Quote from: Gavin Andresen on January 14, 2014, 02:20:28 AM

I'm usually pretty careful not to call people names. Did I screw up?

You didn't mean to, but you did use a pretty nasty term: conspiracy theories. It's a subconscious reaction to cognitive dissonance. We've been programmed to label out-of-the-box thinking as "conspiracy theory," a label which out-of-the-box thinkers rightly dislike.

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I DO think there are lots of crazy conspiracy theories. I might even believe some of them myself, but that doesn't make me crazy (just "almost certainly wrong.").

Being "crazy" is the norm in nature. The opposite behavior is conforming. If you are afraid of being labeled "crazy," then you are conforming.

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - J. Krishnamurti

Like a society in which over 1 billion people are starving because they don't have "money" to "pay" for food.

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RE: child exploitation: Good example. We all agree that child exploitation is BAD, right?

We might disagree about what (if anything) we should DO about it, but isn't it worth discussing whether or not there is something we MIGHT do about it? For example, maybe offering mostly-anonymous bounties to reward anybody who gives information that leads to the arrest and conviction of people abusing children for profit or pleasure is a good idea. Maybe those bounties could be paid in Bitcoin.

It's a well-meaning idea in-and-of-itself, but that will not be the end result, as other posters pointed out. As stated in the Wired article quite openly, the end goal is to have "controls in place to regulate [digital currencies] like any other form of money."

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Maybe that is a terrible idea that will have awful consequences, but instead of rational discussion there's a knee-jerk GOVERNMENT BAD! that, in my humble opinion, is counter-productive to making the world a better place.

I think it's because many of us realize (i.e. have come to the understanding) that the "government's" intention never has anything to do with the public good. Pedophilia, terrorism, communism, etc are boogeymen, tools they use to increase their level of control (or "power").

Larken Rose is the most powerful voice I have found to help common sense thinkers like myself (and, I suspect, yourself) see things clearly, to understand what is, rather than what we were given to understand throughout our lives. Listening to Larken inevitably shifts one's perspective on the concepts of government and authority. Most of what he says is so common-sensical that it seems illogical to disagree.

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I don't like people assuming that they know what I'm thinking, or assume that because I'm willing to talk to people that I agree with those people, or assume that because I'm pragmatic about regulation I "want regulation." For the record: I'm mostly libertarian, I think we'd be just fine if we replaced 99.911% of regulations with voluntary, private, market-based solutions. But that ain't gonna happen any time soon.

I don't understand why you have that attitude ("ain't gonna happen any time soon"). I understand you take a conservative approach and want to remain very humble about what Bitcoin means, but if you're closed to the idea of Bitcoin bringing a revolutionary level of change, then you might unwittingly end up working for the "enemy," so to speak.

Cryptocurrencies are the contender to replace the old, obsolete economic system that no longer serves mankind. Here is the best exposition I've found on how the economic system actually works, completely "conspiracy free":

http://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse

This explains in precise detail why the economic system is mathematically doomed to collapse/fail. I think crypto enthusiasts will find Chris Martenson's Crash Course most fascinating.

Gavin, you knew Satoshi better than most. What do you think was Satoshi's intention all along? The Genesis Block suggests he believed the current economic system will eventually collapse (then again, many people did at the time and no longer do). The fact that he decided to silently vanish would also suggest that he sees something very, very big coming from his creation. A creation that he left in your hands. (Ive moved on to other things. Its in good hands with Gavin and everyone.)

I think all of us in the cryptocurrency community appreciate you greatly, Gavin, in the same way that we appreciate Satoshi and the other founders/developers. Personally, I do not doubt for a moment your integrity and motives.

But to make the right decisions, one has to have as much relevant information as possible. Dismissing out-of-the-imposed-box thinking as "conspiracy theory" (subconscious term for "impossible, too radical to be true") doesn't help make the world a better place. It does quite the opposite.

I would like to recommend a few very important educational videos for all:

Related to the current (old, obsolete, decrepit, primitive) system:

Chris Martenson's economics crash course - This explains in precise detail why the economic system is mathematically doomed to collapse/fail. I think crypto enthusiasts will find Chris Martenson's Crash Course most fascinating.

Money as Debt (part 1, part 2, part 3) - How is money created? If you can't give a precise answer to this question, watch these important educational videos.

Zeitgeist Addendum - An exposition of the declining economic system and its implications on poverty, wars, inefficiency, unsustainability, sub-optimal products, etc. Explores the idea of a resource-based economy, a fundamentally different, much more logical (hence utopian) alternative, that at the least serves to show how obvious it is that we could do much better. Further info and ideas explored in the sequel Zeitgeist: Moving Forward.

The Money Masters (1996) - The history of money, central banking, and the international bankers. The Rothschild quote posted above (Give me control over a nations currency and I care not who makes its laws.) is not just some figure of speech.

Related to the paradigm-shifting emergence of decentralized cryptocurrencies:

The True Value of Bitcoin: What You Really Need To Know - Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, the largest philosophy talk show in the world, explains some of the implications of the invention of cryptocurrencies, such as how they render obsolete the entire financial services sector (which outrageously make up ~8% of GDP!).

Videos by Andreas Antonopoulos such as this one: Most people are yet to understand how disruptive this technology is

Why Bitcoin May Be More Disruptive than the Internet - "Bitcoin is one of the most disruptive inventions in our lifetime. To understand this, we have to take a brief look at monetary history and how the money systems in place today are full of third party risk."

And this unrelated one for your amusement: I Think I Know Who Satoshi Is - Seems like the most likely candidate of those proposed so far.

(A note for the inevitable nay-sayers: One should not "believe" anything these videos say because they say so. They are helpful in increasing one's perspective. Believe only your sense of logic and intuition. Don't assume anything is true, whether new information or existing beliefs you assumed to be true.)

Quote from: Carlton Banks on January 14, 2014, 03:41:35 PM

My opinion is that we will get to see a cryptocurrency-ubiquitous world monetary system, the concept is too powerful to ever be restrained. If you've spent enough time thinking all the consequences through, you should see that.

+1!

Quote from: JohnsonRobinson on January 14, 2014, 04:11:44 PM

I think it is critical to recognize the dangerous psychology of groups such as the CFR and the individuals of whom they are comprised.

The Book 'Political Ponerology' explains it well. As sobering and nasty as this reality may be, we the masses have to figure out a way to protect ourselves / the planet from the present ultra elite, which is devoid of a capacity for compassion / caring and comes from a position of ultra-exceptionalism.

+1!