Quote from: Nagle on October 13, 2011, 04:26:57 PM

I consider it inappropriate to try to push the Bitcoin pyramid on the Occupy Wall Street people, who have a legitimate beef and are trying to do something about it.

Disagree - the Move Your Money project (moveyourmoneyproject.org) is closely tied to Occupy Wall Street, and bitcoin is another way of achieving the same goal of removing money from Wall Street. It's clearly relevant to OWS.

And Bitcoin is not a pyramid: more accurate would be a one-time startup cost to all of the early adopters, same as with any VC-funded startup, until most of the coins are minted. The blockchain does take money to support, but which one do you think more closely aligns to the beliefs of OWS participants: a bunch of crypto-hackers trying to build an alternative currency, or wall street banks? Both take a cut of profits (banking fees, mined blocks) to keep going. And bitcoin will never need a $1 trillion bailout, which comes to $3,300 per man, woman, and child in the US.

Also, The Occupy Wall Street General Assembly can't just walk into a bank branch and get an account. PayPal has shut down addresses associated with OWS. But they were able to just create a bitcoin address, at no cost, and have accepted almost $1100 so far through their donation address:
https://blockexplorer.com/address/1Q7DQVTubbUqr5by2YoZJRKCEzj9D3LQ9w

It seems clear to me that bitcoins are highly useful to OWS participants. The perfect is the enemy of the good in many cases, and you often have to choose between bad or even worse. Bitcoin, which certainly has problems, is a useful financial tool in some situations. If the only thing Bitcoin ends up being used for is to easily send money to prohibited groups like Wikileaks and OWS, I'd consider it a success.