Bitcoin Controversy Research paper UPDATE, rough draft posted

[acorn]

Rather curious to read your paper when it's done. Will you share it with us?

Are you writing this for a class or something?

[SurReality89]

Yea in my paper that is one of my points, if the US or anyone country where to ban Bitcoin it would be impossible to actually put a stop people from using. I suppose it would be possible to catch people who mine bitcoins or otherwise sell/buy them, because money is so traceable and people wouldn't want to people random people. but things like Greendot MoneyPak would work well for buying and selling them anonymously, BUT i'm sure it would be possible to have a GMP number be traced to someone cashing it. but having to pay 5 bucks to get a moneypak sort of makes buying bitcoins not very worth it unless you sold them 5 bucks cheaper than they are worth.

i realize Bitcoin can't get shut down, but it would suck if they became illegal and people started getting charged for using bitcoins.

thanks greyhawk, that's what i was think. so it can still be considered money laundering then.

does anyone hope that banks start accepting bitcoins so it establishes legitimacy, people think since its "anonymous" that its like laundering money. yet the network knows how bitcoins are out there, which accounts transfer to which accounts. it doesn't seem to be that anonymous to me and it seems like if it were to establish legitimacy then there will not be an "untraceable" element to it.

It's as anon as you make it. Everyone can see the blockchain, but they couldn't really link a specific user with an address without either owning the vast majority of the nodes on the network (and if that happens they might as well 51% and just deny all transactions) or unless that user is silly and publishes an address with other information linking them to that address.

Another cool thing you might consider using in your paper... existing drug enforcement tactics sometimes result in raids on bitcoin miners... apparently the power consumption + heat generated looks a lot like growing pot. So if they did for example, make mining illegal... a good mechanism to locate miners is already in place on the local level using offline tech.

haha i seen a few examples of people getting raid for growing pot only to discover they were just mining bitcoins... i don't have to worry about that in my state though its legal  

edit: unrelated to my thread but i does anyone keep their mining equipment in a refrigerator? i have a mini fridge i don't use, and i ordered from BFL and i'm thinking i could just keep it in the fridge as it mines. i'm not worried about getting raided, but i know people use all kinds of fans to cool their equipment, and keeping it in a fridge ought to be perfect and probably waste less energy even if it uses more... and by that i mean that the 5 times more energy it might use will actually help cooling maybe 20x more, than a bunch of fans will...

[SurReality89]

Rather curious to read your paper when it's done. Will you share it with us?

Are you writing this for a class or something?

yes i am, composition 250. its like the second time taking this class, i have hated it but i have been doing well this time probably because i have picked a great topic that i am interested in and is current so my teacher and classmates have been finding my research very interesting... and i made a pre-order from BFL not long ago with some confidence it will be doing well thanks to some research i have been doing (although mining research is not the focus of my paper, it has been more of a distraction from my actual paper research...)

[SurReality89]

OP updated with rough draft, i would appreciate any suggestions and criticism. This is about 7 pages double space, the minimum is 8 but I am aiming for at least 10 pages.

thank you all for your help so far, and if anyone takes the time to read my work in progress i will be extremely grateful. Also i'm planning on including the petition to SIX, but i am not sure if it will help the future legal status of bitcoins.  I am hoping that if the petition pass that would protect bitcoin from becoming illegal in the future, if that is the case i will certainly include it in my paper as a way citizens can take a stand for bitcoins legality.

[firefop]

“Miners,” who could be anyone that owns the appropriate equipment to download create blocks of bitcoins, Bitcoins compared it's akin to how the US Department of the Treasure prints US dollars to be put into circulation.  The equipment is not complicated, the components that a miner needs are a computer with Internet access and free software.  Pretty much everyone can mine bitcoins, but to actually do it efficiently you need high processing speed that can be achieve by connecting as many video cards that as you can find and afford to a computer.  The rate a single miner will mine bitcoins depends on their processing speed and how many the total processing speed of all miners are on the Bitcoin network, because there is a limited amount of bitcoins being created worldwide at a constant rate of about 50 bitcoins (soon to drop to 25) per ten minute until the total in circulation is will be 21 million bitcoins (McCarthy 4:30). So once 21 million bitcoins are on the Bitcoin network there will no longer be miners. miners will only be processing transactions for the optional fees paid by the users of bitcoin. As of 2am October 31 2012 there were 10,291,400 bitcoins in circulation and one bitcoin had the exchange rate of about $10.79.

FTFY... If you need anymore help with editing in general... happy to help.

Also you may want to checfk that McCarthy source, it that's actually what was written then the guy doesn't understand bitcoin and you can probably find a plethora of sources contradicting him.

[SurReality89]

thanks for the help! much appreciated.what is wrong with the McCarthy source? btw its not written its a Ted talk speech (at 4min 30sec) feel free to double check maybe i misquoted? the guy seemed to have a good idea about bitcoins. also i think i might have written per minute instead of 10.

[firefop]

thanks for the help! much appreciated.what is wrong with the McCarthy source? btw its not written its a Ted talk speech (at 4min 30sec) feel free to double check maybe i misquoted? the guy seemed to have a good idea about bitcoins. also i think i might have written per minute instead of 10.

Ok I listened to it --- all he said was 21mil btc...

I was ref to the beginning part of the sentence: Not per min, per 10 mins. But yes, source him for 21mil is correct.


rate of about 50 bitcoins per minute until the total in circulation is 21 million bitcoins (McCarthy 4:30). So once 21 million bitcoins are on the Bitcoin network there will no longer be miners.

[chmod]

I don't see how buying and using bitcoins is any more illegal than buying game credits, amusement park tokens, Facebook credits, or MFC tokens. Only difference is that a single entity doesn't control the bitcoin virtual currency.

[SurReality89]

I don't see how buying and using bitcoins is any more illegal than buying game credits, amusement park tokens, Facebook credits, or MFC tokens. Only difference is that a single entity doesn't control the bitcoin virtual currency.

its not illegal. but people are trying to make the claims that bitcoins should/will become illegal due to various reasons... i started the paper out of concern for the bitcoins becoming illegal, but after i finished i am pretty sure it won't happen and as far as i can see there is no legit reason (although laws pass all the time for no legit reason)... i turned in my final draft today if anyone is interested btw.