Bitcoins

Has any one heard about / tried Bitcoins?

I know that this sub forum is about Linux, but Bitcoins is in somewhat related to the Open Source / Libre Software Philosophy.

For whom who tried it, what do you think? what is your feedback?

 

I attempted it with my M11x. Bitcoin calculator estimated the time for me to make my first bitcoin was something like ~40 days It wasn't worth it because of energy cost alone haha.

However, that was on my CPU. If you can get it to run on your GPU, then it will be worth it (assuming you have a fast GPU).

 

This is if you want to do mining.
But what about the bitcoins transactions as a principle?

 

I really like the idea of a crypto-currency. I think it is something the world of which the world needs more. Ideally, I think a person should be able to choose the currency for their uses and for currencies to be competitive. Obviously in a world of government fiat currencies, the only way to be any bit secure from intervention is to be a crypto-currency. I wonder how long it'll be before the government declares it a terrorist threat...

 

I think it's a cheap system. Those who created it/jumped on board in the beginning made lots of easy money, and now you need to be in a pool to even mine scratch anymore.

IMO, I feel better Folding@Home than Bitcoin mining.

 

The concept is interesting, but I'm skeptical about the practicality of it. From what I've heard, cashing out and getting your hands on a physical USD/Euro/Yen/whatever bill isn't exactly easy.

 

It seems that the bitcoin infrastructure is deemed ripe for attacks, stealing, social engineering scams, and seller abuses.

A risky currency? Alleged $500,000 Bitcoin heist raises questions

The user known as "allinvain" is a long-time contributor to the Bitcoin forums. He says he's been mining Bitcoins for over a year, and had amassed a fortune of 25,000 BTC. This was a modest sum a few months ago, when Bitcoins were worth pennies, but over the last two months the value of a Bitcoin skyrocketed to around $20, which means 25,000 BTC would have been worth half a million dollars. "I remember watching the price like a hawk," he wrote.

And then disaster struck. "I just woke up to see a very large chunk of my bitcoin balance gone," he wrote. "Needles [sic] to say I feel like I have lost faith in bitcoin." He speculated that a Windows security flaw may have allowed the culprit to gain access to his digital wallet. "I feel like killing myself now," he said.

Bitcoin prices plummet on hacked exchange

The Bitcoin community faced another crisis on Sunday afternoon as the price of the currency on the most popular exchange, Mt.Gox, fell from $17 to pennies in a matter of minutes. Trading was quickly suspended and visitors to the home page were redirected to a statement blaming the crash on a compromised user account. Mt.Gox's Mark Karpeles said that the exchange would be taken offline to give administrators time to roll back the suspect transactions.

 

I disagree.

Bitcoins can only be stolen if your machine is compromised or if you give them to an exchange which in turn is compromised.

The Bitcoin infrastructure is sound, and no more vulnerable to SE than any other currency. Various exchanges are (as with many other currencies) the weak point.

Saying that Bitcoin is risky because of stories like the one you linked to is like saying that the US dollar is risky because if you keep all of your cash on your living room table then somebody could break in and steal it.

As far as BTC exchange prices... well... yeah. Welcome to the world of currency speculation.

 

The bitcoin exchanges are considered part of its infrastructure, because they are needed to trade them for other currencies. Though the bitcoin protocol may be relatively secure, there are reports that people may be able to abuse it.

The bitcoin infrastructure offers no protection to anyone involved in a transaction - if you pay for an item and the seller does not deliver, you do not have recourse. Try explaining to a police authority how someone scammed you out of virtual "dollars".

The bitcoin is also a relatively new concept, which means that newbies can be easily scammed out of their bitcoins via social engineering and similar scams.


Of course, these could be alleviated through things like protocol hardening and public feedback.

 

The exchanges aren't considered part of the infrastructure, at least not by the people who designed BitCoin. You can send and receive payments without ever using an exchange.