China bars banks from bitcoin transactions

Thats how they will crush bitcoin if they want to. They can't really do anything to stop the p2p transactions, but govts will outlaw legitimate businesses from accepting them.

The CNNMoney link mentions a prior virtual currency called QQ. I never heard of that so I found some information on it.

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A Virtual Currency, the QQ Coin, Has Taken on Real Value in China

QQ coins, a kind of virtual money initially invented by the Chinese company Tencent Holdings, Ltd, was initially designed to allow users to buy digital commodities, such as virtual flowers, but has taken on a real market value.

It started a few years ago when the company started selling QQ coins for one yuan each, about 13 cents. The use of the coin took off, and then something very strange happened: online vendors started accepting the virtual currency in exchange for real world items. The artificially designed virtual currency had become real money. Its use took off, with massive online trade. It came to be used for gambling and prostitution, things that would be illegal in the realm of real money. Over the past month alone, the value of QQ coins has gone up 70%.

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April 11, 2007

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Finally, a pair of Reddit users say they've been chasing a series of Bitcoin transactions that they claim originate with the Sheep Marketplace theft. The amount involved is more than 96,000 BTC, almost $100 million, and has been moved from wallet to wallet several times over the past several hours.

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Last week the amount stolen from users was estimated to be $44 million.

I hope no one is surprised that the bitcoin world is populated by dishonest people. After all, the original purpose of bitcoin was to help users to evade laws and it is still being touted that way to prospective buyers and users of btc.

I wrote a history paper in College (many many moons ago) about the Louisiana Card money. It is a fascinating subject for anyone who has never heard of it. Historians say that the colonial French card money was the first fiat in America. They actually wrote the money on playing cards because of the shortage of paper. This was the precursor of Bank Notes.

One could not use the card money for geographic trade so it was not practical for mercantilism. The Louisiana merchant could not buy New York goods with the cards. Card Money did not end well because of problems in redemption and trust. France allowed the practice because of money shortages, but eventually devalued the card money in redemption.

Card money

I look at bitcoin as 21st century card money. I think that for some reason, the authorities want to see where this leads and that is why they have not totally shut this down. It's a test.

I ask myself also, if BTC fills some kind of money void like the card money performed for the French? It is true that the world is awash in liquidity, but money is becoming held in fewer and fewer hands. This will all be played out in the future and maybe we will have a clearer picture of BTC. For now, it is too complicated for my tastes and ultimately, what governments will allow taxes and fees to be paid in BTC?

With Card Money, you knew who was making the cards. The ordonnateurs in mid 18th century were such names as Descloseaux, Rochemore, Foucault, &
D'Abbadie. BTC is too cloaked in secrecy to be trusted. It stinks of the City of London IMO.

Maybe BTC TECHNOLOGY is a precursor to some new electronic global money system, but right now I don't see BTC (just like the Card Money) ending well at all.

I meant that, in the abstract, breaking the law is not necessarily dishonest. I don't do drugs (alcohol excluded), but buying them is not dishonest, imo.

“If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law”
? Henry David Thoreau

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The ordonnateurs

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Ha Ha Russian. No, in this instance the men who issued the card money were called ordonnateurs. In French it is roughly "organizers". I think it is ironic that in France, funeral directors can be called ordonnateurs.

Point being... with card money, the locals knew the men who were issuing the playing cards. I don't fully understand BTC, but I do understand that no one knows who is "behind the curtain" on the digital currency. It's anonymous, but traceable as I understand it.

=)

BTC down to $850 (from $1,100) on MtGox in the last 6 hours. For anyone keeping score, that's an almost 25% drop.

Something screwy is going on with it because btc-e's price is now higher than MtGox. MG must have announced something.