Yes - attacks are definitely a risk. Hopefully it will be more profitable for the hackers to join the network instead of reversing a few transactions.

I see a lot of people commenting on what they believe the BitCoin price will be in the future. I have nothing against anyone trying to speculate on where the BitCoin economy is going. But wild guesses on future prices of BitCoin is just adding to the confusion for newbies.

Instead, if you truly believe that BitCoin will be valued at $1000 by 2013 I would love to read your analysis on how you reached that conclusion.

This is a question on deflation. Let's avoid turning it into a discussion on Bitcoin and if it is deflatory, mmkay?

When I put my hard-earned money in the bank in a savings account it increases in value over time.
The argument I hear against deflation is that people will avoid spending money since their money increases in value.

Yet, even though the wisest decision for me would be to save money in my savings account and let it increase in value I end up spending money.

How do this scenario differ from an economy experiencing deflation?

That is a very risky strategy. BitCoin could lose it's value and/or liquidity in minutes. Any trader trying to outsmart the market has to be really, really smart.

´nuff said.

The front page of BitCoin.org states that BitCoin is a P2P currency. Others in the forums refer to it to as an asset (e.g gold).

Both of these analogies has merits and flaws. For example, nobody knows the amount of gold in the world or when it will be found, but we know the amount of BitCoins that will be available so here the analogy with gold breaks down. Currency is related to a physical object with either intrinsic value or backed by a gov't, and BitCoin is neither.

The whole analogy thing reminds me of the movie industry comparing downloading a movie to stealing a car - the analogy breaks down pretty quickly.

My feeling is that BitCoin is neither a currency or an asset. It certainly shares properties with both but it can be misleading to push the analogy too far.

What are your thoughts?
Is my thinking flawed - is BitCoin perfectly analogous with a currency?

I see BitCoin as a more secure way to handle money with low transaction fees. Not that I like taxes but governments could still tax corporations and individuals in a BitCoin economy.

I vote decentralized currency Instead of Internet currency - internet currency has no meaning.

Also remove "often 10%" as an example of the premium for cc payments. This simply is too high, Square is now charging a flat fee of 2.75% for card present transactions. Also remember that part of that premium comes from chargebacks which is to the advantage of the consumer.

"Bitcoin is a chance to revolutionize the financial system, making it fairer and more democratic."
While I certainly hope this is true, we really don't have the facts to back it up. Also, people's definition of "fair" varies, the term is a bit vague.

Otherwise very well written, kudos!
I really like the way Gavin is positioning the project, less hyperbole, more down to earth.

I would vote for decentralized currency. I think this is the most central thing to BitCoin. Then you can go on and talk about how it can function without a central bank and that no central entity can control the currency.

Basically, everything else such as increased anonymity and how it is secured using mathematics then follows from that.   

+1 to Gavin and to Fleembit.

The whole "destabilizing governments"-notion just puts people off. The truth is that nobody here knows how successful BitCoin will be. Instead, position it as the "open" alternative to PayPal that also is more secure and cheaper.

That's 21 trillion dollars. Double the size of the US economy.

This problem exists in the real economy too. Let's say I pay to build a car using euros and sell it in north america priced at a fixed price $9,900. The USD can go up or down in value. If it gets stronger I will get less money in euros and potentially lose money.

That's why we have Foreign Exchange options (FX). I pay a third party a small premium to guarantee me a certain exchange rate. We need this in BitCoin too.

Let's say 1 BTC is trading at $5 USD today. Then someone could charge me 0.1 BTC to issue an FX. The FX would guarantee that I within 3 months can exchange 1 BTC for $5 USD with them.

Just adding my two (bitcoin) cents here. I'm interested in getting involved but a single Main.cpp file put me off. Maybe you are right in that a single cpp is the best, but it does come with a learning curve, at least for me.

If nothing else this would be a huge publicity stunt for BitCoin.