LOL looks like it's unfolding further...

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120905/WILLIAMSON/309050153/Romney-tax-return-claim-made-packages-left-Williamson-GOP-office?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7C%7Cp&nclick_check=1

Throughout the course of history, humans have always moved to better forms of currency.

Beads -> Sea shells -> Wampum -> Metal Coins -> Gold -> Paper money fiat -> Electronic money (paypal, credit cards) -> Return to gold? Bitcoin?

You're missing the point of Bitcoin if you feel left out. You can be as involved as you want to be, just go make something happen-- find something you think needs doing, recruit some people to help if you need help, and do it. Are you waiting for an invitation or permission from somebody?

80% of BTC exchanges are for USD. Source.

Bitcoin is still in its infancy. It would not survive a shutdown of USD-facing exchanges. It's too vulnerable.

How many Americans still play online poker? It can be done using VPNs, a foreign bank account and foreign mailing address, but nobody bothers because of the hassle.

Think how it looks if they throw all their resources at it and still cant get it shut down.   

I wonder if this is real too. But it's pretty smart. I doubt PW would pay anything here but the extortionist may just be hoping the rest of the public will contribute to getting info released. Either way he gets funds going into either address. Is this the first instance of mass public extortion? I mean telling the world they can see the tax records only if in total they pay out. I guess we'll see if this gets picked up by the mainstream media or if word has been put out to quash it, or if it turns out to be baloney.

If this person was really serious about getting paid he would ask for 50 or 100K, But they would only pay if he released a teaser like page 65-100 on year 2008 to prove that he has something of value.

Yes, but so far there has never been legal recognition of bitcoin as being equivalent to "property" that has "value" that someone "can own."  Given that Bitcoin's are really just a figment of the digital imagination of millions of GPUs and CPUs, it remains uncertain how they might be recognized in the legal system.

This is the first legal context that it has been recognized as property with value.  It's not the biggest legal context there can be:  exactly where it falls in the world of securitys, stocks, FOREX, etc, remains to be seen.  But it's still a first step among many.

And the important part, is that it's first foray into a beaurocrat's lap has been positive:  if it had been shot down for whatever reason, Bitcoin would start off at a disadvantage.  We'd be fighting an uphill battle.  So, this is a very positive thing, and enables others to jump on board because now there is a bit of precendence that they can leverage.

You can get entry level SSL certs for $40 or less these days.

The entry level certs are domain not entity verification and don't have the fancy "green address bar" but they do provide the same top level encrypted communication.

An example:   https://www.rapidssl.com

If someone can't afford $40 they shouldn't be working with financial data.

Hmm maybe we should offer SSL paid in BTC. 

That's normal, because it's self signed alas no trusted 3rd party authority. If I am correct in theory if an attacker can intercept the whole connection he can break it but not if you establish the thrust using a secure connection. (lets say your home internet access) and use it (lets say you connect your notebook to your work lan) at an untrusted location afterwards.

You are speaking of a man-in-the middle attack which is not surprising that it would be possible to exploit it. It's not an exploit to bitcoin per se but to the way people share addresses.


You can connect to satoshidice using their selfsigned ssl though.

There is no way in hell you have been given 18,000 BTC. I'm calling bullshit.

It might have to be! Paypal, Visa and Mastercard are all out. Most international bank transactions seem to use US-based banks as intermediaries. What else is left?

I didn't say not to invest in specific companies you might think will be successful...just commenting on the nature of buying and holding bitcoin.  The infrastructure around bitcoin (that individuals and businesses create) will increase the value of bitcoin itself.  Likewise, the increasing value of bitcoin helps those businesses finance themselves (assuming the businesses have themselves invested in bitcoin).  Clearly, if everyone just bought bitcoin and then sat on their ass, bitcoin wouldn't end up being nearly as valuable.  But, just buying and holding bitcoin does help bitcoin businesses.  You are deferring consumption and allocating capital to the bitcoin ecosystem.

this might be bigger than it looks on the surface.
we have

a politician now really accepting bitcoin donations
an established process
a state official ok'ing them.

of course, it is not as easy for him as posting a single address online like a charity. he needs to collect name and address beforehand. i am sure there is an easy solution for that.

This problem isn't limited to Bitcoin, and applies to any kind of financial transaction conducted over an insecure channel, which is exactly why you're supposed to always use HTTPS for financial transactions. I thought everyone knew that already?

True, you cannot modify a transaction after it has been sent, but the question is about changing a bitcoin address as it appears on, eg, a store's webpage, in order to trick users into sending coins to the wrong address.