Topic: Gold collapsing. Bitcoin UP. - page 441. (Read 2032286 times)

These guys that worked this case and/or investigated for it had to learn a thing or two about bitcoin and probably encountered many smart people that gave them some pointers. I'm sure most of these agents are fairly well off buy probably have an idea that having some coins is a great enhancement to their pensions and 401k as they know a finite amount of something is a groovy thing.

Dratel should have worked to postpone the case until this info came out.  it could have influenced the final verdict.

Actually I guess no. Here it is :

http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/bitcoins-shroud-of-subtlety-and-allure/#allure

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900922&slug=1094485

Saturday, September 22, 1990

Soviet Union's `Shadow Economy' -- Bribery, Barter, Black-Market Deals Are The Facts Of Life

By David Remnick
Washington Post

MOSCOW - While the Soviet Union's legislators and theorists ponder the vistas of a revolutionary economic-reform program, the people of this country live like hunter-gatherers in a real-world economy that is half desert, half medieval bazaar.

The official structures of the Bolshevik experiment are collapsing with such finality, the state-run shops are so barren, that nearly everyone now must participate in the immense ``shadow economy'' of speculation and petty bribery, barter deals and black-marketeers.

President Mikhail Gorbachev has proposed sweeping economic change to a form of market economy - a measure the Supreme Soviet is scheduled to vote on Monday. But that's the future; for today, life for the average Soviet citizen is a struggle for survival.

The demands of the ``shadow economy'' trace a Soviet lifetime. A child comes into the world with the mother paying a 200-ruble bribe to the maternity nurse for a sterile needle and an anesthetic. When a Soviet citizen dies, relatives are overcome not only with grief but with the knowledge that they must pay thousands of rubles in bribes to the mortician, the coffin maker and the gravedigger.

The law and its protectors are also involved in the web of survival. A few months ago, a Soviet traffic cop waved down a Western correspondent. The officer said the correspondent had been driving too fast and had to pay a 10-ruble fine on the spot. Using a time-honored method, the reporter collapsed into pidgin Russian and feigned incomprehension.

``Well, that's OK,'' said the cop, reaching into his coat pocket. ``Would you like to buy some good black caviar?''

There is nothing new about the black market in the Soviet Union. There have always been shortages - and then illegal dealers to fill the gap for the right price. The Soviet economy has never worked efficiently enough to put black-marketeers out of business. But talking about the black market was taboo. When Konstantin Simis, an attorney and professor of law until he emigrated to the United States in 1977, was working in Moscow on an early draft of his book ``U.S.S.R.: The Corrupt Society,'' the KGB confiscated the manuscript.

What was once heresy is now the conventional wisdom. In the text of presidential adviser Stanislav Shatalin's 500 Day economic-reform program, a section on the ``shadow economy'' admits that to some degree the black market has been a ``necessary adjunct'' to the old ``administrative-command'' system. It estimates that the ``shadow economy'' accounts for 15 or 20 percent of the gross national product.

There are several levels of the ``shadow economy,'' ranging from the pure exploitation and manipulation of shortages by party bureaucrats to the ``half-legal'' workers who provide services that simply cannot be obtained on the legal, state market, from construction work to auto repair.

I didn't check but I assume this is the article where Daniel says even gvt officials might already be co-opted into the Bitcoin community. I agree.

Unbelievable

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/nyregion/silk-road-case-federal-agents-charges.html?referrer=

Bitcoin represents a fundamental change in the very fiber of the social order from which regimes are woven. I and I'm sure several other people have been predicting this for quite some time: incentives to ally oneself with the state break down when you can hold and transact money with complete secrecy.

Unbelievable

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/nyregion/silk-road-case-federal-agents-charges.html?referrer=

Unbelievable

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/nyregion/silk-road-case-federal-agents-charges.html?referrer=

we crossed 400PH..



why am i not having the same graph anyway?

https://blockchain.info/en/charts/hash-rate

still healthy growth.  amazing: