[2014-07-21] One Of Bitcoin’s Strongest Backers Reveals The Two Big Reasons Why

[ganabb]

http://www.businessinsider.sg/fred-wilson-on-bitcoin-2014-7/#.U8yMGECBlAY

If you still don’t understand what the deal with Bitcoin is, don’t worry: Even it’s biggest boosters admit it is still probably still too early to be useful to the mainstream.

In a talk this week sponsored by the NYC Foundation for Computer Science Education, Union Square Ventures founder Fred Wilson identified the two key hurdles Bitcoin still must overcome to be useful to an average consumer.

[1715021519]

1715021519

[1715021519]

1715021519

[1715021519]

1715021519

[Cicero2.0]

That is pretty fair article. Not as in depth as they could have gone. People in the bitcoin community know how to secure their coins, but the general public will need some hand holding on this for sure.

[Kprawn]

Well 3rd party developers are already making big strides in over coming most of these obstacles {Examples : Trezor and Offline printing of paper wallets, directly from a printer, not connected to the internet}

But I guess online wallets are still a issue. {Just consider, that we have had online banking for years, and they still struggling with the same issues. Hacked accounts and human error}

The protocol itself is quite safe , it's the 3rd parties too it, that is the problem.

[ArticMine]

The problem here is that over 90% of the population is using Microsoft Windows as their desktop / laptop OS which is inherently insecure. This is not because  the OS itself is insecure. In fact, with some expertise, Microsoft Windows can be made secure but rather because of the whole Microsoft Windows / proprietary software ecosystem. Up-selling and not security is the primary design feature of consumer laptops / and desktops today. Security itself becomes an "up-sell". Buy a laptop from a major retailer and it is a trail for this and trail for that, including of course a trail for the anti-virus / anti malware software. The irony is that there are already paid for alternatives for security; however do not expect the "expert" at the retail store to tell their customer this. Why because they are required to "up-sell". All this does is create a massive breeding ground for viri and malware in the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. If one adds to this that Microsoft Windows itself is designed for centralized control by Microsoft, we have an ecosystem that is from both a security and philosophical point of view  fundamentally incompatible with Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.

I know this may sound radical, but as far as I am concerned, the best solution is to replace Microsoft Windows with GNU/Linux rather than to keep trying to make the square peg (Bitcoin) fit into the round hole (Microsoft Windows).
 

[sickpig]

I know this may sound radical, but as far as I am concerned, the best solution is to replace Microsoft Windows with GNU/Linux rather than to keep trying to make the square peg (Bitcoin) fit into the round hole (Microsoft Windows).
 

And even if linux is "more" secure on avg, you still have to take into account with the human factor. Humans make mistakes quite frequently even if they are tech savvy, let alone the people with avg or sub avg tech skills.

And let me digress on the "secure", I really lost confidence in the security of software in general, be it Linux, *BSD, etc etc

After Snowden revelations and the various bugs that had been discovered lately (heartbleed ssl hole just to name one) the only thing I personally trust is a paper wallet created on a pristine offline computer.