Bitcoin

[anarchir]

I just had a conversation with someone about any/all encryption in general.  The basic point was this; don't believe that anything is private, or secure.  US military, and therefore likely other intel agencies, have the ability to crack anything, and "in not much time", too.

I dont think they can quickly crack TrueCrypt, even if they have the technology. I'm still not sold on the idea of Bitcoins however. And if I, an agorist, am not on board, how will they be able to convince a greater percentage of the population? I think using alternative currency will catch on more and more, but this version I'm not too sure about.
Oh, and thanks :

Anarchir & John Shaw inspired me...

What did we do and how can we do it, not that I'd dare of putting myself on the level of epicness as the Shaw.

[Lothar]

lol

I can only vaguely remember it, but I think I had submitted an article to FTL about Bitcoin before reading a thread where, apparently, you & John suggested starting discussions rather than simply submitting links.  Hence the inspiration to create this topic.   

I know someone who was recruited by the military to be a language, and encryption, specialist.  This person said essentially not to believe anything as secure, private, unbreakable, etc..  They said that with the specialists, as well as the resources, the military can handle "anything in no time".
I am far from competent in this regard, but I find that credible, both in that I kind of believed that to be the case anyway, and also...  I don't know why this person would have suggested otherwise.  Take this 2nd hand info for what it's worth.  I'm not really sure what implications this has for Bitcoin.  I was more concerned about the counterfeit-ability, or the risk of theft, than the issue of anonymity (though both being sound would be preferable, obviously).

[Bradley]

It's true all systems can be broken. That is the very nature of a system, isn't it?

Recently this was demonstrated on TOR.

http://i2psites.com/Content/Search/ViewCached.aspx?CachedURL=privacy.i2p/category/tor-is-not-safe/

However you have nothing to loose on encryption. So why not use it, as an extra layer of safety.

[error]

I just had a conversation with someone about any/all encryption in general.  The basic point was this; don't believe that anything is private, or secure.  US military, and therefore likely other intel agencies, have the ability to crack anything, and "in not much time", too.

And why should anyone believe this?

[Lothar]

I just had a conversation with someone about any/all encryption in general.  The basic point was this; don't believe that anything is private, or secure.  US military, and therefore likely other intel agencies, have the ability to crack anything, and "in not much time", too.

And why should anyone believe this?

If you're asking why anyone would believe what this person told me, I can only tell you why I did..  It's because I know very little about it, I have no reason to think this person is dishonest, and this discussion is this person's very unique job.

If you're asking why anyone would believe me, and my claim that I had this discussion, the only reason I can think of is that I haven't proven to be a liar yet.

I've asked around, and as it turns out, I just don't know enough about encryption to resolve all that I've been told on my own.  Virtually everyone, though, assured me that Bitcoin was secure, and private.  I'd really like to think that's the case.  I'll probably exchange for some, and hope it proves to be.

[Alex Libman]

BitCoin is the subject of the latest episode (1 hour 27 min) [MP3] of one of my favorite technical podcasts, Security Now.


And, recently on Slashdot -- Online-Only Currency BitCoin Reaches Dollar Parity --

The BitCoin peer to peer currency briefly reached exchange parity with the US dollar today after a spike in demand for the coins pushed prices slightly above 1 USD:1 BTC.  BitCoin was launched in early 2009, so in only two years this open source currency has gone from having no value at all to one with not only an open market of competing exchanges, but the ability to buy real goods and services like web hosting, gadgets, organic beauty products, and even alpaca socks.

And...  Digital currency lets GPU cycles print money


(Note: this is not a personal (anti)endorsement of BitCoin, just some relevant links.)

[error]

I just had a conversation with someone about any/all encryption in general.  The basic point was this; don't believe that anything is private, or secure.  US military, and therefore likely other intel agencies, have the ability to crack anything, and "in not much time", too.

And why should anyone believe this?

If you're asking why anyone would believe what this person told me, I can only tell you why I did..  It's because I know very little about it, I have no reason to think this person is dishonest, and this discussion is this person's very unique job.

If you're asking why anyone would believe me, and my claim that I had this discussion, the only reason I can think of is that I haven't proven to be a liar yet.

I've asked around, and as it turns out, I just don't know enough about encryption to resolve all that I've been told on my own.  Virtually everyone, though, assured me that Bitcoin was secure, and private.  I'd really like to think that's the case.  I'll probably exchange for some, and hope it proves to be.

Ah, the problem is not with your statement, but that of your friend.

While nobody outside the military, NSA, whoever, really knows what their capabilities are, it's highly unlikely that anyone who does know would be allowed to talk honestly about it with uncleared persons (like yourself). This makes it most likely that your friend has fed you an official story given to him by his superiors, which is cleared for release because it advances a government objective. (It is, in fact, an official story I've heard being disseminated before.) It's unlikely that your friend is aware that he's spreading official propaganda.

Now, with that out of the way, every single instance I've been able to find of the government "cracking" strong encryption has been because they got hold of the password through means other than actually cracking the crypto, such as finding it taped to the bottom of the keyboard, rubber hosing, keyloggers, etc.

[Lothar]

Thank you both for the input!

[dalebert]

At the request of some fans who wanted to donate, I'll be accepting Bitcoins for contributions toward the release of new comics.  I just learned about them and have a few more things to figure out like exchange rates, but it sounds like that may be already handled and I can generate a widget for it or something.

[Terror Australis]

An intriguing thought would be if you setup  a local bitcoin market in NH as bitcoin is best when you dont have to transfer to fiat.  Shire silver co-branded with a bitcoin logo ?

If you have an android phone we even have a client for it now and a browser extension for merchants.

I was one of the bootstrappers for the bitcoin economy back when a bitcoin was worth under .006 where I started selling amazon gift cards for them and offering rebates (see my sig. )

Currently Im setting up http://witcoin.com which lets people earn coins for content and soon answering questions for bitcoin bounties.

I think even Ian and Mark accept bitcoin donations privately (email them ). The eff ,tor project and now freenet  accept bitcoins.

If you are worried about the security of bitcoin look at how resilient bittorrent is even with all the force of the worlds governments against it incapable of shutting it down. Pretty soon bitcoin will be the worlds largest supercluster of machines and all the feds will be able to do is snipe from the sidelines as people voluntarily trade.

[Lothar]

Thanks again, everyone, for the input.

I just finished watching Security Now.  I am curious..  Could it be possible for some state/s to throw the "killswitch" on the internet, and then highjack the chain?

Also, wouldn't it be possible to piece together the transactions if enough of the personal wallets were taken?  It seems that creating a new address with each transaction would be a good way to stay anonymous, but I just read that each address remains valid, or connected to you, indefinitely, unless you lose your wallet.  Is there anyway to purge the wallet, and maintain the BTCs?  I guess one could send your BTCs to a new "account", or wallet, and then get rid of the old one.

Please excuse me if this is all painfully obvious to most of you.    I am learning, albeit slowly, as I type.

[Lothar]

A suggested thread on anonymity..

http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=241.0

Someone said "I'm not saying that it's not something worth working on, but we shouldn't prioritize anonymity features ahead of basic functionality, ease-of-use, and driving adoption.".  I disagree with that.  If it's secure, and anonymous, "driving adoption" won't be an issue.

[Terror Australis]

Thanks again, everyone, for the input.

I just finished watching Security Now.  I am curious..  Could it be possible for some state/s to throw the "killswitch" on the internet, and then highjack the chain?

Also, wouldn't it be possible to piece together the transactions if enough of the personal wallets were taken?  It seems that creating a new address with each transaction would be a good way to stay anonymous, but I just read that each address remains valid, or connected to you, indefinitely, unless you lose your wallet.  Is there anyway to purge the wallet, and maintain the BTCs?  I guess one could send your BTCs to a new "account", or wallet, and then get rid of the old one.

Please excuse me if this is all painfully obvious to most of you.    I am learning, albeit slowly, as I type.

If they throw the kill switch there will be bigger problems than bitcoin to deal with. I doubt they will because the masses need their facebooks . It would instantly cause a revolution . The bitcoin network confirms transactions whether you have a client runnning or not.

Dont make any address you own public and you cant be tied to them. Its good to create a new address for each transaction as well. you are correct in saying just send your btc to a new wallet and delete the old one. Encrypt your wallet with truecrypt and back it up on dropbox.

[Lothar]

Thanks again, everyone, for the input.

I just finished watching Security Now.  I am curious..  Could it be possible for some state/s to throw the "killswitch" on the internet, and then highjack the chain?

Also, wouldn't it be possible to piece together the transactions if enough of the personal wallets were taken?  It seems that creating a new address with each transaction would be a good way to stay anonymous, but I just read that each address remains valid, or connected to you, indefinitely, unless you lose your wallet.  Is there anyway to purge the wallet, and maintain the BTCs?  I guess one could send your BTCs to a new "account", or wallet, and then get rid of the old one.

Please excuse me if this is all painfully obvious to most of you.    I am learning, albeit slowly, as I type.

If they throw the kill switch there will be bigger problems than bitcoin to deal with. I doubt they will because the masses need their facebooks . It would instantly cause a revolution . The bitcoin network confirms transactions whether you have a client runnning or not.

Dont make any address you own public and you cant be tied to them. Its good to create a new address for each transaction as well. you are correct in saying just send your btc to a new wallet and delete the old one. Encrypt your wallet with truecrypt and back it up on dropbox.

My hypothetical about the kill switch was really just me asking to see if I understood the concept of the chains, and each node adding to the security of the whole system.  I'm not concerned about that, just curious about the possibility.

Thanks for the rest of the advice.  Good idea about Truecrypt, too!

[Terror Australis]

Thanks again, everyone, for the input.

I just finished watching Security Now.  I am curious..  Could it be possible for some state/s to throw the "killswitch" on the internet, and then highjack the chain?

Also, wouldn't it be possible to piece together the transactions if enough of the personal wallets were taken?  It seems that creating a new address with each transaction would be a good way to stay anonymous, but I just read that each address remains valid, or connected to you, indefinitely, unless you lose your wallet.  Is there anyway to purge the wallet, and maintain the BTCs?  I guess one could send your BTCs to a new "account", or wallet, and then get rid of the old one.

Please excuse me if this is all painfully obvious to most of you.    I am learning, albeit slowly, as I type.

If they throw the kill switch there will be bigger problems than bitcoin to deal with. I doubt they will because the masses need their facebooks . It would instantly cause a revolution . The bitcoin network confirms transactions whether you have a client runnning or not.

Dont make any address you own public and you cant be tied to them. Its good to create a new address for each transaction as well. you are correct in saying just send your btc to a new wallet and delete the old one. Encrypt your wallet with truecrypt and back it up on dropbox.

My hypothetical about the kill switch was really just me asking to see if I understood the concept of the chains, and each node adding to the security of the whole system.  I'm not concerned about that, just curious about the possibility.

Thanks for the rest of the advice.  Good idea about Truecrypt, too!

im certain the eventual power of the voluntary economic system will blow the existing one away and fund a worldwide mesh network for its own sustainablity. Where are they going to get the funds to support the tyranny if the only way they can get money in future is voluntary donations ?