I visited the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama USA today.  I got a tour of the facility and spoke with Doug French (the president) about Bitcoin.  It is a very nice campus that includes student housing, several classrooms and lecture halls, a library, garden and retail bookstore.  I picked up a copy of Study Guide to Man, Economy and State.    The library is very nice as it has original books that were owned by Mises, Rothbard and others.  I looked through a book that had Rothbard's underlining and handwritten notes in the margins.  The people there were very nice, and I encourage anyone who has a chance to visit the Institute.

Mr. French was not too receptive about Bitcoin because he thought it might be hard for the accountants to handle the receipt of donations that way.  Even though they share our ancap philosophy, they have to play everything by the book.  I suggested that they treat Bitcoin just like receiving cash donations.  He said he would take a look at it.  I will follow up with an email in a few days.

OK, I'm in.  Thanks for organizing this, kiba.

I'm glad to hear the the meeting went so well, and I'm disappointed that I didn't get to come.  I'm looking forward to hearing further details. 

BitTorrent or read a book. 

Here's the link.  http://checkout.google.com/support/sell/bin/answer.py?answer=75724.  Look under "Offensive goods."

Also prohibited by Google Checkout:

"Goods, literature, products, or other materials that promote revisionist theories proscribed by applicable law"

WTF?  Is this a nod to the Chinese government or something?

Why not Rothbard's Man, Economy and State?  He has integrated the sum total of Austrian economics better than anyone.

I think this is a great example of why we shouldn't use Visa or Mastercard.  They are clearly well connected politically.  They have also shared data with the US federal government.

If only 1% of the public used Bitcoin, that would be quite a victory.  Think of all the merchants that would represent.  I think any time we buy something, we should let the merchant know that we would prefer to pay with Bitcoin.  Then explain to the merchant that it is in his/her best interests too (lower transaction costs, not reversible).

Well, I don't like C or Java or anything else that uses braces. 

I'll have to spend some time playing with it over the winter break.  Any thoughts on keeping a server running bitcoind relatively secure?  It seems like having a wallet.dat file on a publicly-accessible server is an accident waiting to happen.

Have you found anyone yet?  I may be able to help you.  Check your private messages.

+1 on Ruby.  Didn't someone recently write a Ruby interface to bitcoind?

So who did I donate to?  The Max Stirner Foundation? 

Please do some more reading on Bitcoin.  There is no bitcoin god (apologies to Satoshi-san).  It is a decentralized currency which cannot be controlled by a single person.  Having said that, there are probably some unscrupulous individuals out there who might mislead you into thinking you can make instant money off of them.  It is like any other commodity that you might buy or sell.  Ok, well, maybe not just like any other commodity.  Read the FAQ.

In order to make money, you have to buy and hold Bitcoin for some period of time and hope that the value of Bitcoin rises (which it has mostly done over the past 6 months).  Don't forget that there is a cost to exchange to-and-from national currencies, around 3-20% each way depending on the method.  While it's possible to make money speculating, I recommend that you try to earn Bitcoins by contributing to the Bitcoin economy.

You can go here to check the exchange rate between USD and Bitcoin: http://bitcoinwatch.com/

I like XE.com for checking exchange rates between the national currencies.

If the exchange rate has moved in your favor, then yes you will make money.  Beware though, the exchange rate has been very volatile over the last few months!

A flyer would be useful for handing to local merchants, too.  Isn't Bruce Wagner working on one?

I think this is a good problem to have.  Do you need to adjust your exchange rates so that supply and demand come into equilibrium?

What's the status of bitcoin2cc.com?

Done!  I think charitable contributions are a great way to promote Bitcoin.  How could someone say no to accepting donations that way?  I can see why some merchants might be opposed to the idea of accepting Bitcoins at this point, due to fluctuating exchange rates and the relative difficulty of performing exchanges, but when you're getting something for nothing, who cares?

C'mon everyone, open up your wallets for I2P!