I live in Japan, and JPY withdrawals from MtGox are proceeding without significant delay as far as I've seen.

...or coordinating with someone who does.

The most telling thing about OC Ripple is how everyone defending it makes such terribly flimsy, not-even-trying arguments. Without exception they give off the impression that they are merely to continue firing back even if all they have left to load in their cannon is wet noodles. "It's open source because it hasn't been released with a closed source license"? I can't even imagine a more tepid and transparent response.

OCRipple remains the most boneheadedly galling and brazen ploy since pirate@40.

One problem with Japanese banks is their ATM cards don't work overseas. I don't know how well-known this is, but Mizuho Bank is an exception.

This means, I suppose, you could

1) come to Japan
2) snag a teaching job and a visa (doable in 1-2 months)
3) open a Mizuho Bank account (a few days)
4) quit and go to back to Europe
5) buy BTC on Bitstamp for cheap
6) sell on Gox for a premium
7) have Gox send the yen to your Mizuho Bank account (3-5 days)
8) then withdraw the cash from Mizuho with your ATM card in Europe
9) deposit the euros back into your European bank
10) Repeat steps 5 through 9

Percentage-wise (the only relevant measure), Bitcoiners are growing much faster than global population.

Holy smokes! When did China become a third of the total global exchange volume?!

And how fast are they coming up?

I was expecting to see exactly this kind of phrasing maybe next year or 2015. That's what Bitcoin will do, including to the industry of government.

150 is a round number. Look at the market history this spring. It always did the battering ram maneuver on round numbers before busting through. Heave. Ho...

Therefore, a smart whale will keep buying on those pullbacks, milking the round figure for all it's worth before the ram breaks it down. This vigorous rise could continue for ages depending on how big of a position the whale is trying to take.

Look at the charts over the past month. A pattern is becoming obvious. Someone wants in, at any cost.

They're trying not to push the price up too much, but the moment it simmers down a bit they push it right back up just under 150 so as not to induce panic buying. Some whale is building a position as aggressively as their caution will allow. It looks like they have a whole lot more to move. We are certainly not yet past the days where one whale trying to get in can double or triple the price. In fact, a true Great White could push it much higher than that. Who can say how far this will go? It's an open-ended proposition.

Yeah, check my posting history.

Withdrawing Japanese yen from MtGox remains smooth and snappy, as of last week. Like 3-4 days.

Concentration-of-wealth is a narrow thing to look at. What OP seems to be worried about is in fact concentration of power. Wealth isn't the only type of power. Family and social connections, political power, military power, control of currency issuance, control of media, pop stardom, affiliation with powerful organizations, and the related skills and knowledge are all forms of power. Critically, these forms of power are what allow concentration of wealth to persist.

Joe Bitcoiner, some nerd programmer who mined what will in some years be a trillion dollars worth of BTC, is certainly going to be in an enviable position, but without the connections, status, social skills, network, government friends, and inclination toward social ladder climbing, he's going to run into major issues - even dangers - converting huge amounts of his bitcoins into actual assets. He's not only going to have to build businesses for funneling money and buy off legislators and other powerful people, he's going to have to develop the skills and tacit knowledge to do so, probably without much motivation to do so since he could just spend lesser amounts gradually over time without drawing too much attention. Without investment ability, business acumen, connections, etc. most of the money he spends isn't going to boomerang back to him like it does for Carlos Slim or the Rothschilds; instead it'll be distributed among the population.

No worries, this is an overblown issue. The only really bad thing that could happen is if some old money person buys or already has bought a large number of bitcoins, but time is running out for that.

The "fee" was accidentally sent as another tx back to the original address. It was a multi-recipient tx with several hundred BTC sent to several addresses, one of which was the original address (the would-be "fee") so the tx ended up including one small transaction (0.005 BTC). All the coins were several months old. Will this ever confirm? It's been half a day. If not, when can I resend? Blockchain.info seems to keep rebroadcasting the tx.

For security reasons it would be preferable to have this transaction relayed somehow rather than resending it, even if by manually paying a miner directly. If this is the only way, is there a standard way to do this?

Is there any way to get https://blockchain.info/pushtx to stop broadcasting an unconfirmed raw tx (no fee, etc.)? Or can you try double-spending with fee even while it's still broadcasting? (Risky?)

How would one go about making arrangements with a miner to relay a tx where you forgot the fee? Is there a standard procedure for this, or do you just post a bounty on the Mining forum?

This is a good plan.

Not to detract from that, but I have to point out that hoarding is extremely good for the Bitcoin economy: it raises the price of Bitcoin, which generates mainstream interest. As the last few months have shown, higher prices are by far the fastest way to boost the Bitcoin economy. The mainstream attention has introduced many, many new people who are now starting businesses and transacting.

Anti-capitalists love the old canard that "science cannot be monetized so we need government funding of science." Although many free-market proponents realize this is actually a total myth, when it comes to rarefied subjects like pure mathematics even the staunchest AnCap may flounder in arguing that the market will provide.

For millennia, the best minds alive have assumed that there is no way to monetize mathematical innovation, other than by pure charity, since there is almost never profit motive behind mathematical research. It's too basic, too removed from real-world applications.

Primecoin changes this. It's now profitable to search for prime chains. This is unprecedented in the history of mankind.

There's no "slippery slope" toward higher prices, rather toward lower ones. The reason can be summed up in one word: competition. In contrast, the credit card industry is far too regulated for new credit card companies to appear and undercut VISA, MC, etc.

Thanks for the report.

As someone with insight into the Chinese market, what kind of use cases do you see for Bitcoins for people in China or people working with Chinese companies or individuals? Can it help get around yuan non-convertibility, capital controls, etc.?

• Wealthy people NEED Bitcoin as an unseizable, untraceable, automatically-internationalized option for storing wealth when push comes to shove.
• People working in rich countries to send money home to their families in poor countries NEED Bitcoin to maximize the welfare of their families. (The fees and delays can make a huge difference to people living hand-to-mouth).
• People using VPNs for anonymity NEED an anonymous payment option (Bitcoin + anonymity measures) in order not to make the whole thing pointless.
• Companies that have branch offices in other countries NEED Bitcoin to save money and time on remittance, and in some cases to even have a hope of being profitable.
• People fleeing (or considering fleeing) countries with draconian capital controls NEED Bitcoin to get their money out.
• People traveling abroad from any unstable country NEED Bitcoin as an insurance policy in case shit hits the fan back home while they're away.
• People who are at risk of being arrested, deported, or just having their assets frozen NEED Bitcoin as an insurance policy so they can still control their money from jail, abroad, or faced with government seizure.
• The power elite (Illuminati or whoever) NEED Bitcoin to store their wealth without relying on anyone to keep their secrets safe and move money with perfect secrecy behind the scenes.
• As Germany illustrates, governments NEED Bitcoin for trustless international settlement, as storing gold in the New York Fed's vaults isn't cutting it.
• Anyone who telecommutes internationally (translators, writers, editors, consultants, investment advisors, etc.) NEEDS Bitcoin to get money from their employers/clients quickly, with no fees, and with no third-party risks.
• Anyone that employs people internationally NEEDS Bitcoin to save on fees, get rapid payment verification, and eliminate third-party risks.
• Any parent who has to send money to their kids, especially abroad, and most especially in developing countries, NEEDS Bitcoin in order to save on fees and get the money to the kids quickly.
• Anyone who wants to sell content online to people many countries for sub-dollar prices per unit NEEDS Bitcoin to make this feasible at all.
• Anyone who wants to sell anything online from any country that is blocked by PayPal and the CC companies NEEDS Bitcoin in order to operate at all(!).
• The need for any of these is increased at least tenfold when the amounts of money dealt with are unusually large or small.
• Use your imagination! There are applications everywhere for a trustless, borderless, private, irreversible, unseizable commodity that can be teleported anywhere in the world in any amount virtually for free. The average Joe in the US doesn't need it (yet), but there are plenty of people and organizations who do, especially in less advanced countries. Not to mention all the things that people don't yet know they need because it wasn't until Bitcoin and other now-unfolding technologies that these things became possible.

Imagine, for example, paying 0.1 BTC to have a highly-rated expert mechanic in India walk you through how to fix your car over Google Glass, maybe even sending you the data file for a needed part to print out on your 3D printer and screw on. Nobody "needs" this now, since they can "just" have their car towed to the local garage and get it back in a few days for a "small" fee, assuming the local garage happens to be reliable and competent (remember, the Indian mechanic is an expert you probably chose from a website that has a solid rep system).