From: "Luke-Jr" <luke@dashjr.org>
To: bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net
Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:10:32 +0000
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Subject: Re: [Bitcoin-development] Some PR preparation
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On Tuesday, March 12, 2013 7:03:54 AM Alan Reiner wrote:
> I'm sure it won't be long before Slashdot and a variety of sources start
> reporting on this event.  Bitcoin has been in the media a lot lately, so
> this story is likely to get some attention.  The blowback of this event
> is mostly psychological, so I think it would be exceptionally wise to
> start preparing PR comments that can be posted on articles immediately
> after they go public.  This event is likely draw much more negative
> attention than it deserves, and getting some positive&informed comments
> posted up front will potentially make a difference in the way the story
> is received.
> 
> Undoubtedly, many articles (and especially commenters) will shape this
> into "the end of Bitcoin".   I would describe it as "there was a short
> and mostly-harmless lapse in the ability of the network to reach a
> consensus, causing transactions to get delayed by a few hours."   It
> *really* needs to be emphasized that coins are safe, and nothing anyone
> has/could do will change that.  And that it would've been extremely
> difficult to exploit for gain.  Transactions got delayed while a bug was
> fixed.  End of story.

I think we should be careful not to downplay the reality either.
For a number of hours, transactions could have received up to N confirmations 
and then still been reversed. While we could contact the bigger payment 
processors, I saw people still trying to buy/sell on OTC, whom could have been 
scammed even by taking standard precautions.

Luke