Per Betteridge's law of headlines, the answer is no. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

So we still have a long long way to go.

Cheers for keeping on top of the news Arvicco. It's becoming a full-time job these days!

A group of business-minded cryptocurrency experts could simply take the Bitcoin source code and start over, creating a Bitcoin 2.0 that uses the elegant settlement system, improves the mining process, and adds a layer of oversight.

New UK Bitcoin exchange to bar US clients
By Stephen Foley in New York

A new Bitcoin exchange launching in London on Tuesday will bar customers from the US, citing diverging regulatory approaches to the experimental digital currency.
Coinfloor, which is being pitched by its founders as a forum for high-frequency trading in Bitcoin, will open initially only to customers in the UK and the rest of Europe.
 
At the same time, the Bitcoin Foundation, which acts as a US trade group for virtual currency businesses and advocates for Bitcoin, is planning to set up a non-US headquarters, to reflect the possibility that the centre of gravity for innovation will shift abroad.
Mark Lamb, founder of Coinfloor, said his company had ambitions to move into the US eventually, but “legally it is not safe to open up to US customers in the beginning”.

He added: “Partly because of regulation, we think there is a larger market in the UK and in Europe and then in Asia.”
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority has told Coinfloor it does not plan to regulate its business, which will offer a way for customers to swap British pounds for Bitcoin, in competition to existing European exchanges Bitstamp and BTC-E.
The UK agency has been monitoring the growth of Bitcoin but has decided it is not widely used and therefore does not currently require formal regulation.

An anonymous computer scientist created Bitcoin in 2009 as an alternative to fiat currencies. Transactions are conducted through a peer-to-peer network of computers, outside the traditional banking system, and the number of “coins” in circulation is capped.
The value of a Bitcoin has fluctuated wildly as speculators have debated whether it could be widely used as a currency for goods and services. Last week, Fortress Investment Group’s Michael Novogratz became the most senior finance industry figure to admit buying Bitcoin, saying it might become a useful payment mechanism in emerging markets.

Coinfloor, which is based in the City of London, has received seed investment from Passion Capital, an angel investment firm led by Stefan Glaenzer, former chairman of online radio pioneer Last.fm and a founder of auction site Ricardo.de. Another backer is Taavet Hinrikus, an early employee at Skype.

The exchange goes live for customer registrations at 9am on Tuesday with trading expected to start a week later.
Passion did not reveal the sum it invested in Coinfloor, but said its average investment is £190m.

Bitcoin exchanges operating in the US are required to register with the US Treasury and to implement anti-money laundering checks. Most states also require money transmission licences, though few have set out policies regarding virtual currencies.

Banks have been nervous about working with US exchanges while regulation remains unclear, and several Bitcoin entrepreneurs have received subpoenas from state authorities asking for information about whether Bitcoin can be used for money laundering.

Peter Vessenes, founder of Seattle-based CoinLab and chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, said that innovation could shift out of the US to other jurisdictions.

”The way the regulatory dance works in the US, I think you will see more innovation elsewhere,” he said. “It is harder here.”

That would probably be unprofitable no matter how much a bitcoin is in dollars.
Scrounging around on possibly millions on hard drives, usb sticks etc. would be extremely expensive because there's no way to completely automate the process. There will always be some manual labor involved with hooking things up etc.

... Here's a story recently related to me by a guest at a White House dinner, which included Google's Eric Schmidt: The president, whose most important job is surely to protect the integrity of the monetary system, smugly asked Schmidt if Bitcoin, one of many growing challenges to currency hegemony, was anything he had to worry about. ...

It can be argued that either scenario, liquidation of the coins or holding by the US government, leads to a tacit but strong legitimation of Bitcoin trade. If the coins are sold, either through a traditional exchange or through some kind of public auction mechanism, the US government would be accepting dollars in exchange for Bitcoins. Once that happens, why shouldn't the rest of society including banks and other financial institutions be able to do the same confidently? Numerous US financial institutions and businesses fear any dealings in Bitcoin would bring stigmatisation; such fears would be rendered obsolete. With the fall of Silk Road and the seizing of its funds, a situation has now been created that in the long term might lead to Bitcoin's final consolidation as a legitimate currency in the US.