I work with a bunch of statists who were down on BitCoin. Some of the reasons were actually that it's not controlled (pro central bank?) and can allow shady things to occur. To that last end, I'm all for transparency, but things that shouldn't be illegal (drugs, trading with others without getting a SSN/EIN/ITIN, revealing government lies ala WikiLeaks) are... until then, we need some measure of anonymity.
I am very intrigued by BitCoin. It admittedly aligns with my interests of freedom, emergent order, crypto, programming, and economics. I do believe that there are some problems with the idea, and it's largely untested at this point. However, whether or not BitCoin itself succeeds, it will likely show that a decentralized currency is possible. If it dies, hopefully other geeks will grab the torch.
One big problem to overcome is that of perception. Right now it's a hobby currency whose price is largely driven by speculation rather than purchasing power. Worse, it's a currency that enables all those awful drug dealers and terrorists to hide from the sharp, righteous eyes of Sam The American Eagle.
Whatever our personal feelings about BitCoin, divesting whenever possible from the controlled economy is pro-freedom. I want to rally libertarians behind two important projects. And no, I'm not financially invested in BitCoins... yet.
The first project is to get as many 'legit' business into this. Even if you can't, set up a store and sell their wares for BitCoins through it. The list of places you can use BitCoins needs to be far larger. We libertarians are over-represented in technology, but there must be non-tech things that we want. I have a friend who does wedding photography who's going to start accepting BTC, I'm starting up a non-GMO, organic, aeroponic food service along with reselling some miscellaneous organic and craft things that I can get a wholesale.
The Free Staters are building Grafton Gulch, but I live on the seacoast and many FSP members live in or around Keene. To us, Grafton might as well be on Mars. An ability for all freedom lovers anywhere in the world to support one another with free, voluntary exchange would be awesome.
The second project is starting to decentralize exchanges... I say this as someone who is starting a U.S. exchange. But I don't suspect to be able to continue that for more than a year or so before having to move it off shore or discontinue it. Besides the concept of an exchange is overly central and a point of failure.
What we need is a trust layer wrapping BitCoin: BitCoin meets RipplePay. There is also something to be said for a decentralized merchant clearing system for IRL purchases.
Thoughts?
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kw: mesh, networking, freedom, p2p, internet, bitcoin, asterisk, google, google voice, android, root, free, wireless, data, linux, voip, voice
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