Quote from: BitUsher on November 22, 2015, 07:52:52 PM

Quote from: hdbuck on November 22, 2015, 07:45:35 PM

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we all know their dirty secret is to ban cash and digitalize your influx so they can ~~track~~ tax you better.

Based upon this precedent - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 which is far more egregious than simply stopping printing their own virtual token I think you have a realistic fear. This is one of many reasons bitcoin will have a important future for all.

Bitcoin is Regulatory Arbitrage and no one should underestimate how important of a role that fulfills.

ergo good riddance ripple, hearn, bitpay, coinbase, goldmansachs... may they find whatever they seek with these private ~~blockchains~~ mySQL databases

Quote from: tvbcof on November 19, 2015, 05:21:43 PM

Quote from: btcusury on November 19, 2015, 04:52:10 PM

Quote from: iCEBREAKER on November 18, 2015, 09:31:12 PM

Their Big Lie is that Bitcoin was created to replace commercial banking, not central banking (as if the Genesis Text was about $2 ATM fees instead of TBTF bailouts).

Brilliant observation, thank you.

It is indeed. I personally care not one iota about replacing ATM's. The debt-based monetary system which currently animates the entire economic state of my country is what I care about. More specifically, the inherent life expectancy of such systems and their typical failure modes, and what it may mean to me. Even more specifically, what evolves out of such an implosion.

It is worth note that almost without exception the efforts that Hearn and Andresen have focused on are to facilitate to enlistment of people who's interest does not go beyond the ATM/VISA/PayPal aspect of the Bitcoin monetary system. I attribute this to a strategy which recognizes that these participants are a distinct liability to the defensibility of the ecosystem. The demands that 'the masses' make will open many chinks in the armor. Actually 'chinks' is an understatement. The effect would be that of a sufficiently large torpedo detonated under the keel mid-ship.

I do believe that this 'enlist the masses' focus has been strategic, and is for the ultimate purpose of destroying the Bitcoin solution in it's initial form. At least in Hearn's case. Gavin may at one point have been legitimately convinced that ballooning the userbase was a viable defense however naive that may be, and also that bending over backward to placate the existing political power structures so that they will be nice to us made sense. I don't believe that that is a sustainable argument any more if it ever was, and Gavin must certainly know this.