A Cashless, High-Value, Anonymous Currency: How?

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A Cashless, High-Value, Anonymous Currency: How?

Posted by Soulskill on Friday June 29, 2012 @04:57AM from the this-must-be-the-mysterious-step-2 dept.

jfruh writes "The cashless future is one of those concepts that always seems to be just around the corner, but never quite gets here. There's been a lot of hype around Sweden going almost cashless, but most transactions there use easily traceable credit and debit cards. Bitcoin offers anonymity, but isn't backed by any government and has seen high-profile hacks and collapses in value. Could an experiment called MintChip brewing in Canada finally take us to cashless nirvana?"

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Bitcoin hacked? Um no by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-29 05:00 · Score: 5, Informative

Theft, yes. Bitcoin itself ever hacked, no.
1. Re:Bitcoin hacked? Um no by seepho · 2012-06-29 06:00 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  You're also not your IP address. That doesn't mean it can't be traced back to you.
Gold by Anonymous Coward · 2012-06-29 05:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

Gold:
[x] Cashless
[x] High-Value
[x] Anonymous
1. Re:Gold by Iceykitsune · 2012-06-29 05:03 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Gold:
  [x] Cashless
  [x] High-Value
  [x] Anonymous
  [ ] Digital
  
  --
  GENERATION 24: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
Nobody really knows ... by bill_mcgonigle · 2012-06-29 05:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

... what the best way will be, any anybody who professes omniscience on this is lying to you. We'll have to experiment to find the best solution.
If you're in the US, ask your legislators to support a short act to make such experiments legal. Right now, trying to figure this out is a good way to land in prison.

--
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Corrections by Cyphase · 2012-06-29 05:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

"Bitcoin offers anonymity, but isn't backed by any government and has seen high-profile hacks and collapses in value."
"...isn't backed by any government..."
Sounds good to me. Certainly true anyway.
"...has seen high-profile hacks..."
Bitcoin hasn't been hacked, some Bitcoin websites have been hacked.
"...collapses in value."
There was certainly that big bubble, but other than that it's been fairly stable. Certainly for the last many months.
http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/mtgoxUSD#tgCzm1g10zm2g25

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by Cyphase ( 907627 )
Re:Gold pressed Latinum. by gmuslera · 2012-06-29 05:15 · Score: 5, Informative

The main problem with anonymous currency is that is being pressed to be outlawed all around the world. The second problem, of course, is people.
Not going to happen by Animats · 2012-06-29 05:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

With the currency troubles in Greece and Spain, a "cashless society" is much further off. One plan for Greece is to suddenly convert the bank account of everyone in Greece from euros to drachma, then immediately devalue the drachma. Since this is well known, everyone with any money is pulling it out of Greek banks.
Keeping money in "the cloud" means someone else controls it. For a good laugh, read the EULA of WePay, a wannabe PayPal competitor. Or those of Dwolla, which is a pseudo financial institution run out of a hacker space in Iowa. The terms offered by most psuedo-banks in the "cloud" are awful.
No by Rix · 2012-06-29 05:26 · Score: 5, Informative

If you don't check to see that the transfer has been confirmed, sure, but that's no different than putting a bill on the counter and then snatching it away. It's not a hack, and you can't do it to someone that doesn't allow you to.