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Google Engineer Releases Open Source Bitcoin Client
angry tapir writes "A Google engineer has released an open source Java client for the Bitcoin peer-to-peer currency system, simply called BitcoinJ. Bitcoin is an Internet currency that uses a P2P architecture for processing transactions, avoiding the need for a central bank or payment system. Cio.com.au also has an interview with Gavin Andresen, the technical lead of the Bitcoin virtual currency system." Update: 03/23 16:22 GMT by T : Confused? BitcoinJ author Mike Hearn points out this video explanation of how Bitcoin works.
So will he be treated same as this man?
You can't handle the truth.
I've been working on a full client implementation in python https://github.com/phantomcircuit/bitcoin-alt
Just so people know BitcoinJ is not a full p2p node.
Is it just me, or is "don't say you're minting" an "" without a "href"? I know the editors here aren't great, but I thought if they could do anything right it would be html.
Emperor Norton the first, of the USA and Mexico would be proud.
Not Peter Norton, he ran out of ideas and sold his company to pay for freezing himself in suspended animation until the economy of the world got better.
So far Peter Norton is still frozen. Needs his girlfriend to dress up as a bounty hunter, and her brother the farmboy who wants to be a pilot/Jedi to rescue him with his Wookie first mate and two (not Google) androids and his old friend who sold him out and feels sorry for that.
I really like BitCoin, But the biggest problem is the "goldrush" is over. While new bitcoins can still be mined, it's expensive, and takes time. Oh, the other big problem is that not enough people accept them. But, meh.
More implementations of the software are always good. But, they don't actually matter. It's the blockchain that matters. So long as the various implementations use the same blockchain (which is the cryptographic chain that indicates which address has how many bitcoins), things will stay together.
The biggest potential problem is Google, or another big organisation, starting a new blockchain, and splintering the bitcoin community. Google actually probably has enough processing power to mine quite a lot of bitcoins from the current blockchain anyway.
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I don't see a problem with bitcoin in theory... but throughout history no currency has been stable without an army to enforce its existence. Disband the USA police/Army and the dollar would collapse. Gold and other universally liked-by-all-humans minerals retains its value for the new owners if someone steals it. Cant say the same about BC.
That's why this will never go anywhere... look at e-gold, it was doing millions of dollars a day in transactions and then as soon as the owners ran into legal trouble (which could happen in any country) and had no means to defend themselves it collapsed overnight.
Having said that it's a nice hobby and probably someone is enjoying programming it, just don't see it ever gaining traction anywhere. Maybe this would be proved wrong if they found an island somewhere, established their own DNS servers and farms/militia which could be paid in BC etc...
This might potentially be a solution for spam. To send an email, you need a bitcoin. Bitcoins are easy to get in small quantities, maybe even free, but hard to get in bulk.
As a payment system, I don't see it. DigiCash had more promise as a distributed payment system, but Chaum blew the negotiations repeatedly.
I think you missed the point behind releasing it as open source.
It needs no central authority, a manager, owner or anything like this. So it does not depend on the party it comes from. Once it's in the wild it's completely independent.
The open source is a prerequisite for proof that the above is true - no hidden hooks, no backdoors and killswitches. Many eyes can prove this is legit.
look at the source and let us know if you can copy/ counterfeit bitcoins without first cracking a cryptographic hash function (sha2) You don't have to trust anyone to use this if you read the source code and understand how it works.
Agreed, many can. How many do ?
What a depressingly stupid machine.
The big banks have proven to be evil. There is no such bad reputation about the trustworthiness of the strange person.
Anonymous Coward, why do I see this in every freaking article on Slashdot?! You're always arguing with yourself like a deranged meth addict in withdrawal. Get some help, man ... and stop talking to yourself. People are gonna think you're crazy!
I don't see a problem with bitcoin in theory... but throughout history no currency has been stable without an army to enforce its existence. Disband the USA police/Army and the dollar would collapse.
You almost hit Bitcoin's problem spot on. The reason that fiat money like the US$ is viable is that there is an entity - the US government - that can force a US$-denominated debt on you via taxation. This taxation creates demand for the money, which is what ultimately underpins the money's value, once you go beyond all the circular reasoning of "You work for US$ because Walmart accepts US$ in payment for goods because Walmart needs US$ to pay its suppliers because the suppliers need US$ to pay their employees, i.e. you".
Historically, no monetary system could remain stable and useful for significant amount of time unless it was backed by an appropriate power of taxation to jumpstart the value of the currency. No power exists that is able to force Bitcoin-denominated debt onto people, and so Bitcoin will never be widely used outside of the fringe of curious geeks and gold-nutters.
And this is just the problem of how Bitcoin could gain traction. If Bitcoin ever gained traction, then G** help us. Recessions like this one would be inevitable and prolonged, because nobody has the power to jump-start the economy out of a recession by unilateral stimulus spending. (Of course, given how the political debate is going these days, we might as well use Bitcoins, since governments refuse to use the tools at their disposal with which they could get us out of it.)
By the way, if you really want to learn more about how monetary system works, I recommend billy blog as a good source by a modern monetary theory economist. The entry A simple business card economy is probably a good starting point.
Written by someone who has absolutely no clue on how it works. Thanks for your incredible insight.
I've used Bitcoin and I can tell how it works. It's an elegant system for producing cryptographically signed "currency" which can be exchanged over P2P. However elegant it may be, it's also quite naive and/or dishonest to overlook some of it's shortcomings.
Namely, it is the people who got in early and mined coins or bought them at a low exchange rate who have most to gain. Latecomers have little to gain and the most to lose. If the system collapses or is regulated out of legitimacy, it is the latecomers who will suffer the most. I would not go so far as calling it a pyramid scheme but it certainly shares some similarities in terms of who benefits and who does not.
How could it collapse? In numerous ways. Various governments might start auditing / taxing people who use it as a form of currency. They might legislate against it, deeming it to be bogus financial instrument. It might get a reputation for money laundering and all the popular exchanges get shutdown along with the accounts. A rival to bitcoin might appear which is easier to use or has other benefits.Someone might develop a crack / exploit which allows them to inject "poisoned" transactions over P2P where the database is corrupted, or worse compromises Bitcoin such that wallets are wiped or drained of funds. A popular exchange is hacked and all the money is stolen. There might be a run on bitcoins if the system shows sign of collapse / compromise and the exchanges refuse to exchange bitcoins into dollars.
All of these scenarios are feasible and I think it only a matter of time before the system is hit by one of them. I have no issue with bitcoin per se but I do not see the long term viability in the system.
Here is a video, for non-technical persons, to help understand Bitcoin:
http://www.weusecoins.com/
It was just made very recently (today!)
You are correct that bootstrapping a currency is the most difficult step. However it appears to have done just that: it went from zero to hundreds of merchants in a little over a year: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade
:)
Of course, there is still a long way to go (most of them are individuals or very small shops), but the very fact it has already grown so quickly and so fast is very encouraging. It was possible because of its truly unique and revolutionary features that really no other currency provide, notably the combination of: absence of middlemen, anonymity, cryptographically irreversible money transfers.
I like to tell people that when they first hear about Bitcoin, they will either instantly dismiss it as something that could never work, or they will immediately understand its large potential
When it comes to risking real money - I'd say enough.
What I am potentially concerned with, is not that the code itself contains some nasty stuff, but more that the algorithm behind creating and using the "coins" - the mathematics involved in it - is sophisticated enough that while some people will understand the general rule and find it sound, the author may know of some little-known caveat, exception, some specific parameter value that may compromise the security.
Still, the concept is interesting enough that I'm pretty sure many mathematicians will take interest and scrutinize it for algorithmic vulnerablities just as well as coders will scrutinize it for implementation backdoors.
Like md5 implementation can be sound, but md5 hash collision can already be generated using far less effort than the 32 bytes of enthropy would suggest.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Namely, it is the people who got in early and mined coins or bought them at a low exchange rate who have most to gain. Latecomers have little to gain and the most to lose. If the system collapses or is regulated out of legitimacy, it is the latecomers who will suffer the most. I would not go so far as calling it a pyramid scheme but it certainly shares some similarities in terms of who benefits and who does not.
had you read anything about the idea behind this, you would know that that 'shortcoming' you speak of, was devised as a means to increase adoption rate of the system at the start - if you contributed to system early, you would get more coins. if you bought coins early, the would be worth more. this provided its fast adoption rate.
please dont talk out of your ass next time.
as for 'auditing/taxing' people, taxing is already a reality regardless of what means you use as money. tax is not relevant to money unit or coin that is used. that shows the extent of your naivete on the subject of taxes and accounting. what is taxed is not your money - your income. your income, may be in schamabazoos. and as soon as you convert this to property or merchandise, you get taxed.
as for legislating against it - that is not something that can be used as a shortcoming. the power holders already legislate against many things you take for granted in your life, because it is dangerous to them. are you stopping using them ? no.
im not even going to talk about your 'theory' about 'poisoning' transactions by injecting packets to erase wallets.
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