Got a response from them after I inquired why the convo was removed:
Hi Erik,
You are welcome to repost your conversations, but maybe consider formulating a bit less like promotion to avoid it being removed by our moderators again.
Thanks,
TED Admin
I don't understand why they claimed it sounded "promotional"? Most of the post I made was phrased in question form, such as "in what ways will Bitcoin permit various economic groups to interact across government boundaries.." etc. My only guess is that the mod there figured that Bitcoin was like Paypal, in being a company/organization. With that frame of reference, I can see why any mention of Bitcoin might seem promotional.
It does bother me that I must now repost a new convo, and hope that new people comment on it. I'm going to respond to their email and ask if the first post can be re-instated, and that I will edit it to fit better within their guidelines.
All part of the struggle =)
In my opinion, the most important contribution (by far) of bitcoin is that it enables true 2 party transactions to occur over the internet. That has profound social implications and might be something that the TED crowd would would be interested in hearing about. The fact that bitcoin isn't issued by a central authority is of secondary importance.