A miner makes an investment in equipment and electricity, etc., and in return they get Bitcoins.  The amount of their investment is then compared to the value of the their production.  *But*, the potential future value of their production should be taken into account too.

I think *maybe*, unlike the current flurry of alternative "coins", Bitcoin 2.0 (whatever that is) would do well to provide a relatively short period of time during which Bitcoin 1.0 coins can be readily converted at a fixed rate (as opposed to exchanged at a varying amount indefinitely).  This is not to say post-conversion Bitcoin 1.0 coins would be worthless; on the contrary, the variable exchange would start then and be determined by classic market forces.  If it is well thought out, handled carefully and with some luck then a large amount of value could flow into Bitcoin 2.0 minimizing the disruption.

If one tries to stand up Bitcoin 2.0 without a conversion program then it is just like any other alternative coin and will likely suffer from a lack of investment.

I'm not sure going all the way to an automatic conversion program is better.  Trying to force Bitcoin 1.0 to shutdown altogether might be tough.

Incremental changes from 0.8.3-beta through to 1.0 and beyond and even to 2.0 or higher might not be able to achieve fundamental enhancements like becoming ASIC hostile.

As far as your immortal soul goes, the very best investment is prayer.

From whence does complexity come?

Morality seems hardly simple to me.  Attempting to analyze people as if they are subatomic particles seems unlikely to lead to understanding let alone enlightenment or consensus.  If there were truly only three people in the universe then complex social concepts such as morality wouldn't mean much if anything.  Long before morality would come the quest for purpose and meaning.

Again, one might claim they can be swayed by the debate, but claiming it and doing it are light-years apart.  Energizing the rhetoric with drama is distracting.

Stealing is a complex concept that stands near the top of the mountain of various possible human interactions.

Ask yourself these questions, "What have I stolen?  Why did I steal it?"  Then dive back into the debate anew.

But what is the point of the debate?  Concede all to your opponent; what difference did it make?  Inspire your opponent to come into the blinding light of truth of your way of thinking; what difference did it make?

Healthy debate intent on refining action is just great.  Endless debate ... I'd rather eat a bowl of ice cream.

That was unpleasant -> I had a harder time valuing your contribution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_cascade & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_effects

vs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbMvxLRdpm0

Yep, I don't see the comparison either.

In such a debate consistency and to a much lessor extent endurance will sway the observer.  Name calling, while potentially entertaining, tends to distract the observer from getting the point.  You don't really think you are going to be able to convince one another, right?

Also, a lot of quoting is pretty boring.

Oh, and having a pretty girl walk around the ring between rounds would be appreciated.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/v/victorhugo136258.html ... mBTC's time hasn't come yet.

Tipping a complete stranger with Bitcoins could piss them off -- (what is this crap?).  Offering a tip in Bitcoin *or* fiat puts the receiver in a much better position -- (keep track of how often they choose Bitcoin vs. fiat and report back here).  *If* you can/will see the receiver again in the near future then offering to replace the Bitcoin tip with fiat at that time will make them feel good.

Two hungry animals struggle to the death of one of them over food ... the more fit (maybe) survives to procreate.

Oh, wait, apparently we are assuming we aren't brutish animals anymore.

Human children (and even sometimes the offspring of lessor species) are socialized, usually by their parents, during which they learn many things one of which might be stealing is wrong but it begs the question, "Where did the parents learn this?"

It is a mistake to think taxes are collected involuntarily, i.e. stolen; typically they are given over voluntarily if reluctantly.  Naturally there are potential negative consequences to not paying.

Even the commandment does not say, "Thou shalt not coerce."

If Alice hands a silver coin back over to Bob then that's not stealing, right?  Perhaps Bob will use it and other coins collected to build a road for Alice and others to bring her crops to the village to sell.

Democracy (majority rule) is not necessarily logically flawed even if the majority votes for something immoral in someone's eyes; it might be the best structure discovered/created so far for governance.  If plenty of the majority have been well trained by their parents et al then immoral votes are unlikely.

How would one use an escrow service in this case?

*If* it is not then I'm sorry for doubting you but it just seems so unlikely and I'm rarely wrong about this sort of thing.  Being bored hardly seems like a reasonable motivation to giveaway value.  Can you explain yourself a little better?

16V9UivwWtp6iGsaRnWycUjZJBcDDQRmV4

baloney?

I truly fail to see why this is absolutely anything but good news.  I'm been trying myself to locate a custodian to facilitate bringing retirement funds into Bitcoin.  This is it; finally.  My only complaint is I didn't get it done first.

Bridging the old pre-Bitcoin world into the age of Bitcoin will take many such arrangements.  Eventually these bridges will look dumb but they are a must for now.

I'm a long bull (believe it could be an outstanding store of value even if it isn't the one and only currency for transactions) but still well-diversified.  If it goes to zero then so be it (unlikely).  Helping it grow by word of mouth, etc., is my tactic.  I'd love to get a breakthrough on the custodian front but no joy there yet.

I'm sure I'm missing something here (timestamp and previous block come to mind) but would it be possible to create a burst of transactions yourself -- enough to populate an entire block -- carefully designed to make the calculation of the hash quicker than accumulating transactions from the broadcast stream?

Dwolla -> CampBX is my currently preferred path in

Ah, ha!  I figured it out.  XBT is a perfectly fine designation; 1,000,000 XBT = 1 BTC or 0.000001 BTC = 1 XBT.  Then to talk about it in typical human comfortable terms we use kXBT, i.e. kilo-XBT.  So, 1 kXBT = 1 mBTC.  I gave my nephew a gift of 200 kXBT (=0.2 BTC) and boy was he happy.

But, of course the corresponding rate change is only actually an $0.00000001 increase.  Your hopes rest upon the thought processes of the sellers and buyers being mathematically weak -- a not totally unreasonable hope.

Why stop at one millionth?  Why not jump to one billionth?  Reasonableness, obviously.

Unless there are other compelling reasons we should take this in bite-sized pieces.  In my humble opinion, the first obvious step is to mBTC (I am *not* fussy at all about the exact designation).

There is a very real risk of failing to pass even just the smile test if the Bitcoin exchange rate is below a single penny.  Penny stocks are considered by some too high risk; meanwhile some consider a high stock price to be an indication of quality.

http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/2012/7-of-the-highest-stock-prices-in-history-brk-b-aapl-seb-nvr1114.aspx