The point is that homosexuals exist whether or not they are banned, so will bitcoin. You might not read about it and the activity may be hidden but it exists. Maybe the price will be lower, maybe higher but even if banned by .gov, really all it has to do is be able to solve problems for a segment of the population in order to win. It does that and it has been doing that for some time now. The price is starting to reflect the fact that it is a solid protocol foundation for other layers to be built upon to create the best value transfer system man has seen yet (open source, peer to peer distributed network, adaptable, and antifragile. The bitcoin network is not just computers, it is people. These people are also a decentralized network of thinkers, coders, economists, entrepreneurs, hackers, speculators, etc. who have given Bitcoin (and bitcoin) a serious look and decided to join in. Many have dedicated their entire lives to this project. Don't tell me that doesn't have power.
I've been an early part of many trends in my life from music to mixed martial arts. I know a trend when I see it now. Bitcoin is gaining critical mass because it has the kind of hardcore supporters, and the technical veracity that are so necessary for mass adoption of anything really positive. Some of you rednecks can go ahead and shit on it all you want . It really won't hurt me at all as my choices will be the same to support this idea. The detractors here are rank newbs. You should have been around during the long, slow slide from $31.66 to $2.00 to see some real "something awful" type trolling. Government may be powerful but it can't really force everyone to comply with all of it's rules and making things illegal does not make them go away. So far, bitcoin's been kicking fiat (and gold's) ass. C'est la vie.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s3T9opvPHIYou are so so so wrong and naive :-(, and i dont mean that in a mean way, but if majority of bitcoin people are like you then got save me :-(... You are too passionate of something that is just money... and investment... your "ideals" are not good in this manner, its not good for you either. Dont get me wrong i would like or even love bitcoin to skyrocket, but there are serious arguments againts it...
If gov. BANS bitcoin worldwide, serious ban, even some agreements signed internationaly with some economic secretary of state, bitcoin is DOOMED. If no normal merchants will take it, and if it is clear that no one "normal" will take it (not counting underground sellers of drugs guns etc.) because he would face some serious troubles with government (just high taxes on bitcoin bussiness would do the deal) the price would so low, nobody would care about it... Yeah... it would still exist but it would be a marginal thing... I im not interested in marginal things because no money... (and vast majority of people think like me in this matter).
How would the price of bitcoin ever recover if there would be globall (just few important states would do) "ban" on bitcoin with international publicity, signed documents etc.. If everybody knows this is a serious and permant ban then bye bye bitcoin high price. Argue this... you cant probably... I would like to put more fiat into bitcoin but this one issue (serious international ban on bitcoin) is a big nightmare for me, and its easy to accomplish for governments.
It always surprises me how few people actually know what Bitcoin is and what it's not. Bitcoin is an experiment based on public key cryptography fathered by Ralph Merkle in the 1990s. Adam Back built on the work by inventing an email spam protection system that used a proof-of-work system before the one employed in Bitcoin. Bitcoin was and still is an experiment to see if the Hashcash system could also be used to transfer value between individuals using the same negligible computational cost used to limit email spam and denial-of-service attacks. A few people began using the system to send "real value" between great distances. In order to send "real value" it needed to be pegged to something with currently existing value. The "magic the gathering" trading card website changed their software slightly to allow Bitcoins to be traded on their trading card exchange. From there it exploded when media attention hit it from several different sources and some of the media attention revolved around SR using it as a real world currency. Bitcoin is still in beta (software not yet ready for RTM). It's clearly not yet ready to be the next world financial messiah.