Virgin Galactic to accept Bitcoin for space flights

reply to post by PhoenixOD


Thats lovely, but until they start printing notes and coins, that I can physically hand over in any store in Britain in exchange for goods and services, they will be irrelevant to me. I am old school.

This is all well and good but I get annoyed regarding the whole virgin space flight and what not.

I agree with, with technology there always has to be a first. So yes virgin space flights are a first step toward space tourism but I mean come on the only people that are going to use this are your rich and famous. The people that have the money just to throw away and not worry about.

The average person on the planet are not billion/millionaires some people are struggling to put food on their tables and pay their utility bills. It annoys me when (as it hasn't happened yet) that when the first virgin flights takes place with it first lot of tourists we are going to see news reports and live coverage, why do I want to sit there and watch a load of fat gloating snobs enjoying themselves spending money like no tomorrow while there are people with families huddled round a stove fire.

So yes I understand it's a technological break through and probably it will get cheaper but the way it's advertised is like as if anyone just can jump on board and go to space. I'm only 28 and would love to go into space I just got a feeling even when I'm 50 I'm not going to have the chance

Anyway rant over (I've had a crap day) reply if you want open to questions and open to people correcting me .. Just be nice

reply to post by ManOfHart


Sir, you might just be a millionaire. I first learned of BTC back when they were less than 10$ each. I probably would have just ended up spending them on drugs, so I stayed away from it. Wish I had mined them way back in the day. Even one would be a lifesaver right now.

My only problem with this is the fact that its relies entirely on encryption. What most people do not understand about encryption is how it works. Ill give you a crash course.

Now, the simplest way to explain this is imagine there is a post office where someone can go and tell my name, get an unbreakable lock that is customized to me, with very specific specifications. Then you put a message in a box, lock it, and send it to me. There is a "Public Key" to my lock, which means anyone who has the public key can lock the lock securely and not open it.

On the other end, I receive the package, use my "Private Key", which is a completely different shape and size, and unlock the package. I am the only person in existence with a key of this shape, therefore the only one who can open the box and get the message.

IRL, this type of encryption works by taking two very, very large prime numbers and multiplying them together. The two prime numbers form the "Private Key" and there product is the "Public Key". Since the Public Key is a very large number, finding the two primes that make up the private key is mathematically very difficult for humans and classical computers, therefore encryption is very secure. This is very oversimplified but truly what is at the heart of RSA strong encryption. If I am totally wrong here, please explain how.

This is where it all falls apart: quantum computing. Now, many people here have speculated that these computers already exist in the world. It is well known that corporations like Google are pouring millions into studying them, and the NSA probably has one floating around out there. Last I checked, we were up to 40 QBits, which is more than enough to factorize massive prime numbers almost instantly.

My question to you ATSers out there is: Doesn't BTC fall apart with quantum computing? Since it relies solely on math and encryption in its very nature, and it is well known that this technology can run circles around it, it just doesn't really make sense. If I were a BTC owner I would probably sell as soon as it gets over 2K. I really just do not see this lasting as long as everyone thinks. Who knows, maybe the NSA CAN track bitcoins, and they have been for years. Maybe they actually invented them! We now know they could "Peel back the layers of TOR" and what we believe to be perfectly safe is never quite how it seems. This whole information as currency thing seems kind of fishy to me...