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If you read the source code of bitcoin, considering all the technical issues, you will not put your full trust in bitcoin.

Your bitcoins can be confiscated, government can seize all your property for <reason they will come up with when they want to>. If you no longer have your private key, good bye wallet.




This is called the wrench problem - a motivated individual with a wrench can steal all your wealth. It's something to take seriously.

The good news is that it doesn't scale.


If Bitcoin truly becomes this disruptive all anyone needs to do is go into your home and rob you of your private key. Are you investing in weapons? How is this safer? It actually seems like it would be easier to take someone’s private key than other pieces of property.


Ok, how about this: It's the most difficult asset to confiscate in existence. In the worst case scenario, as long as I can memorize 12 words I can take my wealth with me anywhere.


Or have someone with a gun beat it out of your head. I really don’t understand how Bitcoin is a safer asset.


There’s an xkcd about this: https://xkcd.com/538/ In short: it’s not as difficult as you think.


No asset in the world can hold up against that....

I feel like this is a strawman argument here, you think your buried gold, bank accounts or any other number of things going to hold up against that?


If someone kidnaps Bill Gates, forces them to do whatever for a limited time, and he later gets out alive, he'll still retain the vast majority of his wealth no matter what.

For an ordinary person, investing in real estate is a simple example that meets this test - you can beat me up with a wrench and force me to do stuff, but I'll be able to recover (most of) it afterwards. For the common person, irrevocable transactions bring little benefit but a lot of risk, it's a drawback not a feature.

Yes, that's not resistant against the government - but again, a normal person is a lot more likely to encounter criminals trying to "confiscate" everything they own rather than government doing the same. Sure, there are edge cases (e.g. fraudsters stashing their gains, deadbeat dads refusing to support their kids, etc, etc) but for a normal person worrying about government seizure is much less relevant than, for example, ensuring that you don't lose your BTC in a house fire that burns all your stuff. Would your fire insurance cover that?




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