The US govt is ok with Bitcoin: the Department of Treasury's FinCEN published guidance tacitly approving Bitcoin. This legal action is purely about MtGox who unlawfully did not register as an MSB.
So you believe everything the government tells you? Because we all know that no government agency or agent has ever distorted or misrepresented the truth, ever.
There is already a completely anonymous store-of-value allowing a underground economies: plain old face-to-face USD cash transactions. Ever seen drug lords busted with stacks of USD bills?
True, but irrelevant in this context. Bitcoin and USD aren't the same thing. Try crossing the border carrying large sums of physical USD bills sometime. Bitcoins, OTOH, can be exchanged digitally. Not even close to being in the same ballpark.
The US govt is ok with transactions in a currency they don't control: it is perfectly legal to pay, for example, in Iranian rial on the US territory, if the seller and buyer agree to use this currency.
Again, this is irrelevant, as using Iranian rial is even less convenient than using USD, at least in the US.
You seem to be some sort of tinfoil-kind-of-guy who thinks the government is out there to "stop Bitcoin".
Please refrain from personal attacks, this is not Reddit. I trust our government about half as far as I can throw it, but that doesn't make me a "tinfoil guy". It makes me somebody who has at least a passing familiarity with history and who can use a little logic, reason and inference here and there. That's all.
I'm not claiming there's some big, grand, X-Files like conspiracy going on here... but to ignore the fact that the US Government has many reasons to try to quietly put the screws to bitcoins seems unreasonable to me.
If you used a "little logic" (as you say), you would recognize that the US govt would rather benefit economically from Bitcoin via sales taxes (trade) and income taxes (mining), rather than block it.
And yes, I do think you are ludicrous to see FinCEN's statement as not representing their true desires.
If the US govt was truly after Bitcoin you would see the Congress starting talking about laws against it, rather than a lawsuit about "so and so did not register as an MSB".
So you believe everything the government tells you? Because we all know that no government agency or agent has ever distorted or misrepresented the truth, ever.
There is already a completely anonymous store-of-value allowing a underground economies: plain old face-to-face USD cash transactions. Ever seen drug lords busted with stacks of USD bills?
True, but irrelevant in this context. Bitcoin and USD aren't the same thing. Try crossing the border carrying large sums of physical USD bills sometime. Bitcoins, OTOH, can be exchanged digitally. Not even close to being in the same ballpark.
The US govt is ok with transactions in a currency they don't control: it is perfectly legal to pay, for example, in Iranian rial on the US territory, if the seller and buyer agree to use this currency.
Again, this is irrelevant, as using Iranian rial is even less convenient than using USD, at least in the US.
You seem to be some sort of tinfoil-kind-of-guy who thinks the government is out there to "stop Bitcoin".
Please refrain from personal attacks, this is not Reddit. I trust our government about half as far as I can throw it, but that doesn't make me a "tinfoil guy". It makes me somebody who has at least a passing familiarity with history and who can use a little logic, reason and inference here and there. That's all.
I'm not claiming there's some big, grand, X-Files like conspiracy going on here... but to ignore the fact that the US Government has many reasons to try to quietly put the screws to bitcoins seems unreasonable to me.