I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I'm reading about the U.S. senate requesting that the Dept. of Homeland Security "look into this bitcoin thing".  If they aren't already, I'm sure they are going to start putting together a database matching bitcoin addresses with people's real identities.  They almost NEED to in order to comply with the Anti-money laundering legislation that the U.S. has in effect.  Other countries are bound to follow suit.  In the spirit of staving off a whole bunch of secret government surveillance programs, I'm wondering if we should beat them all to the punch.

I'm suggesting that we put together a public, searchable database that cross references people's identities with their bitcoin addresses.  Sort of like a yellow pages for bitcoin.

There will always be bitcoin laundry providers for people that need anonymity, but shouldn't those of us that aren't buying pot from the Dread Pirate Roberts be willing to build a bridge to the inevitable government push towards data collection?  Governments have been collecting information on people's revenue since the dawn of civilization and I think its naive that they won't figure out SOME way to do it with virtual currencies.    I love the idea of tax free income via bitcoin, but I also know that if bitcoins were more easily taxed then governments would be much more likely to start accepting it. 

Should we take a hit on our perceived anonymity for the sake of creating a more viable currency?