I'm a fan, I'll just be upfront about that. I play online poker for bitcoins, since the US banned real money online poker. I like the idea of it as well, a currency that is independant of the banking system and can be sent without intermediaries, anonymously. I grant that much of the currency is used for "silk road" purchases, but buying drugs with cash works too. I would post a poll if I could figure out how to do so. It might go like:
Bitcoin yay
Bitcoin nay
Bitcoin what?
I bought a Bitcoin just to get a patch from nerdmeritbadges.com.
So it looks like the US is taking steps to discourage Bitcoin use. Lovely. As if there's not enough reasons to hate our government.
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So it looks like the US is taking steps to discourage Bitcoin use. Lovely. As if there's not enough reasons to hate our government.Because Bitcoin should be exempt from money laundering rules?
No, I'm just against a government attempting to regulate an unregulated currency. It's out of their control and they're pissed.
hi thejeff, ltns.
Good article Necro.
Money laundering is a "red herring" (borrowing a quote from article comment).
They're regulating it out of existance, making it difficult for me change my dollar bills into bitcoins ( and vice versa). I wish they would turn their regulation on the fed, so I wouldn't have to look for alternative stores of value. (oh yea and get rid of no poker online for money in us).
Silk road busted. It's a more recent article on the fallout from the silk road bust. Silk road was an online place you could use your bitcoins to buy drugs online, and have them shipped to you.
Bitcoins are like the Gold Standard. They are still traded in the Black Market. So will Bitcoins become the currency standard for the world? One that Governments can't dislodge?
The minute they become popular enough (by which I mean, accepted on a noticable number of retail sites) they'll find a way, most likely citing tax law or somesuch.
While it's unlikely they can find a way to shut down Bitcoin itself, it's more likely they'll find ways to shut down (or at least severely cripple) the exchanges that allow changing it back and forth to other currencies.
Ironically fiat currencies and btc are both backed by faith. If people choose to have more faith in btc than fiat currencies, then they will vote with their exchanges. The government could and probably would try and make it more difficult.
I bought a Bitcoin just to get a patch from nerdmeritbadges.com.
Your bitcoin, which you probably bought for less than 100, is now worth 600. Man, the price of bitcoin is volitile.