Can anyone post an exhaustive list of bad things Bitcoin is doing to this world?

[exstasie]

Making it a lot easier to launder money...

[phantastisch]

Nice try, Sunshine Press.

[Littleshop]

The use of electrical power to secure the network, and an increase in doing so fueled by the greed of miners (I'm one of them).  The calculations completed have no intrinsic value - they're just a means to the end of securing the network.  As time goes on, if bitcoin continues to succeed, power consumption will continue increasing.

Except that for many miners (like me), power usage hit a peak and is now on the way down even with increasing GH as I replace older less efficient miners with ASICS. 

[PrintMule]

The use of electrical power to secure the network, and an increase in doing so fueled by the greed of miners (I'm one of them).  The calculations completed have no intrinsic value - they're just a means to the end of securing the network.  As time goes on, if bitcoin continues to succeed, power consumption will continue increasing.

Most valid point among others in this thread. Although people tend to waste more electricity on other useless thing, mining sha256 or scrypt makes up for 0.0000000000000001% of wasted power in the world

[Barek]

Most valid point among others in this thread. Although people tend to waste more electricity on other useless thing, mining sha256 or scrypt makes up for 0.0000000000000001% of wasted power in the world

Exactly. Think about how much banks and banking infrastructure costs to maintain. Noone is bothered by that.

[niner]

every post here is talking how good btc is and how it is superior to other systems.

what are some disadvantages and weaknesses and bad effects bitcoin cause on this world and our society, financially/economically/socially/technically/environmentally/etc, that even the most die hard btc fanatic cannot deny?

I can't think of a single example, can you?

[revans]

Grossly disproportionate rewards to a small community of self selecting early adopters.

I would add: Grossly disproportionate punishment of a few trolls who sold all their bitcoin at $12 and still can't get over it.

Bzzt.


Read my posting history. I cashed out all my Bitcoins and funnelled the money to charitable causes. I was interested in Bitcoin because as a currency, but the whole ethos has been ruined by speculators.

[gabriella]

every post here is talking how good btc is and how it is superior to other systems.

what are some disadvantages and weaknesses and bad effects bitcoin cause on this world and our society, financially/economically/socially/technically/environmentally/etc, that even the most die hard btc fanatic cannot deny?

I can't think of a single example, can you?

it is enabling criminals/terrorists/pedophiles/drug dealers/scammers/etc to acquire/manage/launder their blood-soaked money much easier and to continue their act, for one.

as for the thread, no one yet has the courage to admit to the truth that bitcoin causes harm as well as benefit.

everything has good side and bad side - bitcoin is no exception.

[benjamindees]

Bitcoin has several negative aspects.  Most have been mentioned already.  But the important thing to keep in mind is that most of these negative aspects are far *less negative* than the system it replaces.

[RodeoX]

Grossly disproportionate rewards to a small community of self selecting early adopters.

I remember hearing this argument when bitcoin hit $1.

[(A)social]

My quite exhaustive list, for now:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

I'll add other points if more will come to mind.
Feel free to correct the ones you disagree, thanks.


EDIT: added point 11.

[tigereye]

Financial privacy is compromised due to the traceability of the blockchain.

While you can't immediately tell which address belongs to which person/entity, transactions that you participate in allow you to review details of someone else's financial history.

For example, if you receive your salary in Bitcoin then send me that $20 you owe me, I can follow the funds used in that transaction to find your salary.

Another example, if I give you $50 for something, I can then see where you send that coin. If I recognize the addresses (or can look them up elsewhere) I know exactly what you're buying.

So… Bitcoin is hurting our financial privacy.

There are methods to mitigate this somewhat (use more addresses, split up large transactions into multiple smaller ones) but they require special effort. Most people just send/receive.

[cr1776]

Making it a lot easier to launder money...

And the wheel makes it easier to haul cash (and gold and silver) around to someone to trade for other assets.  Tools are neutral.  Likewise, as someone said above, free, voluntary exchange should be free.

[beckspace]

Grossly disproportionate rewards to a small community of self selecting early adopters.

Is there any other way to start a cryptocurrency?



Bitcoin uses "EaseOut".

Is better/possible use an "EaseInEaseOut" curve? Any Altcoins tried it yet?

[DoomDumas]

Grossly disproportionate rewards to a small community of self selecting early adopters.

Early adopter are those how were looking/searching for alternative to the fiat currencies, and they took big risk, have vision and strong hands..  This is ok, they have the merit to own what they own.

[DoomDumas]

Threatening to undermine the status quo and to endanger some species such as bankers and politicians.

This is'nt bad, it is in the "good things" list !

[DoomDumas]

Making people sitting up from sleep in the night from time to time, worrying that their wallets protection systems are not meticulous enough, no more the blissful "peace of mind" they had when they used to put their money in the custody of good old trustworthy bankers.

Just create a paper wallet and sleep well !

[DoomDumas]

The use of electrical power to secure the network, and an increase in doing so fueled by the greed of miners (I'm one of them).  The calculations completed have no intrinsic value - they're just a means to the end of securing the network.  As time goes on, if bitcoin continues to succeed, power consumption will continue increasing.

IMO, Bitcoin use far less, order of magnitude less power than banks paiement system / network / servers

I bet diiff can go to several billions and Bitcoin will still uses a lot less power than the actual fiat/credit system/network

[DoomDumas]

every post here is talking how good btc is and how it is superior to other systems.

what are some disadvantages and weaknesses and bad effects bitcoin cause on this world and our society, financially/economically/socially/technically/environmentally/etc, that even the most die hard btc fanatic cannot deny?

I can't think of a single example, can you?

it is enabling criminals/terrorists/pedophiles/drug dealers/scammers/etc to acquire/manage/launder their blood-soaked money much easier and to continue their act, for one.

as for the thread, no one yet has the courage to admit to the truth that bitcoin causes harm as well as benefit.

everything has good side and bad side - bitcoin is no exception.

90%+ of the criminals/terrorists/pedophiles/drug dealers/scammers/etc are still using fiat.. to convert from fiat to BTC, it leaves trace.. all those criminals/terrorists/pedophiles/drug dealers/scammers/etc using BTC would be much more tracable than now, as they tend to use fiat/gold, wich is less efficient, but less tracable..  IMO, BTC is'nt a free ride for those criminals/terrorists/pedophiles/drug dealers/scammers/etc

[irpirate]

Bitcoins make babies cry.

In all seriousness, its current value attracts wallet snatchers and scammers. No surprises there i guess.