A friend of mine asked me this the other day.  I think it's important to remind ourselves what the attributes of bitcoin are that make it actually have inherent value and are the reasons why a conglomerate or big brother would not want to touch it with a 10 foot pole.

1.  Transactions are, or at least can be, 100% anonymous
2.  There will only ever be 29 mil ever issued
3.  It is distributed and decentralized


  The big boys (facebook, google, the fed, blah blah etc.) want to control or profit or both.  There is no way that any large organization would or could adopt a bitcoin clone as a model or anything even similar.  Facebook has their credit system they the call a virtual currency (lol),
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=1038
but I don't think you can sell them or trade them so it's not really a currency but rather a way for you to give them money so it really doesn't count.  Google has their google checkout which I really don't know too much about, but seems to be their answer to paypal.  Paypal on the other hand is the closest thing to a corporately owned digital currency.  We buy paypal dollar credits with our national currency.  Paypal digital currency is of course pegged to the national currency, but we can then buy things with them online, much like we can with bitcoin, admittedly limited at this point, but theoretically exactly the same.  Paypal is however

1.  Not anonymous
2.  Just as suseptable to inflation and helicoptor ben as any fiat currency
3.  100% centralized

Anonymity is not something that is encouraged in the financial industry at least not when it comes to the "little people".  Trust me I work at a bank.  It's also not something the sec or any regulatory system would stand by.  Any profit seeking corporation is going to want to sell their currency to grow the volume to increase their profits and any large entity by definition is not decentralized or distributed or at least not amongst the people.  

It is, to my best understanding, the way that bitcoin is written that makes it so genius genius genius.  I can't think of any way to improve it's design.  At least not to the degree that it would make it obsolete or even worth any less.  If, for instance, a big dog were to step on the scene introducing to the broader general public, "Bitcoin 2 inc." now with a marketing and publicity budget to inform the world on the advantages of an anonymous digital curruncy, insusceptible to inflation and completely decentralized, it would only contribute to the acceptance of an idea I don't think most people have or could wrap their head around yet.  Oh and by the way there is an original bitcoin community that has been establishing itself independently, but pay no mind to the man behind the curtain.  

Bitcoin is something completely new for a completely new era, an era we don't completely understand yet.  Things develop faster than we can understand them.  There was probably a point when someone said "are you stupid, why would I give you my saber tooth tiger coat for a little piece of shiny yellow rock?"

There are other digital currencies out there with different attributes.  OpenTransact, I think will serve to a great degree when it comes to developing local currencies with a hard backing, but bitcoin is unique.  In my opinion it actually resembles some of the great ideas of some of the largest corporations.  Microsoft and Google.  There was a time when people said "why would anyone want a computer in their house?" and "what I don't get it, it's just a search engine?".  Bitcoin is actually a company.  It is an open source, distributed anti-corporation.  It's a company truly owned by the people.  As bitcoin gains in popularity so will the value of the bitcoin.  Bitcoins are the stock and we the people are the stock holders.

If you haven't seen this yet watch it.

RSA-the suprising truth about what motivates us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc    

      

Hi Friends,
I just wanted to let everyone know that Jed replaced half my bitcoins.  He is a scholar and a gentleman.  He didn't have to, but he did.  50/50 split responsibility.  Much respect and gratitude to Jed and all the work he has done to support the bitcoin community.  I have learned a valuable lesson in when it comes to not using bonehead passwords.  Thank you to everyone who has chimed in on this topic and extra extra thanks to bitdragon and freemarketagenda and anyone else who donated a few bitcoins to my openalcohol.org project.  Thank you all.  Me loves Bitcoin.

Openalcohol.org is to be the homepage for a project I am starting.  There is a video on it that I think you will find very interesting and the basis for my project.

I think that would be incredibly fair also.  Thank you mtgox.

Wow, bitdragon that really warms my heart.  I would really appreciate that.  I think this might be a good time to share a little more about myself and the project I have been working on and what led me to bitcoin in the first place.  It's a bit off topic and something I wasn't planning to share for a while as the project has been on the backburner while I've been busy with another project, but here goes.

I believe that what draws most of us to Bitcoin is an inherent desire for freedom and independence.  It is this same desire that drove me to invest many many hours and months into another project.  To some it may seem unrelated, but I have ideas and plans that could benefit both bitcoin as well my project.  At first there may seem to be no corelation, but as we dig deeper you will discover some very exciting possibilities.  They are lofty ambitions, but I'm building a framework for the future.  It's in it's infancy, but there is some core information on a video on my page openalcohol.org.  

To anyone who may want to donate some bitcoins to the project and/or to myself as I have just been robbed of 900+ there is a link to donate some bitcoins on this page.  http://openalcohol.org/node/25

At this point I won't dedicate to much about it here as this is a bitcoin forum, but if people are interested contact me at info@openalcohol.com and I will start doing my best to build up the site.

Thank you for your time and support
-Cryptofo

By choosing to be involved in the bitcoin experiment and trading $ for btc in the first place we expose our to inherent risk.  This is something we all understand.  By trusting that a particular site is secure I mtake the risk I get that.  I understand the "what happens in the future when..." argument, but this is the case right now. Mtgox had a security hole.  As an ancillary benefit to the attack, Jed has discovered a hole and fixed it.  Mtgox is now more secure.  The bitcoin community is more secure.  I am out 900 btc.  I in effect was used to expose a flaw in their security and never compensated for it.  I'm clearly biased in my opinion, but this should be considered a cost of doing business on Jed's part.  I'm not saying that mtgox should be responsible for any and all situations and possibilities, but honestly If I was running the site and this had happened I would make it a point to see that the user was made good.

I trust Jeb too, I don't think anyone in the bitcoin community is out to get anyone.  We all want what's best for bitcoin.  If this tightens up security at mtgox and makes bitcoin stronger and we all learned a lesson then I guess that's good for bitcoin.  Just sucks to be the one takin it on the chin for it.

I hear ya.  I'm not pointing the finger at mtgox and demanding they accept all responsibility.  The reality is a bug was found in a system that we all  want to trust.  Bugs get discovered and bugs get patched.  It could have been a lot worse.  Suppose they gained control of more than just my bitcoins and began to manipulate the market.  Bitcoin as a whole is very experimental at this point.  The anonymous nature of leaves little accountability to anyone other than ourselves.  At this point and up to this point it doesn't look like MTGOX wants to take any responsibility.  That's cool, just a year and a half of generating down the tubes.

I'm with you Vladimir   , that's what I was trying to get across in my email to him.  Still haven't heard back.  

cusipzz - I hear what you are saying, but that was not the case here.  There was a clear vulnerability at mtgox and my password wasn't "password"  It was a combinatinon of 8 letters and numbers.  Not a dolphins butt I know, but mtgox stated that there was a whole that he fixed.  And I have to pay the price.  The site also accepted it as a valid password.

I don't know, but they're in st. petersberg Russia.  I'm boycotting Vodka!!

Thank you vladimer for your support and kind words from all.  These are the emails to mtgox.

Jeb,
I've contacted Liberty Reserve abuse and recieved their standard shpeal.  I'm really
upset, I've been collecting these bitcoins for over a year.  I think this is unfortunate
because MTGOX is one of the primary sources for liquidity and market price, but this type
of insecurity is a vulnerability to the bitcoin community.  This was not caused by
complete neglegence on my part.  My computer was not compromised.  My username and
password are specific to this site.  This is a specific attack that was directed at
mtgox.  My password may have been weak ( 8 characters, numbers and letters), but it was a
vulnerability on your end that allowed someone to use a dictionary attack.  It is
important to know that mtgox is willing to make their best efforts to reconcile a
compromise of this nature.  If there is anyway you can replace some if not all of the
900+ bitcoins that were stolen from me, I think it would stand as a gesture of support
from mtgox and instill some faith in mtgox from the bitcoin community.


Quoting Jed McCaleb <admin@mtgox.com>:

[Hide Quoted Text]
I'm not sure how they got your username. From the bitcoin forum maybe?
Are you going to make a statement on the bitcoin forum with some  information?
I'm not sure what I would say there. I made the attack impossible now and I don't think anyone else's account was compromised.
Are you going to contact Liberty Reserve?
I can but you should also. The more people complaining about that account the better.



On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 6:19 PM,  <XXXXXXXXXXXXX> wrote:
I understand this is somewhat out of your control and I should not have had
a password that started with a, but how did they know my username?  Are you
going to make a statement on the bitcoin forum with some information?  Are
you going to contact Liberty Reserve?

Quoting Jed McCaleb <admin@mtgox.com>:
I checked that IP and that was from the person running the attack. So
he must have guessed your password. I'm sorry...
How do you know someone was running a dictionary attack?
I saw the repeated login attempts. But I changed the login page so
they can't do it now.

Liberty Reserve has a contact form on their site.



On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 5:14 PM,  <XXXXXXXXXXXX> wrote:

How do you know someone was running a dictionary attack?  On your end?
 Do
you know how I can get in touch with liberty reserve?

Quoting Jed McCaleb <admin@mtgox.com>:
This will tell you:
http://www.ip2location.com/demo.aspx

Well someone was running a dictionary attack so if your password was
simple he may have gotten it.
You could try writing Liberty Reserve and see if they can help since
they have the money now.
Sorry,
Jed.

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 5:06 PM,  <XXXXXXXXXXXX> wrote:

Anything's possible, this seems like a rather specific attack.  I can't
believe this.  Can you tell where these Ip addresses are?

Quoting Jed McCaleb <admin@mtgox.com>:
Could someone have got your password somehow?

XXX.XXX.64.10
77.222.42.204
XXX.XXX.64.10
XXX.XXX.56.44

These are the IPs that have logged into your account
Jed.

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 4:54 PM,  <XXXXXXXXX> wrote:

Someone hacked my account and did this.

Quoting Jed McCaleb <admin@mtgox.com>:
Looks like you sold them and sent them to Liberty reserve account:
U0764959

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 4:45 PM,  <###########> wrote:

XXXXXXX

Quoting Jed McCaleb <admin@mtgox.com>:
What is your username?

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 4:22 PM,  <##########> wrote:

I just logged into mtgox and all my bitcoins are gone.  I'm
freaking
out.
 What happened, please respond.

I'm so depressed, imagine my surprise to log in and see that the price had almost doubled then to realize my bitcoins were gone.  Almost funny when you think about it.

Mtgox just told me someone was running a dictionary attack. 

No one has access to my computer, but my password wasn't very strong.  It looks like it came from this ip address 77.222.42.204 from st. petersberg russia.

this is the email I just got from someone at mtgox:

Looks like you sold them and sent them to Liberty reserve account: U0764959

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 4:45 PM,  <xx> wrote:

[Hide Quoted Text]
xx

Quoting Jed McCaleb <admin@mtgox.com>:
What is your username?

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 4:22 PM,  <xx> wrote:

I just logged into mtgox and all my bitcoins are gone.  I'm freaking out.
 What happened, please respond.

This is crazy, I would think if someone hacked my account they would just send themself my bitcoins, but they actually sold them then withdrew money in a way that you can't withdraw through paypal.  Worse they sold them when they were at .42. 

I tried to post it, but it said it was too big so I uploaded it here.

http://www.urbanethanol.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/bitcoins.jpg

I know totally, I'm freaking out.  Can I print screen shots?  It looks like someone got into my account sold all my bitcoins and then somehow withdrew them through paypal.  AAjhhhhhh

900+!!!

I'm freaking out.  I just checked my mtgox account and all my bitcoins are gone.  It's says they were withdrawn to paypal.  I think it got hacked.  Anybody else?