One of the problems plaguing bitcoin right now is the time it takes to get coins. Bank transfers can take 4-5 business days which, taking into account the weekends, could be over a week before you are able to purchase BTC.

Many people are reluctant to accept a faster form of payment like PayPal, credit cards, etc. because the transactions are reversible and you can't get the BTC back.

What would you think of an exchange that sold a digital object of value such as an ebook or music, then included a free amount of BTC? Since BTC are essentially "play money" and of no legal value, their inclusion would not be part of the transaction, just a freebie from the seller of the digital product.

This would mean people who paid with PayPal, etc. couldn't reverse the charge once they'd received the digital product.

Any legal issues?

Not really a "coin" but Ripple is certainly becoming a popular currency.

Yes, when the whole world is moving away from physical money to some kind of digital currency transfer, why would you be trying to go in the other direction? What makes you think there is a market for this?

Okay, I'll be honest and say I didn't read it all, but...

I really don't think there's a problem with keeping ledgers with multiple currencies. Many companies do business in multiple countries and therefore have to reconcile different currencies. They just convert the figures to one currency when they print reports, file taxes, etc.

Nice looking site. Sort of Prosper.com for BTC. Hope it works out for you.

I think BTC is too volatile to be used in lending/borrowing transactions. Why use BTC when you could get a loan with fiat at a low interest rate?

A good way to think of altcoins is to consider what it would take to launch your own virtual currency. How would they get adopted? What keeps people using them?

Changing people's habits, gaining trust, finding mass acceptance all take time and may never happen. There's a lot of risk in altcoins.

If I were going to bet on a currency to catch on it would be bitcoin. While it still hasn't achieved mass acceptance, it's the leader by a wide margin. Why take a long-shot when you've got a sure thing?

I don't think it's a scam, just a poorly executed business. Unlike most bitcoin scams BFL actually sold a physical product for USD. There is no anonymity here, no bitcoin transactions, much harder to walk away from without consequences.

Starting a "bitcoin related" site is good but what bitcoin really needs is to be accepted as a general currency. That means popular sites selling goods and services need to get onboard with accepting bitcoin for payment.

This more than a new service aimed at bitcoin would do a lot.

+1

Yes, this. I think too many people are getting wrapped around the popularity of bitcoin and suddenly thinking it's something more than a virtual currency--with emphasis on virtual.

Many MMORPGs (like World of Warcraft) have virtual currency and you can certainly legally gamble within those games with virtual currency. This is true even though you can buy more virtual currency with fiat currency on eBay, etc.

So if you think of bitcoin as just another virtual currency and all bitcoin transactions are a game you begin to see how laws apply to bitcoin.