2013-11-23 Financial Times: The mystery of Bitcoin is how it keeps users’ trust

[neutrinox]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/960c906c-5206-11e3-adfa-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2lTrKJVHL

Annoying article in many ways.

"Each generation has its own technological superstitions. Country folk used to vault off the bottom steps of escalators. Tribal peoples feared cameras. Until relatively recently, certain impressionable readers of the book of Revelation feared the government was using monetary and credit instruments to spy on them."

Well, count yourself in this category with your irrational bitcoin fears.

"Obama administration officials who testified before the Senate were more eager to stress the high-tech upside of Bitcoin than its criminal downside. Maybe they see entrepreneurial opportunities invisible to the naked eye. Maybe they’re forgetting that currency is the business of government."

Funny, because Frank Schaeffler, a member of the German parliament’s Finance Committee just said:

“A free country should resist and not intervene in citizen’s private choice of money. In my opinion the production of money is none of the government’s business"

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[bitcool]

Should pay more attention to How banks lost users' trust.

[cr1776]

And how governments destroyed the value of currencies.  Not to mention how gold and silver existed prior to governments as a value of exchange.

FT is just carrying water to the authoritarians.

Should pay more attention to How banks lost users' trust.

[daviducsb]

"a competitor not to the mint but to MasterCard – and perhaps a formidable competitor indeed, since it would not have to charge “swipe fees” of at least 2 per cent."

"a promising basis for innovation is its elegant solution to the “double spending problem”

I don't quite see the article in as negative a light as some of the posters here. While not necessarily an ardent supporter, at least he outlines some of the positive aspects.

[marcus_of_augustus]

The guy is a dick ... FT lost all credibility long ago when backing the bankster bailouts. They always argue from position of (false) authority and never from first principles.

Lazy old dinosaurs ... we come to eat your lunch.

[Carlton Banks]

The mystery of the Financial Times is how it keeps it's readers' trust.

[oakpacific]

Trust is for wimps.

[zeetubes]

One should endeavor to tip waiters with cash at each possible opportunity. Swipe fees and other things may prevent them from obtaining the total amount. Source of article: best payday loans no credit check

I always first offer to tip waiters/bartenders in mBTC. It's quite surprising how many agree even if they haven't heard of it before.