What is bitcoin? An ingenious new electronic currency. I haven't used it before so consider me naive. My eyes started glazing over, just like in economics classes in college, when reading up on deflationary spirals and whatnot related to this online currency... Anyhow, bitcoin appears to be thriving for now (especially now, thanks Chuck Shumer!) and the important thing is that it looks like the future of commerce for freedom-loving, bankster-hating folks like myself.
It appears to me though that, like free open source server software biting Microsoft's ass off, the same may happen to banks and associated centralized institutions of commerce. Please let it be!
Now Democratic senators Shumer and Manchin want the DOJ to go after bitcoin transactions used to purchase drugs. Those silly bank-suckup senators. For some context, Shumer, a blatant lobbyist bankers yesterday voted to keep high credit card swipe fees in place lost that fight.... first, they're under the delusion that the drug war can be stopped: they should have a conversation with Senator McCaskill who thinks the federal government is flushing money to try to stop the drug war. They should adopt Harm Reduction policies instead. Anyhow, I digress. Second, those bankster lobbyists disguised as senators probably are creating the best PR bitcoin could have ever dreamed of! Because I've got a sneaky feeling they can't do shit about it.
Now again, we all know that Shumer and the ENTIRE Republican Party are bankster lobbyists in politicians clothing. Shumer thinks he found with the drug angle a means of knee-capping this fledgling new online currency for his bankster buddies, which most certainly has banksters worried. Think of how Microsoft must have felt when open source software first started taking tick bites out of its bottom line... now they're bleeding money to open source. The same could happen here with online currency. I'm sincerely hoping Chuck's vote yesterday and now this will come back to haunt him again and again. It's unforgivable to pimp for the banks.
If Chuck Shumer is worried about multinational banks losing money in lowered bank fees, of course he and his buddy Tester the Traitor are worried about a new currency that he claims is "money laundering." Nevermind that the whole system, including the exchange itself on Wall Street, is rigged for his bankster buddies, and itself constitutes money laundering for Shumer's billionaire buddies in New York.
The Internet barter system known as "Bitcoin," which makes it difficult for law enforcement to monitor online transactions, has raised the ire of two U.S. Senators who learned recently about a new website that lets Bitcoin users buy and sell illegal drugs.
In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) administrator Michele Leonhart, Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) called for action against the website "Silk Road," which was the subject of a recent report by Gawker.
Why thank you Senator Shumer for this invaluable promotion for bitcoin. I hadn't heard of it. If bitcoins will take money from Wall Street banks, I am for bitcoin. What is bitcoin?
Shumer goes on to explain (thanks Chuck!):
Schumer went on to call Bitcoin "an online form of money laundering," but it was not clear if he meant that for the currency as a whole or simply for those using Bitcoins for illegal activities.
"The only method of payment for these illegal purchases is an untraceable peer-to-peer currency known as Bitcoins," the senators' letter states. "After purchasing Bitcoins through an exchange, a user can create an account on Silk Road and start purchasing illegal drugs from individuals around the world and have them delivered to their homes within days. We urge you to take immediate action and shut down the Silk Road network."
http://www.rawstory.com/...
More:
Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new money or tracks transactions. These tasks are managed collectively by the network.
http://www.bitcoin.org/
Down with the multinationalists. Down with the banksters.
Decentralize the economy and watch those bastards squirm. Let's do it.