Quote from: johnniewalker on April 02, 2014, 07:36:58 PM

For the first time since I bought my first bitcoins at about $5/ea, I don't own any. With the IRS decision, its obvious [immediate] effects and the slight dip in the price of silver, I headed over to Amagi and spent it all on junk silver (90%). It feels weird to "be out of the game" as far as owning bitcoins goes. Did I make the right decision? Has the ship sailed? Or does anybody think now is the perfect time to hop back on it?

Being out of the game is not a good thing, if we want the bitcoin revolution to success we are going to need a lot of people to participate.

In regards the IRS attack on Bitcoin, it really sucks big time, it is part of the war against bitcoin, I would guess it will take a huge hit on the price on Bitcoin but eventually bitcoin will bounce back up, I feel that the IRS ruling will drive bitcoin underground in the USA which is not a good thing, on the positive side bitcoin is international.

Once the IRS realizes that they are driving capital out of the USA they might reconsider, but I have my doubts on that.

It is a sad situation in which you realize how much not free is the USA, but on the other hand there are even less free countries which is even worse.

One thing I have learned thanks to bitcoin, bitcoin is in indicator of economic freedom, the more a country attacks, regulates, and restricts bitcoin the less free a country is, on the other hand the countries in which appear on the bitcoin legal map as unknown are most likely the most free countries.

I it sad that I can not give any good advice in regards this situation, because on one hand I want the bitcoin revolution to succeed but on the other hand I realized that we are getting screwed by the IRS and there is very little that can be done, if we exit we lose our freedom, if we stay we could get hurt badly financially, it is a difficult situation that sucks.

I would like to point out the in my opinion that IRS ruling it is illegal for 2 reasons, reason 1 it is a retroactive law and as such should be illegal, the other reason it destroys bitcoin fungibility which is essential for a currency to succeed, they are very much saying we will not allow a competing currency, which is itself illegal.

At this point something that should be really be considered as a high priority in the bitcoin community is to make bitcoin more anonymous without a fork if possible, that could help drive the price up since the IRS ruling is the main factor driving the price down, the other secondary factor is China.