Silly story, but the implications are interesting.
Next natural disaster with global media coverage, banners and tents with giant, video broadcast-friendly "Donate Here" QR codes will sound like a good idea.
Which means that someone (or more likely, several ones) will quickly make scam replicas and ruin it for everyone.
I remain deeply skeptical of QR codes as a user interface.
As a confused Belgian, what is meant by "Unlike traditional bank accounts, where you would never share your account number on national television, Bitcoin public addresses are secure"? Giving out your account number in Belgium is pretty secure, nobody can do anything with it beyond putting money on it.
What's different in the USA? What extra info are you handing out by giving your account number beyond "this is a 'bank address' that you can use to send me money"?
The German equivalent is called ELV/Lastschrift and allows you to retrieve money from a bank account, but the owner can revoke that within a few weeks.
This looks like the Bitcoin version of the GoldenPalace casino buying the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich for $28,000. The majority of the donations were probably designed to attract attention and therefore help market Bitcoin.
I'm not sure how you could look at HN and think it's anything but zealous about Bitcoins. You'd have to have some deep and powerful victimization complex.
I only ever see comments like yours on Bitcoin articles. Most every other article, HN is even more negative, and everyone goes along with it, but as soon as it's about Bitcoin, "How dare you say those things!" It's almost as if you've convinced yourself of Bitcoin to the point of not being able to handle anyone questioning it. Your mind just can't comprehend why anyone would not hold the same view as you.
HN encourages people to comment for karma without much regard to whether they have anything to say of consequence. I wouldn't have written this if I could downvote.
I love how whenever a new technology comes out the amount of applications are never fully apparent.
When I first heard of bitcoin back in 2010 I thought it was a cool concept, but sending money to unknown people across the world? That never crossed my mind.
Now that I think about it, we do it all the time in the forms of charities. Tsunami victims on the other side of the world, a fund is set up to help them out, and most people might say, I'll chip in a dollar, but I can't be fucked to find out how, and sending a dollar is hard anyway. Then mobile phone operators started offering SMS payments, and people had a simple solution.
With cryptocurrency this solution is even easier. It wasn't until it actually happened that this clicked for me.
Consider telephone for example, initially it was used to talk to other people over a long distance, but it was thanks to that concept of sending information down a wire that made it possible today to eg. look at a live webcam on the other side of the world right now.
Imagine telling someone 200 years ago that you could talk/see a person on the other side of the world in real time. Remember, phones didn't exist, motion picture was unheard of etc.
They would think you are mad.
It would be as unbelievable as saying today you can use buy a Rolex watch made in Europe online and it would be teleported to your desk.
But who knows, maybe this will be possible in the future.
And maybe in retrospect it would have been obvious.
Bitcoin unfortunately makes this feat very difficult to verify. We will never truly know how much of that $24,000 the poster controlled in the first place.
[+] [-] quesera|12 years ago|reply
Next natural disaster with global media coverage, banners and tents with giant, video broadcast-friendly "Donate Here" QR codes will sound like a good idea.
Which means that someone (or more likely, several ones) will quickly make scam replicas and ruin it for everyone.
I remain deeply skeptical of QR codes as a user interface.
[+] [-] damian2000|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ward|12 years ago|reply
What's different in the USA? What extra info are you handing out by giving your account number beyond "this is a 'bank address' that you can use to send me money"?
[+] [-] sp332|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thomasbachem|12 years ago|reply
The German equivalent is called ELV/Lastschrift and allows you to retrieve money from a bank account, but the owner can revoke that within a few weeks.
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] abat|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] davedx|12 years ago|reply
Comment negative about scams, silly stories and QR codes being bad - check
Deeply cynical comment - "They were probably donating for their own gain" - check
Skeptical comment that this isn't true - check
You're a cynical, negative bunch of pissants these days, HN.
[+] [-] ceol|12 years ago|reply
I only ever see comments like yours on Bitcoin articles. Most every other article, HN is even more negative, and everyone goes along with it, but as soon as it's about Bitcoin, "How dare you say those things!" It's almost as if you've convinced yourself of Bitcoin to the point of not being able to handle anyone questioning it. Your mind just can't comprehend why anyone would not hold the same view as you.
I wonder what that sounds like?
[+] [-] oleganza|12 years ago|reply
PS. Bitcoin FTW.
[+] [-] notthemessiah|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zepolen|12 years ago|reply
When I first heard of bitcoin back in 2010 I thought it was a cool concept, but sending money to unknown people across the world? That never crossed my mind.
Now that I think about it, we do it all the time in the forms of charities. Tsunami victims on the other side of the world, a fund is set up to help them out, and most people might say, I'll chip in a dollar, but I can't be fucked to find out how, and sending a dollar is hard anyway. Then mobile phone operators started offering SMS payments, and people had a simple solution.
With cryptocurrency this solution is even easier. It wasn't until it actually happened that this clicked for me.
Consider telephone for example, initially it was used to talk to other people over a long distance, but it was thanks to that concept of sending information down a wire that made it possible today to eg. look at a live webcam on the other side of the world right now.
Imagine telling someone 200 years ago that you could talk/see a person on the other side of the world in real time. Remember, phones didn't exist, motion picture was unheard of etc.
They would think you are mad.
It would be as unbelievable as saying today you can use buy a Rolex watch made in Europe online and it would be teleported to your desk.
But who knows, maybe this will be possible in the future.
And maybe in retrospect it would have been obvious.
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] Phlarp|12 years ago|reply
and
https://blockchain.info/address/1JSDMMDybTZ9nEZgMUtTXQSW4hGR...
[+] [-] oh_sigh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] applecore|12 years ago|reply
He's donating the rest (over 20 bitcoins) to Sean's Outpost, a bitcoin charity.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1rs2zf/on_college_g...
[+] [-] GigabyteCoin|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcell|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fastball|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snissn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CryptoJunky|12 years ago|reply
"Public Note: Here's the money you asked for honey; please don't spend it all on strippers and blow like you did the last time. Love Mommy."
[+] [-] alexkus|12 years ago|reply
wonder how long he waited to try and get that as 1HiMom... before giving up
[+] [-] ericcumbee|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wellboy|12 years ago|reply