What is on Your Mind?

I just learned about a new "peer-to-peer currency" named Bitcoin. It also has a wiki.

It promises to be a currency that can be safely transferred over the internet with no central authority.
Sounds wonderful!
But I wonder if it's a hoax.

Has anyone used it to make a purchase?
Invested with it?
Heard of it?

What do you think?

Interesting. Thanks for posting the link.

Frankly, this is the first I have heard of Bitcoin and am enjoying reading about it.

Thanks again.

sounds like a fairly good idea to me, will be interesting to see how it all unfurls

Nothing validates the worth of a new currency like theft

June 15, 2011: A risky currency? Alleged $500,000 Bitcoin heist raises questions
June 17, 2011: New malware steals your Bitcoin

Regards,
Alister

You have a smiley there, and you're almost quoting one of those articles, but I hope you're not saying that tongue in cheek. There's some wisdom in your words. If bitcoins had no value, why would someone go to the effort of targeting them?

In fact, if I had thought it through, I should have been suspicious of them if no one was bothering to try to steal them. And, hey, no security is perfect, so there will be some thefts. The victim was storing them on Windows, for crying out loud!

Also, the possibility that someone had half a million dollars in bitcoins says an awful lot.

In fact, I'm starting to get more interested.


As for security there's almost a separate, more general, issue here. The second story you referenced said this:
There are two very instructive things in that sentence about security in general:The lessons, if not obvious, are

Saw this float by on slash-dot a few minutes ago. I've not looked closely at it, but thought I'd add the link here for anybody interested.

Headline reads:
Huge Bitcoin sell off due to a compromised account - rollback
posted on Jun-20 04:07

https://support.mtgox.com/entries/20...count-rollback

This was interesting news, reminding us that all systems have strengths and weaknesses. There was a huge potential for people who purchased before the sell off to have lost a lot of money. This kind of thing could happen again, so be careful - a lesson learned.