Slashdotted (again)

[phathash]

#1 story on ./ "BitCoin, the Most Dangerous Project Ever?"

forum seems slow to load!

[kseistrup]

I thought we were being DDoS'ed (which we are, in a way)…

[stakhanov]

I think the technology reddit is a much more likely culprit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/hc63x/bitcoin_p2p_currency_the_most_dangerous_project/

Slashdot isn't that big anymore.

[technotarian]

Yes, the forum is slow as cold soup.

Switching over to https:// helps ... hmmmm?

[technotarian]

By jove, this was a good read (the reddit link);

Q:    If the laptop is destroyed, those bitcoins can never be used again, and they are effectively out of circulation, but new coins are not created to replace them.

C: I shall call this the second law of bitcoin dynamics!

[AtlasONo]

They're even less impressed with the article than you guys were.  

[BioMike]

With such title on slashdot, I didn't even bothered to read the article... I was quite embarrassed with such title on slashdot. Seemed a bit that someone bought bitcoins just before MtGox went down and wanted to push MtGox back with some cheap publicity.

[alkor]

Most of the comments on slashdot were quite hostile. Either they claimed bitcoin was a scam project, or that a deflationary currency is not viable.

[Anonymous]

Most of the comments on slashdot were quite hostile. Either they claimed bitcoin was a scam project, or that a deflationary currency is not viable.

They don't believe in economic freedom. You can't expect anything more.

[BioMike]

Most of the comments on slashdot were quite hostile. Either they claimed bitcoin was a scam project, or that a deflationary currency is not viable.

Has been like that with previous posts as well... Most don't bother to look how it works and just yell (in a IANAL-type of fashion).

[kiba]

Most of the comments on slashdot were quite hostile. Either they claimed bitcoin was a scam project, or that a deflationary currency is not viable.

They don't believe in economic freedom. You can't expect anything more.

No. They are dumb shit compared to the Hacker News, who actually evolve their opinions on bitcoin.

[jed]

The problem is the way bitcoin is presented. You guys all like it because you are libertarian types. But keep in mind that the vast majority of people in the world aren't. But bitcoin doesn't just appeal to libertarian types. All you need to say to promote it is:

Bitcoin is a free paypal that anyone can use.

Please leave the libertarian, going to replace all other currencies, take over the world stuff out of it. That just turns people off.
The only important thing for people to know is that it is better than what people use now for online payments.

[Matt Corallo]

Seriously, why do people link that article.  Its just linkbait.  Its a sensationalist article which isn't very well written and is just a copy/paste of some of the stuff that bitcoiners say, it isn't even thought through or discussed.  Then again what do you expect from Jason Calacanis?

[Matt Corallo]

The problem is the way bitcoin is presented. You guys all like it because you are libertarian types. But keep in mind that the vast majority of people in the world aren't. But bitcoin doesn't just appeal to libertarian types. All you need to say to promote it is:
Bitcoin is a free paypal that anyone can use.

So true, so true.

[JohnDoe]

People have been brainwashed their whole lives into thinking that inflation is an acceptable property of a currency. Some people are slower than the rest in erasing their preconceptions...

[BitterTea]

The problem is the way bitcoin is presented. You guys all like it because you are libertarian types. But keep in mind that the vast majority of people in the world aren't. But bitcoin doesn't just appeal to libertarian types. All you need to say to promote it is:

Bitcoin is a free paypal that anyone can use.

Please leave the libertarian, going to replace all other currencies, take over the world stuff out of it. That just turns people off.
The only important thing for people to know is that it is better than what people use now for online payments.

This seems misleading, as Paypal is a transmission method for supported currencies while Bitcoin is a currency of its own. Saying it's like Paypal might lead people to believe that they can use it anywhere Paypal is accepted, rather than the limited number of merchants that accept Bitcoin.

[barbarousrelic]

The problem is the way bitcoin is presented. You guys all like it because you are libertarian types. But keep in mind that the vast majority of people in the world aren't. But bitcoin doesn't just appeal to libertarian types. All you need to say to promote it is:

Bitcoin is a free paypal that anyone can use.

Please leave the libertarian, going to replace all other currencies, take over the world stuff out of it. That just turns people off.
The only important thing for people to know is that it is better than what people use now for online payments.

If you don't explain to people that it's not dollar-denominated, that it is an entirely new currency that can increase or decrease in value relative to the dollar, you are misinforming them.

[Matt Corallo]

This seems misleading, as Paypal is a transmission method for supported currencies while Bitcoin is a currency of its own. Saying it's like Paypal might lead people to believe that they can use it anywhere Paypal is accepted, rather than the limited number of merchants that accept Bitcoin.

So you inform them of that.  Still, its purpose is similar to Paypal and that should be advertised, not that it is designed to redo the entire financial system on a deflationary currency.

[BitterTea]

So you inform them of that.  Still, its purpose is similar to Paypal and that should be advertised, not that it is designed to redo the entire financial system on a deflationary currency.

Then they ask "why are there only 21 million? that's not enough!?".

Besides, I would argue that it was designed to address the flaws of our current financial system.

The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust thats required to make it
work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of
fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust. Banks must be trusted to hold our
money and transfer it electronically, but they lend it out in waves of credit bubbles
with barely a fraction in reserve. We have to trust them with our privacy, trust them
not to let identity thieves drain our accounts. Their massive overhead costs make
micropayments impossible.

A generation ago, multi-user time-sharing computer systems had a similar problem.
Before strong encryption, users had to rely on password protection to secure their
files, placing trust in the system administrator to keep their information private.
Privacy could always be overridden by the admin based on his judgment call weighing the
principle of privacy against other concerns, or at the behest of his superiors. Then
strong encryption became available to the masses, and trust was no longer required.
Data could be secured in a way that was physically impossible for others to access, no
matter for what reason, no matter how good the excuse, no matter what.

Its time we had the same thing for money. With e-currency based on cryptographic
proof, without the need to trust a third party middleman, money can be secure and
transactions effortless.

[unk]

Seriously, why do people link that article.  Its just linkbait.  Its a sensationalist article which isn't very well written and is just a copy/paste of some of the stuff that bitcoiners say, it isn't even thought through or discussed.  Then again what do you expect from Jason Calacanis?

well said!