Ok, working on it now. I'll get back to you in a several billion years with an answer! 

Until I see a method of "destroying" bitcoin I have absolutely no concern about this.

Or one could learn about bitcoin and understand why none of this makes any sense.

I am not trying to confuse anyone, but it is confusing. Weed is illegal in all 50 states. That is the federal law and if a federal prosecutor wanted to he/she could go after a person for smoking. Even though it is legal at the state level. It's an unusual situation.

I guess that is a loophole, in the same way that robbing a bank is a tax loophole.
You have me wondering about the taxation on weed in Washington state. The state collects tax on it even though it is illegal according to U.S. law. Pretty weird when you think about it.

It is disappointing to see the all the energy about economic freedom turn to greed. First the grass roots projects began to dry up, then infighting ruined whatever organized attempts by groups like the bitcoin foundation were tried. Now it's just a lot of "Wut computer buttons do I push to get rich?".  Few even seem to want bitcoin, they are just using it to get fiat.

Well brothers, bitcoin will grow because of what YOU DO. For example: Message Amazon today and demand to pay with bitcoin. It would take 5 mins. and if a tiny fraction of us did this it would happen tomorrow and bitcoin would soar. So ask not what bitcoin can do for you, but what you can do for bitcoin.

I totally agree. The idea of tax free bitcoin is completely false. I am not aware of any law on the planet that allows for a loophole when using crypto-currency.  The tools which will allow anyone to audit the blockchain are soon to be usable by governments around the world. They will simply throw you in jail for not paying. Asking if bitcoins are taxable is exactly the same question as "Is money taxable"? Yes, yes it most certainly is.

You have not stated which government you mean, but you almost certainly owe taxes. What penalties you face depends, again, on what government you are talking about. It could include fines, jail time, etc. In the U.S. you would owe capitol gains tax on your profits. Failing to pay would likely result in the IRS garnishing your wages until you pay your tax, plus your penalties, plus possible imprisonment.

Unless your rich, then apparently you can just screw your fellow citizens and be called a genius. 

Wow, 30 days and nobody collected the money? 

Considering how people will solve captchas all day to make pennies, I am a little surprised that this wallet is still there. (Or at least I think it is, the money has not changed addresses). I know that it is not enough to fly to Iceland. Still, there are no rules here and anyone could partner up or something to get a cut of the loot. I will soon open this up to a wider audience by publishing it on geocaching.com.

Geocaching.com kinda sucks by the way.  To publish a cache you have to take a quiz, follow a bunch of rules and wait forever for a reviewer to OK your cache. However once it is done I suspect the money will promptly disappear. So make your plan now and claim your treasure!

I assume it will die tomorrow. It "dies" all the time. 

If there were a way to use public keys to determine (hack) private keys then there wold be no bitcoins left.

I don't where you got that? I would guess that for every dollar worth of bitcoin used in an illegal activity a million U.S. dollars are spent illegally.

I do! And I wouldn't have it any other way.
This is peer-to-peer stuff. There is no bitcoin company, no bank, no government; it belongs to you and I brother.

Just a reminder to start by making a copy of your wallet.dat file. As long as you have a backup, your coins are fine and you can always fix this. But if you lose your wallet.dat file there is no hope at all.

Amen to that!

Have we stopped teaching math in school? Higher bets do not change the odds, and odds are you will lose. That is the most important fact about most gambling. The house is likely to win and you are are likely to lose.

In the future it could have an impact. If SHA encryption is broken for example. However bitcoin would be the least of our worries if that happened. Much of the internet would be vulnerable.  

EDIT: It is also true that if we saw this coming we could switch to another encryption scheme.

I'm not sure I understand.  Directly processing bitcoin transactions is what BitPay does. There are others if one prefers. Or a business could have a trade account at an exchange and do it themselves. I only mention a payment processor because that is something 99% of businesses already do. All credit cards purchases, for example, are processed by a third party and cost the seller about 3%.

I think if these questions were addressed to Amazon rather than us it would have a greater impact. Don't forget to tell them also!

Can we ask what government you mean? The rules vary wildly around the world, but almost all places require taxes to be paid for income or growth of capitol.