2013-07-30 Telegraph.co.uk - Banning Bitcoin Is Stupid

[kiko]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/douglascarswellmp/100228691/banning-bitcoin-is-stupid-non-state-digital-currencies-will-soon-sweep-away-our-monopoly-money/

The winner of this week’s King Canute prize for attempting to hold back the tide goes to the government of Thailand. Why? They have just decided to ban Bitcoin, the new digital currency.
Bitcoin – which exists only as a string of computer source code, and in so far as people are willing to exchange ownership of it for other things – cannot lawfully be used to buy and sell in Thailand.
Monetary authorities in Bangkok fear that this upstart currency cannot be subject to capital controls. And they are right. It can't. But banning Bitcoin won't end a very 21st-century conundrum for governments everywhere.
A digital tide is coming in, and it will sweep away the post-Bretton Woods system of monopoly money. No government, in Thailand, or elsewhere, will ultimately be able to stop it.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Wow, a politician who gets it ... this is refreshing, thumbs up to Mr. Carswell. 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Decent article, but I believe he hasn't thought about "single point of failure" enough.