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by abdullahkhalids 2363 days ago
A number of comments in this thread strawmanning the OP's argument. The main point is simply that if you don't have complete legal control, in perpetuity, of the system that you are storing your cryptocurrency on, then if your license is cancelled by legal means, you may lose your data [1]. OP is not talking about whether FOSS or proprietary software has more bugs or has more chances of having backdoors. OP is not talking about source code audits etc. He is only making a point about the legal ramifications of OSCorp EULA vs FOSS licenses.

[1] There is a secondary point that employees within OSCorp cannot be trusted to not access your data.
2 comments
pjc50 2363 days ago
> if your license is cancelled by legal means

This basically never happens to private individuals - the license enforcement focuses on getting you to pay for it instead. The data in any case remains yours and you can theoretically lift it off the drive (or your backups!) with FOSS.

In the very unlikely event of getting raided for copyright infringement, they'll take all your hardware and sort it out later.

(Of course the whole thing is a tremendous anti-advert for bitcoin if it can't be safely used on normal computer systems...)

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abdullahkhalids 2363 days ago
I did not say that the linked article is making a sound argument. I agree with you that even with a non-FOSS OS, you can set things up that cancellation of the license does not make you lose your keys. I was merely annoyed by the strawmanning.
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thayne 2363 days ago
> if your license is cancelled by legal means, you may lose your data

Maybe I'm missing some legal nuance. But if the license is revoked, wouldn't you still be able to recover your Bitcoin using a FOSS OS? Especially if it is stored on a separate disk or partition from the OS.

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