I was listening to the show from 11 March 2013 in which Mark states that Bitcoin and Litecoin are the exact same technology and therefore equally hackable - this is untrue and here's a little blurb from github which explains why;
The purpose of Litecoin is to function as silver to Bitcoin's gold, in the sense of being a relatively less valuable coin that is easier to obtain and transact with. The properties that make Litecoin fit to accomplish this objective can be summarized as follows:
Transactions are 4 times faster than with Bitcoin, in exchange for somewhat weaker security guarantees.
CPU mining means that the barriers to entry into the Litecoin mining market are cheap relative to Bitcoin mining.
The total amount of litecoins is 4 times higher than the total amount of bitcoins.
From
https://github.com/litecoin-project/litecoin/wiki/Comparison-between-Bitcoin-and-Litecoin 13 March 2013
Ultimately, the bitcoin is Mark & Ian's favorite investment - the commercials remind me of those secret stock tip emails. As I've said - I have bitcoins & I trade with them occasionally, but I don't find them to be particularly useful.
Both bitcoin and litecoin are "hackable" to varying degrees, depending on your understanding of what "hacking" is. Hacking doesn't mean that someone breaks into the bitcoin system and steals coins. Hacking of bitcoin might be accomplished by exploiting an observed flaw in the system (I don't currently know of any) or re-purposing an existing feature of the software or transaction process in such a way as to alter the way the system works or prevent it or some feature of it from functioning properly or within normal parameters - these are often very simple and extremely devastating hacks because the system or process must be changed in order to recover from it. I don't know of any Hackers who have put forth any significant effort in testing bitcoin - it would be like taking down the monetary system of Second Life or Eve Online - sure you'd piss some people off, but what would be the point? I don't doubt that the bitcoin system will eventually be razed to the ground - but I don't want to see that happen because I like alternative currencies.
It still makes for boring radio & I still change the channel whenever Mark, Ian or one of the other hosts start yammering on about bitcoin.