To the OP, do YOU have any thoughts? Thanks for the link but what's the point of this thread? What's your position?

How does the money get sucked up by mining?

Welcome to the forum. I think you're making some really broad generalizations here which are more than unfair when compared to ISIS.

So you're saying that if I use a western bank i'm funding genocide and war? What bank in the world has funded genocide or declared war (seriously, i'm not aware of one that's directly done either of these things)? And why do you assume I bank with that bank?

By your logic, anyone who drives a car or uses plastic supports wars for oil. By your logic, anyone who drinks Russian vodka, smokes a cuban cigar, or eats at a Chinese restaurant supports Communism. By your logic, anyone that does business in Amsterdam supports prostitution. By your logic, anyone who travels to the Middle East supports Islamic extremists. By your logic, anyone that vacations in Colombia supports cocaine use.

What may be worse is that you're comparing the SOMETIMES hypocritical, (I absolutely admit) not-peaceful, not idealistic actions of a Western government with an organization that believes that beheading ANYONE who doesn't believe their ideology, ignoring education and science, and oppressing women is right and just...as if they're similar. ISIS kills you if you don't believe everything they believe in. The US, for example, allows you to shout whatever you believe from the streets, lawfully, if you so desire.

To call western governments and ISIS similar is incredibly naive and deliberately ignoring the facts.

It's ironic that you're an atheist because you have to take a huge leap of faith to believe the connections you're trying to make.

You want to help ISIS fund their terror with Bitcoin?!?! Are you a working with them, one of their terrorists?

If you're helping criminals fund their crimes, you are also a criminal. And if you want an easy way to destroy Bitcoin's reputation with the masses, get it associated with the largest terrorism group in the world...no one will want to use the "currency of criminals."

Thanks to all who have voted!

The commentary has been good as well, if you haven't voted yet please do as it's great to get a sense of how the distribution of wealth lies with those that respond.

Anyone know how many active Bitcointalk.org forum users there are? Can the moderator give us a general number? With that we could see what sample size of votes we'd need to consider the results statistically relevant.

You can't provide any detail on why you like the book, why it's so good, or why we should read it?

Finding ways for the poor to access and use Bitcoin to increase their own wealth is a better way to get Bitcoin to thrive and empower the poor. Wealth distribution isn't the solution, the money will always end up back with those that provide the goods and services.

This is a great idea! If you don't start this poll, I will.

Said after 150 votes...how many votes do we need for it to "work" in your eyes?

This is a great point...you can't win what you don't wager. And if you've lost relative purchasing power then every new BTC you buy today will help you earn back that purchasing power, dollar cost averaging CAN be your friend.

Agreed they pay relative dust.

But you said you'd play if they paid 20 times what they do now. So if you think BTC is going to be 20 times Today's value at some point in the future it would be worth it for you to play the faucets today...

Have there been any recorded sales of silver BTC0.5 s3?

I'd love to know what these have gone for in the past.

Fair enough, I'm a buyer of the 2013 silver .5 at face value plus a premium of BTC0.70.

Let's talk, man...

This is how bidding on goods works. One person says what they're asking, the other what they're offering and sometimes we meet in the middle. I expect to pay a fair price for the coins, and DJ expects to get a fair price...deciding what's "fair" is the fun part.

Uh oh, commemorative Bowl game coins?

It might be time to sell the Casascius coins...Mike, I think you've jumped the shark with this one.

Love your previous work, Mike.

I just think creating marketing tokens will dilute the value and the integrity of the existing original coins. Good luck to you. And if someone has to make a marketing token for the game it might as well be the original (and in my opinion only) Bitcoin coin creator. I hope the bowl game brings a lot of due interest to Bitcoin.

1 Bitcoin a week is poverty in America...just a tad over $17,000 at today's rate.

California, Silicon Valley...come to where people embrace this stuff and know about it and talk about it and use it.

You shouldn't be able to exchange BTC for a markup, that goes against the ENTIRE concept of Bitcoin. If you want to get your money for a markup you need to move to North Carolina or NYC and start a bank, sell loans for big interest and enjoy your markup.

Everyone's trying to sell a book...

The site is working again today. I don't believe there's any issue with this site or the close of the signature campaign. Coinut.com is trust worthy.

http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2014/10/29/jeffrey-robinson-bitcoin.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=V_Taboola

Have you all seen this video (from Oct. 2014) where Jeffrey Robinson denounces the long term viability of Bitcoin?

He calls those that thing Bitcoin is going to take over the world or soar to high prices "lunatics", cult like behavior.

He says that the Cuban peso is a stronger currency than Bitcoin. And with only 250k active Bitcoin users there are more piano tuners in Canada (than BTC users).

What do you all think?