I agree, but I think a fork is coming anyway. "Bitcoin" is tainted and unless something dramatic happens, well on it's way to being the Lawn Dart and Ford Pinto of 2011. I think as far as I and most merchants are concerned at this point the Politicals are welcome to it.
Crypto-Currency is here to stay, it's not like losing one version of it will matter much in the long run. Call it a prototype- lessons learned.
Honestly I feel ofended by your tone here. Tainted? Tainted by what? A ship of unfriendly passengers that is taking on water? Bitcoin is at the moment the most succesful alternative currency of the last 100 or 200 years. That
might have something to do with the ideas that founded it (and its ok that you dont understand them, I was a social-democrat until I was 27). Now, it is true that we need more merchants on board and it is true that its going to take some time and efforts. But it is not the politics behind the community that is creating the problem, its the very same nature of the currency. Its the part that you dont really understand about monetary policy (and this is ok, Im ignorant about a lot of stuff, life is short) that is making Bitcoin successful while at the same time is worrying a lot of people at the top. Both things are unseparable.
Dont take this the wrong way, but I feel you dont undertand how a currency system works, specially regarding the nature of Bitcoin. A decentralized and pseudo-anonymous fork will have the same problems with the politicians and other critics that Bitcoin has, no matter the political ideas of the people behind it. And if the "fork" is not decentralized (it wont really be a fork then) it will just be another Paypal system, and I dont think there is much market for another competitor. How are you going to make a fork with the characteristics that make Bitcoin great, but at the same time without those same characteristics because it worries some people?
At the end, p2p file sharing also worried a lot of people at the top, they fought it, but it is here to stay. Because of its decentralized nature, nobody could fight it. Now everybody listens to more music and the bands have seen more interest for them playing live. But at the begginning a lot of people said it would not work because nobody would go with it. Bitcoin is the same and has the potential to bring a new era of trade and welfare for everybody.
Exactly, Even before I knew anything about bit-coin. I realized if bitcoin could exist then many such currencies could exist....and that's a very good thing! Bitcoin is revolutionary, and you can't separate the "politics" from it for that reason. I want to support something that sets money free. If it survives, there will be multitudes of money making opportunities arising from it, but the battle will have to be fought first.
If the U.S. outlaws the use of bitcoins, then some other country will embrace them, or something like them, and the U. S. will lose.. This is the future and it is very exciting.