[Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox and Bitcoin (and the petition)

[Melvin Carvalho]

On 12 November 2012 13:03, Rüdiger Koch <rudiger.koch at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> 2012/11/12 Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho at gmail.com>
>
>>
>>
>> On 12 November 2012 09:32, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.com.au> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm just wondering if anybody has done any analysis of the suitability
>>> of Bitcoin for FreedomBox?
>>>
>>
>> Bitcoin is quite resource intensive, the block chain is large and
>> growing, so to set it up takes time.  On a small plug computer this is
>> quite a bit of work and may be tricky (i dont know if you could renice
>> it).  Then you need to open a few ports, and also you'll become a target
>> for people wanting to steal your wallet.dat (either from the web or your
>> own house!).  If those hurdles can be overcome, there could be a good match.
>>
>
> There are lightweight clients like Electrum or BitcoinSpinner.
>
>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> For example, Bitcoin provides a certain amount of anonymity, but not
>>> complete privacy.  In other words, anybody can create an anonymous
>>> Bitcoin account, but anyone else can trace the movements of Bitcoins
>>> through that account.  Does this lack of 100% privacy make it awkward
>>> for FreedomBox to include Bitcoin?
>>>
>>
>> The block chain is public, but you can have a new key for each
>> transaction.
>>
>
> Bitcoin is complementary to OpenTransaction.
>
>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> What Bitcoin does excel at is providing an alternative money supply.  In
>>> previous eras of bank failure (e.g. over 9,000 US banks went pop in the
>>> 1930s) people reverted to gold and silver.  Nowadays, so many of us are
>>> involved in businesses that rely on ecommerce and distant clients paying
>>> for virtual/intangible services.  Most trade relies on electronic
>>> payment by bank transfer or credit card, not a physical meeting with
>>> cash.  Iceland's banks went pop and it's been speculated that Greek
>>> banks will go the same way when they leave the Euro.  It seems like
>>> fertile ground for a solution like Bitcoin deployed on a convenient
>>> platform like FreedomBox.
>>>
>>
>> There's over 200 alternative money supplies and more growing.  One
>> possibility is to focus on one of them (bitcoin is probably the poster
>> child) another is to stitch many together in exchanges etc.
>>
>
> Most are proprietary and centralized (Linden $) so they can be taken down
> any time like e-gold. LETS seem very promising, but don't really take off.
> Bitcoin is not the poster child for no reason.
>

Dont get me wrong, I'm a big bitcoin fan.  In fact, I helped introduce some
of the better known developers to the project.  But in finance you tend to
do better as you grow the connections either by co operation or exchanges.

I've been working on a competent based, modular system, to translate
currencies to the web at http://webcredits.org ... over the next few years
it's my hope to glue together bitcoin and other open currencies, as well as
tying to the traditional banking system, and also allowing trusted (eg thru
gpg web of trust) entities or individuals to issue their own currency.


>
> -Anu
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/attachments/20121112/f68ecff6/attachment.html>