If bitcoin is supposed to be "anti-establishment", why is the establishment endorsing it?

Bitcoin hits new heights as US lends legitimacy to virtual currencies in hearing.

US law enforcement and regulatory agents have expressed optimism...

US officials at the first-ever congressional hearing on virtual currencies outlined the potential benefits...

It came as the anonymous crypto currency hit new heights upon word of the positive news coming from the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee meeting on Capitol Hill on Monday.

Officials called bitcoins a “legitimate” financial service, despite past focus on the currency as a prime target for money launderers and other criminals looking to move drugs, take part in child pornography, or participate in other illicit activities.

"The Department of Justice recognizes that many virtual currency systems offer legitimate financial services and have the potential to promote more efficient global commerce,"...

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a letter in absentia to the Senate panel that virtual currencies "may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure, and more efficient payment system."

US officials spoke approvingly of the potential of virtual currencies...

Raman noted the concern that the anonymity of virtual currencies can appeal to criminals, but she said that US law enforcement has "been able to keep pace with that, and we've been able to develop protocols and strategies to address it." Officials from both the US Secret Service, which investigates counterfeit currencies, and the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said they have successfully investigated criminals using bitcoins.

The Department of Homeland Security likes bitcoin, so does the Department of Justice but best of all, the Federal Reserve approves of bitcoin!

Woo hoo!

Errr, wait a second.

Why would the Rothschild's Federal Reserve approve of bitcoin? Bitcoin is supposed to be decentralized and beyond manipulation by any group or government. Its touted as the answer or counter to the central banksters... They should hate it!

But instead, the establishment loves it...

And "law enforcement" has been able to "keep pace with" the "anonymity" of bitcoin, which actually means there is no anonymity.

If the US government approves of bitcoin, it must mean that they have found a way to infiltrate and control it.

After all it is just a computer program hire the right hackers and it's yours to control. Bit coin is even more unstable than the fake money we use now.

Maybe they haven't all of a sudden found a way to control it. IMO, it was planned this way. Like false flags. FBI can give prospected killers fake bombs to use on a locale only to show how they foiled the plot and saved they day! This currency was developed by a mysterious entity.. Hmmmm. really? Seems to be perfectly falling into place for the justice department.

I mean, mysteriously create an anonymously used currency. Bust the big bad wolf selling drugs and murder for hire, via deep web transactions. investigate, control, regulate. We have a new currency the fed can create out of thin air. So,soon, harvesting bitcoin, will be regulated out of law. so, as to, enact, innovations to promote a faster, more secure, and more efficient payment system. I mean come on, none of us really thought the fed would just stand by and let this innovated tech be used for our benefit, without stepping in to put their spin on things.

I believe, some politicians are accepting bitcoin for campaign donations. It's here, more than likely to stay. But far from being out of the reach of our tenacious, federal governments greedy hands. Their doing all this to protect us. It's for our own good.

If the US government approves of bitcoin, it must mean that they have found a way to infiltrate and control it.

Or perhaps were the ones to start it? Strange that it is so prevalent in the news in the year that is supposed to be the end of the Fed.

Give the people the illusion of rebellion and they will believe that they have taken back their chains.

Just a thought.

Peace

The short and sweet of it is that the Establishment wants to do away with paper money.
It's too difficult to track and if it is tracked, it isn't in realtime.
Too difficult to tax the transactions.
Too difficult to confiscate if not kept in a bank.
Too difficult to control what the public does with it.
Their answer?
The Hegalian Dialectic or Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis.
Thesis/Fiat Currency controlled by Central Banks - Antithesis/Decentralized Digital Fiat - Synthesis/Digital Fiat controlled by International Banks.
I truely believe this has been the plan all along.
Bitcon's job is just to get the ball rolling.

-Peace-

reply to post by gladtobehere


I wouldn't be so sure of the motives here.

What the U.S. could be embracing is that now with a currency such as Bitcoin they have another angle to arrest people on. Ever heard of tax evasion or money laundering? Now imagine that the feds could arrest you on charges that you did that with a currency called Bitcoin. Who could prove such a thing? Certainly not you, keep in mind that the feds would have an arsenal of coins to tie you to, when and if they chose to.

I don't think this announcement means the feds created Bitcoin or even control it. Mainly, the algorithm used for Bitcoin is open source which means it's open to competition and change.

Second I think the embrace of the feds of something like this is the fact that they themselves can use it for immoral activities instead of having to use USD. Like the constant drug running around the globe etc. For them to use something like Bitcoin it needs to be an acceptable currency.

For now I will hold judgement on the motives behind such a release, as usual it will be interesting to see where this all goes.

reply to post by gladtobehere


I knew they were doing this a long time ago.

I think they are monitoring its progress as a precursor of a world digital currency, like a financial experiment.

May be it was even begun clandestinely as an outside idea, but was really an inside idea all along?

Bitcoin could be another IRS trap.

As nonpolitical cryptographic money, bitcoin is not recognized as legal tender in any jurisdiction so exchanges are technically not considered to be ‘foreign currency dealers’ nor is bitcoin officially recognized as a ‘prepaid access’ device. Nonetheless, CoinLab took the step last week of registering with FinCEN to become a Money Services Business (MSB) and their entity and registration number are available here. Since they are a self-declared seller of prepaid access (MSB code 413), they now must comply with a litany of Bank Secrecy Act requirements, including Suspicious Activity Reporting.


Bitcoin Exchange Deal Repatriates Assets To U.S.

The provisions commonly known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) became law in March 2010.

* FATCA targets tax non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts

* FATCA focuses on reporting:

** By U.S. taxpayers about certain foreign financial accounts and offshore assets

** By foreign financial institutions about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers or foreign entities in which U.S. taxpayers hold a substantial ownership interest


* The objective of FATCA is the reporting of foreign financial assets; withholding is the cost of not reporting.


IRS Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act

Why would the people who control the money let others in on their game. It's only time before they take over, one way or another.

reply to post by gladtobehere


On the face of it, I'd say that the fed intends to take it over.

Cashless society embraced and finally enforced, just like they actually scarf around your car for money every time you so much as move.

Make it the law...

Digicurrency.

This is, in a way, the kiss of death, for the trade brand, sort of like the time that Beanie Baby store was slated to be built, 'Beanie Craze' it was to be called, but the whole thing crashed. The signs were left up for the entire summer. But you knew that the store would never come.

I remember the BB traders during that whole craze. The smart ones never needed reminding that one did not want to become an 'end user'.

ETA: I see that Princess Bear is pulling 1/3 million USD for an ask price, and Valentino with a misspelling is hot, selling around 31 K.

Is Bitcoin the Princess Bear of alt currencies???

# 104

I've said it before and I'll and I'll say it again. Quantum computers will exist in the next decade for mainstream multinational companies and Universities. The United States government, utilizing the D-wave technologies already has access to basic quantum computing. That means that digital currency encryption means NOTHING. It's wide open, and essentially has no doors. It can be perfectly manipulated in a subtle manner to the Treasury's liking.

I'll say it again, Quantum computing is a game changer in ways that you or I won't be able to comprehend for decades.

After the SHTF this will be the solution.

One world currency.

We mostly use plastic anyway...so this will seem like a great idea after the market "readjusts" itself.

Except it's all engineered.

And when the smaller banks gets swallowed up & its the "Coke or Pepsi" choice, (just like everything else) then the REAL fun begins.

Belgium EU pres Humphreys mentioned a literal "one world govt" in 09 at the G20.

Tony Blair & Bill Clinton are working on an "ecumenical" (read one) world religion now.

And now this; you know what the last thing missing from this list, right?

Good luck.

TheOneElectric
I've said it before and I'll and I'll say it again. Quantum computers will exist in the next decade for mainstream multinational companies and Universities. The United States government, utilizing the D-wave technologies already has access to basic quantum computing. That means that digital currency encryption means NOTHING. It's wide open, and essentially has no doors. It can be perfectly manipulated in a subtle manner to the Treasury's liking.

I'll say it again, Quantum computing is a game changer in ways that you or I won't be able to comprehend for decades.

edit on 26-12-2013 by TheOneElectric because: (no reason given)

What you're referring to is being called the "cryptopocalypse" by many--a point when it becomes easy to break public-key encryption schemes that rely on things like integer factorization, discrete logarithms and elliptic curves. Once QCs become common and are scaled to a large number of qbits, quantum algorithms like Shor's algorithm will indeed destroy most modern cryptosystems such as the ubiquitous RSA. The D-Wave was constructed to solve a very specific problem and as it turns out, there is software running on contemporary computers that is outperforming it (read more here). Scientists still have a ways to go, but yes, eventually the commonly used cryptosystems are all done for, which isn't exactly anything new in the history of cryptography.

Currently, Bitcoin is not entirely quantum safe, but the software will be updated in due course. If you look at the hard-fork wishlist of the Bitcoin wiki (here) you'll see:

Support for a post-quantum signature scheme. Lamport signatures have nice intuitive security properties, but it and all other similar schemes have extreme space requirements that would require structural changes to the blockchain to accommodate, (e.g. flip-chain+paytoscripthash+extensive pruning). Additional signature types could be kludged into the existing system with script extensions but would be better supported natively.

Here's a bit from an article that I had bookmarked from a few months back that gives a little detail in how Lamport signatures could be implemented:

Under this scheme, a Bitcoin address will still be the SHA256+RIPEMD-160 hash of the public key; the only difference is that the public key will consist of 320 hashes rather than an elliptic curve point. A transaction will include the public key and the signature, just like today, and, once again just like today, verifiers will check that the public key matches the address and the signature matches the message and the public key. The signatures are unforgeable; even with Grover’s algorithm, it will take 280 steps for an adversary to construct a fraudulent transaction that requires them to reveal the exact same 160 secret numbers that you already revealed, or an adversary can take 280 * 80 steps to simply crack all the hashes. Both numbers are in the trillions of trillions of computations.

Under this scheme, a Bitcoin address will still be the SHA256+RIPEMD-160 hash of the public key; the only difference is that the public key will consist of 320 hashes rather than an elliptic curve point. A transaction will include the public key and the signature, just like today, and, once again just like today, verifiers will check that the public key matches the address and the signature matches the message and the public key. The signatures are unforgeable; even with Grover’s algorithm, it will take 280 steps for an adversary to construct a fraudulent transaction that requires them to reveal the exact same 160 secret numbers that you already revealed, or an adversary can take 280 * 80 steps to simply crack all the hashes. Both numbers are in the trillions of trillions of computations.

source - Bitcoin Magazine

The upshot is that the Bitcoin software was always intended to be updated for forward compatibility, including hardening against quantum computers, and not only are there already available means for doing so, you can expect to see more invented.

gladtobehere
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in a letter in absentia to the Senate panel that virtual currencies "may hold long-term promise, particularly if the innovations promote a faster, more secure, and more efficient payment system."

And / or our financial system collapses. The interesting thing is, the Bitcoin is "mined" using electricity to power the data miners that break algorithms. Has anyone ever played Risk 2300 or any other kind of game that uses energy credits? The Bitcoins are effectively energy credits.

And the thing is, we are in the Electronic Age, and we can make more energy, but it will always be worth something. It solves a LOT of problems, as it is basically backed by something just as cool as the Gold Reserve.