On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 9:11 PM, ianG <iang@iang.org> wrote:

On the crypto topic that everyone loves to hate, Bitcoin, the expected attack has begun.

http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001363.html

Philipp Guering and I wrote a paper that explains how this will fall out.

http://iang.org/papers/BitcoinBreachesGreshamsLaw.pdf

Although in the big picture, this is more about finance not cryptography, there is an engaging question - can cryptography be used to control this sort of issue? It didn't work for Bitcoin, but more judicious uses of crypto can do a lot better, and has done with other designs. The challenge is to get the balance right. Someone should have given Nancy Pelosi a chunk of BitCoin, or cut the Wall Street bankers in on it.

The IPO offering/insider trading to Pelosi by VISA worked wonders when legislation was on the floor to protect consumers. Pelosi happily blocked the legislation, and the value of her stake in IPO skyrocketed [1]. I would also argue the Wall Street Bankers would have been happy to legitmize BitCoin if they got a cut (confer: derivatives). Jeff [1] https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=nancy+pelosi+visa+insider+trading _______________________________________________ cryptography mailing list cryptography@randombit.net http://lists.randombit.net/mailman/listinfo/cryptography ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE