This and then store the bitcoins in a secure place and watch them appreciate or use a service like Just-Dice as an investor and take a bit of risk on the profits of people using the service.

No I do not know anyone in Afghanistan

That said I do know that if a country is disconnected from Swift and the general financial system it becomes extremely difficult for citizens in that country to acquire and access money.

This is a real problem and it does seem forced from the Financial Action Task Force on currencies.

 He says, the blacklisting would not only starve the people of food, fuel and medicine; it would starve the government of a vitally needed source of revenue. And he would be entirely correct if you look at Iran you can see there are two markets for the rial the Central Bank rate and the actual rate, trading for goods and services are complicated and it would mean that alternative solutions to bypass these boycotts for normal citizens would need to be enacted.

Mobile Banking and Bitcoin would play a big role in economic stability over there and allow students to not need to worry about having their accounts shut down by Chase Bank or National Bank of America.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ryan-costello/why-is-bank-of-america-cl_b_5330851.html

It would need to be done through SMS though as their would be internet problems there. Example 37coins to throw an idea of how it could work.

Well another question is how much the price of electricity is to generate a Bitcoin presently is around $500-600
It should probably rise a bit more with all the merchant adoption over the last few weeks
I would say to look forward to a rise from here but your right it might not be a multiple of 6 to 7 but realistically around 2 to 2.5

To me it has been quite the interesting paradox strong promotions on Russian television with Keiser and his Maxcoin(Died) and Bitcoin in General and yet an attitude in Russia that suggests the opposite .
(He-He that said Elwar has a good point and I never considered it that way)
I will admit that I am a Max Keiser fan and a person who enjoys watching RT sometimes the Russian promotion gets a bit heavy, but it provides a strong critical analysis to Western Media and is refreshing in the way it expands your perspective.

This one from the Beginners and Help Thread
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=643637.msg7186509#msg7186509

It has Bitcoin references in it and is awesome
Peace - Money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-69_ncALA0&feature=youtu.be

I always appreciate a new song that has Bitcoin in it
Thanks for sharing it thought I was watching an episode of Suits for a minute
This song is addicting the lizards though made me wonder

Oh boy now this is going to get interesting.
I'll congratulate you Phineas for becoming a platinum member of the bitcoin foundation, and look forward to seeing your work.
Bruno is going to be having a fun time there  

#Edit kept reading and now I see what you did there

To my knowledge there is no current option to print paper wallets on a pocket printer
That said I think someone will run with this idea soon enough
It comes in handy especially with one way ATM machines where you need paper wallets to get new people who don't have a Bitcoin QR code to load Bitcoins onto.

Perhaps if we all ask for the divine to kick that number out of the way the price will go above it
That said if it is resistance then it might make a good buy in point since its easy to remember
What is your average buy in price oh around $666

Actually your right if they don't participate they will be shut down I recall a social media site owner choosing to close his service instead of giving information to the Feds about its activities and that was Lavabit although they have my respect for doing that and I would consider using any companies the guy makes in the future.

Anyways your right the onus is on us to figure out how to get past the government snooping to a personal level, and allow internet communication to remain free.

That said reading the Wiki the gov is pretty crazy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavabit

Nice try Vod Can't Always Math perfectly all the time ^_^

Well I guess that means people will need to start supporting the economy at least that's what the banking system thinks.
On the other hand I see this as an opportunity that Bitcoin can use to get people to start creating industries around it
Anyways believe the EU is doing it if the US does it is a different question as niothor pointed out

That's an open question but yes in theory an inflation rate that does not have any economic strength backing it or a standard to replace it will in due time collapse. It does not happen immediately though, the Soviet Union went three generations before their currency system collapsed and the United States is struggling in this generation but if it is doomed to fail is another question. Then theirs the Euro which is recent but already has problems, a mixed economy like China might be able to handle those two extremes but it is not yet proven through time although it looks pretty strong now.

That is about right, basically Neobee had a nice fancy press release got coverage put it in a neat Google Document then a few days later while people were in Euphoria Danny said he was being threatened and sold the company to someone, then delisted the exchange and shut down the company. So it looks pretty much like a scam at this point, had a lot of coverage from all over the Bitcoin sphere too.

I like your username and welcome to the club ^_^
Since April 2014 anyways if you can resist the urge until your in the green then you will be richer later at least we can hope

And yah the average buy is getting higher now.

Your welcome for me the ten points were what stood out most in their working paper in that Bitcoin was able to solve all these problems at one time.

1) Proof of Ownership (Obsoletes Notaries)
2) Dispute Resolution (Obsoletes Mediators)
3) Record Auditing (Obsoletes Accountants)
4) Smart Property (Obsoletes the Police)
5) Decentralized Stock Exchange (Obsoletes Centralized Stock Exchanges)
6) Highly Efficient Transfer of Assets (Obsoletes Banks, Debit Cards, Money Transmitters)
7) Full Control over one's own assets (Obsoletes Central Banks, Regulators of not only banks but other parts of the financial sector as well)
8 ) Conditional Transfer of Assets (Obsoletes Lawyers)
9) No Inflation
10) No Business Cycle

Point 6 applies to your paper in that the Highly Efficient Transfer of Assets applied through an economic lens can also be looked at from an environmental perspective.

The scale of energy usage between a typical fiat based payment system such as the SWIFT per country and a bitcoin based one such as 37coins using SMS and Android phones seemed like a neat tangent.
Simply put a low energy phone vs payment orders over the SWIFT Financial Network.

From your analysis you had lifecycle data and I was able to get a rough analysis of energy usage and environmental impact of Bitcoin versus Mining Gold or the current Fiat Payment system in aggregate.

If you were curious on the types of energy used to produce that electricity and want to update those numbers from approximates it would probably help to look at Daniel Yergin The Quest and Vaclav Smil Energy at the Crossroads Global Perspectives and Uncertainties to see the energy linkages to energy type whether coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear or intermittency based energy like Solar and Wind power.

It's a good read for energy analysts

http://www.bitcoinmicrofinance.org/37-coins-send-bitcoin-with-a-text/
http://howtoexportimport.com/Difference-between-Swift-and-wire-transfer--434.aspx

Its kind of a small case area to evaluate, but it has a big impact in terms of financial transactions and energy usage.

Just a blurb, and thanks for sharing and I look forward to your 2nd edition when it is completed.

Three years ago I was thinking about the ideas around the financial system but had not yet heard of Bitcoin
If I had I probably would have bought some or start using it.
That said at 4 million difficulty I remember the days before it was up to billions.

I gave it a read and analysis and it is interesting
Oddly enough I can see this combined with a working paper I was reading as well that you may be interested in.
Combining economic theorem with environmental benefits.

From the charts I was able to assume a ratio scale and although the data had several presumptions I feel like it is accurate in its calculation.
Anyways thanks for sharing your work and I'm sure it will find utility in the community

Sent you a Mbtc as a token 

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2436823

Same sentiment, I like the summary page but thanks for sharing this looks like an interesting read.
Quite the big difference compared to the cost of mining versus all the services we use now.

Bitcoin is reliable in that at whatever exchange rate you trade it for you can still purchase goods and services with it, the movement of the asset price between say $650 dollars at 6:06 and $666 dollars at 7:06 is the purchasing power difference.
That said it is still reliable the amount you can get and the exchange rate for goods and services vary a bit but it is fairly constant if used right after purchasing that or you hold it.

Still a decent or good investment.

Secondary link
http://www.coindesk.com/professor-susan-athey-people-use-bitcoin-intrinsic-value/