I gave this a read and I think there is a very important point which people are missing.
To his credit, Mike Hearn has a very good point, I identified this earlier on as the curse
of Bitcoin. We are in an interesting period in history because for the first time, large
scale ransom attacks are profitable. It doesn't by any means have to end with malware.
I fear as time goes on, we will begin to see high profile kidnappings and executions
because unlike anything we have seen before, Bitcoin makes people able to receive money
without needing to be physically nearby to pick up the cash nor with any ability to freeze
assets or reverse transactions.

Greg Maxwell also has a very good point, if this blacklisting begins to affect the
fungibility of Bitcoin, it will have a disastrous impact on the entire Bitcoin system,
possibly even leading to it's demise.

The traceability of Bitcoin has been long known and used in detection of crime. If you
steal 10,000 BTC and sell it on mtgox, you may find yourself being asked a few questions.
This is as it should be and this narrow control is the only thing standing between us and
a Bitcoin fueled crime wave. If traceability begins to damage the fungibility of Bitcoin
itself, there is a much darker and more evil possibility. There has been a certain amount
of research into absolutely anonymous Bitcoin replacements. This research has been largely
stalled simply because there is not enough interest in anonymity but the people have
tasted a fungible transferable asset and that genie will not be put back in it's bottle.

A world where kidnap and ransom works 100% of the time sounds like something out of a
post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel. Everybody would have to hide their wealth because if they
were known to have assets they would be targeted by the gangs. This is not even a world
I would want to live in, let alone create, but the people working on these blacklist
proposals seem blind to the pandora's box with which they are playing.

Bitcoin will, as I have long predicted, last until it is replaced by something better.
It is up to us to define what is better and I sincerely hope better doesn't mean
"optimized for criminals".


Thanks,
Caleb



On 11/15/2013 12:02 AM, molecular wrote:
> On 11/13/2013 11:15 PM, Justus Ranvier wrote:
>> http://bitcoinism.blogspot.com/2013/11/is-it-time-to-boycott-all-us-bitcoin.html
>>
> it's truly sickening.
>
> http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1qmbtu/mike_hearn_chair_of_the_bitcoin_foundations_law/
>
> I've been trying to calm the waves up to this point... don't know how long I can keep my calm.
>
>
>
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