http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/dc1b07ec-c867-11e2-8cb7-00144feab7de.html#axzz2VQPkpzb1 Bitcoin is cybercash and users can build up balances through “mining” (difficult) or though trade. The parallel to the move from barter to a precious metal coin system is exact. Farmers and craftspeople built up precious metal balances through trade and so barter died away. As liquidity builds up and becomes more widespread, the Bitcoin system can facilitate an increasingly large, and anonymous, portion of global trade with little if any interaction with the regulated system. Indeed, it may increasingly come to serve the same function that offshore banking has previously served and is now unsuited to serve because of growing transparency. The potential of Bitcoin to undermine regulated financial activity must not be underestimated.
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