It's not. I emailed the author and she confirmed it's real.
Western Union can provide a lot of relevant services: escrow, conversion to obscure currencies (or just general exchange), fraud mitigation, etc.
Ah yes. The fraudsters favorite service for irreversible cash transfers will certainly have an advantage there.
But OK, I'll take the bait :).
Yes, Western Union can provide a lot of relevant services, but so can _anybody_, and there are already a number of Bitcoin exchanges.
To assume that Western Union ought to provide Bitcoin services is like assuming that a horse-and-buggy company ought to start making cars. I mean, sure, it might be a really good idea, but cars are a _revolution_ of the horse-and-buggy, not an _evolution_. Likewise, Bitcoin is a revolution compared to traditional money transfer, not an evolution.
Edit: Lol.. not sure why I was downvoted. It is obvious the previous poster meant that bitcoin is over-the-heads of employees of Western Union... this was a play on that.
HN is a hideous bitch goddess.
I agree that "if you have to explain a joke, it isn't funny", but not only was I on-topic for the story -- but also for the specific thread.
The implied point was that the good people at Western Union aren't as dumb as the previous commenter stated, and probably are excited about a (possible) reinvention and embracing of bitcoin.
Forgive me for injecting some levity into an otherwise boring story, but my point was clear and remains valid.
I suppose I should have just called the previous poster a troll and stated "they're probably excited". Oops. I'll be more confrontational next time.
(Also, not on reddit, just would rather attempt to use humor to get a point across. Maybe I watched too much Monty Python as a kid...)