Trust No One

[btcfan]

I believe you still have to trust some one, but the amount can depend on how much you trust them. If you just trust them a little, then trust them ONE bitcoin.

[Yeastmeister]

You must always trust someone to some level.  Its all about risk.  Only trust them with as much risk as you are willing to take.

[molecular]

You must always trust someone to some level.  Its all about risk.  Only trust them with as much risk as you are willing to take.

Yes, but don't be too angstly, otherwise you'll accomplish nothing.

[rmbell]

And don't trust HiddenWiki for links! Full of phishing sites. 

Monitor the links for changes, its sad sometimes how quickly a sites link can change within a day.

[Ad]

Maybe trust but verify!?

[Causer Fons]

As a newbie, the fact that I am taking the time to read this article and respond to it is definitely proof-of-work.
So proof-of-work is the mechanism used to filter out noise on the forum I guess.
I wish the proof-of-work could be derivative of BTC or another proof-of-work network, however, and not need to be repeated every time you wish to join a forum? (see my other post today)

Luckily the trust-no-one argument is an interesting, so at least the work is pleasurable..

Consider the list...

""Do you know their full name?
Do you know where they are located?
Have they demonstrated trustworthiness in the past?
Are they asking you to trust them? (red flag)
Do they have insurance?""

is this not a list of symptoms of an anonymous culture (akin to being a the airport in the RW?)

Perhaps a fully fledged peer-to-peer trust network with persistent identity could be used to establish trust between two nodes without them having access to all the above information about someone?

If we as a digital culture adopt the above check-list will we not have the opposite of a a free society, but instead a peer-to-peer surveillance society?

CF

[cocopop]

we need a better way to source check, like a bitcoinlist...

[molecular]

we need a better way to source check, like a bitcoinlist...

a so-called "independent rating agency"? ^^

[melted349]

I only read the posts on the first page.  I don't agree with the "Trust no one" approach.  But perhaps treating your bitcoin like money is enough said.  Don't go dump all your bitcoin in a site just because they say they're honest and legit.  Check them out, do some research.  Find out what other people are saying about that site.  Etc. 

Like it was said earlier, for this market to grow and be successful you have to trust someone.  But that's not to say there aren't bad people out their trying to steal your bitcoins, so just be aware of what you're doing. 

[SockPuppet]

You can trust me. 

[Joseph sterns]

If you say you can be you most certainly can not 

[codymanix]

Who would thrust a talking sock? 

[molecular]

Who would thrust a talking sock? 

Depends. Is it an alpaca sock?

[btc_artist]

If you say you can be you most certainly can not 

We need a </sarcasm> tag. :p

[SockPuppet]

If you say you can be you most certainly can not 

We need a </sarcasm> tag. :p

Agreed. It's also possible I'm not actually a sock puppet. So perhaps I'm not really as trustworthy as I claim...

[supernova9]

This was a really great thread for a newbie like myself.  Thanks for posting.  I obviously need to do some more investigating regarding bitcoin security. 

[Al-arabia]

Yeepp  correct, don`t trust for self ;_)))

[chip]

I'M WEARING A WIRE!!!!
Speak up so they can hear you

AREN'T YOU COLD!!!!

Ha ha ha... fifth post. 

[wolf1234]

Well i shall just throw in a few more ideas to the paranoia pot:

encryption is not foolproof, there are a number of attacks that can beat encryption (i would like to see if its possible to steal the (un)encrypted data right out of the memory while the computer is on and client running..)

also please consider that most of the methods used to break encryption keys utilize the exact same hardware we tend to mine on (powerful GPUs) to significantly reduce the time taken to crack a key...
attacking a 10 character alphanumeric password with the average 1gh/s mining rig is more than feasible especially considering most miners tend to already leave the machine on 24/7...

Dont trust anyone, even yourself!
Expect to be ripped off and scammed at every turn, that way you at least saw it coming 

[XCoiner]

Consider the list...

""Do you know their full name?
Do you know where they are located?
Have they demonstrated trustworthiness in the past?
Are they asking you to trust them? (red flag)
Do they have insurance?""

is this not a list of symptoms of an anonymous culture (akin to being a the airport in the RW?)

I think herein lies the inherent problem of all new things. The community expects a full blown 100% secure market place, something that they are used from their day to day dealings with banks and merchants. People are asking for verified merchants, with addresses, names, ISO certification, 24 hours support in multiple languages, network of trust, etc.  just to name a few.

Lets look around us, which of all the tons of Exchanges and other online web sites dealing with Bitcoin and the various Alt-currencies is actually making any money at all? There are no big players throwing money at the Coin Marketplace, most of them are small start-ups by one guy or a small group of people who are doing this part-time, in the evenings after they come home from their jobs (or school kids and students who have too much time anyways). I cant think of someone who quit their job and then started up a Coin related web service. So while still pursuing their day to day jobs, do you believe they want their names posted all over the internet for their employer to see that they are having a second job, implying that this will impact their work and performance?

Ofcourse we'll meet the one or other scam, but it is up to each and everyone of us to limit our risks, dont park all your coins with an Exchange or other Online services, dont transfer tons of money to them either. I doubt that even the current market leaders will be able to recover in case they get hacked and their wallets completely emptied, they are not a bank, they dont get bailed out.

As for the wallet: stop browing porn, and you'll probably reduce your risks close to 0.