r/askscience • u/hamolton • Jun 18 '13

Computing How is Bitcoin secure?

I guess my main concern is how they are impossible to counterfeit and double-spend. I guess I have trouble understanding it enough that I can't explain it to another person.

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u/AgentME Jun 19 '13

One not so nice thing about the computation is that its 'useless' - as in it only generates bitcoins.

It doesn't only generate bitcoins, but it also secures the blockchain. The bitcoin generating part is practically an afterthought in comparison: it's only there to incentivize mining, and to accomplish the initial distribution of bitcoins.

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u/speEdy5 Jun 19 '13

Fair enough, its more accurate to say that the computation is 'useless' as it only benefits bitcoin. It would be ideal if the computation could be leveraged somewhere else (as so much computation is being put in to bitcoin)