As I continue to explore -BitCoin, I've starting to wonder -what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws -and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.
- -One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are -verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction -is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been -published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is -possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to -that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for -all transactions. There I can see that my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b -have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the -1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3 -address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address -1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt -of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and -every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The -fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given -address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to -generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told -there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or -organisation without the person or organisation revealing it -themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.
- -In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and -regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border -without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting -laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin. -If the Skolelinux foundation -(SLX -Debian Labs) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to -normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted? -Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or -not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate -should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay -income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in -BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.
- -For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and -accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to -the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be -easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get -access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really -a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin, -so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I -would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs -and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time -if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby -to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they -will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which -probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I -believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming -currencies.
- -The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is -CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is -competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles -to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50 -BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to -join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins, -by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines -and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50 -BitCoins. Check out -BitCoin Pool -if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a -machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones -own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining -yet.
- -Update 2010-12-15: Found an interesting -criticism of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought -it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be -equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.
+Artikkelen i Aftenposten i dag om de som fikk +tauet +bort bilen etter å ha trodd på Oslo kommunes oversikt over når +ulike gater skulle feies i påsken, fikk meg til å ta en titt på +kommunens +oversikt, og der ble jeg fascinert over følgende lille gullkorn:
+ +++ +Hvorfor har dere ikke SMS-varsling? +
+
Forsøksordningen i 2005 viste dessverre at SMS-varsling i liten +grad reduserte antallet borttauede biler. De som abonnerte på +ordningen unngikk naturligvis feilparkeringer, men plassene ble brukt +av "fremmede" biler altså av bileiere som ikke abonnerte og dermed +ikke ble varslet.
Det gir inntrykk av at kommunen i stedet for å se på SMS-varsling +som en tjeneste for innbyggerne, som kunne gjøre at de innbyggerne som +benyttet seg av tjenesten slapp å få tauet bilen sin, så på det som en +tjeneste for seg selv for å redusere antall tauinger. Forklaringen +synes jeg illustrerer veldig godt hvorfor det er så viktig å se på hva +som er fokus for tjenester som leveres og hva som er +suksesskriteriene. Jeg mistenker at hvis suksesskriteriet for +SMS-tjenesten hadde vært hvor fornøyd brukerne av SMS-tjenesten var, +så ville den blitt videreført. Eller hvis suksesskriteriet var økt +bruk av tjenesten. Jeg vet i hvert fall mange som gjerne vil slippe å +både daglig besøke bilen sin der den er parkert i Oslo, og som gjerne +vil varsles i stedet for å oppdage at bilen er tauet bort når de +trenger den.
+ +Mon tro hvor mange som må bruke en slik tjeneste før andelen +bort-tauinger blir redusert? Jeg mistenker den må være godt over 50% +av alle med bil i Oslo, før det er større sannsynlighet for at en +ledig men risikofylt parkeringsplass blir stående ledig enn at den blir +tatt umiddelbart. Det er for stort press på parkeringsplasser i Oslo +i dag til å tro at en ledig parkeringsplass blir stående ubrukt med +mindre sjåføren vet at det er risikabelt å stå der. Hvis reduksjon i +antall bort-tauinger var suksesskriteriet for SMS-tjenesten var en +dermed garantert å konkludere med at den feilet, da det er umulig å få +så stor bruksprosent i en prøvedrift.
+ +Fokus for FiksGataMi er +innbyggeren, og et av suksesskriteriene er at innbyggerne som bruker +tjenesten er fornøyde med at rapportene blir synliggjort og levert til +relevant offentlig myndighet. Det er naturligvis fint om de som +mottar meldingene også har nytte av tjenesten, og at problemene blir +fikset, men det viktigste er innbyggernes opplevelse. Innbyggerne +skal oppleve tjenesten som enkel og effektiv, slik at vi sikrer at +flest mulig klarer å bidra til å forbedre offentlig infrastruktur.