[maxerickson]

How do you suppose they are buying Bitcoin? I expect the ones doing transactions with Amazon are mostly using debit cards or buying prepaid cards somewhere.

It's a nice hypothetical use of a distributed transaction system, but it's not how the people you are talking about are accessing the financial system, they are much more likely to either not buy things from Amazon or to get a prepaid card at Walmart.

[pmorici]

That's the point. Accepting bitcoin opens up new markets an online business that weren't accessible before because of deficiencies in the available payment systems. If you have a history of financial difficulty then you probably can't get a credit card or debit card let alone a bank account. Have you ever looked at the fees on a pre-paid card? Many if not most are highly exploitative.