop you sitting with the protocol specification, and a hex dump of whatever transactions you thought were dodgy and verifying them by hand.  I'm not suggesting you do; but it's not outside the realms of possibility.  That possibility adds to the unlikelihood of the conspiracy.


If they're holding bitcoin they have an incentive to ensure there is no back door; and that what they're holding really is secure.  If they discovered it was not; then they could sell their holdings then reveal the insecurity.  There would be no advantage to keeping it secret, since someone else might discover it as well and invalidate their holdings before they can sell them.

In short: bitcoin holder's biggest incentive is not to try to prop up a bad currency; but to ensure that what they do hold really is secure.

I don't.

But give me time  ;D

Free market and no FED.

The ability to be "completely" (yes we could discuss this for days) anonymous. I hate knowing that some suit could be looking through my bank transactions at any time.

Indeed there's still room for improvement on this. I think it will be much better already when the client allows users to choose which address to send from when performing a transaction (I think I read in some other thread that this feature was coming maybe in 0.7?).

Max block size is currently 1mb and most blocks are far from full.  So at the moment you looking at 21,000 days before you need a new drive.  By the time this limit has to be raised (probably doubled), hard drive density will have quadrupled at least.

Because the growing list of notables espousing BTCitcoin can't all be wrong.

That, and there's a monthly physical magazine out that I'll seen, held, and read with my own person, created by a guy who...wait for it...eats dog.

~Bruno~

I think that if the math Bitcoin was built on was flawed, there'd be even one person who would point it out. While the client's source is a bit above my head, I can go so far as to verify that it matches the whitepaper (minus merkle-tree pruning). And I can read the whitepaper, and it sounds good to me...

So if you can't verify Bitcoin's math, find me one person who has verified that it doesn't work. Bitcoin's userbase is large enough that it encompasses enough people who are competent in C++.

because it began on the internet. and i don't really care for government controlled currencies

Same here. *points to sword* this, this you can trust.

Independent

better than paypal

Because there is no one to trust, so trust is irrelevant.

Because of this guy named pirateat40 who makes everyone rich for free

I find one sentance too short.

How about some Haiku?

I might trust bitcoin
Other bitcoiners do too
That's ok for now

Or a limerick:

There once was a bitcoiner named Dave
With fiat cash felt like a slave
In Bitcoin he trust
If it never will go bust
He'll have enough coins to save

Well said.

I'd add: a community of people who also believe in it.

Math math math math math
Bitcoin doesn't require trust
math math math math math

+1

One currency rule them all

This.

It's a math based currency and easily kept anonymous, unlike government based currency.

I trust it because it is not the euro or US dollar.

Because I can.

+1

and: "because you have full control over your money and nobody can stop your transactions"

The technology is sound and the user community is diehard.

Yep, I trust Bitcoin because I do not have to trust anyone if I do not want to.

Hehe, well said.

Well actually, it depends on trusting mathematical principles, rather than trusting people. The latter has proven to be less reliable uncountable times.

I didn't until it proved I should, after which I now trust it with anything.

 I don't even trust the NYSE

Math is math but human behavior causes the swings.

Because I feel it's safer than payment processors.

I don't trust bitcoin, but it works without my trust.

why?
Math.

I carefully read Satoshi Nakamoto's paper and understand the security guarantees of the algorithms involved.

Everything which is NOT $ or € or something else... is my choice

i'm not sure i do :-) , but i'm thick enough to try before i know all the ins and outs hehehe

I trust science not goverments

We can purchase & exchange products services and cash anonymously out of reach of the eyes of the local authorities, its like cash.

Math.