Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-29 Thread dan
You may want to read The End of Money, David Wolman, 240 pp, Da Capo Press, 14 February 2012 insofar as it suggests that turning your smartphone into a branch bank makes all other forms of money irrelevant. Perhaps especially digital cash. --dan __

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-27 Thread Natanael
Hmm... Where have I heard of that idea before... http://disattention.com/78/digital-currencies-crypto-finance-and-open-source/#ot https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions/wiki/FAQ "UNTRACEABLE DIGITAL CASH? … FOR REAL? > Is this the r

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-27 Thread James A. Donald
[Another key bitcoin flaw is that it's not particularly anonymous in the face of NSA-level network surveillance. Cash *is* (remains) under these conditions.] On 2012-02-27 10:26 PM, lodewijk andré de la porte wrote: Working on this. And the network problem. What is the plan? Seems to me tha

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-27 Thread lodewijk andré de la porte
> > > 1. No offline transactions, which makes Bitcoin useless for > > a large class of transactions. > > On Mon, 27 Feb 2012, James A. Donald wrote: > > Smartphones. > > The implicit assumptions here, namely that > * everyone who wants to make financial transactions carries a smartphone > * smartph

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Jonathan Thornburg
Someone whose name has overflowed my nested-quoting stack wrote > Perhaps you just need a short list of reasons why Bitcoin > is not going to replace government issued currencies: > > 1. No offline transactions, which makes Bitcoin useless for > a large class of transactions. On Mon, 27 Feb 2012,

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Randall Webmail
From: "James A. Donald" >Warren Buffet correctly argues that gold will, on average, >lose value. However there is a significant risk that >everything except gold will lose value. There is no risk that potable water or salt or (properly maintained) rifles with ammunition will lose value. Gold

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread James A. Donald
On 2012-02-27 1:28 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: > If the US Dollar were to fail, Bitcoin would be the last > thing on anyone's mind; we would probably wind up switching > to some other government's currency while we sorted out the > mess (Yuan perhaps), or we would just spend our time > killing eac

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread James A. Donald
On 2012-02-27 1:28 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: If the US Dollar were to fail, Bitcoin would be the last thing on anyone's mind; we would probably wind up switching to some other government's currency while we sorted out the mess (Yuan perhaps), or we would just spend our time killing each other a

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread James A. Donald
See 2011 shareholder letter www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2011ltr.pdf Warren Buffet's argument leads to the conclusion that had Roman in the time of Caesar invested a talent in land, or deposited some money with the money lenders to earn interest, his descendents would now be worth 10^67

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread James A. Donald
d...@geer.org wrote: > Warren Buffet's arguments are, to my eye, aligned with > yours. He argues that gold has no intrinsic value, unlike > farmland or a company like Coca Cola. In that way, his > evaluation is as instrumentalist as is yours, to the extent > that I understand the both of you. H

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread ianG
On 27/02/12 03:00 AM, Bill St. Clair wrote: You've just made a very good argument for eliminating money, at least government issued money. Yes, governments just love to assess taxes, fees, and fines. No, I have no need of any of that. Maybe, maybe not. The princes, bandits argument is not on

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Jeffrey Walton
On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: > On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:48:05 -0500 > d...@geer.org wrote: > >> >> Well put, James.  Warren Buffet's arguments are, to my eye, >> aligned with yours.  He argues that gold has no intrinsic >> value, unlike farmland or a company like Coca Co

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Bill St. Clair
On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 11:40 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: > On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:00:15 -0500 > "Bill St. Clair" wrote: > >> On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Benjamin Kreuter > I do not follow your argument -- how does eliminating government issued > money stop governments from collecting taxe

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Benjamin Kreuter
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 11:00:15 -0500 "Bill St. Clair" wrote: > On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Benjamin Kreuter > wrote: > > On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:48:05 -0500 > > d...@geer.org wrote: > > > Money and government go hand in hand.  Governments need money in > > order to manage taxes, fees, fines,

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Bill St. Clair
On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 10:08 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: > On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:48:05 -0500 > d...@geer.org wrote: > Money and government go hand in hand.  Governments need money in order > to manage taxes, fees, fines, and so forth; yet money becomes valuable > because of the legal structure

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Benjamin Kreuter
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:57:14 +1000 "James A. Donald" wrote: > > On 2012-02-26 1:18 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: The demand > > for Bitcoin as a currency is driven by its properties as a > > digital cash system; people still need to get their > > nation's currency at some point > > Frau Eisenm

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread Benjamin Kreuter
On Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:48:05 -0500 d...@geer.org wrote: > > Well put, James. Warren Buffet's arguments are, to my eye, > aligned with yours. He argues that gold has no intrinsic > value, unlike farmland or a company like Coca Cola. In that > way, his evaluation is as instrumentalist as is your

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-26 Thread dan
Well put, James. Warren Buffet's arguments are, to my eye, aligned with yours. He argues that gold has no intrinsic value, unlike farmland or a company like Coca Cola. In that way, his evaluation is as instrumentalist as is yours, to the extent that I understand the both of you. His discussion

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-25 Thread James A. Donald
> On 2012-02-26 1:18 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: The demand > for Bitcoin as a currency is driven by its properties as a > digital cash system; people still need to get their > nation's currency at some point Frau Eisenmenger writes in her 1919 diary: http://www.wolf1168.us/misc/Articles%20of%20I

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-25 Thread James A. Donald
On 2012-02-26 1:18 AM, Benjamin Kreuter wrote: You left out, "...and that they can eventually exchange it for their nation's currency." The demand for Bitcoin as a currency is driven by its properties as a digital cash system; people still need to get their nation's currency at some point (e.g.

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-25 Thread Benjamin Kreuter
On Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:36:50 +1000 "James A. Donald" wrote: > On 2012-02-25 12:53 PM, ianG wrote: > > It is also a singular lesson in the emotive power of cryptography > > to encourage large numbers of people to hash their intelligent > > thought processes. What we are seeing is otherwise rati

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-25 Thread lodewijk andré de la porte
> > That's it! Now, leave aside the libertarian hopes and the politics and > the freedom bias and right to code and the "this time it's different" and > all that crap -- and ask yourself. > > Where do you want to invest your future? > I will invest my time and skill to improve the people's knowle

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-24 Thread John Levine
>Then you'll find out about Santayana's curse - those that don't study >history are doomed to repeat it. For reference, start with read John >MacKay, _Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds_. MacKay turns out not to be all that accurate. The definitive work on financial bubb

Re: [cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-24 Thread James A. Donald
On 2012-02-25 12:53 PM, ianG wrote: > It is also a singular lesson in the emotive power of cryptography to > encourage large numbers of people to hash their intelligent thought > processes. What we are seeing is otherwise rational people invest much > time & effort into what amounts to a ponzi or

[cryptography] (off-topic) Bitcoin is a repeated lesson in cryptography applications - was "endgame"

2012-02-24 Thread ianG
I changed the title so those only interested in pure crypto can delete and move on. On 25/02/12 04:24 AM, lodewijk andré de la porte wrote: This was an offtopic discussion from the start. The original paper does not include anything about crypto. Yeah, except Bitcoin is a cryptograp