Quote from: BitterTea on June 09, 2011, 05:25:49 PM

Why would you want to help a bunch of thugs put non-violent people in prison?

If Bitcoin is made illegal, will you do your best to help law enforcement catch Bitcoin users?

I got this one, to disassociate bitcoin with criminal activities. Currently in the public eye BitCoin is an unknown, never heard of it, etc. Our wonderfully paid for senator is trying to paint a picture that BitCoin is a currency exclusively used to pay for activites that are illegal. The picture he's trying to paint would make BitCoin = Criminals in the public eye. He succeeds here in the US, other countries will follow, which hurts BitCoin.

However; if BitCoin adopters leveraging how open BitCoin is help presecuters. Well that leaves people questioning what this BitCoin thing really is. Some people will look into it, others will continue to ignore it's existence. Which is either neutral or good for BitCoin.

Now as supporters of BitCoin we should both discourage it's use for illegal activities as well as promote it's legal uses when possible, we have to paint our own picture BitCoin = Commedity, something of value used in the exchange for goods an services. No more, no less.

(Honestly on non violent crime note, personally I'd rather drugs were legal, put a tax on the drugs, and call it a day. Personally I put people puffing their brains away as no better or worse then the person who destroys their body by poor dietary habits)