Uhhh…as well as every other site where you may have happened to use the same username and password.  People really do need a way of testing whether specific passwords are in that list…because many may have forgotten what password they used (with browser autofill, etc) and if they reset it, well, that doesn't tell them which password has been compromised.  Otherwise, they may need to change every password on every site, which can be tedious.

Just more justification to use unique, generated passwords on every site.

Cash deposit to bitfloor is free and right now you can buy them for $5.27 (their fee for liquidity takers is 0.4%).  Also, you can buy on CampBX for as low as $5.15 right now.  They have several forms of free deposit and I believe their fee is 0.55%, but I don't think they have cash deposits yet (so it will be a little slower).  BitInstant is also fast (their fees vary depending on the gazillion options they offer).

Looks like a great arbitrage opportunity between campbx and mtgox right now.  And bitfloor too.

I hope the market will speak and these platforms are forced to open up to alternative app stores.  If I'm not mistaken, even Android phones are locked by carriers into walled gardens for their apps (mostly because carriers want to charge extra for tethering).  Fortunately it's pretty trivial to unlock or jailbreak these devices (I wouldn't buy any device that I couldn't jailbreak).

What I would like to see is an app store that actually did review and approve apps, but that the criteria is solely that the app is relatively bug free and free of viruses, spyware or malware.  I would pay a premium to buy apps in such an app store.  I'm hoping that maybe Cydia or someone like them figures this out and starts such a premium app store.  Then I hope they make enough money doing it that they can sue Apple and the others to open up their platforms for alternative app stores.

On a more serious note, I think this issue will become moot once the mobile browsers all support the media access APIs (http://dev.w3.org/2011/webrtc/editor/getusermedia.html).  There won't be a need for native apps on either iPhone or Android and nobody's approval necessary.

Why not start a separate Android vs iPhone debate thread I can more easily ignore?

We don't have any native apps, just web apps optimized for smartphone screens.

Another good point…and it makes me wonder if there aren't already other apps that are in fact illegal in some jurisdictions and for which Apple has allowed, but disabled just in those jurisdictions.

+1 …I really like this approach.  Apple may have the right to reject any app for any reason from its store, but if there really is a jurisdiction where Bitcoin is deemed illegal, I think developers have a right to know it.  Alternatively, if the truth is that Apple has just decided to ban Bitcoin (specifically), or virtual currencies (generally), they need to fess up and be honest about that (and yes, I would think a lot of people would be interested to know that Apple is trying to stifle competition in the area of payment solutions).

Over the last few weeks, it's been consistently cheaper to buy bitcoins from either bitfloor or campbx.  I expect this situation will persist due to the difficulty of getting dollars out of mtgox (people will demand a premium for selling bitcoins at mtgox).

I looked at it and all the input transactions…I have no explanation either, everything as reported by blockchain.info looks fine.  Bear in mind, blockchain.info could have bugs.  I wonder if perhaps the clients consider this to be a "spammy" transaction for some reason.  

I think it's possible that Argentina could be ripe for a Bitcoin related tipping point.  There is a decent tech community in Argentina.  Around the time of their last currency collapse (early 2000's) I worked on an open source project where there was a sizable number of Argentinian's involved.  They were offering to do software development work for very cheap prices due to the currency devaluation.  Given that this currency event is such a recent memory and given there is a decent tech community, Bitcoin might have a chance there.  However, I think a few things need to be in place ahead of the event.  

First and foremost, there need to be local bitcoin exchanges.  With capital controls in place, foreign exchanges won't do them much good.  It could be readily apparent to everyone that Bitcoin has value on mtgox, but if you can't sell your Bitcoins on mtgox and transfer it back into Argentina, mtgox is of no use to them.  And capital controls will only get more restricted as the event nears.

Second, there needs to be a decent and visible amount of people willing to accept Bitcoin in exchange for goods and services domestically.  The basics (food, shelter, clothing) are essential items that need to be readily obtained with Bitcoin.  This will give people the confidence that if they hold some Bitcoins, they'll be able to spend them to obtain these necessities.  It's of little use to people in Argentina to be able to purchase mining rigs with Bitcoin when their primary concern during a currency crisis it putting food on the table.

Third, there need to be a critical mass of people in Argentina that hold Bitcoin in advance of the currency devaluation.  If very few people in Argentina have Bitcoins, then to obtain Bitcoin, it may be necessary to market and sell goods or services to international buyers that have Bitcoin.  That might be challenging.  Also, if only a very tiny portion of people have Bitcoin, those few holders of Bitcoin would command a very disproportionately large percentage of purchasing power present in the country.  This might cause others to be reluctant to use it for a currency as opposed to something like silver coins or the remaining physical USD in circulation.  The people that have Bitcoins now would actually do better with their investment if they tried to spread some of it around to other people.

Edit: I misread the title as "Why should I buy $100 worth of BTC" …I thought the OP was pondering what reasons one would have for possessing Bitcoin.  I suppose that still could have been the reason for the question.

It's an excellent question, but I think investment opportunities shouldn't be allowed as answers.  That's not to say that there aren't good investment opportunities (including Bitcoin itself), but it's important that Bitcoin be used for actual commerce.  It's possible that Bitcoin's monetary properties will make it worth holding regardless of whether it's ever used directly for much commerce.  It could prove to be an effective store of value even if merchants never directly accept it on a broad basis.  In my opinion that's a compelling reason to hold some Bitcoin, but Bitcoin will be much more compelling if there are plenty of commerce based reasons for holding some of it.  I also think you should disallow answers regarding speculation about future commercial uses of Bitcoin.  Here are a couple of commerce based reasons for having a few Bitcoins right now:

- to buy drugs on silk road …ok, I had to throw that one out there
- to buy VPN services if you live in a part of the world that has restrictive firewalls for accessing the internet
- an easy way to pay people for services, or settle debts, without being subjected to limited banking hours, or handling paper checks, or waiting days for electronic payments to clear, or paying outrageous fees for international wires
- to save money on a purchase where Bitcoin sales are discounted due to the higher fees/risks that merchants have with other payment options
- to buy goods and services from eCommerce sites if you happen to live in an area where other payment options are cost prohibitive or outright impossible (there are many countries from which eCommerce websites either cannot accept credit card payments, or the fees are ridiculously high…like 20% high)
- to make purchases without divulging bank account or credit card information that could be stolen from a merchant with poor security practices

There are a lot of things that can be bought with Bitcoin, but not necessarily exclusively with Bitcoin or where Bitcoin offers any particular advantage over other payment methods.  I also think that the unique properties and capabilities of Bitcoin transactions will make it a compelling tool for many types of transactions in the future, but that's speculation about the future commercial uses of Bitcoin.  I also didn't list illegal uses of Bitcoin (aside from silk road) because if the predominant use of Bitcoin is for illegal activity, then Bitcoin will never see widespread use outside of criminal organizations.

What else can be added to this list that isn't speculation about the future utility of Bitcoin, that isn't investment oriented and that isn't illegal in nature?  The longer this list is, the better off Bitcoin will be.

Lately, MtGox has been having issues moving money internationally.  In some cases, large withdrawals have taken quite a few weeks to process.  A MtGox voucher isn't worth much when it takes that long to process a withdrawal.  It's not surprising to me that the other exchanges are discontinuing their support for MtGox vouchers.  Does BitFloor support deposits via international wire transfer?

I mentioned PGP once to a mortgage broker I was working with…they clearly had no idea what I was talking about, so I said never mind, I'll just drive over to the office…and they thought I was behind the times in that I couldn't handle it over email.  

Bitcoin is definitely free speech (I've recently started describing money as "information in the context of a social protocol"), but governments have a long history abridging the right to free speech…even in countries like the US where it's a constitutionally protected right.  In the case of bitcoin however, I do think you can make some very strong arguments for bitcoin on free speech grounds.  Ordinarily, to abridge the right to free speech, it has to be shown that speech would injure or harm someone.  I think it would be very difficult to argue that Bitcoin harms anyone.

Oh, I see, well that's a bit different then.  I didn't have a chance to follow all the messages in these threads, but from the sound of it, someone inadvertently sent their hosting control panel password through an email server that was later compromised and gave someone access to the control panel?  I'll use this as a case in point in the future the next time someone dismisses the risk of sending sensitive information in the clear over email.  On a side note, it never ceases to amaze me at how companies (even financial ones) will send scanned forms full of sensitive information over email with no encryption and never give it a second thought.

Regarding the Bitcoin Consultancy and questions about why they haven't been more active in this mess...I don't know what their arrangement with Bitcoinica is, but if they hadn't fully taken over the operation of Bitcoinica and had no responsibility for the security or theft, then they might be wise put their relationship on hold until Bitcoinica sorts everything out first.  If the Bitcoin Consultancy had nothing to do with the security issue there's no reason they should have to clean up someone else's mess.  At the minimum they would probably want to first arrange compensation for the time and effort that will be required for them to clean up the mess.

Given the small size of the company, they probably all just work from home offices…or really cheap office space somewhere.  The mailing address service they use is probably just to avoid having to use their home addresses.

I imagine the lawsuit and all the trouble they got into with the fraud and reversals with TradeHill was a big factor in updating their TOS.