One last ping for a while...
One thing about bitcoin, is change happens fast. Since I posted the OP a few minutes ago:
1. The price of Bitcoin has increased over $22 to $416.
2. Bitcoin has been banned in Taiwan, as a knee-jerk reaction to the kidnapping of a Hong Kong billionaire by criminals who demanded the ransom be paid in bitcoin. The ruling was made by an unelected Financial Supervisory Commission, not lawmakers. (So if they’d ask to be paid in cash... ?)