There has been great speculation regarding the possibility of governments attempting to, in the future, restrict the use of Bitcoins.
This is an entirely tenable position and I think such a scenario will happen. Control of the money supply is a central facet of government power and for the powers that be to lose this ability is simply unacceptable and regulations and restrictions will start to emerge.
This is something we cannot, will not and won't accept for it breaks the spirit of the freedom associated with Bitcoins in the first place! Now, the average Joe won't have such concerns when Bitcoins are more widely used, thus the groundwork must be laid by us: the pioneers of the movement.
I can think of two options to those worried about being arrested/watched for possession of Bitcoins:
i) For someone to develop a Bitcoin client one could carry around on a USB stick and possibly duplicate.
The problem I have with this is that these things aren't designed for the long-term storage of data.
When duplicating/transferring over your entire fortune, wouldn't it be gutting to lose it all?
THUS, I propose the following:
ii) The emergence of multiple currency reserves dotted in far flung countries. I happen to have ties with one such country, and I have in place
dedicated servers with back-up facilities ready and waiting to go. See this thread:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8625.0I haven't had much enthusiasm for the idea thus far but then again I can understand why people are concerned about scammers and so on.
Perhaps this thread:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=12831.0 will convince you I'm not a Nigerian internet scammer. Either way it's eloquent so feel free to send me gifts