[bunderbunder]

> Where is this going?

Not far's my guess. If BTC gets too popular as a tool for extortion and money laundering, then the authorities in developed countries are going to start carefully monitoring people who sell large quantities of BTC for sovereign currency or commodities. It would just be another part of their general efforts to combat organized crime. That would make major speculators feel less welcome. If major speculators decide to take their ball and go play somewhere else, the price of BTC will probably tank. That'll discourage everyone else. At which point BTC becomes a terrible medium for money laundering because nobody wants to buy them. I also suspect that the relative anonymity of any one transaction is closely related to overall transaction volume in the BTC economy.

[dublinben]

These organizations aren't in developed countries, so their potential cash-outs wouldn't be noticed. Going forward, I would expect even more of the expenses of running an online criminal operation to be payable in BTC, so you wouldn't even need to convert it.