[ ... ] contractors and others thru my house in that it is being remodeled and they asked what the KNC jupiter miner was in the basement (5 seperate occasions [ ...)] in each instance they all acted like they found me growing pot in the basement
so from the looks on faces and rapid change of context after stating this ...I asked if they heard of it ..universally they had heard it was for drug deals and illegal was it not? [ ... ]
Well, buying illegal drugs is certainly one of the things that attract some people to bitcoin.
I would even guess that the July 2012 price bubble was due to drug users and dealers adopting bitcoin. The price drop after the SilkRoad seizure shows that hat such use contributed significantly to the demand.
Someone noted that the LocalBitcoins BTC:USD volume has been increasing:
Looking closely, the volume was actually flat from January to late May, then jumped up by 30%, and remained flat until twoo weeks ago, when it had another large jump.
That rise in LocalBitcoins traffic in late May coincided with the still-unexplained sudden price rise from ~450$ to ~650$.
I understand that one advantage of buying through LocalBitcoins, rather than at an exchange or Coinbase, is to avoid the KYC/AML controls of the latter. So, could it be that the late May mini-bubble was due to a surge in demand for illegal drug traffic? The opening of OpenBazaar perhaps?
But then why didn't we see another price increase over the last two weeks, to match the the sharp rise in LocalBitcoins volume?
