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The funny thing about all this is that this isn't really a thing that happened to bitcoin, it's a thing that happened to an exchange because its owner failed to comply (mistakenly or intentionally) to the pre-existing regulations of the district in which he opened a bank account.
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Every time you give someone your public address to recieve coins, you are creating an association with your identity and a bitcoin address.
But if you ever spend those coins, you are creating bulletproof evidence that you were in control of those bitcoins all along. This means that it is basically impossible to create any kind of anonymous transaction. It also means that bitcoin is a terrible tool for tax evasion. It also means that it will be trivial to provide back-dated proof of cross-border currency movement.
The block-chain is going to become a treasure trove of evidence for putting people away for money laundering.
It may. But I could participate in a perfectly legal transaction off the blockchain by sending somebody private keys to addresses with bitcoins loaded on them. I could then delete those private keys so that I can no longer spend the coins associated with their addresses. If those coins are then spent, by and by, on something illegal, is that proof that I spent them on something illegal?  |
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I'm keeping my money away from gox for now - just not worth the risk.
This. |
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Buy BTC on Mt Gox, withdraw BTC to Coinbase, sell BTC for USD.
Shhhhh. Bitcoin is risky, But it's sexier to expose yourself to additional risk by holding USD on MtGox. |
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I'm really shock bitcoin price hasn't crashed with this news. $119 to $114 isn't really a crash.
I wonder if we will see a slow decline over the next few days as this gets reported in the news.
This could be very bad for bitcoin if it is a sign that the US govt is cracking down. If they manage to shut down the exchanges or prevent anyone from sending US dollars to them, if could effectively kill bitcoin. And no, I don't think bitcoin can survive as a currency that exists everywhere but the US. This is scary and I'm surprised the market has not reflected this yet.
Hopefully this was because of some misuse of MtGox's dwolla account when it comes to AML regulations and not a sign of things to come.
On the other hand, it could highlight exactly why bitcoin is useful by showcasing how it's possible, against the wishes of a government, to nearly instantly transfer value around the world without the realistic possibility of the funds getting seized. |
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Statists are coming to our Bitcoins. Bitcoin is antifragile, so: Bring it on!  I'd bet you could 3-D print a grenade launcher a hell of a lot easier than a gun... DHS incoming in 3, 2... |
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Statists are coming to our Bitcoins. Bitcoin is antifragile, so: Bring it on! Quick! Convert to USD...er, wait... |
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If only there were a way to move value around without the threat of it getting seized by a third party. Somebody should invent something.
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Easier said than done. Unless you have the maximum level of Mt.Gox verfication, you can only send 100 BTC out per day. For larger accounts, there is no choice but to have either $ or BTC sitting in Mt.Gox.
Or plan ahead and don't keep more than you withdraw on the exchange. I removed all my bitcoins from every exchange a while ago, and I'm happy I did. I'm fortunate to be in a position capable of weathering any reasonable (for bitcoin) price volatility (to the downside, more specifically) and given that bitcoin is getting a lot of attention lately, and lots of laws are untested and/or undefined, I don't want to have any BTC or USD sitting somewhere where I don't have exclusive control. |
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Ok, that was dumb of me. This is my public and humble plea for adam to have mercy on me and release me from this debt.
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How did you Find out about Bitcoin? What was your initial reaction?
I'm pretty sure it was this Bad Philosophy podcast back in early April of 2011. I started listening to it on my way to meet my family for dinner, and I couldn't think about anything else for the rest of the night. I was mining about a week later. |
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I thought Gates came off as quite complimentary with that little statement. Pretty cool.
Edit: Shit! For some reason I thought this thread was only in "Economics" and not the spec forum. I'm outta here.
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My personal troll list is here: shad0wbitz
proudhon
nrd525
onesalt
smoothie
Come-from-Beyond
00null
wingding
TsuyokuNaritai
BitcoinMillionaire
nkspace
naphto
dataphile
NikolaTesla
johnblaze
HappyBitCoinUser
Nightowlace
101111
Jaroslaw
bitteriest P.S. I don't have the links to prove them trolls (some are on the list for some time) but from now on I will add them. What can I do to get off this list? |
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Cool story bro. There's a whole forum for this.
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Newsflash, also, anyone may create a bitcoin rival.
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I think this is a reference to the media play bitcoin is getting in China right now, and the claim is that Chinese people are going to mass adopt (zerg rush?) bitcoin and push the price up a lot.
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What are the chances of the money and bitcoins being frozen until this is settled?
Don't know exactly, but I worry about the chances of that enough given the current state of third party infrastructure that I'm keeping every last bitcent I own right now in offline wallets. |
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I don't know what this means.
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I've been playing around with Windows to Go on a USB thumbdrive lately. I downloaded the Windows 8 Enterprise trial ISO from Microsoft and installed it on freshly formatted hard drive in an offline PC. From that Enterprise installation I created a live and bootable Windows 8 Enterprise USB using the Windows to Go feature. You can choose to use Microsoft's BitLocker encryption on the USB drive from the Windows to Go installation wizard. Once Go is finished installing, you can boot up that installation of Windows on any capable system. On boot you'll be prompted for the BitLocker password to decrypt the drive.
On any systems you use with your USB drive you'd just want to make sure any network cables are disconnected before you boot up. The first time I booted from my USB drive I just went ahead and uninstalled all network devices. I installed Armory and have used it for a few small offline wallets. I think this gives you something almost as secure as a dedicated offline computer for Armory with more flexibility. The way I've set it up you need the BitLocker decryption key, the regular Windows password, and the password for the Armory wallets in order to sign transactions to be moved to an online system for broadcasting.
Of course, you can do something similar with Linux, but I wanted to try it out with Windows because Armory updates typically go out to Windows first, and I wanted to avoid worrying about dependencies and stuff like that. What's nice is that I think you can do this for free. You can get the trial Enterprise ISO directly from Microsoft. The standard installation is limited to 90 days, but you just need to install it in order to create a Windows to Go USB drive. After that, you don't need it anymore. The Go installation will tell you it's not activated with a watermark, but being unactivated, as far as I can tell, just means you can use some Windows features like the Windows store - stuff you don't need on an offline installation anyway.
I guess it's a slight step down from a dedicated Armory offline computer because I it's conceivable that a wallet compromising virus could travel from the hard drive of host computer onto the USB installation; although, from my USB Go installation I've never been able to access the drive resources of the host computer, so I assume there some partitioning going on to protect against that sort of thing. Anyway, like I said, probably a slight step down in security from the recommended Armory setup, but a step up in security, I think, from VMs on network connected computers. Plus you get a lot more flexibility since you could more easily travel with an encrypted USB that you can use on your main laptop or any other computer.
Just something I've been playing with.
Were you able to set that up for free? You might be interested in the ironkey that's coming out later this year that will have hardware encryption with windows to go and can boot up in ram. Yep, it's free. Just used the trial Enterprise ISO. It gets watermarked as unactivated, and some Windows features get disabled - like Windows Store -, but otherwise it works perfectly fine for an offline wallet OS. |
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Bitcoin is not as secure as we think. - Dan Kaminsky The system and framework itself is preternaturally sound. - Dan Kaminsky The first quote was a lame way of his actual point, which is that bitcoin exist in an ecosystem of less sound systems that can be exploited to steal bitcoins or disrupt markets. |
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