Lead bitcoin developer invited into CIA headquarters

Good to see something happening. I hadn't seen anything regarding Bitcoin on HN for about 24 hours and was starting to get worried.

My guess is that some of the best cryptographers and mathematicians you've never heard of will be in the audience for that presentation.

Cached copy, if forum is unresponsive: <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome&#38;ie=UTF-8&#38;q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bitcoin.org%2Fsmf%2Findex.php%3Ftopic%3D6652.0" rel="nofollow">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sourceid=chrome...</a>

boring. this business model is well known.<p>1 create a popular encrypted system the CIA can't see inside of. 2 get invited into CIA headquarters. 3 [redacted] 4 retire.

I'd say their primary interest is knowing how to watch payment flow. They'll develop ways to discover patterns in payment and deduce who is part of what network. Unlikely to disrupt, rather find ways to leverage it.

"I think the goals of this project are to create a better currency, create a more competitive and efficient international payment system, and give people more direct control over their finances. And I don't think any of those goals are incompatible with the goals of government."<p>Aren't these goals are completely at odds with the goals of the government, or do I read too much Chomsky?

The elephant in the room is that in addition to the obvious upside these platforms are ripe for money laundering.

Should be "Lead Bitcoin Developer Invited into CIA Headquarters"

Don't waste your time on them. They just want to reduce the costs of carrying around cash in black satchels. Get feedback from the NSA instead.

... and he never came out. &#60;/obligatory-joke&#62;

into the belly of the beast

Have to imagine they are heavily mining bitcoin as well.