1.1 Grab the code, change its name, recompile it

So, what about this? It's start to look beyond current computer and networking power?

This is what I call start with both wrong feet... one of the major flaws in BTC was deflation generated by massive speculation and pretty few to none real economy around it.
IXC comes around and the first thing to open is... a "speculator playground", normally called as "exchange".

Let's see how this unfolds...

If back in 2007 you bough 1000 € of Royal Bank of Scotland's shares, you would be holding now 29 €
If back in 2007 you bough 1000 € of Fortis' (NL) shares, you would be holding now 39 €

Now... if back in 2007 you bough 1000 € of red wine and drink it meanwhile, you would be able to sell the empty bottles now for 46 €.  

A malta anda a ver se consegue contratar um certo Norueguês para passar pela Assembleia da República... mas parece que ele está bastante ocupado com convites de momento. 

Yes, there's "a manipulator" here: Edward50 

It's much cheaper to lower the market by giving sell advices and see how many does bite it.

Difficulty doesn't set the price of anything. Don't know where you came with those "price targets" from, it's a supply and demand market, not a "pay for the miners luck" and bitcoins will not be generated faster by a small decrease in difficulty, as that also means a decrease in allocated computer power.

There're already some changes in my version, however I'm setting up a new server before go on holidays (from everyday job), so I must have some more available time pretty soon.

Para quem tem mais de 30 biliões, 2 biliões não é assim tanto. Mas no geral a economia do débito está falida, as "soluções" para as dívidas cavalgantes tem sido contrair mais dívida...
O Brasil viu-se negro para correr com o FMI, agora vendem-nos essa porcaria como "solução" para cá também! :/
Sem falar no comportamento bem suspeito do FMI, depois de Brasil e Argentina se terem cansado de dar mamar ao FMI e terem varrido essa coisa de lá para fora, o FMI entrou em crise. Em 2008 começou a despedir funcionários porque só tinham 2 biliões em empréstimos e os juros já não davam para sustentar a manada. Em 2009 as empresas de rating começam a fazer "favorzinhos", escolhendo economias ali à mão para dar de comer ao FMI, em pouco tempo estavam de garfo e faca prontinhos para comer a Islândia... correu mal! O bacalhau tinha muita espinha e os Islandeses levantaram o dedo do meio.
A solução alternativa foi atacar a periferia de grandes economias que partilhassem a mesma moeda, o euro, os grandes assustaram-se e empurraram logo os pequenos pelo precipício... e assim ficou mais fácil. Grécia, Portugal e Irlanda tornaram-se no novo petisco do FMI, e que belo petisco! Cada um ainda teve que contribuir para a sua própria "salvação", a Grécia entrou com 2 biliões de USD para o empréstimo... à Grécia. Quer melhor?!

A única solução real é reverter esta joça toda para uma economia de produção e não mais economias de débito.

Tens 2 lados:

1) A especulação -> os que querem fazer dinheiro com dinheiro

2) A economia -> os que querem fazer dinheiro com produção

Aos de 1) esse tipo de conversa fiada convém porque a vida deles é criar bolhas e sabem que, entrando numa bolha, a única saída é arranjar mais patos ou sair perdendo, é isso que faz estoirar as bolhas especulativas; a falta de patos para entrar no topo.
Mas na realidade o que mantém qualquer coisa a funcionar é o grupo 2), enquanto este se mantiver os do grupo 1) podem inventar o que quiserem que só vão provocando inflação ou deflação. Na melhor das hipóteses o autor desse artigo entrou numa outra bolha ("área de investimento") e está a tentar desviar pessoal de alternativas.

Nefario;

Actually the MtGox incident was after the "bubble blast", it was at 17 USD/BTC at the time after drop from 30 USD about half-week before.

From the general point of view, for those knowing BTC from the beginning, it should now be about 7 USD/BTC aiming at 10 USD by late this year. This is actually an optimal scenario for allowing economy to develop along (exchange money for money is an abrasive process and unwelcome unforeseen feature of bitcoin so far).

EDIT: And to the end, in terms of long term establishment of bitcoin, this wasn't a bad month for bitcoin; May was, with the accelerated deflation caused by the bubble many BTC based business came to an end, unable to adjust the prices that fast.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/moodys-why-the-u-s-is-still-aaa/

Didn't they miss something like:

5. Agent Smith pointing a gun at us for write this crap, even thus we know that upgrade the debt ceiling is the same as default on debt (except if we skin of US's tax payers).

People was calling BTC a bubble @ 15, was calling it a bubble at 20, was calling it a bubble at 30... then it blasted. It didn't made those people wrong.
Gold is in the same path, sooner or later will blast, for those lucky enough to jump on its peak will be good, for those entering or holding there will be a nightmare.

There's, one towards the pessimist scenario, another towards the optimistic scenario.

I think that misses the point on the "fiat failure" (Which I agree too, however it's input to your at the point of a gun so far), it's failure derives from not be a currency generated by wealth but by debit. Like if the ability to get credit was more important than the wealth generated... reason why US, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy are in their current situation.

I see, you're right Spike.
Less miners will bring difficulty down: http://dot-bit.org/tools/nextDifficulty.php

No, you can never see the difficulty line go down, it just goes up. There's no way to make it "easier" to generate coins, in an ultimate scenario, if we have one single miner, he would be for sure getting his 50 coins... but would take ages before his block gets created. It doesn't rely on "a need for X coins to be generated per day".

Everything has an intrinsic value of zero, gold included, taken there's no such thing at all.

Edward,

That "specific individual", if any, would wage more by simply hold or slowly sell them than ditch the market. You're aiming not at a "wealthy individual" but as a "dumb as a rock wealthy individual"... a rare thing in my opinion.
Although and taken there're no biddingwalls the askingwalls will prevent btc from reaching former prices, at least so soon.

Somewhere between 9 and 10.
Actually, if you take the job of browse my older posts, when that thing with MtGox came out I said BTC would go down up to 7, where it should be at the "rollback" time without the bubble, now it just went down to its right price and will trend up slowly. Unless Gawker folks figure a way to buy "I don't know what" on Silk Road and another bubble comes out.