I don't understand why Silk Road is so important to Bitcoin? Please elaborate.
That's an easy one. The true value of bitcoins to a person who wants to make illegal purchases is the ability of bitcoins to be used for any transaction, however shady, with total safety. There are a lot of people in this thread who want the goods on Silkroad and consider Bitcoins a means to that end - that is, they consider the Bitcoins only virtue to be unrestricted transactions for any good or service, however the legality.
Tell me, which authority decides which transactions are allowable and which are not? In what method do they have this control?
All I am saying is that if
anyone has this authority, Bitcoin has been reduced from a
free currency (the original intent) to yet another somewhat novel payment mechanism for fiat money.