On 21/06/2011 16:07, Paul Hutchinson wrote: >> -----Original Message----- >> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu On Behalf Of Tobias Gogolin >> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2011 9:23 PM >> >> There is nothing illegal about owning or trading BitCoin, > The legal status of Bitcoin is not clear, the Electronic Frontier Foundat= ion > had been accepting them for donations, but yesterday stopped and is givin= g > away what they have received to avoid potential legal problems. > > https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/06/eff-and-bitcoin > > "1. We don't fully understand the complex legal issues involved with > creating a new currency system. Bitcoin raises untested legal concerns > related to securities law, the Stamp Payments Act, tax evasion, consumer > protection and money laundering, among others. The creators are too naive: In creating a virtual currency that's not backed by a sovereign state=20 you need: 1) Design methods to exchange to other currencies from the start. 2) Assume people are more ingenious and more totally evil than you can=20 imagine 3) Assume exchanges will be hacked 4) Assume it will be forged 5) Assume it will be "stolen" from people via social engineering,=20 trojans or other black hat stuff. Bitcoin is doomed and at best will become a pyramid scheme or ponzi=20 scheme benefiting a few before it dies, no matter how altruistic the=20 creators are/where. Once people start treating a currency as either an=20 investment or something to speculated with (not quite same thing, cf.=20 shares in someone that pays good dividends and shares in Apple, who pay=20 no dividend) the currency is no longer a currency, but will be treated=20 like shares. That ultimately destroys it's value to pay for goods and=20 services. Even if it was backed by a Sovereign state, most of the above applies. Real currencies generally only have problems when Governments do=20 something really stupid. Occasionally of course events are manipulated=20 by those with a vested interest in seeing company fail due to share=20 collapse or hyperinflation. a) The most stupid thing Greece could do would be leave Euro and=20 resurrect Drachma. That would of course hurt the Greeks most, with=20 500%++ hyper inflation and total collapse of Greek banking and economy.=20 A Default would be implied. It would still hurt EU, USA, China etc a=20 lot, more than their financial people would find acceptable. b) The 2nd most stupid thing would be to let the Greeks stay in Euro and=20 Default. If you owe the bank $500,000 they will happily foreclose. If=20 you owe the bank $5,000,000,000 they will figure a way to help you pay=20 off interest, give you an interest holiday, reduce part of the debt=20 (haircut) etc. So the EU, IMF even USA ultimately (maybe even Chinese) =20 will keep funding Greece. But want assurances that they are "mending=20 their ways". So both "sides" will go to the 23:59:59 before a new agreement= .. This thread isn't going to go anywhere good either. --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .