More and more, Bitcoin looks like a Pink Sheet stock. Trading continues, even though there's no asset value behind it.
The fundamental problem with Bitcoin is that unidirectional money transfers to remote anonymous parties are the con man's dream. Most "Bitcoin enterpreneurs" seem to be con men. Over half the Bitcoin exchanges have gone bust, even though that should be a low-risk business. Most of the sellers of mining hardware seem to be unable to reliably make, sell, and deliver ordered hardware. The "Bitcoin stock markets" are a joke, and the "Bitcoin Ponzis" are just embarassing.
Bitcoin has become the clown car of money because of all this.
The underlying technology isn't bad. We're about 2/3 of the way there to something that might work. The first generation of crypto-currency was Chaum's DigiCash in the early 1990s. This had protection against double-spending, like Bitcoin, but it relied on a centralized ledger system. Bitcoin is basically DigiCash with a distributed ledger, the block chain. DigiCash failed because of Cham's differences with his backers, and because it was too early.
With Bitcoin, you still have to trust the receiving party when you order something. From recent experience, that doesn't work. The protocol could in theory be extended to support escrow and arbitration, but it hasn't been. That's the remaining 1/3 of the problem.
What we have now is too slimeball-friendly.
I disagree that it's too slimeball friendly or that the only entrepreneurs are con men looking to skirt the law.
A large part of the appeal for people is the reality that it can't be taxed or controlled or outlawed or anything else and go away just because some agency is threatened by it. I'm not a criminal and most people here aren't either, and to have an alternative means of currency with a secure value is a welcome relief. I can probably speak for a ton of people when I say that if I earn X amount of money, no government body has any rights to it without my consent anymore than they can take anything else...and the only time they do that is when they're abusing the limits of their power anyway...or get too threatened by the reality that people will choose to not hand it over when there is a viable alternative. And I don't want them touching it. I don't even want them aware of it.
I think people tend to forget what is real here.
We elect representatives to represent us and our wishes for our nation.
Their job is to honor those wishes, do the job, get paid and butt out.
Instead, they lie through their teeth, con people, get elected, do whatever the fuck they want to do, abuse their positions, abuse their power, and treat those they're supposed to represent like criminals - can't speak out to them during a speech, else the goon squad hauls you out, that douchebag bush fired up "free speech zones" 2 or 3 miles away from anywhere he was because he's a fucking psychopath, can't freely enter their offices without being thrown out or jailed, can't call them up to discuss policy because they don't answer and then condescend if you catch them off guard, and you can't vote them in or out because the whole thing is rigged...all they while they make back door deals that rip off the citizens, start wars that bankrupt the entire nation, lead into further and further debt - all this shit is what is reality here and now.,
They are the criminals and of course they're not going to like the idea of bitcoin coming along giving anyone a choice because they know anyone who is sane, rational, and intelligent will choose against everything they are until they implode - which is exactly what needs to happen.
As long as bitcoin is being traded at all, I don't give one rat's ass what any government declares, whether they outlaw it or not, fuck them. They had one job and becoming lord of the people is not it.
This is the one foundational thread that finally makes nonviolent revolution actually possible....so if Joe Blow wants to buy porn pot and pills through some back channel, I don't care, because chances are on the order of 100% that Joe Blow first tried all those legal channels and faced nothing but bullshit red tape, loopholes, obnoxious regulations, high costs, taxes and a slew of other things just to end up denied, declined or blocked. So they took it to the underground market with a secure payment alternative with value to trade for products or services.
Most everything we do anymore is a crime.
The governments, the corporations, and the bankers are the real criminals.
And because of it, bitcoin isn't going anywhere...and the more people understand its true "disruptive" power, the more they will flock in droves, cash out their USDs or other currencies and trade out.
I agree with Nagle's viewpoint that Bitcoin attracts too many scumbags that prey on simpletons. Bitcoin gives them a vehicle to perform their art. The Bruce Wagners of the world are attracted to Bitcoin like flys are attracted to shit. I do agree with most of the rest of what you said, especially about government bureaucracy.
