Quote from: hyperD on June 18, 2011, 07:07:12 AM

So can anyone or any group easily modify the client to establish a custum made blockchain at any time, market it better and establish a crypto currency for their own purpose? I have asked this question here many times but never seem to get a suitable response. I am not trolling or trying to agitate. I just want to gage the value of these bitcoins as an investment, short term or long term. Why can't I ask this question here without getting iced Huh

Sure. If you use another client you start a new blockchain. But you would have to convince people to pump over 100 mio USD into your system and get enough miners and clients online to propagate the blocks. On top of that you have to convince everybody, why your approach is superior to Bitcoin. Possible, but unlikely imho.

However, it has been suggested that the US govt could establish such a "US" chain and make trades in Bitcoin illegal while using the same features for easy online currency but still with the central control that they love. Whether saving 5% credit card fee is enough incentive for that plan to succeed is a different story.

OP, could please explain to me again, why we should abandon all the good features of Bitcoin (no central control over how many coins can be in circulation, no fixed price setting / exchange rates, much less incentive for block generation) just so that you don't have to make simple arithmetics when you shop online?

This is a very US-centric position, as others have already pointed out. Why 0.90 USD and not 900 PLN or 90 JPY? I guess we in Europe are just more used to the idea of "funny" exchange rates, I still remember the pre-Euro time where prices in Belgium were 20 times "higher". And still today it seems that everything in the UK is so much "cheaper" (if you do not in fact have access to a calculator or rule-of-thumb).