> Real security people will tell you it's a disaster.
No, they won't. Bitcoin is built upon decades of battle-hardened industry-standard cryptography. The day someone cracks SHA you'll have a lot more to worry about than your Bitcoin wallet.
The only security problem with Bitcoin is people building insecure systems around it. Which of course has nothing to do with Bitcoin.
It does have something with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a fully digital currency which isn't guaranteed by any bank or company. It requires its users to be way, way safer with their computers than almost anyone is.
Surely it depends on how much currency you happen to be holding?
At the moment, most holders of Bitcoin are people either speculating or experimenting with it. But if Bitcoin ever becomes a more generally used medium of exchange, users don't have to hold a lot of money for it to be useful, in the same way you wouldn't keep a lot of cash in your wallet.
It's based around "battle-hardened industry-standard cryptography", but that cryptography is used in a less than standard way. Remember that it doesn't matter how secure the underlying cryptographic primitives you're using are if the way you're using them is flawed.
No, they won't. Bitcoin is built upon decades of battle-hardened industry-standard cryptography. The day someone cracks SHA you'll have a lot more to worry about than your Bitcoin wallet.
The only security problem with Bitcoin is people building insecure systems around it. Which of course has nothing to do with Bitcoin.