Do you mean Tyler Durden clever? Or do you mean Pirate Bay, MegaUpload, Wikileaks clever?

From Europe (SEPA zone) to the US:
1/ Wire transfer euros to bitcoin-central.net: cost zero and takes about a day
2/ Buy bitcoins on bitcoin-central (cost zero fee)
3/ Send bitcoins: recipient sells them on mtgox and cashes out via Dwolla (cost 25 cts takes about a day)

Total Cost: liquidity spread + 25 cts and two days

If I do the same with banks it will cost me 16.50 euros and at least 5 days (I must write a letter to my bank: after that all I can do is hope they wont screw up, which they do quite often).

Maybe we're going about this the wrong way. What if instead trying to get restaurants to accept bitcoins, show them how to give them away as promotional items. We've all seen the buy-9-pizzas-get-the-10th-one-free promo. What about this: Buy 10 any size pizza with any toppings within the next 30 days and receive the average selling price of the pizza (only--no drinks, bread sticks, etc.) in bitcoins. The customer should quickly realize that the higher price paid for each pizza will result in a higher average reward. Offer one per customer per one email account only, allowing the buyers to think they're gaming the system if they use two email accounts, when in reality it gives the chain an extra email account(s) to market to. Somehow, set up the campaign incorporating smartphones and email apps. This is a very important aspect for the chain to be able to benefit from such a promotion with maximum return. Their risk? Virtually none. Their reward? Great, if done properly. Their cost? Cheaper than any other promotional options currently available (I think). ROI? Should be pretty damn good.

Again, they don't even have to accept Bitcoin until/unless a critical mass of their customer base request it.

~Bruno~

Yes! That is what I am trying to say! Agreed with you!

No-one will be trying to "prove" to you or me why you (or me) must or must not run it.

And we will just continue to use it. That is an easiest way to intervene the project - just subtly intervene the code, so noone notices.
1. Hijack the hosting, that distibutes the binaries, and you will affect the majority of users, that do not compile by themselves.
2. Hijack the developers' workplaces, and you will get the ability to subtly affect the source code.
3. Hijack the source control system, and you will control the source and the binaries.
And don't think, that the "evil powers" will be forced to do that via Internet access only.
Whenever the government comes to play, or the hugest businesses, then physically hijacking the servers is the cheapest attack on the Bitcoin.

Bitcoin as a payment system suffers from the threats to Bitcoin as a software project.
They are the common threats, not Bitcoin-specific, I think they are obvious to every opensource programmer.

Yes, there are some countermeasures to protect Bitcoin as a payment system from such attacks, like developing a standard first, not a software. But AFAIK they are not deployed NOW, standard may change, and users cannot affect to veto the changes, unless they coordinate, which is, well, unlikely  without a sound reason.
That's all I can say.

Merchants A-L: We accept Bitcoin.
Merchants M-Z: How's that working out for you?

~Bruno~

There is, along with the dozen or so times it's happened prior, but the merchants still keep faith in Visa/Mastercard. They don't have faith in something that is relatively new.

Example:

Salesperson: I have this new kind of doll. It's called Barbie.
Merchant: I'm not interested, for nobody's asking for it.

Later:

Salesperson: I have this new kind of doll. It's...
Merchant: Is it Barbie?
Salesperson: Yes. And it cost only...
Merchant: We're clearing shelf space now.

~Bruno~

So... "my house burned down, please spare some change" could be considered "acceptable business advertising" by some standard that I'm not aware of?

Perhaps, we're missing something. An extra oomph for B&M's that would make Bitcoin tower above all else that's currently available. What that oomph is, at the moment I'ven't a clue. But with all the bright minds here, I'm confident that oomph will manifest itself.

I'm going to have more to say on this important issue, but I'll end this post with only the thoughts above.

~Bruno~

In that case I think there's a niche for a Bitcoin specific credit card. The service would allow you to borrow dollars for an extremely short-term loan, which is immediately paid off with Bitcoin transactions. The CC company gives you the market exchange rate between Bitcoin and dollars (or your local currency), and keeps a small percentage for themselves. Of course it wrecks the decentralisation ideology that many people hold dear, but any non-monopoly has to demonstrate trustworthiness in order to gain support.

Fixed that for you.

Brother, although what you say has the ring of substance,
I entirely fail to see what point you're trying to make.

And I read the OP twice.

waiting for the system to change, reset, repair.

we will go down because moneys value is 999...9% lower that actual value

good luck getting 51% of the copyrights and payment volume
none of them should be impossible but the price tag is ... challenging

Just out of curiosity how many BTC do you need to be part of the 1% of the BTC market?

i know this thread is not really about 'price' or exchange rate but i was thinking recently about how sometimes there is resistance in me to spend any of my coins and i realised it's because i value them much higher than $5 each.

when i spend 10 btc for example, it feels like i'm giving up A LOT more than fifty bucks.

i think subconsciously i'm taking into account their 'future value'.

...still LOVE the convenience of spending coins over fiat though

heh, not a bad plan, except that costs me $30 each time.