Bitcoin's mining system seems odd.
There's a reason we don't make coins out of precious metals. Mining them is a waste of resources. Mining bitcoins has the same problem. If they're worried about people not liking them because of the profit they'd get, can't they just donate the money to charity or something?
There are several reasons why we don't make coins out of precious metals, and also a few why we should. The wastefulness of resources is relatively low down the list.
The point of a commodity-backed currency is to provide stability in the money supply. Provided the commodity is widely regarded as valuable, but isn't likely to change in raw value in the long term, having x amount of money represent y amount of that commodity means that your money is a safe store of wealth. If you want to earn lots of money now and spend it in the future, you can be confid...
Less Wrong used to like Bitcoin before it was cool. Monthly threads popped up around the same time a pricing bubble brought mainstream attention last year. When the bubble popped, and price continued to deflate, discussion on this site stopped entirely. Was there a change of sign in the social status of the topic, is the topic fully explored, or has there simply happened nothing of interest over the last year?
If you are not familiar with Bitcoin, here is one intro I happen to like.
Kaj Sotala lists a number of previous threads on the topic:
Less Wrong seems like a good place to discuss recent developments, if one does not want to suffer the inanity of the officially unofficial forum. If you are not longer interested in Bitcoin, perhaps send your remaining balance to the Singularity Institute?