Stop building mining rigs people!!!!!

[mewantsbitcoins]

can't see it working with bitcoin mining rigs unless this society is even more far gone than my paranoid mind is imagining ... unlikely, but I've underestimated the depravity of the "state is god mentality" before

Today a woman asked me if I installed google on her laptop

[SgtSpike]

can't see it working with bitcoin mining rigs unless this society is even more far gone than my paranoid mind is imagining ... unlikely, but I've underestimated the depravity of the "state is god mentality" before

Today a woman asked me if I installed google on her laptop

Well... did you???

[MoonShadow]

can't see it working with bitcoin mining rigs unless this society is even more far gone than my paranoid mind is imagining ... unlikely, but I've underestimated the depravity of the "state is god mentality" before

Today a woman asked me if I installed google on her laptop

Was this after she asked you to fix her cupholder?

[FatherMcGruder]

Today a woman asked me if I installed google on her laptop

You should have replied, "we don't do that here", as if she asked for a happy ending of some sort.

[sniper_sniperson]

Don't be surprised if Arnold kicks down your door and blows away your mining rigs w/ a shotgun.

His endoskeleton has no match against my super-duper concrete donkey:

[marcus_of_augustus]

yes, there is nothing quite like a good googling for the old girl ....

[Doktyr]

 But keeping profits purely bitcoin and paying for services the same way is bound to attract the IRS eventually.  

I doubt this really.  Governments everywhere had other methods of taxation before the income tax, which only came to the US in 1913.  Prior to that, the better part of the US federal revenue came from excise taxes on alchohol.  Bitcoin just makes the income tax difficult again.  It doesn't abolish a governments abilities to tax.  The US might end up with a liquid fuel importation tax, which would work similar to Europe's VAT taxes on fuel.  The results would be to vastly favor oil pumped and refined within the US is economically favored, but it's impossible to supply the US on domestic production alone.  This creates a bottleneck that the government can watch (ports) and collect taxes.

I agree 100% that 100 years ago the US was more sensible about taxation (income tax is a big point).  But the IRS has been co-oped as a pseudo-police force in recent decades.  Watching the raids where the IRS shows up swat team style and confiscates everything in sight based on a "tip".  Anything that makes wealth transfer hard to track has become illegal.

The post 9/11 "Know your customer" rules and the fact that you can be arrested and have money confiscated just for carrying a few thousand dollars shows a sad road ahead.  I wish my comment was purely a tax policy issue but like the "Interstate Commerce Clause" abuse that the courts seem to just let slide, I see the US government as willing to use any means necessary to stop something they don't like.

I need to read up on a liquid fuel tax structure, but I was under the belief that the US has most of the refining capacity so the oil producers ship crude here to be refined.  Not sure how that would work.  I just worry for the mining pool operators in the US getting a "No Knock" visit for supporting something the government doesn't like.  Hopefully it won't happen soon or at all.

[clonedone]

I hope you guys are buying guns and amo along with your GPU's. Its ur responsibility to take out a node if it becomes self aware.

http://www.robotuprising.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetic_revolt

on new egg the 5970 comes with a gun  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150500&cm_re=5970-_-14-150-500-_-Product
Newegg has been preparing for this day a long time now

[allinvain]

I hope you guys are buying guns and amo along with your GPU's.

No.  Guns & Ammo don't make me money.

They do. There's a very old and very efficient business model about that. Just ask, in a very polite way, people to give you all of their money. It generally doesn't work except if you have a gun in your hand at the same time. It's very efficient because you can re-use the gun as many time as you want.

Unfortunately, this was a so easy business model that most government made it illegal. Damn government, they are really abusing their power. We should be allowed to conduct any business we want between consenting adults.

Youre absolutely right. Here a pic of mi gunning rig




(?)

Very nice! So you're set for not only the robot uprising but also a zombie apocalypse

[Kluge]

how's it gonna look if the goons are kicking in doors of geeks with gaming rigs on "COPS" shows .... those same geeks who bought us lovely toys like iPhone, Facebook, Twitter, email, internet porn ... notta good look ... they can't paint a 100,000 geeks as hackers.

They'll look bad, but I doubt enough people will care to do something about it. The FBI actually (I'm not kidding!) raided university kids' apartment building because they alleged the kids were farming WoW gold. This was just a few weeks ago. Did you see any outrage?

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110408/03292413827/fbi-hunting-down-world-warcraft-gold-farmers.shtml

[allinvain]

The current bitcoin owners could get rich if they bought it all =D

Screw them..I for one would not sell them..

Do you really think that all bitcoin  users are motivated purely by profit motives?

[MacFall]

And there are already laws to that effect on the books in America. It is actually considered fraudulent to present non-legal tender as money.

Popular misconception. From the Treasury's website.

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise.

The fact that businesses are not prohibited from refusing legal tender doesn't mean the .gov is okay with them accepting non-legal tender. I'm not an expert in the matter, and I could be wrong. I just don't see how that quote from the Treasury's site shows that I am. I would be interested to see something that does.

Citation?

Can't find any conveniently and I don't care enough to keep looking. Consider the point conceded in your favor.

Market currencies like bitcoin and the Liberty Dollar are far more likely targets then other state-approved currencies, but when things get really hairy they will probably regard ANY potential competition to the dollar as an actionable threat.

They shut down the Liberty Dollar under the premise that it was too similar to federal reserve notes. I'm interested to see what argument they use against Bitcoin...

If things get to that point, I expect that state will not be very concerned with retaining its image of legitimacy any more. They won't need clever arguments when they have a monopoly on violence. I mean, it's not like they don't already break their own laws with things as they currently stand. Though perhaps an event capable of causing such a crisis - such as widespread integration of Bitcoin into the mainstream economy - would render them powerless to prosecute anyone for using Bitcoin in the first place.

[marcus_of_augustus]

If things get to that point, I expect that state will not be very concerned with retaining its image of legitimacy any more.

What bothers me is that bitcoin maybe the defining catalyst for the state to have its "crossing the Rubicon moment", shed any pretense of legitimacy and go completely feral.

After that, she's all on, as far as I'm concerned, with us or against times. And a bunch of computer enthusiasts are on the front-line of much nastiness, how sad would that be?

[MacFall]

Hey, some of us are also gun enthusiasts.

And community activists, which is a good way to effect non-state organization. It might not be so bad. 

[mewantsbitcoins]

Hey, some of us are also gun enthusiasts.

And community activists, which is a good way to effect non-state organization. It might not be so bad. 

Religious gun enthusiast. You know I start to like you 

[MoonShadow]

If things get to that point, I expect that state will not be very concerned with retaining its image of legitimacy any more. They won't need clever arguments when they have a monopoly on violence.

If governments drop the pretense, they will no longer have a monopoly on violence.  Not in places wherein privately held firearms exist in an numbers anyway.  Whether those same firearms are "legal" or not.  And those that fancy themselves as a legitimate ruling class know this very well.

[bbulker]

Nobody can stop me from buying mining rigs. If I don't profit from mining directly I'll profit from trading.

[FatherMcGruder]

Hey, some of us are also gun enthusiasts.

And community activists, which is a good way to effect non-state organization. It might not be so bad. 

A lot of ass-kicking for the Lord going on around here it seems.

[rezin777]

Youre absolutely right. Here a pic of mi gunning rig

The remmy up top... .308 or .30-06?

[MacFall]

Hey, some of us are also gun enthusiasts.

And community activists, which is a good way to effect non-state organization. It might not be so bad. 

A lot of ass-kicking for the Lord going on around here it seems.

Heh.

Well, I'd prefer never to have to use my guns on anything except inanimate objects, of course. I just worry that when the state is essentially reduced to a very large criminal gang without any attempt at being "legitimate", some people may have little choice.