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Board Beginners & Help
Re: My girlfriend has questions for the forum...
by
odolvlobo
on 11/10/2015, 07:26:07 UTC
1) How do people think that bitcoin is actually anonymous? You would have to buy them with your debit card/credit card in which banks have your information... why would you think that this stuff is actually anonymous and could be used in such a way?

Bitcoins are not completely anonymous, but they can be very difficult to track. I could send bitcoins to Wikileaks, for example, and it would be nearly impossible for anyone to find out where they came from. You can buy bitcoins with cash.

2) How many people develop bitcoin? If it's a decentralized currency then if these people control how the currency works, how would that make it decentralized?

There are hundreds of people developing bitcoin software. Anybody can develop bitcoin software. But you do bring up a good point. People that want someone to be in charge consider the Bitcoin Core developers to be in charge of Bitcoin. That is a problem.

3) If it is a currency that can be used in a sort of anonymous way, then how can governments regulate it in a way to make sure that people aren't funding bad organizations like ISIS and drug lords?  "Harpua" has told me about what silk road was and the way the darknet markets work, but how can this be prevented?
They can try, but Bitcoin is regulation-resistant because nobody controls it. Law enforcement agencies don't have to track how you spend your money in order to prevent crime. They have other tools to prevent crime like listening to your phone conversations and reading your mail.

4) My dad works in a government facility where he deals with high clearance documents in a high security facility.  His organization has just been recently hacked by the Chinese government and lost dozens of top secret information including SS#'s, locations of the homes of workers, basically any personal information about the workers of his business and his families (which includes me). How can cryptocurrencies ever be a secure enough form of transactions where governments and top notch hackers can't just find a way to hack into the blockchain database?

The block chain database is public information. No hacking is necessary. Bitcoin is a solution to fraud and identity theft because merchants don't need to store your identity and spending authorization (unless the law requires them to).