Bitcoin Forum

Since bitcoin is peer-to-peer, does that fact alone 100% guarantee that it is incorruptible?
Is it possible in any way or fashion to corrupt bitcoin?

> wardearia it is "possible" but not easy
> define corrupt

Kardos, Having or showing a willingness to act dishonestly in return for money or personal gain.
from google results

> sigh, i mean in your context

I have no idea how to define it in my context

> well theres plenty of scammers turning up
> bitcoin itself is not an intelligent entity that can become corrupted by greed

that last line alone seems to imply such a sentence is erroneous

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What seems like a more accurate way to rephrase the statement:

Bitcoin is the world's first decentralized currency system and as such is resistant to regulatory capture or inequitable policy alterations solely to benefit or at the behest of a small but powerful interested group.

Bitcoin is also a nascent technology and as such has many rough edges that still need to be smoothed out.

Nothing is 100% incorruptible. Bitcoin may have a serious vulnerability... but thousands of extremely smart people have been trying to find such a thing and have been so far unable to do so.

In theory some rich Sheikh could buy up a ton of BTC and turn the economy to shit, just for the lols, and wouldn't even feel the dent in his pocket. Not likely though.

If he buy a ton of BTC then BTC price will skyrocket.

Let's HOPE someone do that, we will all become rich

Cocaine, Ecstasy and Heroin used to be good things put to good use.

Have they been corrupted?

Bitcoin is corruptible to the extent it's centralized.

Client development is centralized so the developers and the code reviewers can issue a malicious binary and get profit.

Mining is centralized so the pool owners can steal coins.

The exchanges are centralized so exchange owners can steal coins.

The escrow services and online wallets are centralized so owners can steal coins etc

See, this is one of those "optical illusions for the mind"... the answer is no, cocaine, ecstasy (though why you include this in your list is beyond me) and heroin have not been corrupted. People who have become addicted to them, and have had their lives and those of others destroyed because of them, have been corrupted.

Water is a good thing, but too much of it and you'll eventually drown as well  :D

I included ecstasy because the original use was as a marital aid touted by psychiatrists in the 70s as a miracle marriage saver. Not so much anymore.

All examples that have been stated in this thread have nothing to do with bitcoin itself. Low bitcoin prices does not mean corruption or anything bad to the bitcoin economy. In fact the less volatile it is the better as that would better allow bitcoin being used as a real currency for buying stuff.

The most valid concern is this:
Which is wrong anyways because the software is open source.

Corrupt exchanges, pools, and other services do not corrupt bitcoin itself as long as there is an alternative "self service" which there is (direct trading, personal wallet, etc etc).

There is actually a well documented list of potential corruptibility here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses

Ecstasy as a fix does not work because its a break from reality. Fiat currency is also a break from reality, that is why those currencies always fail. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is "honest" money. It does pretend to be backed by anything but stands on its own merits. It is open-source, secure and technically sound  (so far). It tries to address reality instead of pretending there is no problem with the currency system.

Yes very true about what you said on bitcoin. But it's this very reason that people may do whatever they can to make sure bitcoin will fail. The people that would want to do this are the people that see it as a threat, the people that benefited from the corrupt currency system, the bankers and the government. Here's to hoping that bitcoin will be wildly successful.

Note though although you seem to know much about bitcoin you don't seem to know much about drugs. It's okay though, drugs has nothing to do with anything on this board. not sure why it was even brought up.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Water_intoxication

It could be a problem if the market can't sustain the price after the big purchase; somthing like that could trigger a bubble and bust event i believe.

Not a problem, we would already be super super rich

What did I say about illegal drugs that is incorrect? Are you saying drugs can solve problems? The majority of LEGAL drugs don't actually fix anything, mostly they are for masking symptoms. Which is precisely what recreational drugs are used for: mask boredom, depression, anxiety, fatigue, craving,  etc.

stop talking about drugs. this board isn't about them.

Stop talking. This board isn't about you.

While I don't want to say Bitcoins is incorruptible I do see ways a government or wealthy individual could bring it down. 

1) Get enough computer power to break the bitcoin chain by taking over 50% of the computing power.  I don't think this is practicle with how powerfull the system is now.

2) Buy an resell lots of coins to make wild price swings.  This would undermine the stability and merchants would stop accepting it as a form of payment.

3) Make it hard for people to purchase bitcoins by blocking sites that are exchanges on web filters.

While these are not 100% guaranteed to work I do think they could cause issues.  I think number 2 would hit the hardest as people would be trying to buy and sell hardware as the price moved around like what happened when it jumped up to $30 a bitcoin.