Quote from: kiba on April 12, 2011, 06:16:56 PM

Quote from: DCism on April 12, 2011, 05:50:02 PM

But I'd like an expert and proponent of Bitcoin to demistify the currency for me, and to talk about the potential threat, if there even is one, but also discuss the benefits of the currency and its advantages.

A lot of proponents for bitcoin would trout anonymousness as a feature rather than a threat. It really depends on your point of view. If you're a privacy advocate, it's a good thing. Law enforcements and anti-money laundering people thinks it's a bad thing.

I believe Steve Gibson, of Security Now, called it the "crypto-dilemma". On one hand, it could be tool of political activists to resist repressive states such as China and Libya. On the other hand it could be used as a tool to launder money from kidnapping operations and organized crime activities.

If bitcoin succeeded, we will all have to live with the consequence of the new technology. For nation-states of all stride, from authoritarian to democratic ones, it will be a devastating attack on their power. It will give power back to the individuals. For some of us, that's what we like to see.

One of the large US banks (Wachovia) recently was fined for laundering 400 BILLION DOLLARS in drug money.

Has anyone ever bought that many drugs with bitcoin ? What about a story showing how illegal things are done using existing systems?

Cheesy

http://podcasts.witcoin.com/p/1053/The-Keiser-Report---Cocaine-makes-the-world-go-round