Bitcoin...anyone?
- Thread starter James36
- Start date
It is real, but its price is at the top of a crazy boom, and the price is bound to collapse soon. If you buy some, I would do it for purchases, and don't assume it will be a good investment. (Don't buy GBP either, as I'm sure the price will collapse there too this week.)
I was reading somewhere that Bitcoin is government propaganda. That the technology behind it is based entirely on government r&d such as the internet and military cryptography. Something like even with the transparent central database- blockchain where their transactions are recorded for eternity...everything about bitcoin is related to the state. I am however still in doubt if this is true?
gcthomas
New member
Only the hash function (SHA-256 in this case) was a government project, with all the key technologies such as block-chain being privately developed. SHA-256 was devloped by the NSA origianally but released the details on a royalty free licence to encourage their use, so almost all usages of it around the world are nothing to do with government (I use it myself when verifying file download integrity, for example). Other hashes are available, but SHA-256 is a popular and trusted one.
The block-chain is not a central database - there isn't anything central, since the key idea is that the blockchain is a widely distributed and public document, with the crypto hash providing easy checks of confidence in its accuracy. You can be sure that there is no government involvement here - the gov't is actually quite worried about non-fiat currencies and are trying to regulate them.