> If this is the standard by which you deem a currency insecure, you may want to be more specific. Physical goods are also susceptible to theft.
Theft and loss of bitcoin is much much more common than theft and loss of any normal currency. Insecure.
Bitcoins are data, and data is very easily lost. What if the hard drive with your wallet on it fails? When a hard drive fails at a bank your money is still secure. Storing bitcoin on a home computer is not even close to as secure as storing money in a bank.
>Cash is much less convenient than digital transactions. Have you heard of a credit card? Cash is only useful for anonymity.
Bitcoin is much less convenient than cash and credit cards. Nobody accepts bitcoin as payment. And as far as I know there is no existing way to link a bitcoin account with a credit card. I'm not saying the flaws are unfixable just that they are huge flaws with bitcoin. I'm criticizing bitcoin for what it is, not what it could be.
>The currency incentivizes its own operation, yes, but this is not even close to a ponzi scheme -- you should look that term up. The technology does not distinguish early adopters from other participants.
The bitcoin distribution system is a big problem. Whatever you call it, it is an unfair and unstable system where early adopters profit when more people adopt the currency, and late adopters end up holding a risky asset with unstable value. Without a backing authority stabilizing the price, alternative currencies are just toys and far too risky for normal people to get involved in.
> Theft and loss of bitcoin is much much more common than theft and loss of any normal currency. Insecure.
That's a pretty big conclusion to jump to. People using the currency have more of a burden to protect their bitcoins from hackers, I'll admit, but it is not fair to blanket describe the currency as insecure because of the practices of some lousy companies.
> Bitcoins are data, and data is very easily lost. What if the hard drive with your wallet on it fails?
Did you read about "paper wallets" like I mentioned? It's not a problem for most people, but if it's a problem for you, there are ways to avoid it.
> Bitcoin is much less convenient than cash and credit cards. Nobody accepts bitcoin as payment.
Is this really your argument against bitcoin individually? What you described applies to pretty much any currency in its infancy. Either way, my defense of bitcoin's convenience is of the mechanisms of exchanging them, not something as arbitrary as acceptance. You seem to be clasping to straws.
> The bitcoin distribution system is a big problem. Whatever you call it, it is an unfair and unstable system where early adopters profit when more people adopt the currency, and late adopters end up holding a risky asset with unstable value.
Hilarious. Can you give me one reason your last sentence didn't just describe an investment? Do you realize any other stock, commodity or currency will also naturally favor early adopters, because they can buy something when it's low and sell when it's high? What drawbacks could there possibly be for a system like that anyway?
I also don't understand what you mean by "bitcoin distribution system", would you like to clarify?
> What you described applies to pretty much any currency in its infancy.
Nitpicking here, but what is described applies to non-government-mandated currency or payment methods. Infant currencies can indeed very quickly gain widespread acceptance if introduced and mandated by government, as recently demonstrated by the euro.
Theft and loss of bitcoin is much much more common than theft and loss of any normal currency. Insecure.
Bitcoins are data, and data is very easily lost. What if the hard drive with your wallet on it fails? When a hard drive fails at a bank your money is still secure. Storing bitcoin on a home computer is not even close to as secure as storing money in a bank.
>Cash is much less convenient than digital transactions. Have you heard of a credit card? Cash is only useful for anonymity.
Bitcoin is much less convenient than cash and credit cards. Nobody accepts bitcoin as payment. And as far as I know there is no existing way to link a bitcoin account with a credit card. I'm not saying the flaws are unfixable just that they are huge flaws with bitcoin. I'm criticizing bitcoin for what it is, not what it could be.
>The currency incentivizes its own operation, yes, but this is not even close to a ponzi scheme -- you should look that term up. The technology does not distinguish early adopters from other participants.
The bitcoin distribution system is a big problem. Whatever you call it, it is an unfair and unstable system where early adopters profit when more people adopt the currency, and late adopters end up holding a risky asset with unstable value. Without a backing authority stabilizing the price, alternative currencies are just toys and far too risky for normal people to get involved in.