Erik works hard, too.

I never worked on wall street, but came to the same conclusion. It's ridiculous to try and draw lines, just like in competitive sports/doping. What if someone shoots steroids? Unfair to others. What if someone prepares at high elevation to boost up rbc count? Suddenly this is not unfair. What if she has got unusually high levels of testosterone? Depends. Someone arbitrarily decides what value is acceptable. What if someone includes a plant in the diet that contains a yet-uncontrolled booster? Today OK, tomorrow not so much. It's all bullshit.

Assuming you manage to keep the fees low, you'll profit from people doing arbitrage (or by doing it yourself with all these tools at hand).

The title says it all, I hope. Discussing legal options and tactics in public is not a good idea. Serious matters are unfolding for some, from victims of theft to the thieves, with potentially serious consequences. If you've got a public statement to make, carefully think it through, then go ahead.

However, any exclusive information and any legal (or illegal!) advice you feel sharing should not be shared in public, as thieves are watching and planning accordingly.

I've noticed posts discussing options for asset protection, knives, broken legs, laundering, dealing with the police, and very specific court tactics. Some of these may be genuine good-hearted effort, some of it is thieves spreading FUD. Both help assholes get away with stolen goods.

I haven't cast the vote yet. It's sure tempting to promote Bitcoin through this challenge, but then again Bitcoin already does everything MintChip might be doing, and much more. Oh, whatever. Let them be. I decided. Going to vote.

If unlimited energy were freely available to everyone all the time, everything would become a hobby. Including Bitcoin. Time would become the limiting factor, not money.

I was mining, buying and selling coins for half a year before registering on this forum. I'm sure there are many users who just don't bother registering.

I'm not saying it's great. But yes, I think that is the attitude. If suddenly we had a chance to get at some high value information by using a back door on a chip, the CIA would do it in a heart beat. There would be no time to research it in an emergency. That's why the CIA hires p0eople to know about these things in advance.
Could that knowledge be abused by some "bad" government in the future. Sure it could. 
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I highlighted the important part. The value for whom? From what I see, US citizens are not reaping benefits at all - the agencies represent interests of large capital - often international. We can keep naively justifying it in one way or another, or we can grow cynical, but that's not going to lead us to a better - or even good - world.

Anyhow, seems like we agree that yes, there are hardware backdoors, and yes, we should be aware of it. The reason for OP was that I felt many are not aware of the problem.

4) The honey pot is then cracked open, licked clean, and wrapped in yellow tape by DEA agents who have been watching you for a while. IRS can come, too.

Target fixation, Bruno!  The check was supposed to be done "without revealing private information".

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=86112.0

Hardware backdoors are a reality. Just like paper wallets, we need a low-tech alternative to hashing. I'm thinking massively parallel, coordinated child-labor camps in Southeast Asia operated under the pretense of schooling camps. First semester: arithmetics.

I wonder if I could pay her not to write. Or even better, if I could pay her to read and understand before writing.

Anyhow - we have no idea who paid for those articles, if anyone. Could be a weak attempt at market manipulation, could be the writer's own initiative driven by the need for traffic, and supported by laziness and ignorance. Could be one of the private e-payment processors she promotes in "5 reasons..."

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Nice job. Now it's never going to work.

I may be missing something, but to verify the age of X, X needs to be specified. Therefore, it is not anonymous.

I don't mind criticism and fresh perspective, but PR campaigns - even pathetic and poorly executed - raise an eyebrow. You may have recently noticed a series of regurgitated, ill-researched, biased articles of this kind:

"Bitcoin: Seven reasons to be wary"
"7 Reasons to Beware Bitcoin"
"5 reasons grids should avoid Bitcoin"

Articles have been discussed in respective threads on the "Press" board, so please let's not waste time here dissecting them. 

A quick look at what the writer says about herself reveals that Maria Korolov (aka Maria Trombly until recently) is a writer-for-hire.

From Trombly International "about us" page:


An interesting question is - who pays her to spread FUD and why?  A one eyed-crook with a wooden leg?  A traditional asset securitization firm?

Yes, please!  Also, what to do with spam accounts already created?

This metaphor has been brought up in several threads, and is an important one. Bitcoin network simply allows people to broadcast information, and to agree upon the veracity of said information. Free speech.

I thought you were seriously drunk.

At first I thought it was simply a lazy, incompetent writer hungry for visits, but the same article is featured on http://mobile.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/software/3371446/bitcoin-seven-reasons-be-wary/

Is this a PR campaign? Certainly pathetic and weak, but still - she rolls out two negative articles full of misinformation in two weeks, and the latest one is syndicated on multiple sites.

I'm glad you are brainstorming, but... You expect people to have blind trust in something you introduce to them as "magic"?  And it involves money? I certainly hope you forget about this idea for a while, then reconsider.