Bitcoin Backtracking

2012-01-11

http://onusprobandy.blogspot.com/2012/01/bitcoin-backtracking.html

Bitcoin software finds new jobs in online security

Jacob Aron
2012-01-11
Magazine issue 2847

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328476.500-bitcoin-software-finds-new-jobs-in-online-security.html

IT HAS been a rocky year for Bitcoin, the online peer-to-peer currency, with the exchange rate soaring from a few cents to over $30 per coin before crashing after a string of thefts, hacks and other setbacks. Coins have since regained a value of around $5. But it is becoming clear that the software could prove at least as useful as the currency itself, underpinning a number of important new technologies.

First, it could be used as a form of "carbon dating" for digital information - something that would make electronic voting more secure. This is possible because of the way Bitcoin records transactions, says Jeremy Clark, a computer scientist at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

An individual's bitcoins are registered to one or more addresses, which are alphanumeric sequences that serve as the user's identity on the P2P network. When a transaction takes ...

The digital currency called Bitcoin was conceived as a rebellion against the banking system. But it may also present business opportunities for banks that can get comfortable with the risks.

"There is a big role potentially for banks, just as banks deal in all sorts of other currencies like Euros and yen and dollars," says Gavin Andreson.

"As long as Bitcoin is a couple thousand mathematicians playing with each other no one cares, but when real transactions start to go on, that raises the question of how we tax this," says Bruce Abramson, the intellectual-property advisory partner for Rimon Law Group Inc. of San Francisco.

"The anonymous transfer of significant wealth is obviously a money-laundering risk, and at some level we are aware of Bitcoin and other similar operations, and we are studying the mechanism behind Bitcoin," says Steve Hudak, a spokesman for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

lol wtf 30 cents???

yeap mtgox is not bitcoin!!!1!11 there is not only one exchange rate in the world for bitcoin!

I also noticed in other context (e.g. social networking and diaspora) that there are many people who cannot really grasp the concept of decentralization. Evolution still has some work to do. 

TVGrapefine with a new preview video of the opening scene

http://www.tvgrapevine.com/index.php/cbs/378-the-good-wife/13837-the-good-wife-bitcoin-for-dummies