[cloakandswagger]

I'll never understand the people who are rabidly anti-Bitcoin. Can anyone enlighten me? Are they threatened by an alternative to traditional fiat currency, or have they just read so much propaganda (like that WaPo article) that they're completely committed to it now?

[comboy]

My theory: many of those people have heard about Bitcoin early enough that they would've made some money on it by now. Psychological self defense finds a rationalization not to feel guilty about it.

Of course there's completely no reason to feel bad, it's a risky bet and one could just as well think about what fantastic sports bets he could have done in the past years.

Plus, without thorough technical understanding, quite a lot of trust is involved in believing that it can actually work.

[closeparen]

1) The Bitcoin community day-trades a volatile security while singing its praises in public. It's not clear why Bitcoin advocates should be seen as any more credible than their counterparts on Wall Street, whose characteristic activity is exactly the same.

2) "It won't be possible for the government to enforce taxes or seize assets" is not a selling point outside the criminal, libertarian, and anarchist communities. Most people seem to feel that the rule of law is too weak in the financial realm, not too strong. HSBC's money laundering for the cartels, for example, is generally considered a bad thing. Billionaires minimizing their taxes through tricky schemes are seen as villainous, not smart, by a simple (though not electoral) majority in the US.

3) Inflation is not a problem Americans have or have had since, like, the Carter administration. Given how leveraged most households are, we'd probably like some more of it. "Inherently deflationary" and "no central bank" are not compelling arguments, and just further the anarchist/libertarian branding.

[meanduck]

Its their desire to impede the eventual massive reduction in tax revenue due to "evasion". Without enough tax revenue, they wont have free money anymore.

Harsh yes but sometime you just have to call it the way you see it.

[chx]

I am mad at the hype leveled at Bitcoin because ordinary people lose so much money with it. Not just because of the inherently fraudulent nature of Bitcoin but because you put something that can be very easily exchanged into money on insecure computers. Every computer is insecure, mind you but people don't really know (or care!) what they are in for until they are hit.

[pmorici]

No offense but you seem to only have a surface understanding of Bitcoin.

I'm not sure what you mean by ordinary people lose a lot of money with it but ordinary people have surly lost more money in the stock market than they have in Bitcoin. Saying Bitcoin is inherently fraudulent is simply false.

On the topic of computer security. If you are serious about your Bitcoin's security there have been secure hardware wallets available for several years now that are easy to use and eliminate the chance of theft from hacking. They have come down in price to the point where they are very affordable.

The Ledger Nano S for example is $50. It's also super easy to use and never exposes your private key to your computer so it can't be stolen even if your computer is infested with Bitcoin stealing malware. Trezor and Keepkey are similar devices.