"They are not to do anything they please to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for that purpose. To consider the latter phrase not as describing the purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power to do any act they please which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless. It would reduce the whole instrument to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress with power to do whatever would be for the good of the United States; and, as they would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a power to do whatever evil they please... Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. It was intended to lace them up straitly within the enumerated powers and those without which, as means, these powers could not be carried into effect." --Thomas Jefferson: Opinion on National Bank, 1791. ME 3:148

So, no, it doesn't mean the federal government can do whatever it wants.

http://www.dailypaul.com/103339/thomas-jefferson-clarifies-to-provide-for-thegeneral-welfare

Nope. The state isn't the only one capable of providing such services. People provide services and they do so because they desire to do so. People obviously desire children to be care for: It's human instinct. They will be cared for regardless of a tyrannical state.

Why not have every nation grab a few hundred thousand bitcoin and register each satoshi in their stash? They could then issue bills backed with their registered satoshis. All of us with non-registered satoshis would be out in the cold, right? Well the bitcoin network still needs us to operate miners to keep it secure. Miners could have their bitcoins registered for other currencies at a "fair" exchange rate as they are needed to expand the economy. After several years, the hoarders will begin to be able to cash in their stash at higher rates. Unregistered bitcoins can still be bartered as commodities until they are sold to another country. Counterfeiting would require demurrage to keep bills updated. It's likely that a system like this would stabilize bitcoin prices to the basket of currencies.

I don't like the new design. It is a lot better than before (when there was no design at all) but still... it should look more like bitcoinica. Now it looks like some kind of japanese cartoon.

Buy/sell order page is awful, you have to switch between buy and sell page. The trade data price chart is useless. For instance if you have price swings between $2.5-$3.1 you should draw a chart in that range not $0-$3.1! The same problem with tradehill, useless trade data also. The advanced chart on the top has the volume drawn with a line! Where have they seen that?!

It is obvious they have never seen a real trading platform before, so don't wait for the options and margin trading on mtgox (they probably don't even know how options trading works anyway). Their idea of security is limiting costumers' withdrawal sizes, lol. If I deposit $50.000 I expect be able to withdraw MY money whenever I want! BTC or USD, it doesn't matter it si my money.

Mtgox is still bad. I try to use other exchanges as much as possible.

This has been said so many times that it's almost a universal truth by now.  

I'm not sure if this is true though. I don't see bitcoin competing with traditional payment methods or replacing them 1:1. It has too few advantages to the average merchant and average consumer.

Where I see bitcoin succeeding is in killer apps that were not possible before bitcoin, eg. distributed contracts.

Every individual who supports blacklisting of any money totally misses the point of money i think.
I for one would stop using it and switch to an alternative currency.

Keep in mind, the project is to promote Bitcoin, promote a proof of concept, and provide a neat-looking example of a good honest coin... but not to insure against things I couldn't possibly reasonably control.  Fortunately, to my knowledge, there have been no occurrences of this kind to report, and to the best of my knowledge, all coins in the wild are either legitimate and funded, or (at worst) are waiting to be funded when enough time has elapsed to ensure they've cleared customs of their buyer.

Why are you such a bear?

I suspect it will parallel the growth of internet bandwidth traffic.

I'm waiting for Android users to have POS systems that allow easy and secure transactions. Steve Jobs will adapt it as *his* idea after it shows how profitable it is. He'll then add an "I" or "Mac" to his bitcoin app and market it to the trendy suburban boutiques.

It's all about the BRICS.

Replace socialist and conservative with left- and right wing.
I'm taking the easy way out. It's a saying. Don't read too much into it.

There's a saying around here: "If you're not a socialist when you're young you're an idiot. And if you're not a conservative when you're old you're a failure!".