See here.
It's an introduction to Bitcoin, which seems to me like a revolutionary means of conducting online financial transactions. They are anonymous, secure, untraceable, and immune to being regulated, investigated, or blocked by any governmental agency. They do not go through or rely on any existing bank or other financial institution.
In theory, anyway, this obviously solves a lot of the legal and practical problems that bedevil online gaming these days. I've read Bitcoin's FAQ, but I'm still pretty murky on a lot of the operational details, so don't submit comments asking me to elucidate how coins are generated, etc.
The system is clearly not ready to be adopted to online poker right now, if only because the amounts available are small. It looks to me like there's no way they can handle transactions worth the equivalent of thousands of dollars each, which would be necessary. But the idea is interesting and exciting. It could well be that, if not Bitcoin per se, some larger, better implementation of the same general concept will someday rise as the online currency of choice. If that day comes, then there won't be a damn thing that meddlers like Bill Frist and Preet Bharara can do about it.
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It seems to me, mind you, in a very cursory manner, that this is a monetary system not unlike that already used by the international banking system, kind of like an uber M3 money supply, of course without exchange values. Vested interests will put a hit out on it or find a way to subsume it. However, it does have the potential to become a pure form of global economy. Very much the precursor for what I imagine a "Star Trek, Next Generation" type Federation would be like (if we last that long).
Yet, if I remember geek-correctly, there was no need for coinage per se in that future world. And while I'd rather not see a poker boom akin (figuratively) to the Moneymaker effect, imagine what a better world this could be with a resurgence in strip poker.
There was another story about the potential for bitcoin to sell drugs, but turns out that every bitcoin transaction is written into a public log. Guess as anti-fraud device.
Online poker as we knew is never coming back to the U.S. whatever the means of transaction. Big business entities mean to have a monopoly on online poker sometime in the far future under the guise of "regulating" and "licensing". Since they'll have a monopoly, no need for bonuses or a lowered rake or the need to be competitive.
Grump, online poker is done in the U.S.
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