BTCLaw: any thoughts on how to avoid having Bitcoin suffer eGold's fate? Many of these online currency approaches fail for internal reasons (see: hashcash), but it looks like eGold became a victim of its success, particularly in its use for money laundering.
Sigh. It is trivial to look up the details on e-gold.
e-gold failed for one very simple reason: it did not register as an MSB, preferred a letter of the law approach ("gold is not money, therefore money regs do not apply") which convinced nobody. Not e-gold users, not criminals, not regulators.
That's why bitcoin exchanges should pay attention to the MT laws of their country.