2013-04-17 americanbanker.com - Governments Must Co-Opt Bitcoin to Avert Disaste

[amincd]

http://www.americanbanker.com/bankthink/governments-must-co-opt-bitcoin-to-avert-disaster-1058380-1.html

Very negative article calling on bans on bitcoin worldwide.

Author calls himself a 'crypto-money professor' and created this site:

http://www.bitmint.com/

[1714773107]

1714773107

[1714773107]

1714773107

[herzmeister]

lolwtf? Bitcoin like Sarajevo 1914 leading to WW1? No way this article is without an ironic wink.  

[impulse]

Wow, what an amazing thesis on exactly why we need Bitcoin more than ever. This is my favorite part:

The policy conclusion is clear. Bitcoin should be disqualified as a functional tradable currency. However, a properly regulated, digitized option for the prevailing currency should be rushed to market. If not, Bitcoin will reign, suck in an enormous amount of wealth, and eventually implode, unleashing a financial tsunami of unimagined proportions.

Pretty please, RUSH the prevailing currency replacement to market. That will work out best for everyone.

[Rygon]

From Bitmint.com:

We are fortunate to witness a rare evolutionary step in the history of money -- digitization: a string of bits (ones and zeroes) is engineered to carry value and assume identity, and in that form flow, move, store, and accumulate: securely, seamlessly, discreetly and fast. Allowing payment, banking, investment and the of global economic activity to be redefined, re-engineered, and revamped. The global village is finally about to become not just global, but a village where anyone anywhere can trade, buy, pay, invest. Not account-based, like today, but eCash-based, appropriate for our modern eLife. New creative forces unleashed, new vistas opening.

Computerized payment will allow for micro services and macro deals to happen with transparency, accountability and fairness, dealing a painful blow to the forces that today thrive on money secrecy, and on hiding and abusing their wealth. In an apparent contradiction, digital money will offer unprecedented privacy for the non-abusers. Our imagination is not rich enough to extend into the myriad of changes and uncounted possibilities opened up with this new and most abstract form of money: a series of bits that carries both value and identity -- cryptographically robust, and mathematically assured.

Do you have the imagination to grasp what digitized money will bring about?

If you do, talk to us. We need you! BitMint money will be available in the coming months on a global basis, minted by a recognized financial technology firm. The minted digital coins will be offered for various payment and banking applications through several partners around the world. BitMint digitized coins are about to flow and permeate the information superhighways, and be complemented by hybrid coins of various denominations. These hybrid coins can be passed around as offline payment, but they can be readily uploaded into cyberspace: convenience, versatility, trust!

If you are a forward looking innovator with any commercial or socio economic enterprise in mind, or in action -- you are likely to benefit by shifting and upgrading to digitized money. Curious? -- Write to us! Tell us what you do, or intend to do, and we will respond with a description of how BitMint digitized money will boost your prospects. No obligation, no charge -- just something to think about!

And if you are sparked up, then let's discuss franchise. BitMint, LLC will provide you with digitized money specified and tailored per your needs and request. We will provide and install all the required software, we will provide you with the cryptographic vault for your money, and guarantee the integrity of the mint. We will help you plan your application, stand by you, train you, and help insure your success and your competitive edge. We are open to a full range of partnership from equity sharing, to franchise fees. We can propose solutions to virtually any want and shortfall on your part, except for a want and shortfall of imagination and foresight. In that department we need matching partners





Notice: The propositions herein are subject to change without prior notice. This site operates in Beta Testing Mode. BitMint traders seeking additional guarantees for any sums exchanged should write to Nancy@BitMint.com

[tjohej]

Check the 4th paragraph:

Bitcoin, and digital money in general, are made up of a bit-string that carries value and identity intrinsically – just via the sequence of the bits, independent of any media these bits are expressed in.

The author simply read the name Bit and coin and thought "hey, I've heard about bits before, they are used in computers in some way".

This sounds to me like the author tries to say the Bitcoin is "Bits are used in coins", with other words 100% ignorance or 100% lack of interest in finding out what Bitcoin is or what it isn't. Not worth your read... 

[impulse]

From Bitmint.com:

We are fortunate to witness a rare evolutionary step in the history of money -- digitization: a string of bits (ones and zeroes) is engineered to carry value and assume identity, and in that form flow, move, store, and accumulate: securely, seamlessly, discreetly and fast. Allowing payment, banking, investment and the of global economic activity to be redefined, re-engineered, and revamped. The global village is finally about to become not just global, but a village where anyone anywhere can trade, buy, pay, invest. Not account-based, like today, but eCash-based, appropriate for our modern eLife. New creative forces unleashed, new vistas opening.

Computerized payment will allow for micro services and macro deals to happen with transparency, accountability and fairness, dealing a painful blow to the forces that today thrive on money secrecy, and on hiding and abusing their wealth. In an apparent contradiction, digital money will offer unprecedented privacy for the non-abusers. Our imagination is not rich enough to extend into the myriad of changes and uncounted possibilities opened up with this new and most abstract form of money: a series of bits that carries both value and identity -- cryptographically robust, and mathematically assured.

Do you have the imagination to grasp what digitized money will bring about?

If you do, talk to us. We need you! BitMint money will be available in the coming months on a global basis, minted by a recognized financial technology firm. The minted digital coins will be offered for various payment and banking applications through several partners around the world. BitMint digitized coins are about to flow and permeate the information superhighways, and be complemented by hybrid coins of various denominations. These hybrid coins can be passed around as offline payment, but they can be readily uploaded into cyberspace: convenience, versatility, trust!

If you are a forward looking innovator with any commercial or socio economic enterprise in mind, or in action -- you are likely to benefit by shifting and upgrading to digitized money. Curious? -- Write to us! Tell us what you do, or intend to do, and we will respond with a description of how BitMint digitized money will boost your prospects. No obligation, no charge -- just something to think about!

And if you are sparked up, then let's discuss franchise. BitMint, LLC will provide you with digitized money specified and tailored per your needs and request. We will provide and install all the required software, we will provide you with the cryptographic vault for your money, and guarantee the integrity of the mint. We will help you plan your application, stand by you, train you, and help insure your success and your competitive edge. We are open to a full range of partnership from equity sharing, to franchise fees. We can propose solutions to virtually any want and shortfall on your part, except for a want and shortfall of imagination and foresight. In that department we need matching partners





Notice: The propositions herein are subject to change without prior notice. This site operates in Beta Testing Mode. BitMint traders seeking additional guarantees for any sums exchanged should write to Nancy@BitMint.com

Hmmm, well that is very interesting. Are they by any chance securing their product with the same cryptographic principles that future Alan Turings are going to break and thus destroy Bitcoin?

Like all other mainstay ciphers and crypto products, Bitcoin relies on assumed "mathematical intractability" – the believed difficulty to solve a certain mathematical problem. There is no proof of such intractability, just an assumption that since academic cryptographers haven't easily cracked the code, nobody can. Remember the Enigma in World War II: the German cryptographers were sure that no one would be smart enough to crack it. But Alan Turing and his team eroded the crypto defense and shortened the war by about two years. The more valuable Bitcoin becomes, the richer a target it is for crypto hackers and the harder and longer they will work at it.

[herzmeister]

I want to marry Nancy@BitMint.com <3

[zeroday]

What else would you expect from a such source as americanbanker.com ?

[FreddyFender]

Check the 4th paragraph:

Bitcoin, and digital money in general, are made up of a bit-string that carries value and identity intrinsically – just via the sequence of the bits, independent of any media these bits are expressed in.

The author simply read the name Bit and coin and thought "hey, I've heard about bits before, they are used in computers in some way".

This sounds to me like the author tries to say the Bitcoin is "Bits are used in coins", with other words 100% ignorance or 100% lack of interest in finding out what Bitcoin is or what it isn't. Not worth your read... 

Or 100% misdirection for his/her(Nancy?) audience.

[zeroday]

Bitcoin is bad news on many levels. The most obvious concern was proven after the Cyprus crisis erupted: stability. What if people start lending and borrowing bitcoins?

Prophetic words. Banker bitches feel their end is coming.

[wormbog]

Terrible article. The gov't will never back a currency that can't be centrally controlled. For better or worse, bitcoin is here to stay.

[grondilu]

There are some great quotes in this article:

But when the Cypriot banks unilaterally declared that a big chunk of all deposits accounts would be snatched, the premise of deposit security came up for re-evaluation; and not only in Cyprus and in Europe, but also in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Indeed.

The technology is there. Bit money is ready to roll. The market has just opened: The meteoric rise in the exchange rate of Bitcoin (even after a sharp correction) is a shouting proof that people are eager for a means to store, guard and secure their financial wealth without using the banks as safe keepers.

I agree!

The other option is to ride the tide. Bitcoin has flushed out the public readiness to deal with bits as carriers of tradable currency.

The policy conclusion is clear. Bitcoin should be disqualified as a functional tradable currency. However, a properly regulated, digitized option for the prevailing currency should be rushed to market. If not, Bitcoin will reign, suck in an enormous amount of wealth, and eventually implode, unleashing a financial tsunami of unimagined proportions.

Hang on.  Isn't he saying:  "bitcoin is a great technology but unfortunately it's not ours.  Therefore we need to make it illegal so that only WE can use it." ??

[Gabi]

This article is exactly why we need bitcoin: to make sure such people cannot control our money

[impulse]

There are some great quotes in this article:

But when the Cypriot banks unilaterally declared that a big chunk of all deposits accounts would be snatched, the premise of deposit security came up for re-evaluation; and not only in Cyprus and in Europe, but also in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Indeed.

The technology is there. Bit money is ready to roll. The market has just opened: The meteoric rise in the exchange rate of Bitcoin (even after a sharp correction) is a shouting proof that people are eager for a means to store, guard and secure their financial wealth without using the banks as safe keepers.

I agree!

The other option is to ride the tide. Bitcoin has flushed out the public readiness to deal with bits as carriers of tradable currency.

The policy conclusion is clear. Bitcoin should be disqualified as a functional tradable currency. However, a properly regulated, digitized option for the prevailing currency should be rushed to market. If not, Bitcoin will reign, suck in an enormous amount of wealth, and eventually implode, unleashing a financial tsunami of unimagined proportions.

Hang on.  Isn't he saying:  "bitcoin is a great technology but unfortunately it's not ours.  Therefore we need to make it illegal so that only WE can use it." ??

Exactly! Who is the editor at American Banker that was asleep when this passed through his inbox?

[teknomunk]

There are some great quotes in this article:

But when the Cypriot banks unilaterally declared that a big chunk of all deposits accounts would be snatched, the premise of deposit security came up for re-evaluation; and not only in Cyprus and in Europe, but also in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Indeed.

The technology is there. Bit money is ready to roll. The market has just opened: The meteoric rise in the exchange rate of Bitcoin (even after a sharp correction) is a shouting proof that people are eager for a means to store, guard and secure their financial wealth without using the banks as safe keepers.

I agree!

The other option is to ride the tide. Bitcoin has flushed out the public readiness to deal with bits as carriers of tradable currency.

The policy conclusion is clear. Bitcoin should be disqualified as a functional tradable currency. However, a properly regulated, digitized option for the prevailing currency should be rushed to market. If not, Bitcoin will reign, suck in an enormous amount of wealth, and eventually implode, unleashing a financial tsunami of unimagined proportions.

Hang on.  Isn't he saying:  "bitcoin is a great technology but unfortunately it's not ours.  Therefore we need to make it illegal so that only WE can use it." ??

Exactly what I was thinking.  Somebody doesn't like competition...

[Piper67]

I don't think the author know what co-opt means.

[amincd]

He's saying that bitcoin is deflationary and therefore not good for the economy, but people will choose it over government money if given the freedom to do so, and therefore needs to be kept out of their hands for their own good.

Marc Hochstein, who is very supportive of bitcoin, is the Executive Editor of American Banker:

http://www.americanbanker.com/contactus/?site_id=ab

Perhaps we could contact him and tell him what's in the article.

[Severian]

Hang on.  Isn't he saying:  "bitcoin is a great technology but unfortunately it's not ours.  Therefore we need to make it illegal so that only WE can use it." ??

That's exactly what he's saying.

[grondilu]

He's saying that bitcoin is deflationary and therefore not good for the economy, but people will choose it over government money if given the freedom to do so, and therefore needs to be kept out of their hands for their own good.

What a great sentence.  It's kind of indecent to say something like this.   I think it's the first time I actually read it in such a blunt formulation.

[Severian]

What a great sentence.  It's kind of indecent to say something like this.   I think it's the first time I actually read it in such a blunt formulation.

I see this as a bookend to a quote from 1906:

In 1906, The New York Chamber of Commerce charged a special committee to report on how a central bank might work. The committee was composed of bankers, naturally. John Claflin, chairman, was a member of the Jekyll Island Club. Jekyll Island was where the conspiracy against the American people, The Federal Reserve, was hatched in 1908. The vice-chairman of this special committee was Frank Vanderlip, one of the architects of the Federal Reserve.

In the section titled “Advantages of a Central Bank”, we find a rather stunning admission about what bankers of all ages desire:

   

”By the control of its rate of interest and of its issues of notes it would be able to exert great influence upon the money market and upon public opinion. Such power is not now possessed by any institution in the United States. “

    The Currency Report By The  Special Committee Of The  Chamber Of Commerce  Of The  State Of New York

    October 4, 1906

Judging by google’s results, no one in the past 100 years has paid any attention to the above quote.

What Bankers Want