More than three-quarters of the digital coins in the Bitcoin digital currency scheme aren't circulating because they remain dormant in user accounts that have never participated in outgoing transactions, a recently published study has found.

(APPLE co-founder) Steve Wozniak prints his own pads of $2 bills... and spends them.
Steve Wozniak, "You can get arrested for them, but you cannot get convicted because you are in the right."

Under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, dollars are hard to come by in Iran. The rial fell from 20,160 against the greenback on the street market in August to 36,500 rials to the dollar in October. It’s settled, for now, around 27,000. The central bank’s fixed official rate is 12,260. Yet there’s one currency in Iran that has kept its value and can be used to purchase goods from abroad: bitcoins, the online-only currency.

Bitcoins have outperformed Gold, Silver, and the US stock market over the last year.

Limiting supply has clearly been a huge plus for the BTC. Becoming known as a currency for illegal drugs and gambling is more problematic, of course. But let’s not forget that the U.S. Treasury printed 3 billion $100 bills in the 2012 Fiscal Year. Most of those (the Federal Reserve estimates 80%) go overseas and many of them simply facilitate the global drug and arms trade, not to mention tax evasion and human trafficking. So the BTC’s growing role in the same types of business might qualify it for “Reserve currency” status sooner than anyone thinks.

An under-reported development of this campaign season is the Republican Party's decision this week to send Gov. Mitt Romney into the presidential race on a platform effectively calling for a new gold commission. The realization that America's system of fiat money is part of its economic problem is moving from the fringes of political discussion to the center.

Is ripple a potential new way to get bitcoins? maybe it is that and more (or less) ...

Bernard von NotHaus faces up to 20 years in prison for his ‘conviction’ of the crime of minting $60 million worth of constitutionally legal private silver coins. Naturally, since von NotHaus made the mistake of minting the word dollar on the coins, the Feds threw the book at him, confiscated the phyzz, and labeled the patriot a ‘domestic terrorist’.

Already bigger than many sovereign currencies, Bitcoin has broken the $1 billion in value mark this week. In the wake of continuing economic crises and liquidity shortages, this new virtual currency is poised to challenge the euro and US dollar.
By not being tied to any particular financial institution and independent from world governments, Bitcoin will become a safe haven for anyone trying to save their money from the crippled international banking system, claimed Max Keiser, the host of RT's Keiser Report.

China has been recasting their gold reserves, currently in 12.4 kg bars into smaller 1 kg bars, allegedly to lay the foundation a gold backed currency, and new banking reserve system.