Anonygas, I created a project for you to consider:

http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2505.0

I think it would be fantastic if there were more Chinese users of Bitcoin.  First of all, the lessons learned by fending off attacks from the Chinese government would strengthen the Bitcoin network.  Secondly, having Chinese merchants online would expand the Bitcoin economy and give us more things to buy with our Bitcoins.  Thirdly, it's a step in the direction of freedom for the Chinese people.

I'm going to start the ball rolling by offering a 50 BTC bounty for translating the official Bitcoin FAQ (http://www.bitcoin.org/faq) to Chinese.  Please consider adding to this bounty or create one for another task.

Edit: Since we already have a Chinese FAQ, this project will be for translation of the wiki (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/)

Translation of Bitcoin wiki to Chinese (simplified):
Cryptoman   50 BTC
jgarzik    100 BTC
-------------------
Total      150 BTC

How about doing English/Chinese translations?  Tell everyone you know about Bitcoin; I would love to see it really take off in China.

Many people seem to be worried about losing their wallets, so I could see a bank as a trusted party to store bitcoins.  They could also offer escrow services for people who wanted to enter into a transaction but did not trust each other.  The beauty of starting a bank is that you don't need anyone's permission. 

So you're saying that it's an integer division and therefore all transactions less than 1K are free?  What affects transaction size, and what causes it to go over 1K?

OK, I'll bid 100 BTC.  Who knows, maybe BTC will have USD parity by block 100.010? 

People don't see the credit card/PayPal processing fees since they don't pay them directly.  You need to tell them that everything would be 3-5% cheaper if paid for with Bitcoin.  Also, tell them that they are in control of their own money and don't need the sanction of a bank or the government to receive payments from whomever they want.

The fee is an "incentive" to process your transaction.  At this time, your transaction will almost certainly get processed without a fee.  However, in the future, as returns from generating decline, transaction fees will be a important component of node compensation.  A 0.01 BTC fee is a straight fee, not a percentage.

Do you carry your entire life's savings in your wallet?  Most of mine is in one financial institution or another.  Trusted third parties will emerge in the bitcoin economy for the purpose of safeguarding your funds.

I also keep my bitcoin "wealth" spread around several different machines, and each of those wallets is backed up in a TrueCrypt vault.  For the one publicly-accessible server that I have with a wallet on it, I only keep the minimum necessary balance in it.

Someone might be able to see that you have some bitcoins, but how would they know how you obtained them?  Eventually, as a sufficient number of people start using bitcoin, trades will stay within the bitcoin system, i.e., there won't be much of a need to do exchanges.  There will also be services like the Bitcoin Laundry (http://bitcoinlaundry.com/).

It's hard to say how long deflation would take to kick in.  It depends on many variables not easily quantified.  Hell, even though we know, for example, roughly how much larger the USD money supply is today compared to several years ago, its effect on inflation hasn't really been seen.  The economy will have to pick up a lot more in order to create a sufficiently-high-enough increase in demand in order for us to see inflation.

You should consider Treasuries a Ponzi scheme.  Invest with caution and be prepared to get out at the first sign of trouble.

I think it's better at this point in time to have only one p2p currency that everyone can get behind.  The only way to wean ourselves off national currencies is to have a widely-accepted p2p currency, and that won't happen if they start forking this early.  In the future, however, I think it's an excellent idea and may even become necessary for security and survival reasons.

Better yet, set up a direct gift-card-to-Bitcoin website.  What percentage does that site give you on those select 50 retailers?

Some idiot loses his wallet. My wallet becomes worth more. No problem! 

I remember getting a lockbox from a UPS Store one time, and they had to do a postal verification, i.e., some postal dude had to sign off on my actual home address.  This might be different though as you are not trying to establish an address.

It's for those of us who want government and other nanny institutions out of financial transactions between honest, non-violent adults.

You could preserve privacy as long as the phone was an anonymous, pay-as-you-go type.

Personally, I'd settle for a thin client, one that communicated with a remote bitcoind server using JSON-RPC.

The problem: Bitcoin allows you to make anonymous or nearly-anonymous payments, but you must reveal your identity if you wish to have physical goods delivered to you in exchange.

Solution: The anonymous dropbox depot.

How it works: XYZ, Inc., an above-board firm, establishes a physical point of presence (depot) in a metropolitan area.  The XYZ facility has a number of lockboxes, each with a digital keypad lock, the combination of which can be changed remotely by the firm's computers.  On the front of each lockbox is a digital display, also remotely reprogrammable, which indicates the box number.  You wish to order an item from NewAmazon, which accepts BTC as payment.  Here is the process:

1. Visit XYZ's website and obtain a unique box number.

2. Place your order on NewAmazon, pay for it with BTC, and specify the shipping address as:
   XYZ, Inc.
   123 Main St.   
   Box 1234 (the number you got from XYZ's website)
   Your city, etc.

3. In a few days, XYZ receives the package from NewAmazon.  They select the correctly-sized lockbox, depending on the size of your package, and email you the cost of receiving the package, based on their previously-disclosed rate schedule.

4. You send XYZ the fee in BTC for receiving your package.  You can also keep BTC on account with XYZ to avoid this step.

5. XYZ places the package in a lockbox and emails you the code.

6. You go to XYZ's depot and look for the box with your number on the digital display.  You enter the combination which was emailed to you and retrieve your package.

7. If you fail to retrieve the package within the agreed-to time period, the lockbox code is automatically changed.  You must now forward XYZ additional BTC to pay for rent of the box.  When you do, a new code is emailed to you.

Thoughts?  A solution in search of a problem?

Do you have a link?  We've been trying to keep track of Bitcoin exposure in the media.

I didn't think anyone was listening to Krugman any more.  Or Al Gore for that matter, despite having invented the internet.