public inbox for bitcoindev@googlegroups.com
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: 21E14 <21xe14@gmail•com>
To: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-development@lists•sourceforge.net>
Subject: [Bitcoin-development] A look back and a look forward
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 18:36:29 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CAFZQHkFP81iYsAadejL1Si60FgtQSLvN==67ft2YRtsL9MqyDg@mail.gmail.com> (raw)

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1920 bytes --]

Alex Daley recently stated that "one of the problems with Bitcoin is that
it takes us backwards in the transaction chain. Suddenly, you're dealing
with something that's much more cash-like. If Target had been hacked, and
instead of using credit-cards, what was stolen from them were actually
bitcoins, that they have been storing Bitcoin addresses in their systems
and those systems were compromised, Target wouldn't just have a PR
nightmare in their hands. They would be out of business."

Of course, it needn't be Target. The scenario has played out with a number
of exchanges, and is a sword of Damocles hanging over the cryptocurrency
space. The recent Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust SEC filing warns that "the
Trust’s bitcoins may be subject to loss, damage, theft or restriction on
access. There is a risk that part or all of the Trust’s bitcoins could be
lost, stolen or destroyed. The Sponsor believes that the Trust’s bitcoins
held in the Trust Custody Account will be an appealing target to hackers or
malware distributors seeking to destroy, damage or steal the Trust’s
bitcoins. Although the Security System’s design includes various elements,
such as redundancy, segregation and cold storage, to minimize the risk of
loss, damage and theft, neither the Custodian nor the Sponsor can guarantee
that the Security System will prevent such loss, damage or theft..."

This needn't be so, once an optional identity layer, modeled after the
Internet itself, is provided, as proposed in late August of last year on
this mailing list:

http://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/mailman/message/32737796/
http://sourceforge.net/p/bitcoin/mailman/message/32742809/

I hope it is apparent that this is the killer app folks have been searching
for in vain. Like its Internet analogues, BCIs will not be created
overnight and without collaboration - and TNABC is as good a place as any
for it.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 2131 bytes --]

             reply	other threads:[~2015-01-08 18:36 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 3+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2015-01-08 18:36 21E14 [this message]
2015-01-09 14:00 ` Mike Hearn
2015-01-09 19:36   ` 21E14

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to='CAFZQHkFP81iYsAadejL1Si60FgtQSLvN==67ft2YRtsL9MqyDg@mail.gmail.com' \
    --to=21xe14@gmail$(echo .)com \
    --cc=bitcoin-development@lists$(echo .)sourceforge.net \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox