It's also the last few thousand years that we had an economy in which wealth was growing.

The more important question is, who has the right to decide at what age another individual gets to make decisions for themselves? I think it's a matter correctly left to the parents of said person. There is no "magical age" at which someone becomes an adult - that's absurd. As is our current system in which politicians decide when their subjects are old enough for sexual activity.

Open-source, community-driven initiatives are absolutely not at odds with libertarian principles. So long as nobody is forced to participate or fund something, it's 100% kosher liberty.

Free markets don't only result in rigid corporate profit-seeking behemoths... community projects, co-ops, and even *gasp* charities function well in an environment of freedom.

Yes, they are less than 2-3%. And please see the 1st point... the vendor can receive the payment in USD, they need not convert anything.

Getting "Site not found" error

I'm sympathetic to the view that the decimal should be moved... but not yet. It should be much later. Changing it now will add confusion and "weirdness" to what is already confusing and weird. Bitcoin needs to be perceived as stable and solid... shifting decimals, while only a notational issue, will make people perceive it as less stable and solid.

Fractions are hard to deal with, admittedly. But now is not the time to be messing with the notation.

Shops will eventually charge less for payments done in Bitcoin as opposed to dollars because of these three reasons:

1) Bitcoin payments from the customer can be immediately received as USD payments to the vendor (using a service like bit-pay.com)
2) Bitcoin removes the credit card fees of 2-3%
3) Bitcoin eliminates the risk of chargeback, which for many online vendors is a significant cost.

Combine these three factors and you will see Bitcoin prices will become lower than USD prices in the near future. This phenomenon is what will drive Bitcoin to widespread adoption, because web shoppers will start seeing two prices, one always slightly less than the other.

Maybe a better question is, "what wouldn't be affected by a Bitcoin-based monetary system?"

They offer one style of transaction which some may find useful and others not so much. Their purpose is pretty easy to understand though- they are a physical codification of what is otherwise a purely digital commodity. We are physical beings and as such it's nice to have physical forms of the money.

And I bet you have some fiat cash lying around, don't you?

BitBills has demonstrated proof of concept here... you do not need to trust the person handing you the BitBills. And BitBills is just the first iteration of this concept, it's not a stretch to say many similar/superior products will be created. And of course, just as with cash, there is always a risk you are receiving counterfeit money - the goal is to reduce that risk enough that it is no longer a big concern for most transactions.

I think we will find that Bitcoin will take off precisely because vendors will be able to offer slightly lower prices when paid in Bitcoin. They will not do this because they "like Bitcoins" but rather because they don't have to pay 2-3% CC fees, and don't have the risk of chargebacks.

This incentive is the strongest impetus for widespread Bitcoin adoption.

There has been skepticism over how anonymous Bitcoin really is, given that every transaction is tracked in the block chain. Well, I'll put forth a simple theory that Bitcoin's anonymity can be at least as strong as with cash.

Why? Because you can trade it exactly like cash. Bitbills are the easy example right now, but many more similar substitutes will develop in which people can trade the key pairs in the physical world, just as they trade cash in the physical world.

In this way, Bitcoins can indeed swap ownership WITHOUT being recorded on the block chain. I can give and receive Bitcoins without the block chain ever knowing. Poof! Cash-esque anonymity, if the user so desires.

This also has a compelling corollary: anyone analyzing the block chain in order to determine Bitcoin transfer records will have to assume those Bitcoins were not physically traded ever in the real world for such tracking to be reliable. Such assumptions become foolish very quickly. There is an unbridgeable gap in knowledge.

But I think it's best if the government believes Bitcoins are 100% traceable 

Excellent point and very true. I think that people like to feel that "someone" is in charge of things, even if they don't agree with the policies. It's hard for people to comprehend spontaneous order, let alone trust in its ability to manage resources.

No takers yet, but that's what it's worth to me to keep it 

First and foremost, it allows frictionless transactions. It cuts out a number of middlemen by making them redundant - thus the transaction is more efficient. This means the wealth of mankind grows faster.

This is a very good point... and how odd that gold is not included in the "basket of currencies?" It's a pretty crappy basket if it doesn't even include the longest-running, most stable money in mankind's history.

It does look great.

Please report when you can accept BTC payments because my GF has some and she doesn't know where to spend them =)

I think history will show that printing trillions of dollars out of thin air and accumulating trillions of dollars in debt tends to be bad news for a currency. And school children years from now will look back with astonishment, giggling among themselves at the stupidity of the former generation.

Rome is burning, but the Romans are drunk on bread and circuses.

I notice that Atlas tends to discuss points. He is engaged in a philosophical debate. It's fine to disagree with him.

And yet I also notice that some of his opponents, upon becoming frustrated with his worldview, tend to resort to calling him immature, ridiculous, "ideological," etc. etc. Other opponents generalize outward with statements such as, "if Bitcoin is made up of such crazy anarcho-libertarian types then the whole experiment will collapse."

Perhaps this is because his opponents know, deep down, that their world view relies on coercion. It relies on theft and the surrender of the individual to the collective. Such people, being good at heart, do not wish to explore their own ideas, lest they become visible. It must be uncomfortable to realize one's moral framework is built up around what amounts to involuntary servitude.

Long-term, in a mature market, you'd be correct. But BTC is not traded on the global forex markets with the type of liquidity needed to display that type of correlation just yet...

Maybe in 3-4 business days, after the Dwolla transfers, we'll see the .42% increase we expect