oafitupa

And how can you get up at 4:30 and also "get enough sleep"?

If I remember correctly, one of his answers was something like "Because it's the only Universe where we could ask such a question". I think what he means is that all the other possible universes (or most of them) might or might not exist somewhere else, but they certainly don't include intelligent life with the ability to ask "Why is there something instead of nothing?". When you ask that question you are assuming this is the only universe and it was "meant to be". But our sole existence is not evidence at all for a "destination".

"What do I do now" is a complete different question, and I guess people might find their own personal answers in the most varied places. You obviously don't need a physicist for that, although lots of them also think about these things.

That's false. There are several persons who are way more knowledgeable than him now (assuming he hasn't been following the developments since he disappeared).

Bitcoin is open source, and what we say it is is exactly what it is, and anyone (or any programmer, but hey, this is HN) can check it, so there is no scam.

By your logic then gold and every other investment is also a scam, because you are "giving money to earlier investors".

The economic majority controls Bitcoin, not the miners alone. Have you even heard about nodes?

To keep your coins safe you can use Electrum. It will generate a "seed" that you need to print or write down and keep it safe. The wallet will use that seed to generate addresses you can use to receive bitcoins. If you are into Linux, you can use a Tails DVD to generate the seed in a clean environment, which is safer. I think the last version added Electrum so you won't need to install anything extra.

Another option is to use multi-signature online wallets like Coinkite (I think Coinbase offers multi-signature too now).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_massive_black_hol...

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dunbar_armored_car.JP...

But seriously, don't call those "alternatives" if they are not secure. There is no known replacement for PoW.

And that's exactly the whole point, and is the very reason it's working.

> a pyramid scheme

Then every other successful investment is a pyramid scheme. Gold is a pyramid scheme! Storing food for catastrophes is a pyramid scheme! Paintings are a pyramid scheme!