scant poster, long time lurker here, OP is right.
i've thought about this myself over the past few years.

he's not talking about current systems. so the whole example of registering a car in NM is barely a counter-point.

instead... imagine a not too distant future, where you had to use btc or some other digital currency. and every wallet is registered, like a social security#.
perhaps you want to buy a car from a friend. you both agree 5000. taxes due.

today, you can give him 5000 cash and register paperwork for sale of 100. taxes on 100.
future, "they" (governments/banks/irs, etc) will detect transfer of 5000. all taxes due.

what about work under the table or "off the books", for cash? today its possible. future... nevermore. with digital currency, blockchains everywhere, on everything and a mandatory wallet thats registered to you? Doubtful.

remember, if you've ever bought bitcoin using a marketplace (coinbase, bitstamp, bitfinex, etc, etc) they know who you are and what youre holding. all the feds have to do is ask and those companies are usually all too happy to comply.

"well then, i'll move the coins from my Bitstamp wallet to a new wallet and they'll never know"

no. they have blockchain analysis, clustering analysis for this. and companies like coinbase in the US are already required to us it us it to comply with KYC/AML (know your customer / antimoney laundering) banking laws.

anyway, its a bit troubling when you think about it. ironic too. people (or a person) started this whole thing, and it could be our entire undoing.

We're not doing it right. Or at least, 99% aren't doing it right. (purse.io may be the only company that understands the idea)

BTC has the ability to lower transaction costs, but instead almost all business that accept it, simply use it as an optional form of payment... Keeping the price the exact same...
dumb.

I cant wait for the day newegg and other merchants realize this and actually give me a discount for paying with BTC instead of credit cards.

$1000 laptop, paid with a credit card (1.9% fee) means the merchant keeps ~$981.
$1000 laptop paid with BTC = between  0%-1% fee; merchant keeps ~>$990.

Where's my .09% to 1.9% discount for paying in BTC???

Once merchants realize correct this imbalance, there will be real adoption, instead of just bitfinex speculative shorts.

TL;DR
Mass adoption will happen once you can actually save money using BTC to pay for things.

C'mon guys... look at the charts. the answer is right in front of you.
Its Bitfinex shorts, the attempt at everyone trying to close their position all at once... only way to close your SHORT position is to BUY BTC. The price is even $10 higher on bitfinex than bitstamp (look at bitfinex volume yesterday - 103,859 BTC - vs 44,040 on bitstamp)

Standard stuff, you see this happen from time to time when heavy hitters short a stock only to later feel the pain when the company delivers twice the expected profit and the stock starts going higher. You gotta buy dem shares back timmy.

Short squeeze betchezzz!!! this is gonna be a monster swing.

for those of you looking for some external event to point at and explain this rally... its bitfinex shorts...sirs

Lol, remember, Buffett was also the same guy that openly stayed away from ALL tech companies in the late 90s to early 2000's because he couldn't "understand how they make money". And he also coined the investment phrase/philosophy of "stick to what you know" (Invest in what you understand)

You gonna take crypto-advice from this guy??
Maybe advice on how to buy a portion of an existing company using the company's own stock, while mitigating any capital gains- like the Phillips 66 deal -ok.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/30/buffett-berkshire-hathaway-phillips/

Advice on a new digital currency? Uh, no thanks Warren. I'll stick to what I know.

I love high-inflation countries that don't have widespread Btc adoption yet.
Japan, Argentina, and now India. Potentially huge positive development. They already love gold, wait til average Indian hears about Btc - or if they start gifting Btc instead of gold for their wedding season. Choo choo.

Ahahahha- you listen to npr constantly, don't you? I've noticed the same thing- every smart guy they interview answers questions the same way. I have no idea where this started btw. Just funny; you're not the only one who's noticed. non-passive-sentence-speakers; unite!

corporations can be considered People when texas executes one.

Hahahaha.... My second favorite part, after her not understanding bitcoin, is her not understanding scarcity.

"Gold has often been the worlds reserve currency because it exists only in a finite supply.
Likewise, diamonds are a girls best friend precisely because they are so scarce."

Um, here's what happens when you type diamond scarcity into google;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070203990.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/304575/
http://www.neatorama.com/2008/12/01/10-facts-about-diamonds-you-should-know/
http://are.berkeley.edu/~sberto/DeBeersDiamondIndustry.pdf
http://www.pippinbass.com/artificial-diamond-scarcity

If she can be an economist, then I want to be ruler of Narnia.

And I'll trade you these RARE diamonds for bitcoins all fing day, government-mind-slave.

trading bots filling the space between significant buy and sell levels

First; longtime reader, first-time caller, love the show.

I completely agree with the last statement about gox putting us in this condition by it's own actions, whether by being completely incompetent, or willfully trying to evade the multi-million-dollar cost of a Licensed-Money-Transmitter-Registration Requirements is a side note. It's done, and now we're all in a box. Is the year-long waiting period to be registered in all 50 states as a money transmitter a legitimate guess? Doesn't that also mean we could just get the money out *technically* after the first state has allowed them to operate? Cause in my case I would just drive to that state, get a bank account set up, and withdraw.

That idea seems... dubious... I would think you get access to all 50 states or none, if you were granted federal money-transmitter status. one state at a time? Arg, really?

What I would love, is if someone could ask ol' Mark Karp what the status of the Registered Money Transmitter License is. Has it been granted? Is it going to be granted? how long do these things take? Could it be that the Dept O HomelandSSec could just permanently invoke a 'you will never be registered' amount of red tape on Gox?

It's my understanding that they (mtgox/Karpeles) finally read some rules after the dwolla link got shut off, and realized you can't transfer a few million in and out of your dwolla acct each day without having to register somewhere with someone, and finally got the ball rolling. for heavens sake, my cat could run a company better.

But now, to the banks, it looks like you are running a fly-by-night operation, and no doubt to the EU banks too. Problem is, after the US and EU, there aren't really any global banks left... paypal? TD bank?(toronto dominion) [not really an option] Bank of the republic of congo?

Are they even looking? Also, i don't think anyone ever replied to the question of JPN withdrawals being delayed - or when a last successful withdrawal to a JPN account was made. This could be the smoking gun, since in Gox's cryptic Aug 5th statement they made some reference about the japanese government assuring them they could operate normally and they're not under suspicion - what the hell? Sooo the author's inferring that other governments ARE viewing gox with suspicion...? Can i haz elaborationz plz. [you can read that silly statement on their facebook update page along with their other nonsense] Anyway, it seems like if you can get Yen, gox can't be trusted with anything. Since the US has nothing to do with JPN banks. the US can't interfere with them. soooo - where the crap are the yen withdrawals.

Can we start a global thread similar to the bitcoin vs. country-GDP-parity-watch, but instead we can list when the hell the last time a withdrawal was actually completed to a country? 'Cause at this point, I WILL go to Canada/Mexico/screw it-Japan and set up a f*ing bank account to get this paper out. [and yes i know about localbitcoins and coinbase]
i also have a close childhood friend in Australia, who I may be able to ask the favor of a lifetime of, to get it out for me.

I can start;

USA
oldest known pending withdrawal: June 27th

Canada
oldest known pending withdrawal:

Japan
oldest known pending withdrawal:

Australia:
oldest known pending withdrawal:

Mexico:
oldest known pending withdrawal:

Thank you for all your attention in this regard.

My vote is for kind of annoying. Why not add a date variable into the status, as in, 'your account is over 4 months old and you've been lurking forever, we'll let you post...'

just a thought, mods.