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Speaking purely from a business perspective, if I implemented support for accepting BitCoin in my subscription service, it would be for two reasons: lower transaction costs and potential publicity with my target audience.

I can't speak for others, but both of those (particularly the former) make /accepting/ BC interesting to me. Although, admittedly, not so interesting that I'm seriously pursuing it yet.

The more traction BC gets, the higher it goes on my priority list.




This. As a non-US entity, we pay a substantial tax to PayPal/Visa/Mastercard for US-denominated payments. I don't mind paying taxes to the government for civilisation, but I do object paying large corporates for what is in essence toggling two numbers in the bank's database. Bitcoin could potentially increase efficiency of almost every business by up to 5%.

From my (admittedly naive) viewpoint, the elephant in the room is the anonymity. Governments won't like this because it makes it harder for them to monitor and catch bad people, and to ensure I'm paying my taxes. So when governments become aware of bitcoin there is going to be huge pressure to shut it down. And they could do it, no matter how decentralised and trans-national bitcoin is. Imagine MAFIAA tactics but ten times worse, with constant media reports of how bitcoin is the currency of the terrorists and child pornographers.

But that's where this announcement is exciting. By tying your bitcoin address to a bank account, you lose anonymity but gain legitimacy. And governments then have the option to selectively legislate, instead of simply killing bitcoin completely.

Interesting times...




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