All kinds of people have gotten really excited about Bitcoins and the "revolutionary" changes it can make to modern financial transactions. Also excited were the criminal element, which apparently took no time at all to not only analyze how to make profit off the new currency, but also how to separate truckloads of it (well, virtual truckloads...) from the rightful owners.
I have always hated how modern monetary systems work. I don't like the fact that if the government wants more money, they can basically print it. When the US first printed money, it was so worthless at one point that it was pasted to walls to cover cracks. Its not nearly that bad now, at least not in most countries, but it does happen from time to time. I recall reading an article about Argentina (if I recall correctly, it was 25 years ago) where its currency was so worthless the lowest denomination bill could only buy foodstuffs by weight on a pound for pound basis. That is the kind of instability I fear, and that was in a currency backed by a government.
Now we have Bitcoin, a currency backed by no-one, generated by a computer program and without any protection for those that use it. One of the largest Bitcoin exchanges was cracked by criminals and is now filing for bankruptcy. Located in Japan, the government there is playing the "not my issue" game. The best they can recommend is the Consumer Affairs Agency, which is a product safety agency and likely not really able to help. The government of Japan does not consider the currency a real currency, thus will not spend any time or money assisting those affected by the collapse. Nor should they. The flip side is that they will also likely not be pursuing the thieves, so they will generally get away. The level of autonomy in the transactions are why the Silk Road website used Bitcoins. While I am all about privacy, I really can't jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon. And I can't feel sorry for those that have lost money in this venture.
No comments:
Post a Comment