I think the biggest problem is the demise of Silk Road. People don't have the necessary tools to relax anymore.

I think this is a step in the right direction. Couple of things though:

- Your email address is broken, mike@localbitcoinfoundation.org.
- Local groups should be left independent of "Local Bitcoin Foundation" itself. Instead Local Bitcoin Foundation can serve as sort of a directory with general information. For instance, pdxbtcdro should be left to operate the Portland based foundation the way that community sees fit. All I would see LBF doing would be providing a easily accessible subdomain, e.g. "portland.localbitcoinfoundation.org" or "localbitcoinfoundation.org/portland" that simply redirects to the appropriate site run by it's own community.

More or less, I agree with the following aspects of your vision:

•   Provide direction for local chapters on integrating Bitcoin within their community
•   Provide education on Bitcoin topics, such as best use practices of Bitcoin, adequate security, and new and innovative Bitcoin technology
•   Provide a link for people to seek out local support for Bitcoin within their community
•   Provide a link between the people and their elected Politicians to better understand of Bitcoin
That should be the responsibility of the local chapters.
•   Provide a link between chapters of the Local Bitcoin Foundation, to share their ideas and experiences of Bitcoin promotion within their communities
•   Provide a voice for people, through their local chapters, to share their visions for the proliferance of Bitcoin
•   Provide resources and support to members of the Local Bitcoin Foundation, such as but not limited to, Legal, Financial, Accounting, Information Technology, and the Artistic Expression of Bitcoin
•   Provide funding and resources to developers of the open source Bitcoin protocol I think the focus should be on developing and supporting the local chapters exclusively.
•   Provide marketing resources to local chapters

Ideally, I don't see LBF becoming a new foundation itself with it's own democratic principles, bylaws, yada yada yada, than as a support group for actual locally-funded, locally-developed and locally-run "foundations" (many of which have sprung up already in different cities, states and countries).

If you share that sort of a decentralized vision vs a replacement foundation for a broken national alternative, than I definitely want to be a part of this project. I have a background in business management and marketing. I also have a tech background and can get your temporary site and email working.

IMO you won't have a huge market of consumers buying a drink primarily because it's a "BitCola" - and shipping is gonna kill you if you try going for an online platform (since your demand may be there but will probably be widely dispersed). But as a gimmick to promote an established or up-and-coming soda, especially if the manufacturer starts accepting BitCoin at the same time, might work out well.

You should propose your idea here:

www.urgeusa.com

Alright, so here's what I've got:

http://www.insuredcoin.com/

This is my first tech-related venture and I was wondering if I could get input from some of the vets.

I adopted BitCoin early on and used it (mostly for digital goods). After the insane speculation that's recently hit it, I'm really just holding nowadays. But I do believe BTC has a future where it's primary purpose will return to being a cyber-currency that people use for more than CE.

Anyways, one of the major problems with using BTC has been a lack of protection for your BTC. You don't know how your BTC are being handled by the other party, there are no third party audits or an en-forcible security standard. When companies go under (i.e. Silk Road, GBSE) or when their assets are frozen (MtGox), many people end up losing BTC they left with the host. Likewise, everybody knows about some of the major thefts/scams as well as the purely stupid executive failures.

The idea here is to have a pool of BTC that is used to (a) ensure that businesses that get on board adhere to particular security standards and (b) insure BTC used in transactions with said companies. I don't know if this falls under your typical startup since I want to move in the 501 (3) (c) direction once I can afford modest legal fees (or find a pro-bono lawyer). But that's the gist of it (more details on the site itself - the idea isn't 100% fleshed out yet).

Any help with finding some direction, resources or simple critique much appreciated.

As the title says, I'd like to know if we have a list of these available anywhere. I want to be able to see what makes each of them different (if at all) and I'd especially like to see dead ones.

Do we have a list of alt currencies and when they were started?