Thanks to the irish posters, I was curious how bitcoin was going in your country. Good to hear that you're trying to seed adoption by talking to people and giving away 'millies'. Nice!

Trust me when I say - I don't.

Got to keep your troll quota up, eh?

yep.

I find it interesting that the Eurodollar has plunged from above 1.45 to just above 1.39 in five days. There is something going on behind the scenes, which will make headlines once they can't contain it anymore. The banks are under stress, and the credit default swaps in some euro-zone countries are spiking. This isn't going to end well.

I'd be mad if my leadership sold me out too. But doesn't justify the caustic reply.

I'd be interested to see if other regions in financial turmoil even know about bitcoin.

Mining pools are a big target. Just waiting for the first multi-DDoS to take out the 'big three'. I personally think everyone should solo-mine.

Oh that. The wallet file gets deleted when your total mining capacity is over 1 GHash/sec, you know, just to encourage people to spread out and not get greedy.

I also like how you told us how much was lost, the precise circumstances, and all of that. Great job.

The point was, they don't keep a lot of cash on hand. It is just charged electrons on a whirling platter in a hard drive somewhere. Welcome to your virtual US Dollar.

The answer is, most people are insufferably dense. I'd peg that number to about 80%, give or take. They'll take the most impulsive, ill-reckoned, emotional and haphazard plunges into things that would make a sane person stop and stare in disbelief. And then, they'll do it again.

Just the way things are, I'm afraid...

Oh good, some early-adopter profit whining.

*rolls eyes*

It has everything to do with bitcoins. I'd love to ask the exchange operators what percentage of their redemptions are in dollars versus euro, etc..

I'll think you find that the primary monetary flow is into dollars. I'd call that associated and relevant, wouldn't you?

You have no idea how badly the dollar is going to fare in the next few months/years. It is only the beginning.

And to the other commenters point - try going into your bank and asking for your entire balance in cash. The answer might surprise you. (Assuming you have more than say, $1,000 in your balance.)

Spain is going to roll over, Greece as well. Euro is currently hitting the bricks at 1.40, dipping to 1.39859. The 'great experiment' of green toilet paper isn't going so well.

All I see is circumstances where interest rates rise, they won't be able to service the interest payments, much less the primary balance of debt - and then we get to see a "Restructuring Event" that robs most government programs and pensions.

Wish I was kidding, but that is the track we're on. (And no, it doesn't matter who is in the hot seat, we're too far along to really give a crap about politics at this point.)

I think we need a captcha to prevent these stream-of-conciousness threads. Similar subjects exist, have been 'debated' all to hell and back. This isn't bringing anything new to the table. Perhaps a timeout function and search? It could show that what you are about to post has in fact been done before, and give you about 10 minutes to think about it.

I know, who am I kidding - nothing works with the obtuse.

Oh good, we haven't heard enough about this alleged theft already. I'm glad that we have the opportunity to drag this well-beaten-down subject out into the sunlight, with a dark cloud of flies swarming the maggot-infested corpse.

Executive summary: No proof, all speculation, pure drama.

Give it a rest.

What if everyone ran to the haberdashery, what would happen to hat prices?!

The problem with being a successful troll is you have to work at it. Really, you can come up with something better than that, you pedantic jackanape.

I like keeping idiot topics like this on the front page until they are conclusively proven to be wrong. Look at lardycake, that idiot hasn't bothered following up since we eviscerated his foolish claims.

This one will fall too, just give it some time

Last Mt.Gox: 15.13

Hi spruce, I see you've met one of our resident trolls. Don't sweat it, their bark is much worse than their 'bite'.

You could do as you suggest and have a wallet under your control which you can 'offline' for a while by having the information printed in whatever media you prefer. You'd just have to reintegrate the wallet to a current client and download the blockchain to update things before sending your gift.

Why is it that when someone has 'economic' or 'economist' in their nick-name, they turn out to be the most idiotic form of troll?

Such a mystery...

First, thanks to the parent poster for bringing this to our attention.

One item that hasn't been brought up is China's relationship to the U.S.A. I think they would be very interested in bitcoin, because lets face it, this currency is the perfect tool to give the western banking centers a big middle finger. They wouldn't have to worry about negotiated treaties, or any of that. There are no international laws (that I know of) regarding bitcoin explicitly, and if the central banks decide to use it as a tool to kick our banks in the teeth - things will get very interesting around here, quickly.

Guess we'll have to see what unfolds. Thanks also to the "man-on-ground" reports from China, helps us understand how bitcoin is being used, and what the potential government response will be.