Let's assume for a second that the reddit news attracted more investors. How long do you think their money will be competing with the rest in the market and therefore drive up the price?

Do you think it will? I guess first there has to be a reason why people would use it rather than current means. So here is what I can think of:

People use bitcoin in the supermarket with their smartphone because it's cheaper than using a credit card. 3% less or some amount than a credit card. Now that businesses are free to charge more for credit card purchases they might opt for something different.

But why would a regular consumer use bitcoin rather than say.. a debit card linked to their bank account?

The one reason I can think of is because they would rather hold their value in bitcoins instead of dollars before they are spent.

I emailed Mark Shuttleworth a few minutes ago aha. He has actually replied to me before about something. I just gave a headsup about bitcoin in the email.

I'm bullish but I agree with this. Infinitely? Doesn't sound realistic anyway. The truth is a lot of people will cash out of bitcoin and that will cause the bubble to pop...... but that is the price bitcoin has to pay to become an elite currency. Over and over people will suck money out of the bitcoin circulation and prices will rise and fall but eventually it will still be worth more than it is now. I only say I'm bullish because I don't think the price will drop that far. There are lines of people waiting to buy at 15........ so that means I doubt it will drop that low if the price does crash.

All it would do is have apps for each phone type that (I presume it could only work with unlocked phones) connected to "bitcoin" related apps. There would be user reviews and rankings and that's pretty much it.

That's very helpful actually. And the business I had in mind isn't "letting anyone buy anything with bitcion"... the idea I had is actually low volume. There would be a maximum of 50 transactions per day and each transaction's maximum value would be 100 dollars about(and not all at one site but rather spread across the internet).

I'm not talking about tax from profit. If there are profits great. and pay taxes on them great.  I'm talking about sales tax.  If the person pays the company bitcoins and the company then buys the item and sends it to the original person... how is the sales tax problem solved?  Right now as it stands the buyer of something online is required to report that on their taxes. So would the person who pays with the bitcoins still be required to report the purchase on their taxes or is this somehow now the responsibility of the company in the middle? Does the company now have to pay a sales tax on something they are just letting someone else buy with bitcoins? Does anyone know exactly how that company that allows you to buy pizza with bitcoin works?

So even though the item would go directly from newegg to the person who bought with bitcoins.... the company in the middle that accepts the bitcoins and buys the item with their money would be construed as a "reseller" ?

Since the company would not actually be selling anything but just be allowing someone to buy an item through a different kind of payment is the sales tax still the responsibility of the purchaser (the person who used the bitcoin in the first place) to report as it is now?

In this example.... newegg accepts different forms of payment. So what form of payment would this business use to buy the merchandise? Would it be a corporate or business credit card?

And when that company goes to pay their taxes...... They pay taxes on their profit right? The fee for the service they charge?

Maybe I should rephrase my question and give an example

Suppose someone has bitcoins. They want to buy a computer part from newegg. Newegg doesn't accept bitcoins as a payment. In comes this "business" . They accept your bitcoins and in return they will buy the computer part with their money... and since they were paid in bitcoins then they can simply exchange those bitcoins into money and make some small profit based on whatever fee they charge. How is that dishonest or illegal?

How is it any different than the new business that lets you order pizza with bitcoins?

the question is what legal hurdles are there? Not what is honest or dishonest since I wouldn't consider such a service dishonest.....

cool! I'll check it out

Say you want a business where you accept bitcoins... and the business itself buys some item and sends it to the person who bought with bitcoins. What legal hurdles are there?

when do you think they will start shipping?

How about Steam?  Steam for linux just launched. Now is a great time for bitcoin there as well

I'd say 3-4 months

Can bitcoin really be blamed if a criminal uses it? I think this is the first and only subject most mainstream media will talk about if they introduce their readers to the bitcoin.

Bitcoin is designed for the internet age. It's designed to be better than what we have at doing what money does. Since it is better at it's job, then people will use it. This includes criminals. But can bitcoin be blamed if a criminal uses bitcoin because it's a better and more convenient form of money?

That's like saying cellphones can be blamed because criminals can use them. Why does a criminal use them? because cell phones are a more convenient form of communication than writing a letter which is what we used to have.  Saying that bitcoin is bad because criminals use it is like saying that cars are bad because criminals can use them to help in their criminal lives. Why do criminals use them? Because cars are a better form of transportation than horse and running which are the forms of transportation they replaced.

Just thought I'd get that off my chest.

and to start accepting bitcoin. ahaaaa

hahahahaah That would show em.

"everyone" and the current market are a fraction of what the future market will be. Saying that you don't think early adopters could get rich basically means you are saying the price can't continue to rise. If the price can't continue to rise what you are basically saying is that the future market will not grow. I'd bet against that. With a larger market in the future and a fixed supply... there will be an automatic increase in demand. Price rise is inevitable with market growth.