Quote from: ex-trader on June 05, 2013, 03:27:19 PM

Loads of proven scams and thefts of BTC with no-one to complain to or any way of seeking redress.

This one is a lie. You can take them to court if you wish and prove your case.
Scams happen all over the internet, you need to be vigilant.

Quote from: ex-trader on June 05, 2013, 03:27:19 PM

Entire BTC universe was created and is being modified by a tiny unelected unaccountable body.

What universe? Bitcoin is just a protocol.

Quote from: ex-trader on June 05, 2013, 03:27:19 PM

Small savings for merchants (I pay around 2% on Visa/MC in my businesses and BTC requires some fees)

People generally don't hand over their card details to smaller merchants on the internet (eBay seller for eg). PayPal charges 3.9% + $0.30 for each transaction and eBay charges up to another 10%. If you sell someone something for a dollar on ebay, you will receive $0.66 into your PayPal account + owe eBay around $0.10, so you'll get half your money. With BTC you'll get the entire dollar, but the buyer might have to pay a tiny fee.

Quote from: ex-trader on June 05, 2013, 03:27:19 PM

No chargebacks mean I will never personally risk buying anything using BTC vs using a Visa/MCard/Amex - no price difference as a buyer, but I lose all protectionsagainst fraud or bad goods.

You don't have to risk anything if you use a 2 of 3 escrow payment.

Quote from: ex-trader on June 05, 2013, 03:27:19 PM

Price fluctuations vs Fiat mean unless you exist only in a BTC world the risk on fluctuations through the course of a transaction vastly exceeds the benefit of a small cost-saving in most cases.

The reason for this is MtGox. To put it simply, they suck.

You need to give it time, back in the early days people would have to spread their BTC buying over the course of weeks as the exchanges didn't have the liquidity and they would loose too much due to slippage.

Once we have properly designed currency exchanges with decent volume & liquidity this will no longer be an issue.

Quote from: ex-trader on June 05, 2013, 03:27:19 PM

Don't forget that almost all flows of BTC to date have been either speculative or gambling

What about Silk Road? What about BitMit? What about BitcoinStore? What about namecheap? What about Wordpress? What about 4chan? What about Reddit?

Quote from: ex-trader on June 05, 2013, 03:27:19 PM

(SD is >50% of all BTC spend in history).

Not of all spends, but of all transactions as SDice makes 2 transactions for every single bet. And 90% of SDice transaction are automated plays by bots.