[Cryptography] On the 'regulation proof' aspect of Bitcoin

[John Levine]

>So why doesn't the Fed do this?

It's still nowhere near worth the effort because bitcoin remains an
utterly trivial financial instrument.  Yesterday, the total volume of
bitcoin transactions was 5674 btc worth about $2.3 million.  By
comparison, the foreign exchange market in real currencties trades
that much every 37 milliseconds.

>My guess is that until ransomware, BTC just wasn't a big enough
>irritation and there is always the knowledge that as fast as one
>scheme is shut down, another pops up to take its place.

I've heard a lot about ransomware at recent security conferences and I
don't recall anyone, ever, suggesting the choking the bitcoin market
would be a useful countermeasure.  Before they demanded bitcoins, they
demanded Western Union transfers to offshore money mules, and they
could switch back to that in a minute.  Keep in mind that the victims
have a perverse incentive not to rat out the mules since if the mules
don't collect the payment, they don't get an unlock key.


Besides, bitcoin will implode from the sheer social incompetence of
the bitcoin community.  Who'd have expected they'd be so wedged they
couldn't agree how to make a mechanical change to increase the
transaction rate?

R's,
John