Posted on 03/04/2014 8:42:51 AM PST by Izzy Dunne
*Perfectly* stated. In fact, the same can be said of the dollar.
Maybe I don’t understand the process, which is highly likely.
FlexCoin is not a source of their own BitCoin, but a holder of some BitCoin?
Like Bank holding US currency, or a Bank with its own currency?
The so-called "powers that be" do NOT like ANY competition which may threaten their power, monopolies or position over the masses.
After Mt. Gox shut down, and now $615,000 is stolen, is this the end of BitCoin?
No.
$615K is a rounding error for some institutions.
I am not sure exactly what happened at Flexcoin.
Bitcoins are kept in “wallets”, which are encrypted data files.
When a transaction occurs, the related data (originating wallet ID, destination wallet ID, number of coins, time and date, etc, etc, etc) are recorded into what is called the blockchain, a mondo data file that has all the transactions that ever existed.
The levels of encryption insure, for instance, that I would not be able to build on my machine a “fake” blockchain that says I have a billion bitcoins and spend them somewhere.
Wallets can be kept “locally”, which means on your own machine (or even a thumb drive if you want), or they can be kept/held at an exchange on your behalf (with whatever ID/Password security they adhere to).
My BCT addr:
1Fq34hXN1dzBrDXNCq23G3HrSVKj3bYHSd
Anyone who wants to can tickle me pink and send me a few hundred...
;-)
Anyways, so whatever got hijacked was stolen from wallets at Flexcoin that were either outright owned by Flexcoin, or were being held on behalf of customers of Flexcoin.
I tried buying Bitcoins about a year ago, but couldn’t get it to take my CC transaction. I’m sorta P’d about it because they were about $20 at the time.
Thanks for the reply.
I understand that to mean FlexCoin was more like robbing a bank then breaking into the mint.
Either like going to the teller and robbing the bank (in which case the bank takes the hit) or like going into the bank, forcing them to open the vault, and robbing the safe deposit boxes.
The secret hacker basement under the Federal Reserve has been busy undermining any non-State/non-Central Bank currencies ...
Thank you for the explanations.
Somehow I got the idea that there was many different types of bitcoins, not one type with multiple exchanges.
Well, “bitcoin” in a generic sense, meaning a form of e-currency.
There are about 15 or so main forms, the two biggest being Bitcoin and Litecoin, having values in the dollar range.
The majority of them are only worth pennies.
Bitcoin going bye bye. Surprise, surprise, surprise.
Okay, so I wasn’t completely confused.
But BitCoin is BitCoin regardless of the house/bank name.
Correct.
Bitcoin is Bitcoin. Litecoin is different from Bitcoin.
A vendor that accepts Bitcoins is free to laugh his rear off if you expect him to take Litecoins.
Just like dollars, euros, pesos, francs, rubles...
Leaving bitcoin on an exchange and NOT in “cold storage” is like leaving your cash laying around on the counter at the bank. Its not protected and its not in your hand.
This is NOT a problem with the Bitcoin protocol. This is a problem with idiots who do not understand how stuff works.
Your momma told you not to leave cash laying around. I guess your nerd buddies need to explain bitcoin.
They went up about5 $100 apiece yesterday.
I made a quick $1400. Nice way to spend the day. Fleecing college kids of their loan money.
It will succeed when a credit card processor puts this into their system. A vendor who wishes to accept bitcoin can get lower fees, and conversion directly into the fiat of their choice. It is as secure as the credit card company, and cuts the banks out.
If its co-opted by Visa or Mc, it will save that company (not that they need saving today) and it will break them into the general money transfer business of the likes of Western Union.
All of this stuff will have to evolve and merge. Its a good paradigm. Once the idiots and crooks are driven out, it will be fine.
Could be the IRS/NSA tag teaming .
When people buy bitcoins, don’t they have the encryption code (or whatever the term is) for their so-called assets? If someone steals the data from an exchange, couldn’t the rightful owners still claim ownership of the encrypted data code and therefore sell off the bitcoin(s) as if the theft never happened?
If I ever owned any bitcoins I’d print out my entire ‘wallet’ onto paper so I’d know which ‘coins’ were rightfully mine. Anyone trying to sell my coins would expose themselves and risk getting busted, or at the very least they’d be exposed as trafficking in fraudulent bitcoins.
I mean, it seems kinda like trying to sell a stolen painting through an art auction. Once the thief goes public they’re busted. Or am I wrong?
I would argue that the Central Banks are The State.
We have a veneer of a republic but I don’t think that is really how power gets moved around the earth.
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