Quote from: defxor on May 13, 2012, 07:43:12 PM

Quote from: Gavin Andresen on May 13, 2012, 02:04:26 PM

Good luck-- I share your view that coming up with better ways of playing zero-sum games is not the way to make the world a better place.

A lot of us share that view. Bitcoin, for unfortunate reasons, has attracted a good number of people who seem to believe that trading is a good way for people to "make money".

It doesn't make the world a better place. Not on Wall Street, not in Bitcoin. I'm somewhat surprised Zhou shared that view, and very pleasantly surprised that you do Gavin.

Zhou - I'm sure you'll go on to create awesome. Good luck!

Trading tools are essential to any currency and Bitcoin is no different. If you think Bitcoin can be successful without efficient markets for trading Bitcoin, you are mistaken. While the traders trying to trade market swings are certainly in competition with others trying to do the same, in the process they create deep, liquid and efficient markets for the rest of us trying to use Bitcoin to improve commerce.

P.S. The only thing I regret about Bitcoinica is that there weren't a handful of others competing with themI think there's no question they were making substantial profits for themselves simply because they were the only option available for leveraged tradingwhich shows there was demand for what they were offering and enabled them to command what, in my opinion, were very large spreads.