Bitcoin is the Rearden Metal of Atlas Shrugged.

It is a provably superior alternative to the current currency but there is such a huge industry built around the old currency that it is attacked by all aspects of the currency industry from Keynesian professors to central banks to government agencies.

Just like with Rearden Metal the special committee of the National Council of Metal Industries came out with reports talking about how unsafe it was. They could not provide any proof but they had several warnings against it.

"They said Rearden Metal is a threat to public safety. They said its chemical composition is unsound, it's brittle, it's decomposing molecularly, and it will crack suddenly without warning [.....] They're experts, though, the men on that committee. Top experts. Chief metallurgists for the biggest corporations, with a string of degrees from universities all over the country."

“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I've learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one's reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one's master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person's view requires to be faked.”
— Hank Rearden

Open your mind for a moment and imagine a few hundred people on an island starting with no laws.

With no laws and no way to enforce them they start to run into problems, some murders, theft, property is taken, people build a house and assume they own the land only to have their neighbors think that they own a different part, etc...

People start arming themselves and try to protect themselves and their property but most find that they have to go to work, they cannot stay at home all of the time so a private police force offers to protect peoples' properties for them, some people like it and pay for this police force to protect their home from intruders. The police force is given boundaries of peoples' properties and disputes are worked out to come up with clear property lines.

Some people do not agree with the lines and go with their own police force, a few police forces pop up and pretty soon there are property line disputes between police forces. One guy says an acre is his while another says it is his. They both call out their police forces to keep the other off of their property and soon there is a stand off between forces. Both are right, they are protecting lawful property and a firefight between forces breaks out.

The next time funding for the force comes up, both forces raise rates for those home owners to deal with the extra cost of a firefight with the other force. After some time both land owners realize it is cheaper to come to an agreement on property lines than keep paying higher costs to the police. So they make compromises and the rates go down.

Now imagine one group of people really hates gays, they pass a 'law' against gay marriage. Basically they authorize their police force to go in and kidnap and punish a gay couple. The gay couple is paying another police force to protect their property from intruders (including police) and protect them from kidnapping. The gay law police come to kidnap and imprison the couple and the kidnap protecting police are called to protect them. Another stand off and possible gun fight ensues...

At this point the people who hate gays are told their rates will go up in order to pay for gun fights with other police forces. The battles are costly so the gay haters have to decide if it is fiscally worth it to have such a law. Over time it would not make sense to pay for gun fights.

After a while, the cheapest route for all users of the police forces would be to agree on what 'laws' to impose, and it would gravitate toward such a common agreed law of the land with very few subtle differences. You would also have to factor in people who do not use a police force and protect their own properties and lives. Any outside force used against them or their lifestyle would bring with it a cost that would likely not be worth the higher rate.

Thoughts? With no laws and people willing to pay for competing police protection, how do you think things would end up?

Should we institute something like the Better Business Bureau for Bitcoin companies?

Companies sign up on the BCBB website and allow users to post any problems they have had with the company along with any resolutions.

The company pays the site for accreditation, users get to check out a company before using them and the decent companies get more users.


(I would say just go with BBB but they are not international, and they may not understand how Bitcoin companies work)

Ron Paul says no:

Don't ask government to regulate Bitcoin
http://www.ronpaulchannel.com/video/dont-ask-government-regulate-bitcoin/?utm_source=RPFBG&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=DailyUpdate

I predict a panic sell by some weak hands, unfortunately it will probably bounce back before my paycheck arrives in my bank tomorrow to take advantage of another dip.

Short term though, this should bring a lot more media attention to Bitcoin which is usually followed by more adoption by the masses.

It seemed like most liberal news articles always referred to Satoshi as a person or "group of people" who came up with Bitcoin.

Always falling back on the idea that a single individual is not intelligent enough to accomplish anything, that it must always be a group effort.

Much respect for Mr. Nakamoto for his creation, may he be left alone as he wishes.

MtGox =/= Bitcoin

So one exchange is having troubles. We get it, move on. Sounds like something for Service Discussion. Or create a MtGox subforum next to the Scammer section.

This all feels a lot like what happened after Silk Road was busted.

The price was around $120, then crashed down to around $90/BTC. The media hailed it as the end of Bitcoin.
The next day the price came back up to $120 and kept climbing. The media still kept talking about how Bitcoin was finished.

Within two months, the price of Bitcoin was over $1,200.

Now after MtGox goes away.
The price was around $550 then crashed to around $400/BTC. The media hails it as the end of Bitcoin.
The next day the price comes back up over $550 and keeps climbing. The media still keep talking about how Bitcoin is finished.

Within two months, price of Bitcoin over $5,500?

Based upon past capitulation events and with a floor of $400/BTC I predict that the price of Bitcoin will reach $800 by April.

Based on the numbers at that point, those that have been through this a few times should be able to get an idea of the next peak.

If you have not seen people warning 1000s of times before, listen now.

MtGox has screwed over its users time and time again. If MtGox comes up and you feel the urge to use them as an exchange...please just PM me and I will give you a BTC address to send your bitcoins.

If you have your bitcoins on a website, or they are sitting on your computer that is connected to the Internet. Send me a PM and I will give you a BTC address to send your bitcoins where they will be safe from hackers. Granted, they will also be safe from you as well.

If you do want to use an exchange, I suggest Bitstamp, BitFinex, CoinBase (for people in the US).

If you have purchased bitcoins, put them in cold storage!

What is cold storage? Bitcoin addresses consist of a public and a private key. The public key is where you send the bitcoins, anyone can see that. The private key is like your password to move your bitcoins stored in the public key. Cold storage is putting that private key in a place not accessible by some guy in Russia connected to your Internet connected computer or telephone.

Look up cold storage on here, there are many many many ideas on how to do it. Once you do it, it is easy from there on.

You are your own bank. Your money is only as safe as you want it to be.

For those who did...thank you.

With these cheap ~$400 prices we are all early adopters right now. If you have fiat and are not buying, do not complain when we are at $5,000 later this year and people talk about the small percentage of people who are holding most of the coins.

Today was a great buying day for me. Thank you all you panic sellers.

One of my main concerns, and why I sold most of my BTC at over $800 was the FBI sale and the uncertainty there. Now I see that there are big whales out there looking to buy them and it will not flood the market all at once.

That and MtGox being cut loose. I have no worries about the Bitcoin price going down...only up up up. Get your coins ready.

The PASCAZI Retaliation, fighting opportunists worldwide and why we applied for the Bitcoin trademark.

TOKYO, JAPAN - October 14, 2011 - As the owner of the largest Bitcoin trading platform, Mt.Gox, we at Tibanne K.K feel obliged to step up and oppose opportunists around the world from trademarking the concept and term “Bitcoin”, which would severely limit the ability of those in the Bitcoin community to freely enjoy and use our beloved Crypto-currency.

As some in the community may be aware, back in July Michael Pascazi, a law attorney in upstate New York started to file for ownership of the Bitcoin trademark. This took place not only in the US but in other key countries like France and Japan where trademark laws favour the party who is “first-to-file”, rather than the first actual user of the term.

While Michael Pascazi apparently acquiesced in his attempt to trademark Bitcoin in the U.S. (thanks to a stricter “first-to-use” trademarking system), he has since submitted a claim in France through his wife Celine Mouchon Pascazi, where Pascazi has far stronger legal standing as the first entity to apply.

In reaction, we at Tibanne K.K in Japan have started legal proceedings in the hopes of opposing this filing in France, at a European level as well as in in other countries across the world.

The Pascazis' stated intention is to profit from these trademarks, which would hamper Bitcoin enthusiasts, businesses and the community as a whole on a global basis in the free use and promotion of Bitcoin. Tibanne K.K will oppose this and any other "greed based" trademark application, in order to prevent self-serving attempts to profit from Bitcoin through spurious legal suits, and keep the term “Bitcoin” free for all.

We would like to use this opportunity to formally announce that all trademarks related to the term “Bitcoin” filed for and obtained by Tibanne K.K will be made freely available to anyone to use for whatever purpose whatsoever, whether that be for non-profit or commercial endeavours.

We will keep you apprised on these matters as soon as updates become available.

Regards
Mt.Gox Co. Ltd Team.

https://www.mtgox.com/press_release_20111014.html

Trade Mark No.   Mark Text   File Date   Status   Nice Classes   Vienna Classes   Image   Picking List
E10103646    BITCOIN    07/07/2011    Registered    09 35 38 42        No image exists for Trade Mark E10103646.   
E10050466    bit coin    15/06/2011    Registered    09 38 41        Image for Trade Mark E10050466.   

One is a word mark, one has an (ugly) picture.

Both registered to Tribanne:

Applicant:
    Tibanne Co. Ltd.
    Cerulean Tower 15F 26-1 Sakuragaoka-Cho, Shibuya Tokyo, Japan, 150-8512
Representative:
    BAKER & MCKENZIE LLP
    100 New Bridge Street, London, United Kingdom, EC4V 6JA

Mt Gox is currently trading at about $140/BTC and crashing.

What do you think the end of Mt Gox will look like?

I see it here and there, people mentioning the likelihood that btc-e will soon go the way of Mt. Gox. What is behind this?

I pulled my LiteCoin and PPC out of there a few weeks ago. More because I did not plan to trade them anyway, just never really got around to putting the clients on my system.

I also saw that over 70k of bitcoins was moved from an account I believe to belongs to btc-e. https://blockchain.info/address/1CbR8da9YPZqXJJKm9ze1GYf67eKAUfXwP

So what are the other rumors?

I am looking to buy a laptop specifically for cold storage. My #1 priority is security.

For this I have been looking at Lenovo laptops with Full Disk Encryption (FDE) hard drives and a CD-RW. And I want it to be light.

I have looked at the Lenovo X1 which is only 3 lbs but I have not seen one with a disk drive.

The reason I want a CD-RW is because I do not trust moving private keys via USB or such storage devices because of things like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

I want it to be light because I travel and would likely keep it with me when I travel in addition to my regular Internet connected laptop.

I'll be putting Linux on it so I do not care about the OS.

I am hesitant to use external CD writers because I am wary of USB connected devices on a secure system.

I would prefer one with good CPU and RAM because it will also be used for offline software development which I would also like to be protected.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

If you live near Carmel, Indiana you can now pay bitcoins for your Chiropractic care.

http://www.drnancye.com/

That's my sister, I helped her get things set up in her office to accept bitcoin. Unbiasedly she is one of the best Chiropractors I have been to, she specializes in children and pregnant moms but can treat anyone.

I guess this may not have an actual answer and likely depends upon the task at hand but...

What do you think is the best decision structure for a small group with a similar goal that have voluntarily joined together to fulfill that goal.

Say you have 20 people that want to accomplish a real world task. They may put their money into a pot and agree on the task but then there are some day to day things that are required to make sure the task is completed. They could all vote on every decision but that would likely be very inefficient and leave most people to get tired of voting on such minor tasks.

Or you could have one person in charge of the day to day types of things going to the group for only major decisions.

Or a small group with an expertise elected to take on the daily tasks. Or a small group that votes for a single person, etc...

There are many examples of clubs and other types of small voluntary groups with many different structures. Is there any "best structure"?

Here it comes:
https://blockchain.info/address/1CbR8da9YPZqXJJKm9ze1GYf67eKAUfXwP

They sent a few small transfers, most likely testing the procedure before moving all bitcoins.

The question is, whether the address they moved it to is an exchange or some sort of preparation for an auction or private sale.

Either way, I see a quick drop in prices soon. Then we can get back to climbing without this hanging over everyone's mind.

Edit: my bad, wrong address

This is a great site where you can set up an agent to send you an e-mail as soon as the FBI addresses move any coins.

http://www.bitcoinmonitor.net/

Add these two addresses:
1FfmbHfnpaZjKFvyi1okTjJJusN455paPH, 1F1tAaz5x1HUXrCNLbtMDqcw6o5GNn4xqX