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Bitcoin Inventor Satoshi Nakamoto Nominated For Nobel Prize

Posted by samzenpus on from the where-should-we-leave-it? dept.

HughPickens.com writes: Nobel Prizes are given for making important — preferably fundamental — breakthroughs in the realm of ideas. That's just what Satoshi Nakamoto has done, according to Bhagwan Chowdhry, a professor of finance at UCLA. Chowdhry has nominated Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, for a Nobel prize in economics. The Prize Committee for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, popularly known as the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, has invited Chowdhry to nominate someone for the 2016 Prize. He started thinking about whose ideas are likely to have a disruptive influence in the twenty first century: "The invention of bitcoin — a digital currency — is nothing short of revolutionary," says Chowdhry. "It offers many advantages over both physical and paper currencies. It is secure, relying on almost unbreakable cryptographic code, can be divided into millions of smaller sub-units, and can be transferred securely and nearly instantaneously from one person to any other person in the world with access to internet bypassing governments, central banks and financial intermediaries." Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin Protocol has also spawned exciting innovations in the FinTech space by showing how financial contracts — not just currencies — can be digitized, securely verified and stored, and transferred instantaneously from one party to another.

There's only one problem. Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? Suppose the Nobel Committee is convinced that Satoshi Nakamoto deserves the Prize. Now the problem it will face is how to contact him to announce that he has won the Prize. According to Chowdhry, Nakamoto can be informed by contacting him online just the same way people have communicated with him in the past. He has anonymously communicated with the computer science and cryptography community. If he accepts the award, he can verifiably communicate his acceptance. Finally, there is the issue of the Prize money. Nakamoto is already in possession of several hundred million U.S. dollars worth of bitcoins so the additional prize money may not mean much to him. "Only if he wants, the committee could also transfer the prize money to my bitcoin address, 165sAHBpLHujHbHx2zSjC898oXEz25Awtj," concludes Chowdhry. "Mr Nakamoto and I will settle later."

153 comments

  1. Too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually he already communicated with me anonymously that he wants them to transfer the money to ME, personally, and I will deliver it to him. Cash only.

  2. Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    You have made a currency for an underworld of drug & arms dealers, paedophile porn sites and murder for hire. Oh yes, a few people use it for normal transactions too, and it ruins the environment as you have to run computers for a long time to create it.

    1. Re: Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Inventor of dynamite never intended it to be used to kill people... Bitcoin has the potential to change the world, but it's not the creator's fault that bad people abuse it early on.

    2. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You know nothing.

      He created a decentralized trust chain, one that could be used in applications we cannot today even imagine. Let's say there's a country with no proper land registry... How do you transfer, demarcate or make original claims for a piece of land?

      If there's enough mobile phones, computers, participating in a specific swarm due to self-interest (protecting land) then some random can't come and claim rights to the land with forged documents. It would only be valid if both sides agreed to the transaction and signed it cryptographically.

      This also extends to bank-to-bank trust, and various others. Paedo-phobia and drug druggies are just where it found a proving ground.

    3. Re: Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And as we all know, traditional currency has never been used for criminal activity whatsoever.

    4. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have made a currency for an underworld of drug & arms dealers, paedophile porn sites and murder for hire.

      So, just like normal currency then?

      Oh yes, a few people use it for normal transactions too,

      You should read up about gift economies. The gist of it is that only over time as people wanted better account of the effective credit of gifts did there need to be an exact accounting and only then did it become normal to deprive others of food or shelter on the bases of a lack of goods or money--which isn't to say people didn't find other reasons to deprive people, but then it wasn't "just business".

      and it ruins the environment as you have to run computers for a long time to create it.

      Growing cotton/trees for paper, mining and smelter gold/silver, or drilling for oil and making plastic money all does nothing good for the environment and it's all been done to further the betterment of man which has come at great cost to the environment. But, yea, feel free to go back to subsistence farming and be wiped out because of a poor year or two.

    5. Re: Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Inventor of dynamite never intended it to be used to kill people...

      How peculiarly relevant that the inventor of dynamite was Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel prize

    6. Re:Congratulations! by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      That's for the Nobel prize in economics, not for the peace prize.

    7. Re:Congratulations! by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Funny

      Right. People with that kind of criminal record usually don't get a Nobel Prize for economics. They get the one for peace.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    8. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You just described the US dollar fiat currency!

    9. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have made a currency for an underworld of drug & arms dealers, paedophile porn sites and murder for hire.

      You seem to think that Bitcoin is only useful for governments.

    10. Re: Congratulations! by murdocj · · Score: 1

      At last, the circle is complete.

    11. Re: Congratulations! by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Inventor of dynamite never intended it to be used to kill people.

      Who could have foreseen that something that makes a violent explosion could be used as a weapon?

      In other news, the inventor of the ping pong paddle never intended it to be used to hit a little white ball.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have made a currency for an underworld of drug & arms dealers, paedophile porn sites and murder for hire. Oh yes, a few people use it for normal transactions too, and it ruins the environment as you have to run computers for a long time to create it.

      You know what they used before? Yes, that is right, regular money.

    13. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Excellent! Please stop using whatever currency it displaced.

      Oh wait, you mean what you're paid with?

      Shit, choices, choices...

    14. Re:Congratulations! by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bitcoin is also the only way to pay for many things without the banks getting a piece of it. Bought something on ebay? Paypal gets 3-4%. Paying with a different currency than the merchant? Make that 7%

    15. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Yeah, we all know the peace prize is reserved for warmonger like president Obama.

    16. Re: Congratulations! by tomhath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      nventor of dynamite never intended it to be used to kill people

      Not true at all. Nobel was one of the biggest armament manufacturers and merchants of the nineteenth century. As he got older he felt guilty about all the people who were being killed as a result of his inventions and business so he turned to philanthropy.

    17. Re: Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Your analogy is fucking stupid, and so are you, faggot.

    18. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Country with no proper land registry"

      So, for example, the United States of America

      "How do you transfer, demarcate or make original claims for a piece of land?"

      However you like, and then you just cross your fingers that nobody sues. If they do, it'll cost a vast amount of money and take years and probably nothing useful will be decided. Having a "decentralised trust chain" will alter nothing. You can buy insurance, and indeed if you need a mortgage you'll have to buy insurance.

      You can't fix this problem with technology, it's a policy problem. Some people get very, very rich off the lack of a working registry. If you propose to implement one they will spend every penny they have to stop you.

    19. Re: Congratulations! by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

      Yep and that philanthropy survives today as the Nobel prize, the money for the prizes comes from his estate, it's held in perpetuity in a trust fund, profits from the fund are given away as prizes.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    20. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you know how many people have died over even small amounts of fiat? WTF do you know, moron?

      Besides, criminals prefer US Dollars, but nice work fitting every bullshit argument the banks and government has tried to push in a single sentence. Keep hating.

    21. Re:Congratulations! by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      It would only be valid if both sides agreed to the transaction and signed it cryptographically.

      All it does it confirm that the document hasn't changed since it was signed, the validity of the document is determined by property law. You can do the same thing by giving a copy of the document to an independent party for safe keeping. It's a complex solution to a simple problem of trust, and a waste of electricity to boot.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    22. Re: Congratulations! by cfalcon · · Score: 1

      There's plenty of ways to make explosions in war, though. Those were all around way before that.

    23. Re:Congratulations! by cas2000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What makes you think your digital trust chain will be in any way enforcable in a nation that has collapsed so far that it doesn't even have a "proper land registry"?

      In that situation, a gun would be far more useful than some bits on a computer somewhere. And that's only if someone else doesn't have bigger and/or more guns.

      BTW, Nakamoto didn't invent the idea of decentralised trust chains. He borrowed the idea from existing public key encryption.

    24. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why the mod down. Facts upset you? Are you mad because president Obama is a warmonger or because the Nobel prize comity is corrupted?

    25. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep your panties on. Every US president since 1900 has been a warmonger. It is just not possible to get elected and remain unmurdered otherwise.

      Besides, Obama got the Nobel prize for not being Bush. I guess he must have felt rather awkward about the whole thing, he hadn't actually implemented any policies yet. But much of the rest of the world was understandably relieved when that idiot's time was finally up, and had not had the time to be duly disappointed with the new boss.

      Also yes, obviously the Peace Prize committee has blundered on quite a few occasions. Henry "Everything that flies on everything that moves" Kissinger, for reals?

    26. Re: Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are talking about the USD?

    27. Re:Congratulations! by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Your simple problem of trust none the less manages to give rise to cases of fraud on a daily basis.
      What he did do was take the corruptible fleshy mass of mostly water out of the equation. That is quite a significant achievement.

    28. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So you are upset because the previous republican warmonger did not receive a Nobel prize?

      LOL. "But but but other did too" fallacy. President Obama is unique; he is the first to have a iphone app to the NSACIAAF back-end where he can select target for elimination, have a drone strike anywhere in the world, and kills confirmation in the same day. That is warmongering beyond anything that was possible by his predecessor. But yeah, let turn that into a partisanship issue because you need to feel better about voting for him twice.

    29. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not even american, you moron. You made this partisan. If you think a drone strike is any more (or less) mongery than invading a sovereign nation, I can't help you.

    30. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yep, use bitcoin, lose maybe 20% instead in the daily fluctuations or 5%+ if you want to convert it into a normal currency, while getting no financial protection, no chargeback or insurance. personally I would rather the banks getting a smaller cut of my money than the amount you lose by using bitcoin combined with the massively increased risk

    31. Re: Congratulations! by sad_ · · Score: 1

      so maybe guilt is driving bill gates too?

      --
      On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    32. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "here's 50 quid, this document is totally legit and the original version." , "Why so it is!"

      Yep, government backed paper doesn't have a weakness to sophisticated attacks on complex math equations to forge and cheat the system. Clearly miles better than BtC.

    33. Re:Congratulations! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      Let's say there's a country with no proper land registry... How do you transfer, demarcate or make original claims for a piece of land?

      You don't.

      Without a central administration, there is no claim to land. The land isn't yours to sell, or yours to buy, or yours to own. No executive power can determine ownership, and so the enforcement of police and military does not protect your claim to land.

      In such a situation, a decentralized cryptographic trust chain is as valid as a handshake over beer.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    34. Re:Congratulations! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 2

      He's probably an anarchist and thinks you can have a society without government.

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    35. Re: Congratulations! by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Dynamite was never used as a military explosive except for certain demolition purposes.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    36. Re:Congratulations! by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 0

      Which is strange, since he invented something with no economic value.

      BitCoin is only useful for trading to other currency--it's a currency at best--and thus for speculation. BitCoin has spawned speculation and BitCoin production, two operations which consume labor to produce nothing but the ability to transfer money from others to yourself. That's equivalent to a Government jobs bill which mandates you get taxpayer money for digging holes and filling them in again: you could get paid to stay home and do nothing and we'd have the same result (nothing useful produced).

      It's not a great amount of labor, fortunately. A tiny, tiny fraction of available labor has sunk into waste production--essentially the building of trash nobody is going to use. It's still just waste, economically.

      Economics is strange. Classical economic theory--what we operate on now--is all about determining "value", which has about a dozen different definitions all used interchangeably (making the entire theory of economics one enormous fallacy of equivocation). Basically, they try to determine the "correct" price of goods and services. Meanwhile I've rewritten macroeconomics from scratch based on "wealth theory", which has lead to a lot of understanding of how nations become wealthy, how this impacts day-to-day standard of living, where welfare systems come from, how income inequality happens, what advantages income inequality provides (progressive tax systems!), cost of labor considerations, and so forth.

      This leads to interesting conclusions: expense of labor in non-productive ways is actively harmful, yet the effects of welfare are complex and useful--and the current optimal system really is just sending people money for nothing, without consuming their labor time for no economic benefit. (Of course, this is *extremely* unstable if not financed in such a way as to align with the well-understood basic economic behaviors discovered through wealth theories of economics; and it's only become the better system recently, since our current system will eventually collapse the economy in ways even modern economists recognize openly.)

      --
      Support my political activism on Patreon.
    37. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bitcoin is also the only way to pay for many things without the banks getting a piece of it.

      Or, you know, cash.

      Actually, does anybody know if checks are "free" as well? My intuition says they are not, but I've never been charged anything for cashing a check at a bank where I had an account with at least as much cash as the check was worth. (This is ignoring the money the bank is earning from interest on my open account.)

    38. Re:Congratulations! by golgotha007 · · Score: 1

      Trust is not a simple problem.

    39. Re: Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bill Gates' wife is driving him. She's actually nice from what I can tell, and she's using his money to take him along on the ride and trying to do good things with that wealth. I don't know what he'd do with his money if not for her, but I suspect he might go Scrooge McDuck and build a big vault of money to go swimming in.

    40. Re: Congratulations! by Anonymous+Cow+Ward · · Score: 1

      Whoosh...

      --
      Examine even your most deeply held beliefs. Nobody is always right.
    41. Re: Congratulations! by stoatwblr · · Score: 1

      At the time he made it, he was "rather focussed" on making it possible for miners to not blow their hands off, which was happening regularly with nitroglycerine.

    42. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So how do you transmit cash over the Internet without the banks getting a piece of it?

    43. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's fine if you don't like the risks involved with freedom, we're not replacing traditional financial services to use Bitcoins exclusively. Bitcoins are an extra form of currency that is backed by the Bitcoin rules rather than backed by the strength of any government to back the Bitcoin. When we use Bitcoin, we know fully well that we don't have the safety of chargeback or insurance.

    44. Re:Congratulations! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      That is temporary.

      If I want to send the equivalent of $100 to somebody overseas, I spend $100 at a Bitcoin exchange to get BTC. I send the BTC to my recipient, who cashes it in at a Bitcoin exchange to get euros or whatever. That's two transactions with a Bitcoin exchange, and three Bitcoin transactions. Those aren't going to be free. Banks can do that sort of thing cheaper. Thing is, they don't.

      With pressure from Bitcoin, banks will be forced to lower their international money transfer and currency exchange fees to the point where it's cheaper to use the banks.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    45. Re:Congratulations! by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

      You only have to do that the first time. I could say that if I want to spend $100 online I need to open a bank account, deposit the $100, etc.
      Look at it this way: if everybody were using BTC as currency nobody would be losing anything to the banks. That's a really good thing.

    46. Re:Congratulations! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All quite true, but we're discussing bitcoin not the US dollar.

    47. Re:Congratulations! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Bitcoin is useful as a way to transfer value without going through the banks, to fund illegal activities, and as a speculative investment. It is not useful as a store of value. Therefore, since I'm not into that much speculation, I wouldn't just have Bitcoin sitting around, and to transfer value I'd have to buy the things off an exchange. Are there any exchanges where I can buy $100 of Bitcoin, and the next day, assuming no fluctuations in the market, sell that Bitcoin for $100? Even if there were, I'd not trust them, as I wouldn't see where they got their profit. I can deposit $100 in my bank account, then withdraw $100 the next day, and my balance is not changed by those transactions. I haven't lost money. The bank makes their money in lending my money out.

      Suppose I want to send $100 to someone in Europe who wants it in Euros. I buy Bitcoins from an exchange, and there's a transfer of dollars to them and Bitcoins to me. I transfer my Bitcoins to my European friend. My European friend sells Bitcoins to an exchange in exchange for Euros. There are two exchange fees and three Bitcoin transactions, and those transactions are inherently expensive. Alternately, I deposit money in my bank, paying nothing for the privilege, and transfer it to my European friend, who withdraws it in Euros. That's two transactions which cost the banks almost nothing to perform, and a single currency exchange. Further, money in a bank is a good store of value (although I won't make any money on it), and so I'm likely to have that sitting around anyway.

      If Bitcoin is cheaper than banks for this, it's because the banks are slapping on charges because they can. They can offer such international transfers cheaper than Bitcoin if they like.

      And what do you have against banks? They'll do all sorts of useful things with my money, storing it safely, disbursing it according to my instructions, and it really doesn't cost much. I consider them useful institutions. I'm not talking about investment banking here, or the fancier stuff, just the bank services a guy like me would want.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    48. Re: Congratulations! by countach · · Score: 1

      So it's blood money then?

    49. Re:Congratulations! by h33t+l4x0r · · Score: 1

      You're missing the point. You're comparing BTC to USD and saying that when the market fluctuates in favor of USD you're losing money holding BTC. That's true but by the same token you are losing money by holding USD when it goes the other way.

      I agree that USD is a more convenient currency, I can't pay my rent or buy groceries with BTC.

      If you haven't realized that banks are evil by now than I won't convince you. You've lived through a 7 year (and counting) recession that was caused by predatory lending policies, saw nobody get in any kind of trouble for it, saw those jerks fly to DC in their private jets to ask for handouts, and still you love them? Banks are bad news.

      I'm a freelancer and when I can get a client to pay me with BTC I win. I keep all the money, don't pay account fees, don't worry about my account getting frozen (it's happened to me with paypal)

    50. Re:Congratulations! by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The USD is a reasonably stable currency. What I can buy with $100 decreases very slowly for the most part. It's a reasonable store of value. I know that, if I get paid, my pay is a reasonable amount for the work I did in the last pay period. I know that I'll not lose noticeably by paying my bills a week later. That isn't really true of Bitcoin.

      Also, it's true that the transfer of value from me in the US to someone in Germany is inherently less expensive with banks than Bitcoin.

      Banks also have different functions. Some of the functions serve my purposes very well at a reasonable price, and some don't. These functions were pretty well separated from the highly speculative and dangerous functions before the repeal of Glass-Seagal. If you don't like banks, I'd suggest finding a credit union you like. They stay out of the harmful stuff.

      Every time a client pays you in Bitcoin, there's an inherent cost. Somebody's going to have to put a computer through a lot of work to make it happen. If you keep all the money by not paying taxes on it, you're in violation of the law. If you're saying you're avoiding fees, that's because the banks are charging what they can rather than something proportional to their actual costs. You don't have to worry about your account being frozen, but you do have to worry about keeping your key secret as well as making sure you can always get it, and you do have to worry about large value fluctuations.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  3. Nakamoto = DPR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which is obvious. Too bad he'll never see the light of day again.

  4. Kevin Spacey! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey he loves tech - why not?

  5. Is it a stupid attempt to lure him (or them) out? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Nobel prize still does not outweigh a perspective of spending the rest of a life behind bars.

  6. Fake prize by Burdell · · Score: 2, Informative

    There is no Nobel Prize for economics; it is a pretend prize that tries to piggy-back on the Nobel name to push an agenda (of course, some of the real Nobel prizes have been politicized as well).

    1. Re:Fake prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 It's fake price
      "The Nobel prize for economics is not even a “real” Nobel prize anyway, having only been set up by the Swedish central bank in 1969."

    2. Re:Fake prize by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 2

      +1 It's fake price
      "The Nobel prize for economics is not even a “real” Nobel prize anyway, having only been set up by the Swedish central bank in 1969."

      I don't care - they all pay the same.

      -- Professor Farnsworth

    3. Re:Fake prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Barry was given the Nobel Peace Prize. So it's turned into quite the comedy spectacle!

    4. Re:Fake prize by diamondmagic · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's formally called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, but don't let that deter from the fact it's part of the same ceremony and is a pretty big deal among economists.

      --
      Wonder what the public key field is for?
    5. Re:Fake prize by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Paul Krugman won a Nobel in Economics too.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:Fake prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As did David Kahneman

    7. Re:Fake prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      For a start:
      Read debunking economics author is an australian economist steve keen.
      The field is in its infantcy, the mainstream approach is a fabrication and simplification of a complex system in a way that is not even tangentially relevent to reality. Once you start ripping out pages from an economics text book which are wrong, have algorithms which dont work because by design they contain proof by contradiction you have almost nothing left.

      (basically the econoics for keeping rich people rich)

      Nobel prize is a joke.
      You have to ask why nobody from the complexity theory side of economics has won the award.

      Oh and especially ignored are groups like MMT MCT the ones who have testable repeatable theories that have predicted (in the way a weather man is often correct above random noise) things in recent times and explained past events coherently.

      Compare the usefullness of a physics or chemistry award winner to the previous economics winners. Almost a sick joke that.

      It follows that if there is an economics nobel prize there should be one for blood letting, alchemy and detox ;)

    8. Re:Fake prize by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

      Dilbert covered that.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    9. Re: Fake prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Daniel hangman, not David.

    10. Re:Fake prize by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      It's formally called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, but don't let that deter from the fact it's part of the same ceremony and is a pretty big deal among economists.

      It's even closer than you point out.

      The bank donated the money to the Nobel Foundation in 1968. It is, technically speaking, a Nobel Prize. It only has their name tacked-on because of the plus-up to the Nobel Foundation –who decide independently on each year's awardee.

    11. Re: Fake prize by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol

  7. Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The invention of bitcoin — a digital currency — is nothing short of revolutionary," says Chowdhry. "It offers many advantages over both physical and paper currencies.

    But at a very high cost. The only way to create bitcoins is to waste energy. Worse, the amount of energy that must be wasted to create new bitcoins increases over time.

    If we move forward with bitcoin's wasteful design, and it achieves widespread use, it will be an environmental disaster. It is imperative that we develop new-generation digital currencies that do not waste energy.

    1. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bullshit. Stop shilling.

    2. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by itamihn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do you think traditional transactions gets processed for free, or do they also need to be processed?

    3. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by GuB-42 · · Score: 2

      But at a very high cost. The only way to create bitcoins is to waste energy. Worse, the amount of energy that must be wasted to create new bitcoins increases over time.

      It doesn't necessarily increase over time, it may also decrease.
      Bitcoin mining is a competition : the more they are, the harder it is, the less they are, the easier it is. Because of this, the worst case scenario, energy wise, is that the reward for mining is equal to the energy cost. It means that the energy cost for a new bitcoin will follow its valuation, until all possible bitcoins are mined. It won't be a major problem unless there is a major surge in bitcoin value well before we reach this maximum.
      And if it is, there is always the solution of lowering the reward, no need for a next-gen digital currency. Transaction fees can be dealt with the same way.

    4. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      And it would be nice if it were anonymous and yet safe.

      Millions upon millions of BTC have been stolen (lost) and only the assholes who ran off with it knows where it is.

      And God.

      God knows where the BTC is.

      Not that God is an asshole.

      He just knows where it is.

      The BTC, not the assholes.

      Well, the assholes, too.

      They are on Santa's Naughty list and stuff.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    5. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Worse, the amount of energy that must be wasted to create new bitcoins increases over time.

      Quite opposite. The break-even point and the practical cut-off on the number of miners is the value of mined bitcoin equaling the cost of electricity to mine it.

      The Bitcoin has a built-in mechanism that the reward for solving a block halves after a set time. That means, at that point a bunch of people will find their hardware costs them more to run than it earns them. They will then drop off the mining market, until the difficulty drops back to the break-even point. And that only until the next halving - and so on.

      The long-term result is that only these who can obtain extremely cheap electricity will remain in the game - e.g. ones with own solar power plants or ones leeching it (in reasonable amounts) from their employer/government/etc for free.

      Personally, I'm looking forward to that. Since I'm using electricity to heat my flat, I'd welcome some cheap mining hardware and running it below the electricity costs - resulting in returns on heating costs.

    6. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Speculative mining may continue long after the immediate returns are greatly outweighed by the energy costs because the value of bitcoins can be expected to rise; investing now with apparent losses may be profitable in the long term.

      Also even if the supply of un-mined bitcoins is completely depleted, the (presumable) evidence of the success of the blockchain concept will lead to the rise of other blockchain-based systems, some of which have already been developed (see Namecoin), leading to further wasteful mining competitions. Not to mention the ever-growing blockchains are wasteful by their very existence.

    7. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by GuB-42 · · Score: 1

      Speculative mining may continue long after the immediate returns are greatly outweighed by the energy costs because the value of bitcoins can be expected to rise; investing now with apparent losses may be profitable in the long term.

      This may affect the sales of ASIC mining rigs but not the energy cost. To put it simply, why would I spend $500 of electricity mining a Bitcoin when I can buy one on the market for $300?

      Not to mention the ever-growing blockchains are wasteful by their very existence.

      The ever-growing blockchain is a bit wasteful yes. However, Satoshi showed in his paper that it isn't that bad. Also, there is a way for small actors not to have a copy of the whole blockchain.

    8. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by Tokolosh · · Score: 1

      But at a very high cost. The only way to create bitcoins is to waste energy. Worse, the amount of energy that must be wasted to create new bitcoins increases over time.

      Here is your homework:
      What is the total cost to produce a US penny? Of that, what is the total energy cost?
      What is the cost to mine and refine an ounce of gold? What is the energy cost?
      What is the cost to mine a bitcoin? What is the energy cost?

      The answers may surprise you.

      --
      Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
    9. Re:Bitcoin will be an environmental disaster by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you think traditional transactions gets processed for free, or do they also need to be processed?

      I didn't say anything about transactions being processed for free -- either for traditional currency or for digital currency.

      I have no problem if a digital currency requires electrical energy to process -- as long as the energy is used in a reasonably efficient way. And I have no problem if people are compensated for their time to perform and verify transactions -- as long as the verification process is reasonably efficient.

      The problem with bitcoin is that it requires many, many orders of magnitude more energy that would be necessary to record and verify the transactions in an efficient way. We need a new generation of digital currency designed for energy efficiency -- if we start scaling up the usage of bitcoin, it will be an environmental disaster.

  8. Not really a Nobel price anyway by tomhath · · Score: 2

    popularly known as the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

    Economists like to call it that. But Alfred Nobel had more sense than to give a prize for hand waving.

    1. Re:Not really a Nobel price anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like how the committee gave one to Fartbongo as soon as he was elected and before he did anything?

    2. Re:Not really a Nobel price anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who is Fartbongo?

    3. Re:Not really a Nobel price anyway by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Alfred Nobel had more sense than to give a prize for hand waving.

      You are aware that there are one for peace and one for literature, right?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Not really a Nobel price anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing like seeing your Nobel Peace Prize winner later bomb Libya.

    5. Re:Not really a Nobel price anyway by tomhath · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes, but those don't pretend to be sciences.

    6. Re:Not really a Nobel price anyway by Luthair · · Score: 2

      The biggest difference is that Alfred Nobel did not establish the economics prize, its merely piggy backing on the prestige of the real prizes.

  9. Lame answer by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You have made a currency for an underworld of drug & arms dealers, paedophile porn sites and murder for hire. Oh yes, a few people use it for normal transactions too, and it ruins the environment as you have to run computers for a long time to create it.

    That's a pretty lame way to frame it. You forgot to mention that it rots your teeth and destroys family values.

    American paper money is also the currency of underworld drugs and arms, pedophiles, and murder for hire.

    Bitcoin is also the currency of freedom from oppression, freedom from centralized regulation based on political agendas, and massive surveilance.

    The American dollar... not so much.

    Did you think that the credit cards refusing to allow payments to WikiLeaks was a good thing?

    Googling "BitCoin freedom" turns up just shy of a million links.

    At least 2000 girls in Afghanistan are being paid in bitcoin for their blog writing and social media skills.

    Bitcoin Will Thrust the World Towards Freedom

    1. Re:Lame answer by labnet · · Score: 1

      Well, it may not Rot your Teeth, but bitcoin is only a partial answer to a digital currency.
      Because only X many bitcoins can be created, they need to hyperinflate if they became more widely used. This is why it will always be a toy currency used at the fringe.
      Our current debt based Fiat money system also sucks. Behind the scenes, central banks are working on SDR's to replace the USD. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

      --
      46137
    2. Re:Lame answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, in January 26th, 2014 BTC was worth appoximately $880USD. By February 20th, it was down to $552.21

      That is, something worth 1BTC on the 26th of January was worth 1.59BTC. Less than a month later. ie prices had risen by more than 50% in less than one month.

      That's the textbook definition of "Hyperinflation".

    3. Re:Lame answer by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      So far it's the favorite currency of e-ransom scams. Hard-to-trace money is a recipe for scams. It's why Swiss bank accounts are so popular with crooks. I vote to ban bitcoin regardless of your hypothetical freedom rant.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    4. Re: Lame answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Banning bitcoins would not stop Bitcoin from having value, it would have the opposite effect.

    5. Re:Lame answer by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 2

      Actually, you've got it totally wrong and the OP probably missed / silently corrected your mistake because it is so absurd. The longer Bitcoins are used, the more they will suffer from a massive deflation, not from inflation (unless the trust in them suddenly went to zero because of widespread prohibitions or a successful cryptographic attack of their design). This deflation is part of the design of the currency and intended but it is controversial whether that is good.

      What you are referring to is a currency fluctuation. Bitcoins are very volatile.

    6. Re:Lame answer by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      That is kind of funny, because Bitcoins are incredibly easy to trace. Many things are being broken up by the ability to trace bitcoin. The blockchain keeps track of every transaction, so if I record the bitcoin ID, and transfer you the bitcoin, it can be tracked through every transaction to where you finally pull out the money, where it becomes obvious who owns the wallet by the account that receives the money.

      http://www.wired.com/2015/01/p...

      http://www.cnbc.com/2015/04/21...

      https://www.cryptocoinsnews.co...

      http://www.forbes.com/sites/an...

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  10. Stupider Than BitCoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Awarding a fictitious person the Nobel Prize is stupider than the BitCoin fanaticism .

    1. Re: Stupider Than BitCoin by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      They cannot even ensure that he's still alive, so it's all a silly flight of fancy.

      He is, but he won't come forward until he's retired off-world, so ineligible for any Nobel-type awards.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  11. Don't worry, Professor Chowdry. Send me the money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and I'll make sure that Saroshi gets his prize funds.

  12. Lost my shirt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I mined one whole Bitcoin in 2012 and lost it because I kept it in an account on Mt.Gox.

    Surely, the largest Bitcoin exchange is too big to fail, right?

    Sorry, no FDIC for you!

    1. Re:Lost my shirt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      why didn't you keep it in a private bitcoin wallet? Keeping it in an account managed by someone else just allows them to steal it. it seems you learned that lesson now.

    2. Re:Lost my shirt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That crossed my mind!

  13. What economics? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't see what solving the double spending problem has to do with economics. The initial bitcoin implementation is based on a gold-standard like relic from antiquity nowhere near worthy of any price.

  14. Nominated? by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1

    Hell...anyone can be 'nominated'. Even Rush Limbaugh was 'nominated'.

    1. Re:Nominated? by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

      In 2004, I nominated my left testicle, which has caused a great deal of jealousy in my pants. A controversy that continues to this day.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Nominated? by hey! · · Score: 2

      Exactly. There are a huge number of people who are allowed to nominate, including anyone who is a professor of economics.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    3. Re:Nominated? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I nominated a rather interesting -- no, revolutionary! -- log I laid in the toilet this morning. Unfortunately, it was flushed so nobody but me will ever understand its grandeur.

    4. Re: Nominated? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't worry. It appeared in the White House this morning at a cabinet meeting.

    5. Re:Nominated? by arth1 · · Score: 2

      Exactly. There are a huge number of people who are allowed to nominate, including anyone who is a professor of economics.

      Only if a permanent professor in one of the five Nordic countries. Those who can nominate are:

      1. 1. Swedish and foreign members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences;
      2. 2. Members of the Prize Committee for the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel;
      3. 3. Persons who have been awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel;
      4. 4. Permanent professors in relevant subjects at the universities and colleges in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway;
      5. 5. Holders of corresponding chairs in at least six universities or colleges, selected for the relevant year by the Academy of Sciences with a view to ensuring the appropriate distribution between different countries and their seats of learning; and
      6. 6. Other scientists from whom the Academy may see fit to invite proposals.

      Bhagwan Chowdhry, who nominated the Bitcoin inventor came in under rule 6, and was invited to supply a nomination, and whoever in the Academy invited him is likely rather embarrassed now.

  15. Perfectly rational choice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only if he wants, the committee could also transfer the prize money to my bitcoin address [...] concludes Chowdhry.

    Oh man, I wish I'd thought of that. But then nobody would trust me to nominate the brightest sock in the drawer even literally.

  16. URGENT. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    If payement is not doing the needfuls, please be reverting the same kind guru's and post you're documents here showing error's of the same.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  17. The most disgraced profession in modern history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Bitcoin is not a currency because it is not a tripartite IOU liability system.

    If people actually deliniate the mechanics from the purpose it becomes clear:

    Bitcoin: you burn a certain amount of energy and it gives you a secure cryptographic token for your effort which is a virtual commodity rather than a currency.
    Currency: worth nothing, an asset for one party a liability for another and a central overseeing authority (government/tax system/banking system).

    Of course bitcoin has nothing to do with understanding of economics per se. Its like giving economics prize to someone whom just looks at the market price for bauxite or oil. Or to diffie hellman / PGP which you could use for any transaction system wether its economic or not.

    The bitcoin transaction system has design features that make it more desirable than SWIFT or any network of banks with chequeing accounts at each others central branch obviously but thats irrelevent you could just build any arbitrary system bitcoin or not to do that.

    All this talk about bitcoin being 'freedom' from government just means that people aren't electing the right kind of government.

    So once again its another field: 'politics' and not economics.

    Also they are forgetting that tax is currency deletion not for government to fund itself (it issued the currency in the first place as a monopoly holder of dollars, pounds whatever so it does not need back its currency any more than a maths professor has to borrow numbers and letters last weeks equations to complete this weeks proofs he just draws/types new ones. Money is an unlimited abstract entity).

    Final point: the already disgraced nobel prize for the most disgraced field of anything in modern history: economics. Look at the billions of people worse off because of made up bulls**t pontificated by the econoics profession used to wreck peoples lives and create constant crisis (European Union).

    I can see the politics behind giving Satoshi Nakamoto the award here. Buzz word bitcoin distract everyone from the real issues.

    And certainly dont give the award to a sub branch of economics not in the mainstream that that use complex system mathematics, or numerate testable theories that predict crisis like Minsky stability hypothesis which would actually be deserving of the award.

    1. Re:The most disgraced profession in modern history by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      so, according to that, gold-backed currency is not a currency?

    2. Re:The most disgraced profession in modern history by Wonko+the+Sane · · Score: 1

      Bitcoin is not a currency because it is not a tripartite IOU liability system.

      If your definition of currency requires that it be the liability of a counterparty, then who need that shit anyway?

      By that standard, Bitcoin is better than currency.

  18. Wrong prize. by jcr · · Score: 1

    He should be nominated for the Peace Prize, which actually is a Nobel prize. The Swedish Banker's prize is far less prestigious.

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  19. Settlement by waynemcdougall · · Score: 1

    Or pay the Nobel prize to *my* bitcoin address.

    I will settle with Mr Nakamoto later.

    In fact I offer this service to all Nobel prize winners.

    --
    Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
  20. Re: The most disgraced profession in modern histor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Excuse me but the federal reserve has nothing to do with govt. The argument that bitcoins are freedom from govt is absurd because it like most things pandered is a lie. On top of that, if this satoshi guy has hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of bitcoins, the prize itself is a sham, and therefore so is the award. It would be like bill gates stopping to pick up a hundred dollar bill. Not worth the time of day. This is like the banks giving themself an award for bailing themselves out. What a fucking joke.

  21. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  22. It's a TRAP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nice try FBI and Wallstreet. You won't lure him out anytime soon. If you think someone's pride will allow them to unveil themself as the creator of bitcoin, you've got another thing coming.

    1. Re:It's a TRAP! by lazy+genes · · Score: 0

      It is a trap... But the inventor will never be found. It's not that hard to figure it out. 191zqMKX5i3FhgTnq5uhMazBUGWJNzq29y

    2. Re:It's a trap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As soon as he shows up he will be arrested, deported, imprisoned, interrogated and disappeared. Anyone dealing in bitcoins will then be "contacted" by authorities and fined into poverty. Anyone behind Bitcoin is pretty much a dead man walking already.

      You know the drill... cite references or this is just an idiotic conspiracy theory.

  23. Gag Nomination Based On Racial Hatred by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Bhagwan Chowdhry" an India National enjoying the freedoms in Los Angeles his other nationals do not.

    "Satoshi" "Nakamoto"!

    The first name suggest an India National and the second name suggest a Japanese National.

    Both likely deceptive.

    So the Thing calling itself "Bhagwan Chowdhry" living in Los Angeles nominates a ... Thing.

    Well Mr. or Ms. Queer "Bhagwan Chowdhry" ... Hindi's love the "Bi" after all ... KISS MY ASS!

    Ha ha

  24. Surely, you must be joking. by phadez0r · · Score: 2

    Feynman said getting the prize was the worst thing that ever happened to him.

  25. I am Spartacus! by PPH · · Score: 1

    n/t

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:I am Spartacus! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In fact, how do we know that Bhagwan Chowdhry hasn't nominated himself?

  26. No problem getting the prize to him. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just send the bitcoins to one of his original addresses.

  27. Admiral Ackbar says . . . . by nehumanuscrede · · Score: 1

    " It's a trap "

    They finally gave up trying to figure out who the person is behind the name. So, they're gonna try a million dollar piece of cheese to see if they'll bite :D

  28. Don't accept it Satoshi Nakamoto by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a Trap

  29. Bitcoin address by jdavidb · · Score: 1

    "Only if he wants, the committee could also transfer the prize money to my bitcoin address ..." concludes Chowdhry. "Mr Nakamoto and I will settle later."

    Seems like it would make more sense to transfer the money to one of Mr Nakamoto's bitcoin addresses.

    --
    Secession is the right of all sentient beings.
  30. Not always by markdavis · · Score: 1

    >"Nobel Prizes are given for making important â" preferably fundamental â" breakthroughs in the realm of ideas"

    Um, not always. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
    http://www.cracked.com/article...

    Sometimes the Nobel prize is a joke.

  31. They'll need to confirm... by cfalcon · · Score: 1

    Latest reports are that the nobel prize being awarded needs five more confirmations from random networks across the world, so I guess we'll need to wait on those.

  32. in related news by cas2000 · · Score: 0, Troll

    In related news, Charles Ponzi has been nominated for a posthumous Nobel prize in Economics for similarly exciting and novel ways of thinking about investment, albeit without the "with a computer" aspect.

    1. Re:in related news by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Are you suggesting that Bitcoin resembled a ponzi scheme? If so, could you elaborate as the similarity is not immediately apparent.

      Bitcoin doesn't seem to be any worse than any other currency for the most part. The main issue is that exchanges and "banks" are not being regulated by the countries they reside in. Either they don't recognize Bitcoin as a currency, or they declined to regulate it, or they were just slow off the mark.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:in related news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > If so, could you elaborate as the similarity is not immediately apparent.

      I spend a little bit of cash to generate some BTC back when the difficultly is low. I then hype BTC to everyone and convince a bunch of dumb hippies that it's The Wave of the Future TM. Once speculation has made my coins worth something, I cash out, leaving the morons who bought from me holding the bag.

      Bitcoin is not a currency. It's a security.

    3. Re:in related news by avandesande · · Score: 1

      Bitcoin has certainly been put to the test the last couple years with scandal etc.... but it is still here.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    4. Re:in related news by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Bitcoin does resemble a Ponzi scheme, in that the people who buy in early stand to get a lot of money, to be extracted from later adopters. Satoshi has a lot of Bitcoin, and the early adopters tend to have a good deal. If Bitcoin grows like its proponents want, the value of an individual Bitcoin will soar, leaving the early adopters rich and the late adopters out in the cold: they'll put real currency into the Bitcoin economy, and not benefit accordingly.

      Bitcoin is considered a commodity in the US. I believe there are regulations on that, which the exchanges are not necessarily complying with. The problem is not that Bitcoin exchanges can't be regulated, but that they weren't.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    5. Re:in related news by DanielRavenNest · · Score: 1

      How is this different than a Silicon Valley startup where the founders and venture capitalists who got in early stand to get a lot of money from the IPO, extracted from later investors?

      Early adopters of bitcoin had no assurance bitcoin would be worth anything at all. It was over a year before the first real world purchase happened (Two Papa John pizzas for 10,000 BTC), and a year and a half before they traded for over one cent.

      Until a market developed for using them, they were just a cryptographic curiosity. There was no assurance the software would reach a usable and secure form, ever.

    6. Re:in related news by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      A successful startup produces things people want, more than they want something else, and they need to have a reason why someone else can't come along, do what they're doing, and undercut them in the marketplace. Bitcoin doesn't have that. Any number of other digital currencies could appear, and could be backed by large organizations. Bitcoin's advantages as a medium of exchange are temporary, since the banking system can do anything legitimate (and some other things) at a lower cost than Bitcoin.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    7. Re:in related news by cas2000 · · Score: 1

      - startups don't pretend that they are a currency.
        - investment, even private investment, is regulated

    8. Re:in related news by cas2000 · · Score: 1

      many people have faith in their god(s) too. doesn't make 'em real.

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  34. Fitting by Luthair · · Score: 0

    That a modern economics prize would consider rewarding what was effectively a pyramid scheme.

  35. Get some perspective by dbIII · · Score: 0

    Get some perspective - they have to heard about the pyramid scheme and care enough before bothering to go looking.
    Whoever nominated him has serious problems in keeping things in perspective - guys your grubby little hobby is not earthshaking and is a million miles away from the initial dreams of a viable digital currency. Without trust it's just a temporary token to aid in exchange of real currencies.

    1. Re:Get some perspective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the BtC haters love to go on about "trust". Who, pray tell, are we trusting when we use a US currency? I watched someone lose a half a million dollars, there one day, gone the next, from a governmentally "protected" investment fund that was balls deep in derivatives. Nope, couldn't just cash out the fund, didn't know it was buying derivatives and couldn't have prevented it if I had. The bank that lost that half a million dollars? They got 10 Billion in tax money to offset the massive losses their own stupidity wrought. Do you suppose they paid back that half a million dollars of someone else's money with any of that 10 Billion tax dollars?

      So, tell us about trust. Tell us about the security we have with government currency.

    2. Re:Get some perspective by dbIII · · Score: 1

      So then, tell me how that tale of woe impacted on the trust of the US dollar. It didn't? Was the point of your little rant to distract away from the lack of trust in bitcoin? Fix that problem and it has a chance of being something useful.

  36. Oi vey by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, invent a hybrid pyramid/ponzi scheme disguised as some form of alt-currency/alt-security scam = Nobel Prize?

  37. There is no Nobel Prize in Economics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's a nomination for a Swedish bank's award.

  38. Bitcoin was invented by the Unit 8200. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > nominated Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, for a Nobel prize in economics

    That is a ridiculous suggestion. Consider that Tor development is financed by the US Navy (in hopes that foreign embassies will give up their expensive but uncrackable short-wave radio stations with one-time pad, for cheap and fancy, but inherently backdoored digital comms).

    Bitcoin could also be an NSA (or NSA puppetmasters) concotion easily, in fact all three publicly identified Bitcoin inventor candidated have significant past ties with the US military-industrial complex. Can you imaging the peace or economics memorial Noble prize unwittingly awarded to a three-lettered agency or the six-lettered one? Considering the purpose of Bitcoin is to swindle gentiles out of their money and make them throw away solid metal currency, my guess would be on the nation that declares itself chosen, to be behind Bitcoin.

    > The invention of bitcoin a digital currency is nothing short of revolutionary

    In revolutions a lot of gentiles are executed, especially the catholic clergy and the nobles. The great many unwashed masses can then be easily brainwashed to forget about Jesus. A world without Jesus but with Bitcoin has already been described in the Revelations as the rule of 666.

  39. It's a trap! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    As soon as he shows up he will be arrested, deported, imprisoned, interrogated and disappeared. Anyone dealing in bitcoins will then be "contacted" by authorities and fined into poverty. Anyone behind Bitcoin is pretty much a dead man walking already.

  40. Coren22 likes telling lies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "APK doesn't think that DNS servers are worth running and seems to believe that somehow Microsoft Active Directory can run without DNS." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Tuesday October 27, 2015 @12:58PM (#50811615)

    Where'd I say AD will run minus DNS Coren22? I've said AD = internal network DNS dependent as far back as 2007 http://forums.tweaktown.com/wi...

    (Searching this in BOLD "To warn users who have ActiveDirectory/AD LAN-WAN setups to NOT use external DNS servers!" referring to OpenDNS suggestions for those using AD stupid in the POSTS BEFORE IT in my security guides for users (geared to stand alone single machines no less), & right there on that page proves it stupid - so even if you posted as myself someplace here on /. "impersonating me", I have your ass NOW, shithead!)

    I've also stated MANY TIMES I use remote DNS in OpenDNS @ home (but not @ work on AD networks + exchange/outlook: Free OpenDNS model doesn't work with AD dependent Exchange + Outlook specifically you lying little imbecile).

    I also don't hardcode in "every site there is under the sun" is why, so I have to use DNS, but OpenDNS & rarely.

    I also RARELY MISS A LOOKUP since I put where I spend a good 95++% of my time online in my favorite sites into hosts @ the TOP of hosts for utmost LOCAL FASTER RESOLUTION SPEEDS and more reliability vs. Open DNS (not OpenDNS) resolvers being abused, Kaminsky redirect poisoned DNS servers (of which 99.999% of ISP DNS are not proofed against to this very day even though a patch exists which OpenDNS uses), rogue DNS servers, and yes ROUTERS with bushwhacked by malware DNS settings (happening a LOT lately).

    Hardcodes in hosts are faster than remote DNS, waste less resources than local dns in power, cpu cycles, RAM, & other I/O by FAR considering ALL THE PARTS of such a setup in programs, data, I/O, & power (especially if setup as a separate machine).

    APK

    P.S.=> You're a disgusting liar... apk

  41. Coren22 bitch slapped 65++:1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "I guess we should avoid your crap, it looks like it is marked as malware. Good luck getting that removed." - by Coren22 (1625475) on Monday November 02, 2015 @03:52PM (#50850445)

    It's safe proven by 57 antivirus programs recently in BOTH its 64-bit model https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    +

    Its 32-bit model too https://www.virustotal.com/en/...

    &

    More "SALT IN YOUR WOUNDS" -> http://f.virscan.org/APKHostsF...

    ---

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts Admin (MalwareBytes employee) hosts & recommends it -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl... & MalwareBytes = BEST antivirus per this VERY recent testing of them all http://www.av-test.org/en/news...

    APK

    P.S.=> /.'ers say my work is good too:

    "his hosts program is actually pretty good" - by xenotransplant (4179011) on Monday August 10, 2015 @03:34PM (#50287195)

    "I like your host file system." - by Karmashock (2415832) on Wednesday September 09, 2015 @03:57PM (#50489401)

    "APK is kinda right... I've given up on JS based adblocking and gone to blackholing in /etc/hosts, just like it was back in the 90s. The computational load has gotten intolerable for any ad-blocking using JS. I've tried his hosts file generating software. It works." - by bmo (77928) on Thursday October 15, 2015 @11:30AM (#50736071)

    "his hosts tool is actually useful for those cases in which one does indeed want to locally block stuff outright while consuming minimum system resources" by alexgieg (948359) on Friday September 25, 2015 @09:57AM (#50596461)

    ... apk

  42. Coren22 "security guru" wannabe fails security by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Coren22 says "hosts=bad" (they add security, speed, & reliability) & bitches on admin priv to UPDATE vs. threats:

    "So, have you figured out why privilege escalation is a bad thing yet?" - by Coren22 on Tuesday September 22, 2015 @05:15PM (#50577809)

    Hypocrite admits using admin priv

    &

    How else can I programmatically update hosts minus it in Windows?

    ---

    "Of course it requires elevation to write to the hosts file" - by Coren22 (1625475) on Wednesday September 23, 2015 @05:35PM (#50585879)

    You FINALLY later admit there's no other way!

    FACT:

    Even MalwareBytes AntiMalware (best one) DEMANDS you use admin privelege (you saying it's "bad" too?) it can't do its job fully otherwise, like many security tools do!

    ---

    Aryeh Goretsky NOD32/ESET says hosts = good security-> http://it.slashdot.org/comment...

    Oliver Day (Symantec) does-> http://www.securityfocus.com/c...

    MalwareBytes' hpHosts hosts & recommends my APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-2 32/64-bit-> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl...

    ---

    * HOW MANY SECURITY PROS DO I NEED TO KNOCK THE CHOCOLATE OUTTA YOU?

    ---

    Those security pros INCLUDE me: I work w/ guys from malwarebytes' hpHosts on a regular basis!

    I've professionally worked for decades as a combined domain-wide network admin & software engineer since 1994 (Even showing you HOW to migrate a hosts across an enterprise-> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... )

    I've also been securing computers + WRITING GUIDES using CIS Tool (who took fixes from me http://slashdot.org/comments.p... - bonus) http://www.bing.com/search?q=%...

    You told me you learn from guides?

    I write good ones that MILLIONS USE & was PAID FOR IT http://pcpitstop.com/news/winn...

    + WARES TO PROTECT USERS that are endorsed & hosted by security pros -> http://hosts-file.net/?s=Downl...

    You did all that? No!

    (& that's ONLY a SMALL part of what I could put out)

    APK

    P.S.=> You're all TALK -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p... & a "ne'er-do-well" in security... apk

  43. Going to be an increasing problem by ubrgeek · · Score: 1

    > He started thinking about whose ideas are likely to have a disruptive influence in the twenty first century

    Moving forward, "disruptive influences" are going to become more and more "dangerous". The folks coming up with them are going to want to stay anonymous more and more often.

    --
    Bark less. Wag more.
  44. Charles Ponzi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... Is first in the queue

  45. Re:Tracing bitcoins by DanielRavenNest · · Score: 1

    It's quite easy to defeat that kind of tracking. Send your coins to a bitcoin exchange, and sell them for currency. Later trade back to bitcoin and pull your funds out, typically on a different address.

    Another way is to trade on localbitcoins.com for paper cash. The coins now belong to an unconnected person.

    Finally, people run "tumbler" services, where multiple people put in funds, they are randomly sent through various addresses, and finally go back to the original people, but in random amounts to different addresses (addresses are essentially free to create).

  46. Re: Irony Prize by DanielRavenNest · · Score: 1

    Ah, but the irony of a system that eliminates the need for banks as middlemen being nominated for a banker's prize is delicious.

  47. I see by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so Chowdhry = Satoshi?

  48. Coren22 gets crushed (& he ran) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See subject: Says it all & this link, dismantling him point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his publicly http://slashdot.org/comments.p...

    * :)

    (Coren22, I tried to give you a chance, 3x no less - you're a fool: You mistake mercy for weakness, like cretin brutes in the streets do... you paid the price!)

    APK

    P.S.=> I notice you stopped responding there - "Gosh, golly gee - why's that?" (not) - but I expect you'll TRY some more b.s. as that's all "your kind" (trolls) understand - crap like downmodding my posts or ac troll me!

    (Which you & your sockpuppets OR fellow trolls have here already NOW TELLING OTHERS TO TROLL ME BY UNIDENTIFIABLE AC POSTS http://slashdot.org/comments.p... as I've torn you ALL up 1 by 1 every time as I have yourself above... you did this, to yourself "signature boy")... apk