Re: OECD Working Paper: "The Bitcoin Question"

On 8 September 2014 15:44, Joseph Potvin <jpotvin@opman.ca> wrote:

> Working paper:
> http://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-markets/The-Bitcoin-Question-2014.pdf
> By OECD's Director, Financial and Enterprise Affairs, and Special Advisor
> to the Secretary-General on Financial Markets.
> http://www.oecd.org/finance/financial-markets/adrianblundell-wignall.htm
>
> Too bad this OECD "working paper" not include a request for feedback via
> some venue, the way the US Fed openly solicited comments on its paper via
> an expliciat call for submissions.
>

It's great that someone has taken the time to try and understand crypto
currencies, but reading further, I think that the author has misunderstood
the topic.  For example.

"but a private key is required to de-crypt the Bitcoins and spend them.
Public and private keys are alphanumeric strings based on sophisticated
encryption"

There is no encryption or decryption anywhere in the bitcoin protocol.  It
relies on digital signatures to prove the authenticity of a transaction.
It's not encrypted at all, everything on the ledger is public.

I guess there's an education gap here, maybe out group can help to bridge
that ...


>
> --
> Joseph Potvin
> Operations Manager | Gestionnaire des opérations
> The Opman Company | La compagnie Opman
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