[anigbrowl]

The thing is, the regular payments system (plastic cards, Dollars, Euros, and other national currencies) already works very well for the vast majority of people. If you're a merchant, then you should certainly think about being able to accept payments in Bitcoin, but as a consumer I'm having difficulty thinking of an instance where I've ever said to myself 'I need some Bitcoin...'. If I was into drugs it would be convenient, I guess, but hte size of the illegal drug market :: regular commerce is pretty small, and I'd imagine drugs about the largest illegal consumer market by a long way. Other contraband markets involve much higher risk factors and are correspondingly smaller.