Well, I've said in other threads that Innovation is the leading force. Innovation brings progress and wealth, and this is very well known by governments, especially the USA government. Just Google "Bit License" and learn where New York is working on, to fully legalize and promote crypto-currency Innovations. This will bring Bitcoin to a mean-stream level, and other countries will follow.
When has the US Government really favored innovation over regulation that keeps their strangle hold on power? You and I could probably come up with 30 examples of innovation that would be good for the US/world, that the government has regulated out of reality. NY State is nice, but they don't have a printing press. I would argue that the US military and the US Treasury are the two most powerful forces on the planet. People in power don't give up power easily. You could throw the banking industry into the mix as well. They will provide the lobby money to get Congress to "look into it" more heavily. You will see many more "studies" by fed banks in major countries. Then you will see legislative briefings on the dangers of crypto currencies. Then the Politicians will start to talk about it in the media about how "they're going to help you by regulating it".... you know the line "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help".
Valid points indeed.... Still it would be much better for US Government to embrace Bitcoin, otherwise it will go underground and become a real unstoppable threat (and they know that, so better not to push it that way).
Cool, thanks. Also, I wanted to thank you for responding to a bug in BT. There was a contract max glitch in options (>900 contracts) and you fixed it in like 20 mins.