It seems foolish to believe that no one is trying to find a way to damage the bitcoin economy. Governments, central banks, payment processors, credit card companies, ... the list goes on and on of entities whose bottom line is threatened by bitcoin.
So I wonder if it would be a good idea to start having open discussions about the same things that they are likely discussing in private. For example, is there a way to exploit the vulnerability of the pre-0.8 clients to fork the chain? Of course this seems dangerous. Anyone who read the Hunger Games books remembers Gale's concern about a new kind of attack that was later exploited.
When I was in college I played chess and I always enjoyed discussing my moves and plans openly. Part of the reason for this is that my ability to handle complexity was a bit stronger than that of others, so I got to help them see the fixes I was planning to put them in. I imagine that everyone I played, along with myself, got much better at chess because of this openness.
Part of the reason I am comfortable openly discussing possible avenues for hacking our economy is that I have faith in humans. For the most part, people are good. The more we learn, the better we get along, generally. The bitcoin community can win converts from those threatened by it at a rate much higher than they can win converts from us, simply because bitcoin respects individuals, places responsibility for their dealings squarely in their own hands, and does not rely on coercion of any kind.
Before those of us who have answers for the following question make them public, perhaps it would be a good idea to discuss whether or not publicizing them is wise. I think it is, but that is based on a faith in human beings that I admit may be misplaced. (If it is, my world will change, but it will be difficult to convince me.)
If you're comfortable letting the world know about Bitcoin's vulnerabilities, what are they and how should we expect those threatened by it to leverage them? (And how will we therefore protect ourselves from them?)
I don't see a reason to discuss
bitcoin security.
Bitcoin is a lot more secure than computers in general, in short if a cybercriminal wanted to steal bitcoins he would most likely rewrite your homephone firmware, phish your information, install a trojan or malware than sabotaging the network itself.
