Quote from: pringesgood on January 03, 2013, 04:42:07 AM

so if Bitcoin is soooo revolutionary, why isn't it mainstream? and why isn't the government taking action?

please allow me to answer my own questions and would you please comment on my analysis...:

1) its new, trust takes time, diffusion takes time, slowly but steadily climbing towards critical mass

2) its not obvious and technically complicated, requires trusted individuals to explain and spread understanding

3) its new, first of its kind?, no history or any reference, requires entrepreneurial individuals to test and discover for themselves the validity of such system

4) government IS monitoring, but scale of project is deemed minuscule, non-threatening, and allows project to 'work itself out'

uh ... what else? please add your thoughts.

1.) Yes - most people won't adopt something until they see it on TV

2.) Yes - but it doesn't take much research to figure out how to use bitcoin

3.) Yes - the vast majority of people in mainstream society still have no idea that bitcoin exists (believe it or not), so as bitcoin gets more and more coverage the popularity will continue to grow

4.) BTC is impossible to tax and therefore governments are probably trying to work out how they can tax it behind closed doors (possibly expect cryptocurrency copycats that include full personal identifying information and tracking to be introduced sometime in the future) - they do not want to make it illegal as this would get bitcoin all over the TV and newspapers for months and ironically bitcoin use would then most likely skyrocket Cool

Also it is impossible to make it illegal in a practical sense (much like p2p file sharing). It is the future