<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Jul 27, 2026 at 21:36 by peter@tsto.co.uk:<br></div><blockquote class="tutanota_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid #93A3B8; padding-left: 10px; margin-left: 5px;"><div dir="auto">On 15/07/2026 14:51, jameslancasterliverpool via cryptography wrote:<br></div><blockquote><div dir="auto">Hello,<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I have been studying the Bitcoin protocol and would like to ask a question.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">In your opinion, what is currently the biggest long-term security challenge for Bitcoin: quantum computing, mining centralization, or something else?<br></div></blockquote><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">The fact that it is fundamentally a greatest-fool scam based on lies.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">That statement may need a bit of taking-apart - the scam part is the promulgation of the belief that a bitcoin (or an unexpended whatever) has any actual or intrinsic or real value.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">The "greatest-fool" part is that you have to find someone who is a bigger fool than you to sell it at a profit. When you get to the greatest fool ... everything collapses.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">The lies are first that it is a currency, which it obviously isn't - apart from one famous incident, can you buy a cup of coffee with it?<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Second, that it is anonymous - really?, when every transaction is publicly available? An anonymous wallet can be de-anonymised easily enough.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Third, that it is secure - we all know that fatal attacks (eg mining centralisation, legal attacks, protocol change attacks etc etc) are possible.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">While we all admire CGHQ^H^H^H^H Satoshi's coding style, I sometimes wonder whether Bitcoin was a spoiler attack against the development of a truly anonymous online currency.<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Peter Fairbrother<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">_______________________________________________<br></div><div dir="auto">The cryptography mailing list<br></div><div dir="auto">cryptography@metzdowd.com<br></div><div dir="auto">https://www.metzdowd.com/mailman/listinfo/cryptography<br></div></blockquote><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">What is your definition of a truly anonymous currency?<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">—<br></div><div dir="auto">Alejandro<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto"> «You can’t parallelize your way out of time.»<br></div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div><div dir="auto"><br></div> </body>
</html>