[Errant]

Excellent piece with insight on the implications if crytocurrencies go viral.

[Errant]

Click to be Added / Removed.

[dfwgator]

Or it will provide an excuse for government to get even more intrusive.

[narses]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-21/bitcoin-no-bargain-as-47-of-investors-go-bearish-in-poll.html

Bitcoin No Bargain as 47% of Investors Go Bearish in Poll

[Pearls Before Swine]

It sounds enticing. But, money without electricity? One desirable property in money is as an anonymous bearer instrument. Does cash fit into the Bitcoin paradigm?

[ClearCase_guy]

A lot of science fiction operates in this realm. If money is anonymous and untraceable, taxes become impossible. Governments cannot be funded and they cease to exist. The marketplace continues, and violence and coercion (the primary task of government in the past) continues, but not as before.

Bitcoin doesn't take us to that world, but I think we will get there before too long.

I also think that governments may be willing to crash the existing system and impose full-scale tyranny if they think the concept of government may be approaching its expiration date. In fact, I think this is what is currently going on.

[Jet Jaguar]

What are your thoughts on litecoin? Is mining for them feasible for an individual?

[PoloSec]

There is also an interesting video at CoinDesk news...

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/bitcoin-investment-outcome-seen-as-binary-TYyZyJ8GS22SWSD9L_9ghw.html

[montanajoe]

Every time I see an article about Bitcoin I smell tulips..

[montag813]

Bitcoin is far too vulnerable. EMP? Bitcoin worthless. ISP cancels you? Bitcoin cutoff. Government goes after you? Bitcoin blocked. Rural locale with no internet? Bitcoin useless.

[RockyTx]

bitcoin’s problem ...

an unlimited number of competitors

[kevkrom]

I just finished re-reading The Diamond Age, and part of the "backstory" that the story is set against is a post nation-state world, where the demise of the nation-state was essentially brought about by an alternate currency system that allowed for untraceable transactions. The result of that was the reorganization of people into "phyles" based on racial, cultural, and/or religious principles instead of states defined by geography.