The use of language in the debate is important.

The ECB calls the bitcoin threat "reputational" whereas Professor Hanke, whom Bloomberg interviewed, correctly calls it a "competitive threat".
The established central banks, and regulatory agencies, may well begin a dirty war blaming bitcoin for many problems, e.g. money-laundering.

The bitcoin community should point out that "fiat currencies are being printed to destruction and inflation is a stealth tax on the savings of the hard-working public".

They got banned and inserted bitpay afterwards from what i heard.

Haha, awesome pic !

Damn it. I smell the beginnings of a bubble. And I kind of promised to myself I wouldn't get involved in day trading.

I just checked, it's true!

Was hosting.co.uk always accepting BTC or is this new?!

Anyone seen my spacesuit? I swear I left it around here somewhere...

Let's not be hasty. I think Bitcoin is on the way up, but no matter the usefulness of bitcoins, government-issued currency can do certain useful things bitcoins can't. Legally unambiguous settlement of debt or tax obligations, for example.

Also, doesn't "rising like a phoenix" imply that Bitcoin will have to die first?

"He is not alone. Workers at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in London and New York have been visiting online Bitcoin exchanges as often as 30 times a day, according to documents seen by Reuters. Neither bank wanted to comment.

Employees at almost all the major international banks and numerous trading and investment firms have shown interest."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/01/traders-bitcoin-idUSL6E8ET5K620120401