I honestly don't see why. Most of the people involved in the major Bitcoin businesses, or in promoting Bitcoin publicly, are reprobates. Have you spent any time reading bitcointalk.org? Hal is very different from them.
ignore them. The vast majority of people, on this board and otherwise, view the attainment of money as the single main goal of their life[1]. If you look at the comments they made towards you, one basically says 'why would you bash bitcoin when you already have mined bitcoins?' as if as long as you already have your stake, theres no moral ambiguities with the situation. Apparently criticism can only come from the "angst, self-hatred, jealousy" of poor people.
Personally I think you have valid criticisms. If I just want to convert dollars to btc and vice versa, why do I care what chain I am on? Bitcoin is just a brand, but the technology can be forked and new chains can be created. Granted you wont have a convenient exchange to use, but do you really think a Mexican druglord is going to transfer billions of dollars to you through mt gox for btc?
Perhaps the govt never stepped in to curtail bitcoin because they realized that speculation and greed would ruin this chain (and then possibly be in position to influence the next chain).
The tech is great but the pyramid scheme implementation is a critical flaw. Does anyone believe that the intrinsic value of having an alternative currency like btc outweighs the money being made by the prospectors?
> Perhaps the govt never stepped in to curtail bitcoin because they realized that speculation and greed would ruin this chain (and then possibly be in position to influence the next chain).
I'd bet this is one of those situations where it's better to assume human ignorance than conspiracy in the context of government.
Checking your comment history, I agree with this commenters sentiment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5546063