Bitcoin is not secure

[BittBurger]

Come one.

.... come all.

-B-

[AlexSm]

OP means to say, "Many people will be incapable of properly securing their bitcoins."

This may be true. People have been programmed to be irresponsible for so long now. They just happily pay someone to take care of everything for them. They pay people to insure their property for them. They pay people to protect their money for them. They pay people to make crucial decisions about the world for them. They pay people to raise their kids for them. The list just keeps on going.

This will simply change over time as new generations learn how to deal with the freedom of responsibility which Bitcoin can provide.

By the way, it's not rocket surgery.

1. Create private key offline.
2. Store private key offline.
3. Sign transactions offline.

There is even software available to help regular folks like myself accomplish this task! It's called Armory.

It is precisely that. It can be extremely difficult even for intellectuals, never mind some average Joe.

Say your laptop is offline, say it is a modern laptop with a chip the size of a micro transistor, what the chip does is it transmits data over a radius of a kilometer so a perpetrator can connect from a black box (or connect said black box to the satellite and connect from across the world) and gain access to your desktop, your hard drive, your whole virtual world and identity, even without you being connected to the internet or having your Wi-Fi on (or even having either present).

It use to be that such chips were installed in military hardware as some leaked documents show, these days it's safe to assume that they are in everything unless proven otherwise.

Your best bet would be to buy a laptop from 2006, take it apart and remove the graphic card, the wi-fi chip, the sound card chip, the bluetooth chip and everything else which isn't required, install a linux based system which isn't total shit while verifying the checksums and even perhaps swap some of the hardware with other 2006 or older hardware (ideally from before American 9/11). Even then I wouldn't taunt our three letter friends because the odds would still be against you.

So yes, neither Tor, nor PGP, nor Bitcoin is "secure", even for intellectuals.

[Dabs]

The job market, economy and crime rates are influenced heavily by the government.

It is not realistic to say that someone is at fault because there are no jobs available that match a workers skill set (at least a worker is not 100% at fault as they could have previously acquired a broader skill set).

The same is even more true regarding the crime rate. Just because you lock your doors does not mean that you will be safe from a robbery - someone could break a window, or kick down your door, or knock and come in when when you open the door for them

Then you take care of those things yourself. Upgrade your skill set. Learn new skills. Do a different job. Or don't do a job, get self-employed. Start a business. If you are still broke in 20 years or when you become a senior citizen, then you did something wrong. Not the government.

I once heard a sidewalk vendor questioned about how the economic crisis affects her trade. She responded that crisis are only for those people who don't work. You work, you get paid. Or sell something else. Or move to another part of town. She was selling street food. (like hotdogs and stuff like that.)

Buy a bigger door? A better lock? Better than your neighbors anyway. Some people get armed. That depends on the laws in your country, but surely you can do something about preventing crime happening particularly to you. Most victims are victims because they allowed themselves to be victims.

So yes, neither Tor, nor PGP, nor Bitcoin is "secure", even for intellectuals.

I think mine is. I may be wrong.

[Eisenhower34]

OP means to say, "Many people will be incapable of properly securing their bitcoins."

--snip--

1. Create private key offline.
2. Store private key offline.
3. Sign transactions offline.

There is even software available to help regular folks like myself accomplish this task! It's called Armory.

This is much more difficult for someone without technical skills to do then you make it sound. This is especially true for number 3.

Also someone with little extra money may not be able to afford to buy a second computer to use as an "offline" computer so none of this may work.

I do anticipate many people using somewhat centralized third party wallet services to store and secure their bitcoin as the level of consumer adoption increases

[grumpyoldtroll]

As long as one has half of a brain, their btc will be secure.

So what do you mean by this?

[Dabs]

Also someone with little extra money may not be able to afford to buy a second computer to use as an "offline" computer so none of this may work.

That someone is not going to put most of his money into bitcoin. He will use it as a transactional thing, or maybe store a few on his phone, or something. At this time, this means that that person has less than 1 or 2 BTC. Most people who have that much aren't going to need an "offline" computer.

When you somehow accumulate more than 10 BTC, you'll find ways, or you'll spend 1 BTC of that to buy an offline computer for that purpose. I just use an old laptop. An old desktop works too.

[johnyj]

OP underestimated the speed that people are wising up  

It took people many decades to make computer, but once it is made, there are computers everywhere in a couple of years. And, decades were spent improving the chip making process and produce today's CPU, but it took only several months for manufacturers to reach the current highest possible commercially available process for making bitcoin miners

I'm quite sure that there will be many way of securing bitcoin in the coming years. A password which is easy to remember while impossible to break is the ultimate goal

[Soros Shorts]

It might be indicative of a general problem with society as people tend towards specialization and only want to be good at doing their own little thing. For everything else, they look to centralized organizations or big companies for help. This is probably why some people come here thinking that reversible credit card transactions are actually a good thing. Before there can be mass adoption I think there needs to be a solution in place that would allow even an idiot to secure their coins.