accepting checks (cheques) is not the same risk as an unconfirmed bitcoin, the closest comparison would be a fake bank note and not having a UV lamp handy to verify its legitimacy for atleast 10 minutes.

this is why vending machines have coin/note checkers built into them, even for small priced items. as fraud is a big thing

shortening the blocktime is not just a tweak. it also involves OBVIOUSLY messing with the reward pay out. because if there are only going to be 5.25million coins produced in the next 4 years. at a rate of 3600 a day. then shortening the blocktime will mess with the maths of rewards and difficulty, etc etc.

so a 10 minute estimate for 25 coins would need to become 12.5 coins for 5 minute estimate. just to stay on track for the 5.25mill coins by 2017. which makes it less profitable for NON-asic miners as they have to push even harder to solve the block in half the time for half the reward. the ripple effect of messing with the block timings is a silly fools errand that will cause more issues then solve

although people think the san fransisco media hype makes bitcoin a big deal for mainstraim proof. well it was a nice way to spread the name bitcoin around in a positive manner. but in reality the reporter used third party services mostly to survive, EG foodler. where the actual bricks-and-mortar stores that are linked to foodler would not take bitcoin direct instore, or even had a clue what a bitcoin was.

bitcoin news should be about the actual walk down the street and pass bitcoins onto the actual shop keeper... That there would be the true point at which bitcoin is definitely going manstream.

which makes places in europe seem more bitcoin friendly, such as the OP's research shows

as some people are now realising sending out 2 transactions is easy, but getting them confirmed 10 minutes+ later is the 'near' impossible part. so accepting 0 confirms is definitely a risk as you never fully know until the 10th minute (first confirm) if its a double spend or not.

even if they get rejected at the 10th minute, because double spends are theoretically hard to achieve. that's still only provable at the 10th minute.

however the option of a payment service which accepts coin to get pre-confirmed, to then use later throughout the day. such as a loyalty/value card system for small daily lifestyle amounts of value would totally eradicate this risk.

much like how MTGOX use to pre-confirm funds to then allow MTGox codes to transfer bitcoin balances between members instantly/risk free.

i would happily put 0.1BTC into a service while i take a shower in the morning, knowing by the time i get to starbucks or want a morning breakfast in a cafe i can spend it instantly without question.

MTGOX missed out on a key feature for their merchant gateway by removing the gox codes. but then again i would not suggest MTGOX for merchant services due to the lack of support/current issues.

if its wallet client is based on the coding originally based on the bitcoin-qt client

Help -> debug window -> console
then type in:
importprivkey 1T3RrAc01nAddr355blahblah

where you change 1T3RrAc01nAddr355blahblah  to your actual PRIVATE KEY

but it may be best that you use http://www.terracointalk.org/ for all future terracoin chit chat, or the alt-coins sub section

just viewed http://bitcoinpresscenter.org/ and also heard it on the podcast on lets-talk-bitcoin and this is what i call an open platform to allow anyone who has confidence to talk to the press to submit themselves as contacts, showing what type of contact with media you prefer EG interview, live interview, written etc.

great work to whoever is involved in setting up this better option for bitcoin press

this is a good thing

now all that is required:
1)add an additional feature for location as well as language because to get some local confidence in bitcoin and not have the U.S domination

2)to google search bitcoin news stories, find the editors email addresses and link them to the service

you guys still dont get it.

what comparisons in real life.... actual real life function does bitcoin have anything to do with gold.

and please dont say because someone gave the name of the concept of creating coins "mining"

because satoshi could have called it vectoring (due to the eliptic curve) and then people will start thinking.. hmm drawings.. hmm art.. oh it must be an asset..

it is NOT a commodity.

it will not appear next to wheat, cattle or oil on the commodity columns of trading platforms. so get that out of your head. it may however appear in the forex columns and treated as a legit currency.

however for tax purposes because of the actual ownership and store of value is much like antique/collectable art/coins it should be treated like an asset for tax purposes.

atleast try understanding what a commodity is and realise you cant change the laws of physics, laws of tax, laws of intellect purely with enough votes on a bitcoin forum.

P.S if you have never heard of the laws of intellect, here goes:

3 people with an IQ of 100 do not together become twice as smart as someone with a 150 IQ

the way i see it, imagine just 11 million people out of the 7 Billion people decide to try bitcoin. and they are not going to invest their whole life savings of $£50k but instead they just want to dabble with $£1k (a months salary)

well for each person out of those 11 million to get 1BTC would end up costing £$1k each as there is only 11mill coins.

in reality though id say half of the coin are being hoarded and not available to be resold. so this would push the price up further to $£2k a coin, where theres only 5mill coins available for all the demand.

money: is a item owned by government used in transactions (its laymens term for FIAT)

commody: a raw material used in the production of other materials/products that has a internationally recognised value and quality base.

currency: anything used as a valued item in a transaction.

bitcoins are not a commodity. you can not grind them down to make chocolate or bread. you cant melt them down to make electrical parts or jewellery. you cant cut them up to make beef steaks, or other meat products and you cant refine it to make car fuel or power generators.

so now you know that bitcoin is not "money" as that term is reserved for fiat.. its not a commodity because of it having no other practical use, so that just leave the one thing that bitcoin is useful for.. currency.

the next question is, will the guys behind mtgox turn up to hand over $75mill. or retire in a non extradition country

confirmed the link www.mtgox.com/login works

go to coinlab.com.. its official

http://coinlab.com/status

i have already gave back a bit of feedback to bitcoin ATM as a possible extra layer/service to make the system even more stream lined. ill update this post if i get a reply.

EG
they only require 1 confirm for cashing out - but imagine a busy shopping day where there is a queue. you use the machine once to put your coins in. then linger around the machine/form a second queue for when the confirmation occurs to the redeem your cash.

my idea - to have an app/website portal to pre-deposit the coins while in the carpark/ home/work. and then receive the redemption code before you even reach the ATM. so all you have to do is use it once, to type in the redemption code and get your fiat.

the price is not done by how much is deposited or withdrawn. the price comes from the order book.. (in laymans: the lists of buys and sell)

i know of people that have alot of BALANCE but dont always have orders set. so their balance has no bearing on the price.

what you will find is the sheep on btc-e are following MTGOX valuations. when mtgox jumps up they follow, when it falls they follow.

same as the LTC/USD if you compare the 2 graphs of BTC/USD to LTC/USD they are near on exactly the same.

its the orders that set th value and there a lot of large players that throw in large orders or eat up a certain number of orders to make BTC-e prices follow mtgox prices.

everyone is thinking the end is near due to the price being nearer the $100 mark compared to the $240 mark..

the way i see it...
Feb 2013 low of $20
March 2013 low of $33
April 2013 low of $50
May 2013 low of $91


dont worry about the highs, they will be ramped by many speculations the proaganda machines can think up next.

as long as the lows don't drop too much and creep up in value each month then bitcoin is still growing. ignore the daily amounts if your thinking about long term investments. the daily amounts are for day trading profiteers.

for long term value, use the monthly low figures to see what is happening

meanwhile Mr Miagi teaches Daniel son about bitcoin

"no no no Daniel son bitcoin like painting fence, it go UPP, DOWWWN UP, DOWNNN"

slowly increasing in value (painted panels) as time moves on

the only time the IRS/HMRC will tax you is when you convert it back to FIAT.

if anyone else thinks differently that they want 20% of your virtual currency. then most people would be more afraid of spending their world of warcraft gold, or their facebook credits on game items.. after all arnt they also using a virtual currency to barter...

so in short dont worry about losing 20% of bitcoins every time you send them to a friend through the bitcoin clients.. just worry when you want to cash out to fiat. which is not anything new. but the IRS/HMRC just want to make a big deal of it to those that don't know the regulations that have already been in place for years

obviously the OP is giving up, oh well. more coins to go around for new adopters, no loss there then.

in other news the euro has been around for over a decade and still even now people dont trust it. theres been bank robberies, shutting down of banks, and all the other blah the OP mentions.

in other news the UK Pound has been around for a few hundred years and still even now people dont trust it. blah blah, ill save repeating the same story as the OP spouts about bitcoin.

in other news the dollar, yen, blah blah. you can guess what im saying here..


now the only difference being is that bitcoin is not a government owned product which is then licensed for people to have in their possession. bitcoin is actually your asset, your property. they cant just go into your bank and reduce the decimals to zero.

as for the 4 year itch. back in the days of the wild west it took much longer then 4 years for the dollar to expand beyond local bartering and become an internationally recognised and traded product.

yet people in the UK already buy american, european products and services with it. and vice versa

so ignore the propaganda that bitcoin is failing. thats just fake hype someone wants people to think to cause a drop in the price purely so they can buy in cheap.

or there is this list
http://bitcoingamelist.com/

the same person that posted that story: http://ireport.cnn.com/people/BitCoinSachs also posted the rumour of bitcoin becoming the national currency of zimbabwe.

long story short. create fud, see how far it spreads, hope for impact in bitcoin price.