Quote from: Hans0 on June 09, 2011, 12:55:25 AM

jaimedimon, that was helpful. Especially your statements about money laundering. If you pay half the price of a house in bitcoin, _that_ would be money laundering, right?

skysurfer808, I strongly believe bitcoin will become illegal for various reasons, but it still might be an alternative to gold because of its anonymity and uninterruptability features. I intend to hold any bitcoins I have when that happens for 5-10 years until an opportunity comes along that allows me to put them to use.

To launder money, you take cash, and convert it somehow into regular money in the banking system, called "settled funds". Usually to do this, you have to pay a fee to someone to launder it (someone who owns a cash business for example, like a laundromat), and also you have to pay taxes on the money. Essentially enough of the people running the world need to get their cut, before illegal money can become legal. Grin

When you try to buy a house, you better already have your downpayment in the bank, because if it is under your mattress, the bank doesn't know whether you earned that money legally, or from selling drugs, or whatever. They sort of freak out about that. It's a pretty recent change because of 9/11 and the PATRIOT act. The banks have to do a lot of stuff now that they never had to do regarding verifying source of funds, identities, etc.