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The Bitcoin Strikes Back

Posted by Soulskill on from the digital-boom-and-bust dept.

smitty777 writes "Slashdot readers are no doubt informed of the infamous crash of Bitcoin. In fact, its demise was followed closely here. Wired has a recent article tracking Bitcoin's climb out of chaos. Valued at $17 before the crash, it had lost 90% of its value due to the hacking incident, down to a low of $2. It climbed back up to $3 in December, and is currently valued at $4. From the article: 'Bitcoin boosters have traditionally suggested that Bitcoin is an alternative to [the world's] currencies. But we'll suggest an alternative explanation: that Bitcoin is not so much an alternative currency as a "metacurrency" that allows low-cost and regulation-free transfer of wealth between nations. In other words, Bitcoin's major competitors aren't national currencies, but wire-transfer services like Western Union.' Still, Bitcoin has significant obstacles to overcome, such as covert mining, criminal uses, and other security issues." Amir Taaki of the Bitcoin Consultancy (who did an interview here a while back) disputes the reasoning and the conclusions in the Wired article.

5 of 344 comments (clear)

  1. Criminal uses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Regular money has criminal uses. The security concerns are also a non-issue as regular wallets and bank accounts are routinely stolen and money diverted.

    1. Re:Criminal uses? by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny

      Personally, I buy my coke with bitcoins, use a credit card to cut it into lines, then a rolled up $20 to snort it.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    2. Re:Criminal uses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "It's only untraceable if I only brought ATI video cards, web hosting, and marijuana for the rest of my life."

      i fail to see the problem

    3. Re:Criminal uses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Many child porn sites and contraband trading sites on darknets take payment in bitcoin.

      OMG! OMG! Think of the children!

      There is no such thing as 'child porn sites' that take any payment. One must be a child molester and deliver 'original content' in order to be accepted in trading rings. This is well documented by the police and explain the difficulty for them to infiltrate the child pornography networks. eg: They will not rape a child to be accepted and gather evidence.

      You are full of shit. Thank you for contributing to the set back of, freedom enabling, anonymous money usage by spreading disgusting FUD.

  2. Propaganda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The speculators push the price up, pay for press releases and stories, put up blogs talking about how awesome Bitcoin is... then they get out as soon as it starts selling for enough. They've done it once, judging from this article they're doing it again, are people going to fall for it again?