[mcherm]

I'll point out why I don't find this a credible hypothesis.

I imagine someone highly-placed in the NSA speaking to their superiors:

"Yes, we have built this alternative form of money. It can be used almost-anonymously for the purchase of drugs or for online gambling, for the funding of terrorists and anything else that people want to hide from the government. It will allow users to skirt money-laundering laws and avoid payment of income and sales taxes. But because of our ubiquitous surveillance, we think we can (probably) track anyone using it... well, MOST people using it."

"It is a completely innovative idea -- few in the world have even had idle speculation about the idea of a currency like this and no one is currently working on building such a thing. Yes, it will probably spur development of similar crypto-currencies."

"So, Mr. Director, can we have permission to release this into the wild?"

I cannot imagine someone in charge saying, "Yes: release it."

[junto]

On the flip side, this would give the CIA a fantastic opportunity to launder their own drug money into black budgets. It also gives them a great way to fund "freedom fighters" in countries that they don't like. No flying bags of cash around anymore.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j6QonBKKM...

[joekrill]

Most people would have said that most of the recent revelations about the NSA were not credible hypotheses. Yet here we are.