http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/19/beast_exploits_paypal_ssl/

Researchers claim to have a found a way to decrypt SSL traffic, needing about 10 minutes to crack the encryption. The article doesn't go into much detail on what is required for the attack to work, and it's just one post on the register... Still, careful out there.

The Eurozone is pretty big, and if they can set up shop in France, they can serve the rest of the relevant countries. Why they're fighting this battle in stead of going to another country I can't comment on, but presumably they feel it's worth their while.

Either they don't, or they pay out of their own pocket to do it.

I considered this. Unfortunately, withdrawing EUR ( in my case) is too much of a hassle, and converting my USD assets to Bitcoin to withdraw seems very risky at this point.

There was probably no trade at 15.

It could be a display bug. It wouldn't be the first time.

I had a sell order at around 7 when the spike to 15 showed up. Didn't get filled. Bug.

By the way, the questions you ask in the poll aren't very useful if you don't define a timeframe.

"Fundamentals" is an ambiguous term here. What I take that statement to mean is that the basic, technical functioning of the system has not been compromised. In other words, if there is demand for a decentralized, pseudonymous digital currency, Bitcoin remains capable of catering to that demand. What that means in terms of growth potential remains to be seen.

I'm not interested in sports cards etc., so I can't comment on those. Your gift card prices seem steep, though. ~13 BTC for a 50 dollar Ebay gift card?

Good for you. I've been saying for ages now these intermittent periods of rain need to go away if we're ever going to be able to have great outdoor parties whenever we want. No-one wants to listen, though.

"Secret sauce"?
"Get-rich-quick-tards"?

I've said it before, but I'll repeat myself. You're obnoxious. I'm not sure you're an out-and-out troll (exclusively, I mean), but nothing you have said has given me any reason to believe in your ability to design a better currency system, and since you don't give any real details about, say, how you will secure the system... Well.

Good day, sir.

The "decline to zero" scenario means cessation of all trade in Bitcoin. Silk Road etc. alone make that seem unlikely to me, unless something better comes along.

I don't see a solution being proposed here. "Mining" is rewarded to incentivize the contribution of resources to securing the network. The reward is set to drop over time, presumably because it is assumed that over time, more and more people will have sufficient investment in Bitcoin to justify the CPU expenses even at a loss.

How would you change the system without compromising security?

Stability is not likely to be seen any time soon. For that to happen, either someone needs to set a fixed exchange rate, taking huge losses doing so, or the market needs to grow until individual players can no longer cause huge fluctuations. Even then, it's not going to be *that* stable.

This is still a very experimental system. The time for mainstream acceptance is not here. Slow growth provides a much better change to iron out the kinks and eventually, if all goes well, will provide Bitcoin with a track record that will give merchants looking into using it more peace of mind.

Anyway, this is all pointless jabber. We lack the means to control the market, so we just have to see what happens.

So you think the experiment has failed, and Bitcoin will never gain further use as a currency?

As I see it, there are different scenarios here that will affect the risk. If you buy from LE masquerading as a seller, then the parcel may be tagged for interception from the get go and, if someone's trying to make an example of you to discourage other Silk Road users, LE might think it worth their while to wait for you to pick your package up.

If, on the other hand, the seller is legit but customs catches the parcel, then they'll probably do the usual thing. AFAIK, over here anyway,that means they destroy the package and you get a visit from the cops to see if you have something you shouldn't have in your home. At least for small amounts of illicit goods. In this case, an anonymous poste restante address may be better.

Anyway, I'm about done here. The only way to find out is to conduct experiments, and I'm not about to become a Silk Road user, so...

I'm not seeing the smoking gun here, eyal.

Bought most of my BTC when they were under a dollar. Do the math.

You're right on #1, as for #2, where do they ask for ID or signatures for poste restante mail? Here at least, people can say they have mail for Mickey Mouse for all the postal office cares, give the right name, they'll give you any mail that's arrived under it.