Hi Charlie, I'm trying to understand your first point more clearly, in one paragraph you post about the more able members helping the weaker members, but following that you are stating a clear desire to push the price up to sell for more for personal profit. (almost sounds like a pump-and-dump):

Quote from: CharlieContent on October 07, 2012, 06:04:06 AM

I actually think that the more able members of our society have a duty to help the weaker members, so I don't have any weird libertarian fantasies. I'm just in it for the money. The actual, folding, bank account, Visa card money.

So how can we push the price of Bitcoin up so that we can sell our coins for more? As everyone knows, in order to increase prices we need to spike demand. So why would anyone want a Bitcoin?

Quote from: markm on October 07, 2012, 11:25:04 AM

Basically store of value and transmission of value are two different functions, and it is very useful to be able to use two different coins for these functions so you can stash your fast-appreciating bitcoins away in a margin aka collateral aka leverage account and borrow, using your bitcoins as collateral, something that appreciates much slower or not at all.

I do not agree that the future of bitcoin is illegal, as was already pointed out just one of the payment processors supporting bitcoin has over a thousand merchants accepting bitcoin, it seems unlikely they are all illegal businesses.

-MarkM-

I'm with MarkM on this one. I think you need to clearly understand that different individuals perceive value differently. I highly value a bitcoin over a USD as the value of any usd for the near future will drop due to inflation (quantitative easing). As you've already experienced Charlie, the value of bitcoin over since its inception has only gone up... to your benefit!

Also, on your view that the future is illegal. I disagree. The reason? Its technologically useful. And $110+ million of market capitalisation backs up a perception that it is something with real world value.

Quote from: Wikipedia link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography#Prohibitions

After World War II, it was illegal in the US to sell or distribute encryption technology overseas; in fact, encryption was designated as auxiliary military equipment and put on the United States Munitions List.[42] Until the development of the personal computer, asymmetric key algorithms (i.e., public key techniques), and the Internet, this was not especially problematic. However, as the Internet grew and computers became more widely available, high quality encryption techniques became well-known around the globe. As a result, export controls came to be seen to be an impediment to commerce and to research.

To give my view a bit more depth, I'll use the analogy above. The US, after creating cryptography saw a huge threat in homeland security if it was used outside of its country by an enemy. They subsequently realised after the technology went mainstream that they could not stop growing consumer demand. If bitcoin is deemed illegal in the US, demand will drop but ultimately it will continue from the rest of the world.

When global adoption reaches a critical mass, if the US isn't in, then it will be at a disadvantage.