Not sure if Bitcoins are a good investment. All it takes is a western country (say Switzerland) to create an online currency and Bitcoins will sink faster than a Carnival ship.
There's a scathing Forbes blog post[2] too, if you're interested.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MintChip
[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2012/04/12/mintchip-m...
No but I lift, .... mostly functions, sometimes they have multiple variables ;-)
> One of the main features of Bitcoin is that it can't be manipulated by a central authority
Q: What can a central authority with power to imprison and/or garnish your wage manipulate? A: anything it damn wants.
Yes the Fed Gov. can't print more bitcoin it sure can come after you with a rubber hose expecting to get some sales, or money exchange tax some rather-made-up-new-law-tax. A few high profile case about bitcoin used for terrorism, drug, illegal porn, money laundering and these new laws won't be hard to make.
My guess is that the US government would just get enough computing power to control the network and prevent it from working well.