Never forget

Originally posted by k3tan: ↑

Whilst there are no assurances with Bitcoin being '100% bug free', it is a system that has been working for 10 years now, securing (as of today) $US180bn in value. Bitcoin should be thought of as a new monetary system. The number of bitcoins on issue at any point of time is known (there is a fixed supply of them) as opposed to governments printing infinite supplies of government issued money. This is what Bitcoin is safeguarding against.

Some describe Bitcoin as the digital form of gold. But, it also has properties that go above and beyond gold. For example, we've seen in human history gold being confiscated from people and from vaults through threats of violence. Gold is also much more difficult to divide, transport and store. These are issues that Bitcoin solves for that are easier to do than with gold. Furthermore, gold can prove to be difficult for an everyday person to verify that it is actually gold. In the digital realm, to verify that you are indeed receiving bitcoin, all you do is trust the Bitcoin software you run on your computer. This process is called 'running a node'.

Going back to 'bug free' and 'technical unknowns', you'll find that Bitcoin is 'open source', meaning that anyone is open to view and inspect the code in the software. You're also able to freely contribute to the code if they feel an improvement needs to be made if you are technically so competent. Be prepared to have your ideas rigorously debated. This system of openness, transparency and peer review is how we continually build secure 'trustware' if you will. You can find the code that thousands of people are running on their computers on the Bitcoin GitHub repository (Google it). This is where all the development happens and there are literally tens of thousands of eyes looking at it with a fine tooth comb and testing improvements and upgrades.

I think it's important to compare and contrast this with how government money is decided upon and issued. Are central banks ideas rigorously debated and tested to this level of scrutiny? Do these decisions act in the best interests of those that currently already hold the government issued money? This is ultimately for you to decide.

Cheers,
Ketan

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you dont need to run a node.
only miners run nodes.
a node discovers a block and propagates it to the network.
running a non mining node is useful as tits on a bull.
zero confirmation is fine in most transactions.