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BitCoin is supposed to be cash money for people (read the the BitCoin wiki and the example about if you go buy from a store and hand the cashier $20 or read the example about identity theft risks when you hand the waiter your credit card)
Cash. Noone helps you if you lose it. It is yours to protect.
Now people used to hide their cash money before at home (mattress, pillow, safe ..etc) which no one knows how much you have and how much you spend or how much you earn. Later on when thieves start robbing those houses, then banks came out, people started to put their cash money in banks, they gave up their anonymity and their income info ...etc in order to be safe and protect their hard earning money. Point is: Banks came for a reason!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bankingThe history of banking begins with the first prototype banks of merchants of the ancient world, which made grain loans to farmers and traders who carried goods between cities. This began around 2000 BC in Assyria and Babylonia. Later, in ancient Greece and during the Roman Empire, lenders based in temples made loans and added two important innovations: they accepted deposits and changed money.
Banks havent protected you or your money. They have made money of your needs. They still do.
Also how many of you check the neighborhood before renting an apartment? cause you don't want your kids be around drug dealers or arm dealers ..etc?
I dont check the neighborhood. I know which parts of the city are "good" and which are "bad". Why? My parents/peers/friends/etc. taught me.
well BitCoin world right now if full of those people which help increasing drugs and all kind of crap around where you live slowly, they found a great way to hide themselves behind BitCoin!
There will allways be crime. Its not that there is more crime because "bitcoin". Its just another way to pay, like cash, like it was intended.
Majority of website now that deal with BitCoins keep you anonymous, you only need any email and a password to start buy and sell BitCoin.
Have you had an account at an exchange? I dont think so. I gave them my tax declaration, but it was to old (merely 8 month), so I had to get an official proof of residence in order to do trades. It is easier to get an apartment room than to trade bitcoins at an exchange.
If you lose your private key, you are done, your whole money is gone, no way to retrieve it, otherwise MT GOX would have been able to fix their crap. how many people here on this forum posted a thread losing their BitCoins?
If you lose your cash, it is gone. If you dont take care of your things, it is not the fault of those things. It is your fault.
Even if you back up your private key on your desktop, how many people click on different links online everyday? watch porn? or check new websites? ...etc regardless what's the reason, the average person do click on many links everyday or download some crap or even go to those file sharing websites, or download a movie or or or...etc, any of these links can have a virus with it and then you are screwed.
If that is true, the "average person" needs to learn how to use the internet. The internet is not a green garden where everyone is nice and friendly. The internet is like the world out there. You find nice people, you find bad people, you find morrons and smart people. Youll get robbed in most major cities if you are drunk in a train and look like money. You might get a deadly disease if you touch the wrong things.
BitCoin is not built for an average person to deal with so far, many people don't understand how to protect their BitCoin account.
Many people need to learn. You like banks so much, dont you? If you get a trojan your bank does not protect you when your money is gone. Its your fault. If you creditcard gets stole you are lucky because everyone knows they are not safe. Get your ATM card stolen? Your problem, you shouldnt have told someone else your PIN. Thats how banks treat you. You have to prove(!) that you didnt not reveal your secret. Thats impossible.
Major Big Banks don't want to handle their customers BitCoins accounts saying it is too risky, SO HOW ABOUT A NORMAL PERSON?
Who would go to a bank and ask if they would handle their bitcoins?
This private key crap and anonymity on the websites need to come to an end. Wallets and Exchange websites need to start asking (on Sign up) for the person name, Date of Birth, secret question ..etc, or Even have them Sign in with their FACEBOOK account.
I dont have a facebook account, so I am not allowed to use the internet now? Also even facebook allows anonymous users, they dont like it, but its not like they going to stop you.
THOSE PRIVATE KEYS NEED TO BE LINKED TO A PERSON INFORMATION, so in case of theft they can prove who own the money and who stole it.
Even Smart people like (danny) says that after 10 or so years when there is too many people dealing with BitCoins then they will have to change some algorithm or do this or that, proving that even if the system is secure for the time being (which is not since 100s of millions of dollars were lost so far and never recovered), still the system on the long run is not secure enough.
Ofc, no security algorithm is perfect. That does not mean that bitcion is insecure.
Until the founders or whoever find a way to link (or change) those private keys to names and address and SSN or whatever, THE SYSTEM WILL ALWAYS BE TREATED AS TOO RISKY! and it is preventing it from advancing so far, otherwise BitCoin by now (after 5 years) would have made it and became the world number currency!
People are putting money into bitcoins and they dont seem to treat them as "too risk"... I dont know where you get those ideas...
As for those of you who like to avoid taxes and don't want to pay shit to the gov., well again my tax pay for the police and I like knowing that there is a policeman out there is willing to die for a motherfucker like me if someone tries to hurt me or my family!
Bitcoin has nothing to do with "not paying taxes", bitcoin is a way to pay online without paypal or all that other crap out there. No chargebacks, no bullshit, just pay and go, like in a store paying with cash.
Rodney King payed taxes. Its not all black and white, most of it is gray.