Without the possibility of being able to get your first Bitcoins from the local store down your block, I say a big % of Bitcoiners wouldn't have gotten into Bitcoin since it was too difficult to buy them.
The point of Bitcoin is once you have them, your free to do what you want. There are no middlemen in Bitcoin, but there could be an opportunity for middlemen to help first timers get Bitcoin.
Without the dozens of startups within Bitcoin, it would be no where where it is today. Bitcoin is not just a currency, and your selfish for saying that, Bitcoin is an economy. Bitcoin puts food on the tables of our employees and their families. Bitinstant gives salaries and jobs to dozens of people around the world, all because of Bitcoin.
There is something you keep missing and Im having to repeat myself. We have costs and fees associated with transfers. On a 4% transfer, we are paying over 3%. Do you want us to close up shop? I don't think so.
Sure, my current business model may not be the ideal for what Bitcoins ultimate goal is, but for now we need to get Bitcoin into the hands of as many people as possible and Bitinstant has sold over 200,000 BTC in the past few months.
Even for me it's impossible to miss the giant "costs and fees associated with the transfers" through the chain of middlemen you terminate.
BTW, if we are going to split hairs, rather than Bitcoin putting money on your employees table, it's your customers taking food off their own table and giving it to your chain of middlemen.
If there is one thing the recent years have shown, it's that financial middlemen (banks, credit companies, et al) have little regard whose table they clear of food or whose shop they close, as long as they make their quick buck "for now..."
Just saying that, since you mentioned being selfish, in a business that is all about selfishness...
So, you'll have to excuse my lack of empathy for your industry in general...
You stated that "big % of Bitcoiners wouldn't have gotten into Bitcoin" without middlemen like you. If that's true, as opposed to your self-serving PR, my simple point remains:
"a big % of Bitcoiners" have simply xchanged the traditional, expensive middlemen chains for even more expensive new middlemen chains terminated by BitInstant, et al...
People always have a choice to buy bitcoins from bitinstant or somewhere else. There are many options. bitinstant is just another way to get bitcoins really quick at a premium. Some people are willing to pay the 3-4% to get bitcoins really quick. What's their motto? "Time is money".
In fact, you could even start a bitcoin business selling bitcoins and no one is stopping you.
