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[Leafsnail]

SR has a tumbling method, but most Bitcoin exchanges are really easy to track because there's a public record of every transaction that's been made.  It's not too hard to work out who's who if you make a few exchanges with people.

[Jimmy]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/05/29/after-liberty-reserve-shut-down-is-bitcoin-next/

Interesting Forbes article discussing the use of the Patriot Act to close down Liberty Reserve, a Costa Rica based anonymous money transferring system, and whether Bitcoin might be next.

[Leafsnail]

The people running the Bitcoin exchanges are openly in violation of the law, so it wouldn't be too surprising.

[Sigulbard]

What's the point of Bitcoins anyway?

[kingfisher1112]

What's the point of Bitcoins anyway?

Decentralised currency in the hands of the people in a P2P scheme. I think.

[Scelly9]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/05/29/after-liberty-reserve-shut-down-is-bitcoin-next/

Interesting Forbes article discussing the use of the Patriot Act to close down Liberty Reserve, a Costa Rica based anonymous money transferring system, and whether Bitcoin might be next.

Bitcoin will never really die. It'll always be used as a black market currency.

[alway]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/05/29/after-liberty-reserve-shut-down-is-bitcoin-next/

Interesting Forbes article discussing the use of the Patriot Act to close down Liberty Reserve, a Costa Rica based anonymous money transferring system, and whether Bitcoin might be next.

Bitcoin will never really die. It'll always be used as a black market currency.

You say that like there aren't other alternatives out there. http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/05/wary-of-bitcoin-a-guide-to-some-other-cryptocurrencies/

In particular, the Freicoin idea sounds like it could address the biggest issue with Bitcoin, which is its deflationary nature. It's that deflationary nature which destroys any hope of bitcoin being anything more than an investment scheme.

[Scelly9]

There are alternatives, but silkroad already uses bitcoin, and everyone seems quite happy to continue using it.

[Another]

Isn't the US in a position where it can computationally wrestle with bitcoin mining network for a few hours to successfully pull off 51% attack and permanently leave it in unusable state? All those defence and university supercomputers should be able to output a lot of sha-256 hashes/second.

It would only be worth the effort if people were tax evading for sum of money larger than the required effort and if there were no better methods to stop them though (and there are).

[Scelly9]

That would only stop people from creating more coins, but they would still be traded and bought.

[Another]

Successful 51% attack gives you total authority to dictate what happened with with all bitcoins already in existence at the time of attack. For example all blockchains after the attack may be saying that all the coins from all the accounts were transferred to one of a million virtual wallets under your control.

[Leafsnail]

Yeah, as I understand it it's a sortof "consensus" based currency - coins are only where they are because 51% or more of the blockchain have observed that transaction and agree that's where they should be.  If anyone was able to control a large portion of the overall chain they could wreak havok.

Incidentally I would definitely play a videogame based on Bitcoins, that sounds like it could be fun.

[misko27]

What's the point of Bitcoins anyway?

You there. I keep confusing you with Jonathan S. Fox. Stop it.

Incidentally I would definitely play a videogame based on Bitcoins, that sounds like it could be fun.

Online Economy Hacker? Sounds fun.

[Scelly9]

Successful 51% attack gives you total authority to dictate what happened with with all bitcoins already in existence at the time of attack. For example all blockchains after the attack may be saying that all the coins from all the accounts were transferred to one of a million virtual wallets under your control.

Oh. Well that's interesting. A fact: There are currently 11 million bitcoins in circulation. Total ever will be 21 million. Does this stop the possibility of that type of attack?

[Leafsnail]

My understanding is that you don't need to control half of all the coins ever made, you just need to control half of the coins made in a particular "chain" (Bitcoins are awarded in "chains", divided up among the people mining according to who did most of the "work").  Which would be tough, but not impossible for someone with access to serious computing power.