+1

Overall, I agree with 99% of Synaptic's analysis, and I especially agree with a few of the other posters' comments about there not being enough criticism and dissent in these forums.  Right now, Bitcoins, for all their technical glory (which, truly, is admirable), don't seem to do anything useful to any appreciable extent other than allow earlier-fools to relieve themselves of their BTC holdings by selling them to incoming greater-fools...  That's true of almost everything I've read *except* for the international transactions part.  I'm sensitive to that part (having lived in or having family ties to four or five different countries and about to move again), and I can *definitely* see the value proposition in near-frictionless transactions across borders where you don't have to trust anyone along the way.  The fees and hassle to do this in the normal banking system nowadays are truly outrageous.  If no alternative to Bitcoin ever succeeds, international transactions are perhaps the only thing I'd ever use Bitcoins for (even then, I'd use BTC for the whole of 10-20 minutes as an intermediate currency, and it's not hard to see how having to go through a million intermediaries to do this might kill even *that* use case).  But I really hope that an alternative to Bitcoin does emerge, one that isn't drowning in libertarian/anarcho-capitalist kool-aid and does not shoot itself in the foot with fringe, unworkable economics.