Quote from: ihrhase on March 02, 2010, 09:08:05 PM

Interest is a market phenomenon, it is an application of time in economics, so I will have to disagree with your dishonest connotation to interest...

Excellent, this is an interesting debate that goes back hundreds of years. Many people would say that inflation is a market phenomenon too. Do you realise that any economy which permits charging interest on a loan *requires* inflation? The rich entity charging interest gets *all* their capital back, *plus* the interest. If no extra money is being injected into the economy (i.e. no inflation), eventually the interest charger collects all the money in circulation and the currency fails.

Quote from: ihrhase on March 02, 2010, 09:08:05 PM

Basically if it is your opinion that the purchase or sale of drugs is "dishonest" then do not engage in such practices...

"dishonest" was perhaps inappropriate. Some people *would* consider drug dealing dishonest (exploitation of another's weakness/addiction etc), but nonetheless, it's illegal, and that's what counts in this discussion. You can argue until you're blue in the face, but the bottom line is, it's illegal, and Big Gov will restrict your liberty if it catches you.

Quote from: ihrhase on March 02, 2010, 09:08:05 PM

If I were to sell tobacco I grew at my home, using bitcoin as a medium of exchange, am I using it dishonestly?

You're not using bitcoin dishonestly, unless you somehow use your economic power or prowess to distort the market to make an unfair profit. But, that's aside from the issue of whether tobacco-dealing is illegal or dishonest, or whatever. See the difference?
Suppose I collected $100 from each of my 9 friends, went out and bought $1000 worth of illegal substance X, then went home, and gave each of them $90 worth, and kept the remaining $190 worth for myself telling them it was more expensive than usual. Would my friends think I'm being dishonest if they found out (ignore "courier" fees etc)? Because I bought illegal substance X? Or because I didn't share it evenly?

Quote from: I-am-not-anonymous on March 03, 2010, 03:49:59 AM

What we all have to eventually realize is that if Bitcoin spreads to a large enough audience, government is going to catch on and shut it down.

How?

Umm, let me think, I get your IP address, waterboard your ISP until they give me your physical address, then shoot out your kneecaps. Of course, I wouldn't say it outright that I'm from the government, but I might build myself let's say a branding iron with the words "bitcoin haters group" and brand your forehead, and then claim I'm from a vigilante/anarchist group patriotically defending my country and its economy - you [not you specifically I-a-n-a, but general bitcoin pro-anarchists] could be happy at least in the illusion of having helped anarchists find a job, right? So then, would that stop you using bitcoin? Would you tell your friends what happened? Do you think they'd stop then aswell? It's all very well talking about encryption and so on, and I personally wouldn't know how to crack down on bitcoin users, but I think you're being a bit naive if you think Big Government would take it lying down. Damn, the west went to *WAR* more than once, at untold cost, to defend its economy - hundreds of thousands of dead people, *entire countries* ruined beyond all hope of recovery, tens if not hundreds of millions of displaced people... not to mention the continued suffering by millions of overworked, underpaid, malnourished people, including children, working to construct my next mobile phone. There you go, maybe I'd just send you to the god-forsaken middle of nowhere where there's a toilet-seat factory, and let you rot away, scratching out a miserable existence together with your former slaves. Yeah, I'd even let you have your bitcoin then.