EFF stops accepting Bitcoins
post by JoshuaZ · 2011-06-21T15:57:35.441Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 9 commentsContents
9 comments
The EFF has stopped accepting Bitcoins primarily out of concern with the possible legal issues. I presume that the EFF has a better understanding of any possible legal risks than organizations like the SIAI. It seems that the SIAI should probably at least for now put a hold on accepting bitcoin donations until these issues are resolved.
9 comments
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comment by Meni_Rosenfeld · 2013-10-06T06:40:12.552Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
It's worth mentioning that EFF has resumed accepting Bitcoin donations a while ago.
comment by wedrifid · 2011-06-21T16:23:56.821Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
The announcement is interesting but does not seem to be sufficient for preventing other institutions avoiding such donations themselves. The EFF decision was highly specific to their own situation and their need to separate their technology use from their actual role.
comment by SilasBarta · 2011-06-21T19:30:04.217Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
I posted the crucial excerpt over on the original SIAI bitcoin discussion in an attempt to claim vindication on my original argument about what the EFF was really saying by accepting bitcoins.
comment by Icelus · 2011-06-21T23:18:00.920Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
For the sake of clarity, the first news I saw about the EFF stopping accepting of Bitcoins was two weeks ago:
EFF no longer accepts donations in Bitcoins (bitcoinmoney.com) | HN link
The EFF blog post is I think an announcement insofar as to address the kind of news above that was floating around but mostly an explanation.
comment by Pavitra · 2011-06-21T19:20:07.985Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
This is exactly the type of reasoning that leads to markets behaving irrationally. Do your own research, rather than trying to use the current market behavior as your primary source of information about how you ought to act in the market.
Replies from: wedrifid, Dr_Manhattan↑ comment by wedrifid · 2011-06-22T01:21:13.729Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
This is exactly the type of reasoning that leads to markets behaving irrationally. Do your own research, rather than trying to use the current market behavior as your primary source of information about how you ought to act in the market.
No way! Use market behaviour as free information unless you have some specific reason to consider yourself to have the potential to know more than the market and the expectation that you have something significant to gain by your specialised knowledge.
Replies from: Pavitra↑ comment by Pavitra · 2011-06-22T18:18:07.070Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Um, no. Doing well in the market requires you to do better than everyone else. Updating on market behavior gives you literally zero relative advantage.
Replies from: JoshuaZ↑ comment by JoshuaZ · 2011-06-23T04:05:14.521Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
Um, no. Doing well in the market requires you to do better than everyone else. Updating on market behavior gives you literally zero relative advantage.
You are confusing two separate goals. One of which is making a profit from being in the market. The other goal is using the market as an information source about what is or is not likely to be an economically viable course of action. If it helps, use a prediction market as the example.
↑ comment by Dr_Manhattan · 2011-06-21T19:32:17.469Z · LW(p) · GW(p)
There are big challenges in any currency reaching a take-off point; I anticipated big hurdles for Bitcoin due to legal and economic issues (they seem to have no economists involved). Don't think Joshua did anything wrong by pointing out EFF's opinion, given that they have much better feel for legal issues.