Doesn't sound very tinfoilly to me.

As for the anonymity, last I heard, the current policy for US taxation is to report BitCoin USD value owned on the honor system :D. Even though it may be next to impossible (and sitting on BTC flies in the face of what it was created for, pisses the community off, etc.), IRS probably wants to get in on any collections from that. At least to some degree, they view it like a novel stock/bond, and I'm sure you know that the total BTC in circulation is something like $6 trillion. Hah, that number sounds ridiculous to me. That's a lot of wealth.

Now, for my tinfoil: Apparently R3 will be open source? It's backed by BIG banks. Do I think they've recently rediscovered their moral compasses? Nope. Any current "open source" claims could be undermined in the future if they achieve monopolization of the cryptocurrency market. And when you've got a widely-adopted infrastructure in place... well, America still calls Comcast for tech support, but prays for a Google Fiber. I know this isn't the same as a physical infrastructure, but still, R3 has at least some potential for strong-arming, no?

Never did pony up, myself. I would have almost broken even as of a few days ago (1 BTC was $430 when I was looking to "invest"). Shoot, I might throw five bucks worth of BTC at Hubski just to be able to say I've made a transaction and have a wallet. Sorry if it's worth next to nothing a few units of time away from now. I'd be curious how many BTC donations you've seen, but if you don't/won't divulge, that's perfectly reasonable.

Also, great thread. Thanks to both you and b_b for hashing ;) it out here and not face-to-face. YOUR PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP IS CONSTANTLY ROBBING THE COMMUNITY OF VALUABLE CONTENT. Edit: Oh sorry, that was just my cat stepping on my keyboard at the end part there.

But seriously; all corrections, proverbial face-punching, and/or ridiculing is welcome.