Quote from: DannyHamilton on March 05, 2014, 05:33:28 AM

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

So I was watching a BTC piece on Bloomberg ...

That sounds like a great source for false information and misunderstanding. Please don't base your knowledge about bitcoins from sources like this.

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

since each coin has a 'unique id' of sorts,

It doesn't...

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

why isnt there an app/extension of wallet software that 'locks' coins ...

Any reasonably designed bitcoin wallet (such as Armory, Bitcoin-Qt, Electrum, MultiBit, blockchain.info, BitcoinWallet, and Mycellium) all already do this...

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

maybe i misunderstood how blockchain works exactly?

Almost cetainly.

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

the lock could be opened with a phone call/escrow like human to human system...

A phone call or email are far to easy to fake....

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

It could be the shot in the arm the BTC world needs to get more mainstream...

So, what you're saying is that bitcoin really needs more education. Well, I think everyone would agree with that, but how to educate new users who don't bother to try to learn anything, while providing convenience that won't stifle interest?

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

and user accounts have unique ids why cant they just be locked together...?

They can. MtGox was just lazy and incompetent, and yet users chose to leave their bitcoins there anyhow.

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

Marketing wise, i think its a winning service that BTC holding companies (wallets, exchanges...) should offer

Agreed. Hopefully more companies that hold deposit accounts will implement better security protocols soon. In the mean time, we can vote with our bitcoins. Don't send your bitcoins to a company that doesn't provide you with a secure way to link your identity to your withdrawls.

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

even though it somewhat undermines BTC improvements over fiat for transmission processing speed etc

It doesn't. Computers are very fast, and well written software can generate a digital signature with a click (and perhaps a quick 2-factor authorization).

Quote from: gjgjg on March 05, 2014, 01:45:41 AM

i think it would get a lot of mainstream attention.

The media doesn't bother paying attention to the details. They need to sell advertizing, which means they need to attract viewers. The easiest way to do that is to create sensationalist stories with little focus on facts and details. (most of the viewing public finds facts and details boring)

Thanks for all the replies(especially DannyH), I had a feeling i would get my post's ass handed back to me, good to learn something Lips sealed

It seems to me then that the main problem is perception then (and possibly some accessibility issues), while I don't base any of my BTC knowledge or perceptions from the mainstream media, many others do, including some big investors who have the power to push BTC permanently into their mainstream in a positive way.

I see a lot of bad mouthing of BTC on bloomberg, and CNBC - even just in the last minutes Warren Buffett on CNBC said BTC is a mirage, no intrinsic value, stay away, its just an efficient digital cheque book basically. I think the BTC community needs to address this in serious way, by playing 'their' game,and security is the biggest tangiable negative point IMO.

As you say DannyH, wallets are already providing the BTC 'lock' security that could prevent hackers moving coins. If one of the bigtime mainstream investors bought some advertising space and time with WSJ/CNBC etc to say, 'hey everyone, we've 'now solved' the security issue with BTC: put your coins in this wallet and hackers cant move your coins'. Its not a new thing, but mainstream marketing techniques require a highly visible 'break through', not an education program. Education takes effort, and many are simply not interested in investing that time and effort (both learning and transmitting). If someone like me (a casual BTC person who pays less attention to mainstream than to BTC sources) has such a misunderstanding then I'm sure it's even worse with the old world players.

Additionally though, I think the wallet process does require some further simplification too in order to really convince the mainstream: an easy installation and a couple of clicks here and there and the coins are locked/unlocked. I havent tried all the wallets mentioned, but my experience was that I was installing some 'dodgy' software and it wasnt so straight forward so I was pretty discouraged and still had lack of confidence in it... maybe some wallets are already simple and easy, so again its prob my lack of experience.But if I saw a strong marketing campaign showing a nice shiny clean simple wallet that gave me confidence in security I would give it a try and move my coins there.

But,in my humble opinion, the main problem* blocking further adoption into mainstream really is perception right now,along with some dumbing down with wallet accessibility, rather than Tongue

. The banks et al can object and create a fuss for businesses, but if there were strong positive perception behind BTC right now in the media via marketing, the banks would be in a much weaker position to stop it, and its a good time to push this because many places have no legislation, and if the positive perception comes after legislation and regulation, it will be even harder to convince everyone to adopt it. Lets not forget how much markets and currencies move in value based purely on perception,as someone who dabbles in this stuff, its really amazing (just look at yesterday's dive in the markets, it came after positive data was published - but because someone 'said something negative',perceptions changed and the markets still dropped hard - despite the good data.

*maybe others disagree and they'd say there is no problem, but Im assuming most people want BTC to get bigger and find its place amongst mainstream everyday world, in order to do that there needs to be a positive marketing break-through along with some advertising capital to get there - sorry thats the capitalistic world at the moment sadly. So if any powerful investors are reading, please hire the biggest marketing firm out there and get behind the best wallet system there is and start pushing this to the public before the law makes it harder to convince people to get on board!!!! Grin

thanks again