[nwh]

> But elliptic curve crypto is not one of these topics. If the code can generate a handful of Bitcoin account numbers and corresponding keys correctly, there is hardly any reason why it cannot do so for all account numbers and corresponding keys.

Not totally true, not every input can yield a valid private key. The very upper ranges of the private key space are limited, as only integers 0x0 through 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFEBAAEDCE6AF48A03BBFD25E8CD0364140 are valid private keys for Bitcoin.

You'd have to be stupid unlucky to randomly generate an invalid private key, but it can possibly happen.

> If one must pick a cryptocurrency, the lowly dogecoin, of all things, is doing everything right.

Yeah, an ancient fork of Litecoin with a meme name is going to save us. Has absolutely no relevancy to the issue at hand of course.

[efuquen]

It's funny how you took that last line completely out of context, the author was clearly tongue-in-cheek with that statement, here is the what comes immediately after that sentence:

> The community does not take itself seriously. Most importantly, no one pretends that Doge is an investment vehicle, a slayer of Wall Street, or the next Segway. No one would be stupid enough to store their life savings in Dogecoins.

[nwh]

Eh, I hear that a lot but it's fairly far from the reality. It's a two faced presentation from that community, when the price of dogecoin goes up they get behind "doge to the moon", if the price goes down it's "all for fun". To pay for the amount of mining that is going on in altcoins, people must be treating it as an investment vehicle, otherwise miners wouldn't be pulling upwards of 400BTC[0] a day out of the retched things.

[0]: Based on Middlecoin.com's performance a few weeks ago, before their hashrate dropped, they were pulling a clean 400BTC from dogecoin and friends (and this is only one single pool!). For them to be pulling 400BTC a day there must be considerably more volume going into the altcoin markets beforehand. No doubt "investors" getting in on the "next big coin" and losing out.

[derefr]

> when the price of dogecoin goes up they get behind "doge to the moon"

I don't see how this is incompatible with it being "all for fun." People cheer for sports teams they've bet on, and that's "all for fun." They're not investing in it in a way you'd invest in stocks and bonds; they're just gambling in the same way you'd do at a casino.

[tomphoolery]

Bitcoin is an experiment, it's not meant to be a new investment product. It should be very clear to anyone involved that this is a volatile atmosphere and anything can happen. After all, it's really just a bunch of geeks with a website. There is no liability here.

That said, I do think the author was a bit naive about the Dogecoin reference. Weren't they implicated in some kind of fraud as well? Seems as though that is the primary reason why no one would store their life savings in Dogecoin.

[rsanders]

What good is the experiment if nobody uses it as though it were "real"?

[trillium]

>> No one would be stupid enough to store their life savings in Dogecoins.

Yet. No one would do that - yet.

[smtddr]

>>No one would be stupid enough to store their life savings in Dogecoins.

Author must have missed that Reddit thread on Gox horror stories. There were some really awful decisions people made with their savings. I bet someone is going to make a similar mistake with Doge. We already have folks like this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7166318

[adrianwaj]

Where are all these horror stories?

[smtddr]

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

Here are some of my "favorite"(anger inducing) comments:

▻ Poor student, all he had... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

▻ Son's college fund wiped out... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

▻ Used many credit cards... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

▻ Holding coins for a friend(even outside of bitcoin, don't hold money for friends. Usually won't work out)... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

▻ Everything he owns is gone, doesn't know how he's going to eat... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

▻ Sold his car, put everything he had into bitcoin... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

▻ This one is probably fake, too dramatic... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s...

▻ This guy lost $8,550 of his wife's money... http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yv26o/gox_horror_s... ..and if you read all his comments on that thread, I get the impression he's going back in without his wife's support.

Just keep on reading that whole post. At first you'll feel sorry for them, but quickly that sorrow will turn into anger. "Why the @!#&^%$ did you do that?!" is what you'll be repeating in your mind over and over. But none of them beat this one by a Reddit admin from awhile back:

▻ http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1c525e/ive_lost_mor... ...just the title alone is epic.

Bitcoin, and all the services around it, are gambles. Never gamble with money you can't afford to lose. Reddit should have a huge red glowing banner at the top of /r/bitcoin reminding their users of that at least weekly.

[winstonsmith]

>But none of them beat this one by a Reddit admin from awhile back:

Are you saying Nathanspups is a reddit admin?

[smtddr]

I think I'm actually wrong about that. I could have sworn I saw an "[A]" next to his name somewhere.

[nols]

I think that's exactly the counterpoint he was going for, people would be stupid enough to put their life savings into BTC but not dogecoin.

[catshirt]

the real horrifying part is not that they lost their money but that they invested it.

[mcv]

Particularly, that they picked a very risky investment for money they couldn't afford to lose. There's nothing wrong with investing money you need, but you should invest it in a safe, low-risk way, like a savings account or bonds or something (though those have turned out not to be entirely risk-free either).

High risk investment, like, oh, some totally unproven payment technology, is only for money you can afford to lose.

[mpyne]

/r/bitcoin probably.

[coldtea]

>Yeah, an ancient fork of Litecoin with a meme name is going to save us.

Read the rest of what he says. Plus, how is "Dogecoin" any worse than "MagicalTux"?