I still consider it a reasonably likely scenario that the site was run by a privacy-advocate/cryptographer  - who has simply died.

It had a tor hidden service, but was also reachable through normal https... otherwise we wouldn't even know the IP address and hoster.

I think it makes sense. People have been getting a bit scared about how to store their coins. On their PC they could be snatched by trojans, web services snatch the coins for themselves or simply disappear the wallet, and so on. So they sell them...

We really need to make it easier for mainstream folk to secure part of their wallets. Yes, there are a lot of proposals for this, but it'll take some time for trust to be restored.

Your kidding right?

When the coins at mybitcoin are exchanged for dollars or euros, the identity of whoever converted those coins will be known to the exchange. Until that time, the coins from mybitcoin are exactly where they have always been. There is simply no way (at the moment) for their rightful owners to access them.

You answered your own question. They print it out of thin air. But they need to keep the drug trade going, and oil and gold, and they need to transfer funds between the 3, without it being obvious to all nations, how it's done.

ctoon6, you're probably a very smart person, so I wonder why you have not figured this out yet.
Banks and Drug laws exist to work hand in hand together. Banks would not exist, if there were no drugs which were illegal to launder money through. There would be no need for banks if drugs were legal. Banks were created to serve the purpose of laundering the opium profits and returning the Britsh pound to gold to pay the opium farmers because all they accept for payment is gold. Elementary Watson

We can't have them competing with Big Pharma now can we...

Seriously I agree with you in all points... the problem is there is no organized bribery... I mean lobby group for the "illicit" drug sellers.

I don't think that's what it is. Anyone can get a Metro PCS phone without ID. I think it's the fact that stored value cards are used to launder drug money. The Treasury issued a Memorandum about this a few years back. They claimed it was the number one way people were avoiding taxes and laundering drug money.

I modified it somewhat to keep it a bit more coherent.

I'm fully convinced that Bitcoin will never be made illegal, because it is a fiscally-sound currency that no one knows about. It can still be legitimized and used to back any country's current currency. The first countries to adopt Bitcoin as the financial backing for their own currency will have the most fiscally-sound currency in the future.

Look at the countries who still buy and add to their gold reserves. They aren't having problems the others are. The US stops buying and what happens? QE1? QE2? Debt-limit debates?


Sure you can, look how they force anonymity out of cash. Require any "legitimate" enterprise (including all mining pools and banks) to report holdings and the names of the individuals doing business with them. The only increased step here would be to require online retailers to also require reporting, if they even cared what you were spending your Bitcoin on. You'll have to turn to the black market to get your currency converted, but what is so beautiful about Bitcoin is it actually keeps track of exactly where the money came from, if you send coins to a known pot dealer's Bitcoin address, you're busted. The only people that couldn't be traced will be solo miners, but the system is designed to discourage solo mining, so it won't matter.

The only counter I can see to this sort of a system is like an anonymous pooled mining operation, but such a thing would be ridiculously difficult to pull off, and nearly impossible to keep legitimate the more regulations that get piled on over the years. The value of Bitcoin rises a little when they "legitimize" it, so some people will whine, but the people holding and promoting BTC (even the most hardcore libertarians) won't demonize their precious Bitcoin as a whole, because they own a lot of it and they want to see it increase in value. So the government will add a little bit more regulation, making it safer, increasing the value, and causing a few complaints. Rinse, repeat. Do this twenty years. Remember, governments have time on their side, they'll be around long after we're all dead.

I'm willing to bet 10 BTC that within two years all US-based mining pools will require identification of miners operating on their pool in order to satisfy government regulations.

Remember, I'm the OP (Phinnaeus Gage--not my real name) and that you're asking Matthew with UABB this question. I don't want my name (even if it's a fake one) tarnished if by chance I'm on the wrong side of this issue. I do feel you have some valid points.

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