But I'm still ultimately paying in cash. The bitcoins are just converted into real money by this bank. I've added this bitcoin middleman because...
It's a better store of value than fiat.
Is that why it is effectively backed by fiat? Or why the only community to really embrace it is absolutely plagued by scams and baffling incompetence?
Back to the initial point, isn't part of the entire mythos of bitcoin getting away from federal regulation and banks? If you are just going to have your bitcoins processed through a bank that then converts them to fiat money, you are just taking a worthless middle step.
You're still paying in fiat money, this is not a win for bitcoin, just a confirmation that for anyone to take it seriously, you have to back it with the very fiat money you are trying to overthrow.
The very fiat
who is trying to overthrow? Not all of us see Bitcoin as the ultimate weapon with which to fight the establishment. As I said earlier, I know there's a substantial number of you here who do see it that way but that's not to say it's the only way to see or use Bitcoin. Do you not believe that there are others of us who do not see things as you do? Or do you maybe dismiss we non-believers as not 'true' Bitcoiners and that use of it not in accordance with the vision you have for it is worthy of your dismissal?
OK, let's try another approach:
Do people who use VOIP phones who do not care that their conversation is in packets sharing the net with the emailers and web surfers harm the internet?
There's the parallel but there are differences too. Because i) regardless of whether users of the new Bitcoin-Central service do anything other than transfer their funds 'through' Bitcoin they are increasing the demand - even if it's just in passing - and increasing the distribution; ii) if users of the service explore a little they may find they can buy some of the things they would have anyway with Bitcoin directly and so will support those using Bitcoin in their business; iii) they may want to explore more about it, understand more about it, want to support it by running nodes or even getting a little mining ASIC - just because they like the idea of it.
Not everybody has to come to Bitcoin from the ideological perspective. if people come to it first because it happens to be useful to their needs and some of them learn more about it and begin to see it's potential impact later on so what?