Check out Stanislaw Burzynski and his son, who claim to cure cancer by deactivating genes that cause cancer and activating the ones that kill it, on a patient-by-patient basis with "FDA approved gene-targeted medicines" http://youtu.be/tXf7r4VBDgkhttp://www.burzynskiclinic.com/
Have you read the book The Elementary Particles from Michel Houellebecq? There is something in it about what you are talking about, and it is an interesting novel, that I think, reads more like an essay towards the end, heh.
I do feel a bit like kicking myself for not seeing that bitcoin would end up where it is today. I first heard about bitcoin on HN when they were worth around .01 each, and could be generated fairly easily by simply running the mining software in the background. I was so busy spotting the flaw in the electricity cost creation argument I missed the fact it wouldn't matter, because the algorithm gets harder so only "professional" miners likely end up generating the majority of new coins, and also that there is a cap at 21 million, so generating coins was planned to stop anyway. (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1655202)
I was looking at bitcoins as they might compare to an established currency model, like dollars, where the rate of creation has to be controlled smartly (not that I'm saying it is) and indefinitely. Satisfied I had spotted a money creation flaw preventing bitcoins becoming a dominant new currency I dismissed them quickly, never noticing the other aspects of brilliance it has.
I still see problems with bitcoin becoming a fully fledged sustained and mature currency. Some of these have been articulated here on HN (notably by jerf). However, I believe bitcoins still have developmental stages to go through before failing, and because of this I actually still see upside for them as a speculative (still risky) investment. I doubt I would do anything with them now, but if I had got in at .01 cent, now that would be different.
I just found out about bitcoins last weekend, and ran the bitcoin miner, and then found out that it will take my 2.4GHz dual-core laptop 10 years to generate a bitcoin at the currently-established difficulty (without using my GPU, presumably).
I know, right? Now that everyone's excited about Bitcoin, the exciting part is over. Kind of a bummer.
I see a unique opportunity here for a company with an existing virtual goods economy or something similar such as Listia.
They create a new genesis block and new Bitcoin-protocol clients and publicly announce they're going to turn the spigot on (announce the genesis block) a few days later. The twist being that they will accept the new chain's currency within their existing economy.
They not only get a lot of publicity but effectively become a central bank for their forked currency, which allows them to compete with Classic Bitcoin via the par value they establish.
I haven't thought this through, it's just a wild idea. What are the flaws in this plan? Would this just actually destroy value? Is this the expected long-run for Bitcoin anyway?
As an aside, thanks for putting a name to a phenomenon I've never had a proper name for: survivorship bias. I had a "eureka" moment reading that, I've searched several times and never found the real name.
I'm very excited about Bitcoin too, it feels like a renaissance for almost every vertical. Especially since there's so much low-hanging fruit right now and there's still a disconnect between these units of cryptocurrency and real hard cash in people's perception. You can get people used to doing things with Bitcoins what they normally wouldn't do with "real money".
Yes, you can invest in bitcoin microcorporations that started their IPO on the Global Bitcoin Stock Exchange.
However, these corporations are not legally declared or chartered by the state. They only exists in the mind of some bitcoiners.
For some reason, Bitcoin unlock the mind of hackers and encourage them to go wild and do crazy things like creating companies that exists only on...cipherspace.
I definitely like the theme of what you wish to work on (helping people). I myself would like to work on a project like your Friend Finder (really anything to create interactions between people), as I'm always trying to find like-minded people nearby. I have ideas if you ever wish to team up.
It's most likely going to become illegal when and if people start getting burnt (a few bad eggs spoil the basket), but we're hackers and we don't see obstacles, only speed humps.
Or if the powers that be start feeling threatened by it.
Personally I think it is too early to tell what is going to happen. I would love to see it succeed and become something that makes the world a better place.
As soon as tax departments feel they are missing out, and people are evading paying tax, that's really when the excrement will make physical contact with the electric powered oscillating air current distribution device.
Doesn't even have to be online, Bitcoins also work really well peer to peer (unlike credit cards), and things like NFC-capable phones can take advantage of that in-person someday soon.
It's a completely independent currency, so products and services must begin to accept Bitcoin before you can use it to pay for things. That is, it's not interchangeable with debit or credit cards, so you'll need to acquire Bitcoins before you can do any of that (by buying them or earning them or mining them).
On the upside, it's much easier to send and receive Bitcoin payments than it is with credit cards. There are no "merchant accounts", nothing you need to fill out, no barrier to entry. Just run the Bitcoin daemon, it even has a convenient JSON-RPC protocol.
