Blockchain Is Latest Bitcoin Start-Up to Lure Big Investment

In other words, exactly like the first Bitcoin wallet ever created (Satoshi's), but less secure (subject to the JavaScript being MITM'd, something breaking out of its JS sandbox and getting your private keys, keys being recovered from de-allocated memory because they can't be wiped by JS, etc.)

I'm just not a big fan of blockchain.info, so I have a strong reaction to midas's gushing above. What does blockchain.info do that "wasn't possible before"? It can't take credit for Bitcoin itself. It's like an online bank? Doesn't seem very innovative in that sense.

Again, the things that might seem like pluses (being able to access your bitcoins from any computer with an internet connection and a browser; keeping your own keys) are also really dangerous. I'd rather just use an actual application that lets me keep my own keys, without being subject to the browser's attack surface.

Heh, just noticed you work for Blockchain Ltd. I may have been a bit nicer in my last comment had I noticed. Anyway, it's worth noting that your users are still vulnerable to a Lavabit-style seizure (or hack from anyone) of your private keys, with the intent of pushing out modified JS to seize coins or track users. It's my understanding that the purpose of the Chrome extension is to prevent tampering[1], but if the authorities are really serious, they could also coerce/compromise Chrome Web Store into putting out a malicious update, signed by your seized private key.

Which authorities and laws is the company subject to?

[1] https://blockchain.info/wallet/browser-extension

> Did it every occur to you that their might be something inherently wrong with Bitcoin given there is no transparency around who exactly created it

That's not really relevant, is it? It's open-source code that does not depend on any central entity. Either it's useful or it isn't - there isn't anything hidden.

> and why?

We do have some hints as to why - Satoshi posted a fair amount in the Bitcoin Talk forums before disappearing, as well as some mailing lists. Here's a reason posted to a mailing list: http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography@metzdowd.com/msg099...

Today, it's developed by a number of people who are all reasonably open as to why they're developing it.

People who put their money into Bitcoin without knowledge of the risks involved would have lost their money on a penny stock scam or a pyramid scheme if it weren't for this. You can't just pan Bitcoin because some of its early adopters were idiots, a lot of the internet's early adopters were seedy criminals and pests too.

Bitcoin's community will evolve in the same way every online community does. It's found some early traction in the form of speculation which has encouraged people to buy and own Bitcoin. Now that a lot of people know what it is and own some, it's easier to test services built with BTC.

I have never seen the Bitcoin reddit community advise or even imply that people should put more than they can afford to lose in Bitcoin, no matter how much they believe in it. Outside the BTC-e trollbox, I really doubt anywhere has. These people who bet their retirement on Bitcoin are probably just as likely to lose it on anything else they might get excited about.

Personally, I find the userbase intolerable because it's logically inconsistent. The entire point of the properties of the currency is to drive decentralisation and the end of our dependency on the financial industry and its monopolies... and yet the community cheers every time there's a new bank, or centralised exchange, or processing network, any time a major company starts accepting bitcoin so they don't have to deal with the little shops, or any other proprietary, monopoly-forming system built on top of Bitcoin.

It may not seem that way from the outside, but there are tons of reasonable people among Bitcoin users. I would say there is a very vocal minority who despises anything that is remotely related to regulation, for example, but you shouldn't judge the technology on that alone.

There are some obvious exciting things that can be built with it, and if it would take off it has the potential to level the playing field for payments processors. That can only be good.