I think the discussion have eventually lost the ethic aspects of motivating the botnet creators to invest even more resources in their business in case when BTCs generated will deliver the value, comparable to the current uses of botnets. What if Bitcoin operation will outperform the other activities? How can you imagine, that botnet building process is done in a way, that benefit the community?
Quote from: Jeff Garzik on August 06, 2010, 7:53:25 PM UTCParticipation in the network as an honest node helps everyone.
Yes, but only when it is not against the computer owner’s will, he pays the electricity bill. If it is, then he loses REAL money for an extra power consumption caused by 100% CPU load. So, Bitcoin motivates behavior of stealing computing power from innocent computer owners.
Well, you may now try to compare the social harm to the benefits, but do you really feel you have the moral right to do so?