2013-06-05 American Banker: The Last Straw for Bitcoin

[TsuyokuNaritai]

This article is just so unbelievably awful I just had to get your reactions.

http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/the-last-straw-for-bitcoin-1059608-1.html

[cypherdoc]

it wasn't that awful.

the author is just ignorant.

[TraderTimm]

I posted a reply but it was rather scathing -- I didn't get a chance to copy it here, but if they post it - you'll get a kick out of it.

Update: Ah, they did post it - must be an automatic delay. Here it is:

The author's reasoning is deeply flawed. First, the United States doesn't rule the entire globe, even if they do spend more than the top 13 countries combined. Second, every node in the bitcoin network would have to agree to any rule change - and it is highly unlikely that ANYONE would agree to revoke irreversible payments.

You might as well ask the entire network to spend their bitcoins on a popsicle-stick skyscraper. That's how flawed the idea is. Not one node will do it, which blows your entire article out of the water.

It bothers me when people who seem like they're reasonably educated and can utilize logical thinking can't seem to piece together the concepts that Bitcoin represents.

Was it a deadline? Some hasty typing before lunch? An unwillingness to know the subject? We may never know - but what we DO know is that the author shouldn't be trusted to write on complex subjects, as he has fully embarrassed himself and the site his article is published on.

Do your homework next time, and don't be so intellectually lazy. Your remaining readers thank you.

[aigeezer]

The motive may have been simple mischief - propaganda doesn't have to tell the truth to be effective. Remember the source - speaking of which, I find the title hilariously ambiguous: "American Banker: The Last Straw for Bitcoin".

[marcus_of_augustus]

"Digital currencies are just a financial service and those who deal in them are [financial institutions]," Jennifer Shasky Calvery

This is simply Calvery's interpretation. The author has fallen for the fallacy that the word of law enforcement is the law ... it is not. They have no more power to interpret the law than the average citizen, and often times an agenda to interpret law to their advantage, to make their jobs easier, build empires, keep their "backers" happy, etc.

Shasky Calvery needs to spend more time prosecuting real financial crimes like MF Global, LIBOR interest rate fixing, bailouts siphoned to bonuses and the like. And lightweights writing in American Banker need to clean their own stables before throwing it at others new, clean houses.

P.O.

[cypherdoc]

"Digital currencies are just a financial service and those who deal in them are [financial institutions]," Jennifer Shasky Calvery

This is simply her interpretation. He has fallen for the fallacy that the word of law enforcement is the law ... it is not. They have no more power to interpret the law than the average age citizen, and often times an agenda to interpret law to their advantage, to make their jobs easier, build empires, keep their "backers" happy, etc.

Shasky Calvery needs to spend more time prosecuting real financial crimes like MF Global, LIBOR interest rate fixing, bailouts siphoned to bonuses and the like. And lightweights writing in American Banker need to clean their own stables before throwing it at others new, clean houses.

P.O.

Marcus is on a roll. Get out of the way.

You go boy.

Btw, it's a she.

[jl2012]

Bitcoin: The Last Straw for American Banker 

[xcsler]

Bitcoin: The Last Straw for American Banker 

Actually, Marc Hochstein an Executive Editor at AB has written and spoken about BTC in a positive light. Check out episode 13  of Let's Talk Bitcoin (starts at ~55 minute mark). http://letstalkbitcoin.com/

[aigeezer]

The author is a patent attorney, apparently, with an undergrad degree in computing. Geek gone astray?   

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Ryan/Strauss

His closing utterance sounds like wishful thinking for an "intellectual property" lawyer: "If Bitcoin is to survive, it will have to do so as a transparent and (likely) expensive payment system operated by a bunch of financial institutions."

Time will tell.