
Electric currency could trash cash (1999) - monort
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/1999/nov/04/onlinesupplement
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osrec
To a certain extent it has. Living in London, I can't remember the last time I
paid with cash! Now cryptocurrency is a whole other kettle of fish...

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otp124
I live in London too and use cash all the time! You should visit a food market
— London has some of the best food markets I’ve been to! They are almost all
“cash”. And generally, if you buy less than £10 at a local store, they inform
you it’s cash only.

~~~
osrec
Interesting... I live quite centrally, and the markets round me accept
contactless card payments. Also, even if I'm buying chewing gum at my local
corner shop, the owner accepts payment by debit card (however that may be
because I'm a regular).

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otp124
Hmm, interesting — I’m Zone 1 as well. Check out the Sunday Upmarket in
Shoreditch and you’ll see what I mean =)

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pjc50
The original Chaum digital cash paper dates from 1982 ... the idea has been
around for a long time. The two companies beanz and flooz mentioned in the
article have, of course, gone bankrupt long ago.

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sillysaurus3
One way to destroy Bitcoin would be to convince governments to launch a 51%
attack against it.

An organized, worldwide campaign against BTC, complete with double-spends,
would flatten the price.

I wonder if it's still feasible? Eventually it will be too hard to mine, but
perhaps not yet.

A benefit of this attack is that once executed, other miners will switch away
from BTC. Meaning BTC won't be able to spring up again: no one will be able to
get more than the ~90% hash rate the government controls.

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sidyom
Doesn't the FBI already own one of the largest wallets after seizing Silk Roak
assets?

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KamelAufAbwegen
Bulgaria has a 3 billion wallet. What's the reason then to attack bitcoin.

[http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-08/bulgaria-
government...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-08/bulgaria-government-
shocked-discover-it-owns-3-billion-bitcoin)

~~~
nawtacawp
They should sell those.

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otakucode
I have been wondering recently... how unlikely is it that a major IT
failure/hack/whatever occurs which produces a tremendous lack of faith in our
existing traditional-currency-backed systems, leaving cryptocurrencies with
the only PROVABLE form of money? Walmart says they made $5 billion? Why should
we trust that they're telling the truth about that? They rely completely upon
swiss-cheese computer systems built on sand and wishful thinking. They build
their empire on slapped-together garbage full of holes and push it further
than it was ever intended to go, adamantly refusing to slow down or devote the
resources to building a dependable, reliable system. How unlikely is it that
this will eventually bite them and the mathematical provability of
cryptocurrency becomes of paramount, and nigh sole, value? Not as unlikely as
those who have convinced bank computers to read large numbers for their
balance, I expect.

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stephen_g
I really think for normal people the chance is close to zero... Walmart’s
accounts have to reconcile to their bank’s, the bank’s accounts need to
reconcile with their accounts at the central bank... There are checks and
balances, fraud tends to be found out eventually when things don’t match, and
at the end of the day, 99% or the population don’t understand proof-of-work or
proof-of-stake anyway...

I think some of the problems of the current system are overstated (dare I say
some are even imagined?) by crypto-enthusiasts. There’s no doubt that
blockchain is fascinating and useful technology, but the idea that it’s a
perfect and complete replacement for a crumbling system just doesn’t actually
map to reality...

