Quote from: BitChick on May 29, 2013, 10:38:00 PM

Question, you mention the "Shadow Economy" using BTC could cause the price to $160,000. Do you think the problems with Liberty Reserve could indeed spur this on sooner, rather than later? Personally, I am not sure I am too excited about making profit from questionable underground activity, but I am curious nonetheless.

I think LR crackdown fits in the pattern of the 'hunt for the rich' and 'no more money laundering' (crackdown on offshore banking), and 'let everyone pay its fair share' that we are seeing lately. I don't think governments have all of the sudden grown a conscience, I just think they're rather desperate for money these days. And so they try to raise money whichever way they can, not very successfully.

Consequence is a growth of the 'black engine':
- state workers get lower wages and thus become more bribable
- supervision can become less strict because of lay offs in the government
- increasingly insecure environment for the 'white' / 'official' businesses
- high unemployment caused by higher taxation/more bureaucracy/higher frugality

That's the bigger picture that I'm seeing. The more the 'shadow banking' sector is under attack and the stronger the trend from cash to mobile becomes, the more I see decentralized cryptocurrencies gain traction in the world of informal trade.