You know- you make a good point here. The IRS says we have to pay taxes even on barter... which of course also includes Bitcoin. (Although Bitcoin is traceable and the fed has directly come out to ask about Bitcoin and other coin in the IRS filings for yearly taxes.) So, I was thinking about all of this slightly wrongly- it’s not so much about govt. involvement of transactions- it’s more about the ability to weather inflation and devaluation of the US dollar. As of now, it appears Bitcoin may be able to weather those storms- certainly precious metals appears to weather those storms as well (if we ignore JP Morgan’s screwing with the metals market.)