And since cash is often used for illegal purposes, government are exerting themselves to restrict cash operations. In many countries (including the USA) you can't pay in cash for, say, home or buy other expensive goods with cash. Thus the flow of large amounts of money can be easily traced.

I don't think they are going to establish a new world reserve currency. They are always quite happy with being only the second best. My guess is that they hoard gold just in case dollar should fall. This way their gold reserves will serve a hedge against such a possibility. No matter what currency becomes a new dollar (or even if there is none), they would always have something to exchange for it, or just directly use their gold as money.

Bitcoin has a smaller capitalization than dropbox.  Governments might like Bitcoin; as do some libetarians, but mainstreet is either hostile to Bitcoin or it'll take them years to get on board.

Speculator and trading bot are needed for a healthy system.

this is an amazing example, but sadly an example that has repeated through history, time and time again. For example during the Great Depression of the 1930's, many European countries faced a similar crisis, the worth of money has gone  so low that it was cheaper to burn stacks of money for heating than buy Fire-wood. Germany at that time faced the worst brunt of the Depression in Europe with money becoming worthless and and to carry a sack full of money to buy a loaf of bread.

The current financial still is vulnerable to such drastic inflation.

learTax, an online income tax filing start-up based in Delhi, is giving away Bitcoins worth $1 (approximately Rs.60) or a mobile recharge worth Rs.20 to those who refer friends and family members to the website as part of a promotional campaign.

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/DuTk4UJBoCx38HDAtYtvnK/ClearTax-becomes-first-Indian-company-to-offer-Bitcoins.html

Those are more likely scammers than beggars.  They pretend to be sick/ill/disabled and suck money out of people at freeway off-ramps.  Then after a good day of pulling $400 out of the generosity of others they hop in their Audi A6 and drive home to their home in Newport Beach

Unless you're willing to lie you would probably be better off working some off jobs. I guess it depends on how much your integrity is worth.

This is definately going to happen if the current goverment is really serious in passing the legislation and signing a treaty to bring back the black money, then I really see use of bitcoin by corrupt politician to hawala their funds. This is actually the real concern and which will also happen. The problem is if these corrupt bureaucrats take the bitcoin route then they will benefit and the community will really suffer at large, because on incident is going to start the fall of bitcoin dominos.

It was somewhat easier to buy when Mt Gox didn't have any ID requirements but that's also when SHTF.  Bitcoin went from $33 to $2.  Imagine if $33 was like the $1200 last year, the $2 (Jan 2012) would be $72 now.  If BTC started tanking from $500 to $72 over a 5 month period would you have the guts to buy in at $72?

Everything is easier in hindsight.  I didn't sell on the way down to $2, but I did sell on the way back up to $7 lol. Damn that wife.

No, it was more of a workshop instead of a regular meetup.

Hence you can't equate pricing to regular conference.

Still we received a lot of guys supporting us at even these ticket levels, however we have received a lot of inputs and we will be keeping more reasonable prices in the upcoming events.

Regards,
Amit

How about HSBC ? Its still operating in India right ?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230349/HSBC-accused-setting-thousands-tax-evading-accounts-Jersey-including-drugs-arms-dealers.html

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/08/15/us-hsbc-swiss-tax-idUSBRE87E0U620120815

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/hsbc-fears-significant-penalty-in-nri-tax-evasion-probe/article4696089.ece

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/hsbc-judge-approves-1-9b-drug-money-laundering-accord.html

Corrections are healthy!

More merchants accepting BTC will lead to greater liquidation (from those merchants) in the short term but the improvement in awareness among customers and adoption by other big merchants will grow the market.

The problem is the balance between investment and medium exchange, the latter won't lead to higher prices and IS the primary objective of the currency.

I sense some karma? op loses bitcoin after getting a random amount loll.

Can't wait to send my facebook-friends some of my Bitcoin millions!

What economic activity would cause bitcoin to go up in value like this?

-The USD could be come so inflated
-The population of Bitcoins becomes finite (once all are mined, similar to gold) and more and more people want to own it
-More people want to own and hoard it

All of these reasons could increase the price. But if it becomes an alternative form of currency, for spending, spending adoption alone will not raise the price (unless the USD or fiat becomes significantly inflated).

Anything I'm missing here?

Alternative opinions encouraged...