The security implications of being a storage wallet-to-instant cash service is probably too big of a liability. Between hacking the servers and someone using stolen card numbers...yeah. A bunch of people are gonna whine about losing hundreds thousands of dollars one day and then Bitinstant is fucked. I don't think it would be a smart thing to stray from their business model of being a currency exchange.

I'm guessing a SSN/Tax ID is going to be required for AML/PATRIOT ACT bullshit.

I dunno, which is why I didn't specify. 

Tax evasion and money laundering? Government will pay back depositors if they provide their tax information?

Just a thought I had. Would be a convenient excuse and scare people off from trying to claim their money back.

A year from now, ya'll will be complaining about 25 cent price swings on $100 BTC.

Dear BFL:

Lockwashers.

Love,
thebaron

More like Wednesday when the Dwolla deposits start to clear.

I'm going to guess either a country or bank recognizing it as a currency.

If people treated them as a deflationary currency in its own right as buyers, I think you'd be right. But most listings on SR are tied to a fixed local fiat currency amount.

You've got people buying BTC to buy anonymous drugs, a lot of BTC being held in escrow, and then BTC being sold by the sellers to exchange for their local fiat.

My point is, there are only so much up for grabs at a certain price point. The price is going up because people are holding onto them, period.

Anyway, if I could predict the future I would have bought BTC at 8 cents each when I had the chance.

I think we're getting to the point where demand for it as an exchange medium (i.e for Silk Road transactions) is beginning to exceed available supply, so I'm in the bullish state of mind. Especially when you factor in all the speculators who are holding onto them when the purchased them at a bargain earlier this year hoping to break that $30 price point again. And Pirate having to repay investors in BTC when he initially converted their funds into something more liquid...

If you've been waiting to try the almond cookies, I'd order some now because the latest batch turned out absolutely amazing. They're almost perfectly like the texture of a real buttery, chewy (but crispy on the outside at the same time) cookie.

1) Discover way to get a shitload of cash
2) Make a run of your own FPGA boards in China to mine on a massive scale and then pay some hackers to DDoS the major mining pools.
3) ...
4) Profit.

I agree that a lot of the future of BTC is hedged on how hard the governments of the world will try and crash down on it.

For instance, it's a looming possibility that US banks and money transmitters will stop dealing with anything having to do with BTC in about a year due to government pressure and/or fraud. I don't think they'll actually make buying/using them illegal, but it won't be easy to buy them online anymore with US funds.

If someone is savvy enough to set up a network of clandestine cash-to-BTC locations across the US by then, they stand to make a fortune if they can minimize any criminal liability from doing so.

LOL...thanks...I think.

It would make much more sense, if he's really scamming people, to sell of a little at a time and stretch it out as long as possible. It doesn't crash the market and it doesn't look that suspicious.

I remember when I came across Bitcoins they were 8 cents. I forgot about it because it was around the time that CPU mining was becoming obsolete, and there wasn't many things you could spend them on at the time. So why should I have bought any, right? lol

I wonder if pirate is the US government trying to buy up as many BTC as possible. They can afford to pay out 7% with their fiat.

The small local farms here sell produce (not organic, even) for about 2-3x the current going supermarket rates at their stands, and they always have lines of customers during harvest time.

I apologize, I never saw any guideline for such. I just figured in off-topic anything goes.

I would hope that people would set up a huge "pirate" high-wattage WiFi networks with directional antennas to connect locales.