Italian town wants to mint its own money because of debt crisis and merger of multiple towns. Check full story here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/44322945

Excuse me, but are we just bad at getting our message out in regards to Bitcoin? Why on earth would you want your own currency shared between 550 people when a perfectly capable currency such as Bitcoin exists.

Sorry, 145$. Remembered it wrong 

Yes what you are explaining is what makes BTC go up in value. More merchants, more people buying and in general more influx of fresh money into the BTC economy. What I am talking about is the underlying factors of WHY fresh money would flow into Bitcoin.

Is it because of financial stability or financial instability on the established financial markets?

For a comparison: When oil was peaking at 180$ per barrel, people were all the sudden innovative and started thinking creative. Articles online were popping up about scientists creating artificial bugs that could spew out oil from garbage and everyone was keen at throwing money into something that could procure more oil.

Then oil felt below 100$ per barrel and nobody cared any more.

So what does Bitcoin need? Gold to crash together with stocks? Or gold to go to 5000$ per ounce as well as stock markets doubling? (for instance)

What would be the best case scenario for the price rising of Bitcoin?

I myself am not entirely sure if we wish the established financial system of Fiat money, inflated stock prices and pumped gold pricing to partially or totally collapse or if we would wish for stability and prosperity in that very same system.

I guess the question comes down to: when are people investing in Bitcoin? Is it such a speculative and new type of finance that it will be used in times of grief or times of joy?

Hmm well since they/he/she/them own 500.000 Bitcoins its fair to assume that this figure can represent an enormous wealth IF bitcoin becomes something grand.

Due to the markets instability lately China has raised the question of not using dollar as backup currency for the world. But USA will never go with the YAN. Euro is equally unstable, Swiss Franc and YEN has to little float and nothing else even comes close to these currencies...beside....Bitcoin.

It pleases all the parties as there is no "controlling" party. Beside those 500.000 the NSA is sitting on. Once they agree to use Bitcoin as backup the massive buyup begins, Bitcoin soars to 100.000$ per Bitcoin and guess who still holds the money.

Then as you said, it's purely fantasy speculation

Umm since this is of a highly technical nature, wouldn it be fair to assume that its NOT CIA but rather NSA. They are after all hiring the IT and cryptography people. CIA is kind of "old school" way of doing things. NSA is where the real power lies, and they are the people with money and projects anyway. My bet goes to NSA if anyone. CIA is not smart enough to come up with this stuff, they are just branded better as the uber intelligence service.

NSA's budget is from what I recall 10 x higher than all other agencies in the USA combined.

EDIT: Look what came in the first search of google for NSA + cryptography: http://www.nsa.gov/ia/programs/suiteb_cryptography/

The dollar is backed up by millions of people and transactions in any form and disguise you can imagine. Bitcoin is hardly 0.00000001% of the dollar economy. When dollar swings it matters. When Bitcoin swings its insignificant.

Monday 5 trillion dollars were wiped of from the balance sheet of the stock markets, in ONE day.

The value of Bitcoin is not even 100 million dollar. I call 5 trillion toast. There is your objectiveness.

Monday was a bloodbath. Tuesday was recovery. Looking today, stocks open 2.5% lower than yesterday, which basically erases all gains made yesterday. IF this continues for another 7 days the dollar and the good ol USA is toast.

Gold and Silver on the other hand soars to extreme heights as everyone seeks safe havens. WHEN my god do they finally realize Bitcoin is a safe haven too!!!

http://blogs.forbes.com/jonathansherman/2011/08/08/u-s-dollar-is-the-next-financial-shoe-to-drop/

Funny thing is that they start hammering the fact that the fiat currency is a flawed system and that is has problems.

Even more funny is that they are still thinking inside the box and mentioning gold and the Swiss franc as safe haven.

Why on earth are they not considering Bitcoin? If the adoption of Bitcoin was to grow so that a world wide audience would start accepting it as backup currency we would never face the problems in price fluctuations as we do now. Inject a trillion into Bitcoin and all these huge % swings we have would be non existent.

The only reason to why we have these swings is because there is not enough money into the system and any jerk with 100.000$ can move the marked as he sees fit. Put a trillion in there and swings would be sideways as with any other stable currency.

One can only hope all this chaos and financial mess would get someone in charge to start considering Bitcoin and actually take the system itself a bit more serious. We dont need MtGox or Tradehill or a few hackers to dictate the Bitcoin community. Put the big five banks into the game, put Bitcoin as backup currency and we are stable as heck.

Time will tell.....

And outsiders question why our community are supporting Bitcoin.

Well for starters I guess its because our Bitcoin economy is at least understandable and is purely driven by supply and demand, and not witchcraft and sorcery that makes countries crumble in matter of days like the establish financial community.

Seriously, all these ups and downs on the marked sometime makes no sense to the individual. Its a ridiculous game and unpredictable unless you sit at the right table with the big bosses from the banks and the central banks. Its a joke!

People move your money into Bitcoin, at least there inst anyone controlling things from behind the scenes!

This wont apply to Bitcoin. These are just updated rules in regards to the established industry. There is no mentioning of Bitcoin anywhere. of course this would apply to exchangers, but exchanging into Bitcoin or not Bitcoin wont matter.

Imagine the impact of mentioning Bitcoin - they want to avoid that. Attacking Bitcoin or the opposite would put Bitcoin on the currency map big time. Bitcoin stays the same, the system is impossible to regulate and for now everyone in office is scratching their tiny heads on what to do to control the beast.

Well if we make a boycott list its sooner or later going to contain all the banks of the world. What I experienced was not a special case, it was a common case. You try for yourself to call 5 random banks in the country you live in. Explain what Bitcoin is, if they havent heard about it (most probably have since they ganged together to ban it), and see the result. I bet that you get five no's from five banks.

Well if you get FSA to say this is alright then you have reached a milestone! That would probably be the biggest ever happening to Bitcoin! I wish you very good luck with this.

Well MtGox probably lies to their bank as well. I cant see how the bank would know and accept that this happened.

Secondly, neither Tradehill nor MtGox are approved by any financial regulatory unit to conduct financial business - that is holding money on behalf of third party.

I dont think anything will change, except if the established banking industry REALLY goes to hell and people start rethinking the model of the banking world. Right now its the same as usual.

I tried mentioning Bitcoin to 3 Swiss banks as I was planning to setup an exchange. They all said no!

Had I lied, I would have gotten accounts open.

That is the world we live in people, BTC is not welcome, FACE IT

It can only happen if a rich individual steps into the Bitcoin economy. Not in rich as millionaire, but the types of Roman Ambramovich, Richard Brandson or people in that league, billionaires. Only individuals can push this, since bank CEO's are puppets and at the mercy of their board.

Problem right now that Bitcoin is facing is being ignored!

- Do you see any comments by politicians anywhere anymore?
- Do you see any financial institution banning it or commenting on the Bitcoin economy?
- Do you see anyone taking notice of the Bitcoin economy in from the established financial community?

The answer is no to all those. The only thing Bitcoin has are articles by the press. Its loosing its momentum, and its charm if nothing new is happening. People are talking about the critical mass, but how long will this take? 1 more year, 5 years?

From my point of view Bitcoin is in a limbo and is just moving sideways - this can even be seen on the trading price. Without mayor significant news and changes, positive or negative, Bitcoin is just a thing on the internet that only hardcore believers will use. Anyone else is too busy making money.

This doesnt mean a wider audience wont support it, but without the first step towards "something" it just sits here. I hope I am wrong, but I fear I am not.

Expect this to keep on happening dear Bitcoiners. Just face that Bitcoin is not a cherished currency by the established banking world and no bank would publicly admit that they are tied to the Bitcoin economy.

Until someone from the established financial sector steps in and takes the FULL step of representing Bitcoin - putting their bank license on the brink of cancellation and is ready to go through lengthy courts and is ready to publicly face the scrutiny of allowing "money-laundry" through their bank because of Bitcoin and whatever else the media is going to label them, forget Bitcoin ever reaching mainstream.

A strong system requires a strong individual, and none the less powerful to step in and take the first battle. Only the outcome of that battle will take Bitcoin to its next stage. Right now we are in limbo, and the freezing of assets is going to be more apparent as time passes.

I did and I still wait for a reply!

Well I do somewhat agree. But at this point, I hope they will classify it. Getting the approval of being a part of the wider financial industry from someone as powerful as S&P would once again place Bitcoin in the news and once again remind investors that there is something called Bitcoin. How bad can they classify it anyway? Greece is now junk status and the mighty US is about to loose its triple A status for the first time ever.

While the whole world is going to crap in the financial industry one stands out - Bitcoin!

Good luck with that, because it has no impact on models that are not based on debt certificates. Rating is provided by the credit agencies to allow for borrowing. The Bitcoin economy, due to its decentralized nature has no need for borrowing or classification.