[LINK] Bitcoin prices plummet on hacked exchange

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2011-06-20 at 09:03 +1000, Kim Holburn wrote:        
> > The crash appears to be the fault of the Mt.Gox exchange rather
> > than a collapse in the value of the currency itself, as the
> > integrity of Bitcoin's underlying peer-to-peer transaction clearing
> > process does not appear to have been compromised.

Well - no. That's because it cannot be compromised. That's the point.

> logged-in user could be tricked into submitting fraudulent transaction
> requests.

That IS a problem. But it shouldn't affect the value of the currency, it
just moves the currency around in ways that are unexpected and unwanted
for the until-just-now-owners of same...

> currency remains uncompromised. But Bitcoin is a fiat currency; its
> value ultimately depends on nothing more than public confidence.

Oh, that's rich. Name a currency that doesn't depend on anything more
than public confidence! Money is a symbol; it means what we want it to
mean. Like William Gibson's cyberspace, it is a grand consensual
hallucination...

Regards, K.


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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer/                   +61-428-957160 (mob)

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