Bitcoin befuddles U.S. customs agents, thwarting Seattle visit by digital currency guru. A developer who specializes in the Bitcoin digital currency says he was sent back to China last week after he arrived at Sea-Tac Airport with only $600 in cash and wasn’t able to convince U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol agents that he would be able to fund his two-month visit using Bitcoin. The developer, who goes by the alias “Doctor Nefario,” identifies himself as the founder of the Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange. He was coming to the U.S. to work with entrepreneurs Mike Koss and Peter Vessenes at the StartPad offices in downtown Seattle, said Koss, the StartPad director.
Koss has been contemplating Bitcoin-related projects, and Vessenes has been working on one. Koss says “Nefario” even paid StartPad in advance for a desk at the co-working space … in Bitcoin. “With three of us in the office working on or thinking about Bitcoin projects, we thought we’d have a quorum to have a ‘Bitcoin Development Center’ based out of StartPad,” explains Koss via email.
What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin is not decentralized : Inside T5. Bitcoin was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto, and the primary client is developed by a bunch of folks at bitcoin.org.
Do you care who these people are? In theory, you shouldn’t: all they do is develop an open source client for an open source protocol. Anyone else can develop their own client (and some people have) and no one, save the agreement of everyone in the Bitcoin network, can change the protocol. This is because the Bitcoin network is designed to be decentralized. If you believe in the long term viability of Bitcoin, you should care who these people are.
The following essay will flesh out this argument more carefully, as follows: Cryptosystems, including cryptographic hashes, must be used with the understanding that they must eventually be replaced. I’ve divided the essay into sections so that readers who are interested in specific sections of the argument. The cryptosystem time bomb “All cryptosystems eventually become obsolete.” Bitcoin, however, is special. Is this a transition? What happens when Anonymous gets a bank? Bitcoin. The same people who brought you Wikileaks are back, and this time, they’ve created a virtual currency called Bitcoin that could destabilize the entire global financial system.
Bitcoin is an open-source virtual currency generated by a computer algorithm that is completely beyond the reach of financial intermediaries, central banks and national tax collectors. Bitcoins could be used to purchase anything, at any time, from anyone in the world, in a transaction process that it is almost completely frictionless. Yes, that’s right, the hacktivists now have a virtual currency that’s untraceable, unhackable, and completely Anonymous. And that’s where things start to get interesting. Veteran tech guru Jason Calacanis recently called Bitcoin the most dangerous open source project he’s ever seen. You don’t need a banking or trading account to buy and trade Bitcoins – all you need is a laptop. Can any government do anything about Bitcoin? Thanks to qew for the link.. interesting concept.. Like this: What is Bitcoin? - We Use Coins.