Thanks Kluge, and, which 'Hero', do you refer to? Is it a poster here, or some upcoming service?
I want to be in the know about these things, not because I speculate, but becaused I want to be there when they get cheap so I can buy more!
I'm not really in the know, either, but here's the latest vague/coded gossip...
Bitcoin/USD hybrid debit cards with a Mastercard or Visa partnership backed by a Bitcoin-centric Credit Union should be hitting the market this year, though. If BitInstant hasn't already (all they need are signatures and legalwork to open, not a massive amount of investment -- the CU could be kept pretty hidden if BitInstant doesn't want to do much with it), they'll probably be launching a credit union soon. This will open up some adoption/innovation floodgates, with BitInstant at the helm of financial innovation and possibly even "financial services" market share in the Bitcoiniverse.
So, Charlie will probably be the next sociopath.
There's another company looking to do something similar with regards to debit cards (can't remember their name). At least one of these companies will suffer spectacular failure after spectacular hype. Pretty much always happens, but a company as large and determined as BitInstant (should they suffer initial failure) will certainly rise from whatever ashes may come from an initial burn.
CoinLab's always launching new queer promos/services, frequently not even remotely directed at BTC users. Who knows what they have up their sleeves but large stacks of cash....
My crystal ball says ASICMiner will likely see massive hype soon with a new, rather clever shark on their Board. Lots of investors will be dumping new money on the company within 3 months. Something spectacular will likely happen.
Known for queer inventions, Bitcoin is also likely to churn out a new charity fundraising for-profit which converts BTC to USD specifically for charities, paying BTC users to collect funds. This should be announced within 4 months, and publicly launched by the end of 2013. They may possibly venture into the MMORPG world with dev/pub backing to collect in-game currency and convert that to USD for charities.
That's all for now!
