It will be easier for Proof-of-Stake vanity coins to become culturally popular. They will be intrinsically worthless, but any celebrity could issue them and probably get them to be traded.

That's not far from the right idea.

I am sure that many people invest a little as a hedge, like Microsoft buying Apple stock even though they are competitors. Like DigiCash, Ripple will probably get a lot of hype for a year.     Then die.   

Ripple is reminiscent of 1998's DigiCash that went bankrupt a year later. It has all the worst features for a digital currency. It is centralized, closed sourced, and volatile. Right now, it is piggybacking off of cryptocurrencies because real financial payment systems like PayPal won't touch it. Personally, I think it is nothing but a lame attempt to market a premined coin as something radically new. Ultimately, if Ripple does enjoy a measure of success it will be cloned more often than Fontas coins.

This is a long slow slide. Fear that politicians will use Bitcoin witch hunting to attract financial contributions from the banking industry will suppress widespread adoption. Playing by the rules will be difficult when they make special rules just for Bitcoin. One of two things will break this slide. Either someone will succeed in getting Wall Street to recognize the profitability of Bitcoin as a payment system, or the technology will evolve beyond the ability to regulate against widespread adoption. Until then, Bitcoin has no reason to be worth more than about $30-50. Let's hope all this speculation inspires lawgivers and developers to find some common ground and/or agree to disagree.

Propaganda: The science of manipulating the psychology of ignorant followers. This is the tool that has always been used. Bitcoin is being manipulated this way. We need to change the psychology of Bitcoin users so it resists the tools of manipulators on these fragile exchanges. The tools of psychology are statistics. Statistics is based on the fundamental keystone of Bitcoin. Math is what creates and maintains the integrity of Bitcoin. Math can fortify clarify and resolve its valuation to make it resistant to wild fluctuation and ensure honest price discovery. There needs to be a way to throw out statistically insignificant price fluctuations that aggregate into panic inducing patterns. The nature of trends are clearer when we use better tools, but limiting ourselves to Mt Gox as the primary source of price discovery allows propaganda to take hold.

Still thinking.

Yes it is natural for commodities to act this way. Comparing Bitcoin to pork bellies or wheat does not help define what the Bitcoin experiment is about.

I am starting to think that humans are not ready for economic freedom and prefer the security of the "natural order" of aristocracy. This may be the death knell of Bitcoin until the experiment is tried again one day by less fearful creatures that evolve from our ashes.

The price of Bitcoin is set by Mt Gox. There is no dispute about that. The fact that the sell off of about one hundred thousand bitcoins has dropped the price nearly 50%. One hundred thousand bitcoins is about one percent of the total mined so far. Ninety-nine percent of the bitcoins lose half of their value because of the holdings of one person dumping them and causing people to panic. The opposite can also happen where one person can drive the price up, though panic buying is usually very short-lived as seen by the sharp upward spikes and long-term valleys.

These wild fluctuations are the biggest deterrent to widespread acceptance, yet we allow it to continue. Either the largest bitcoin holders do not really believe in the future of this technology, or they do not know how to fix the problem of wild fluctuation. Perhaps it's because it is an insignificant holding to them or they want to kill it. Either way, large Bitcoin holders do not seem to care about the future of Bitcoin or they would do something about the panic markets.

Some folks might say that Bitcoin price is just fine wherever it is, but the fact is that it cannot be taken seriously until certain technical problems are dealt with. The protocol is developing well, but price is not being addressed by any developers. Why not? The centralized market is a single point of failure for a decentralized currency. This should be addressed by developers, else we allow bullies to control the adaption of Bitcoin.

LTC is only climbing because it is currency paired with multiple fiat currencies on BTC-E along with BTC. The price of LTC is directly linked to BTC because it is used for arbitrage with the fiat currencies. LTC rises and falls in terms of fiat directly proportional to its trading value with BTC. In other words, it is a purely speculative device that has no intrinsic value over BTC.

Renaming it TiggerCoin.

Yep all those people that invested millions into Bitcoin development and holdings will just allow their investment to fail.

The Dragon will soon awake and eat all your cheap coins!

This is what Libertarians dream of. No central controls of price. Let Bitcoin die and something better and stronger take its place.

If the point is to delay the payment such as sending cash through the postal service, then a multisig transaction would serve that purpose.

Bitcoin is not a private enterprise. It is a movement of, by, and for the People. Why is government afraid of it? We need help getting this technology out there to improve the world. It would at least make sense for governments to spend some of that "Black Money" to support development. Even if all they do is work on creating analytics and crime-fighting systems it would help to improve the economies of Main St. where the banks are not helping. Bitcoin is an amazing technology and all I hear from goverment officials is FUD.

Let the libertarian flames begin.

The US economy will be left in the dust when these hit the global market.

Are you looking to create a new market of goods and services or facilitate a Bitcoin economy?

Maybe then someone will start accepting LTC as payment.

*head exploded*