I think there are much better reasons for not wanting to see bitcoins become ubiquitous. Bitcoins are not anonymous - they're pseudonymous. They're less priva

I think there are much better reasons for not wanting to see bitcoins become ubiquitous. Bitcoins are not anonymous - they're pseudonymous. They're less private than a VISA gift card because instead of only having to worry about VISA seeing your transactions, now everyone can see them. If bitcoins become ubiquitous in the future, it won't be long before the addresses belonging to businesses that accept bitcoin are publicly catalogued. You would be able to see that this particular wallet went to the Starbucks on the corner, walked to grocery store down the street and spent $100 in groceries, fills up their gas tank at the gas station in the center of town once a week, etc. Once you buy something from a vendor that wants your name/mailing address, they can then tie your identity to your entire purchasing history for that wallet. Yeah, you can change wallets, but what average consumer is actually going to do this? Do you know anyone who carries multiple credit/debit cards expressly for the purpose of maintaining anonymity? I would think the average criminal would be smart enough to obfuscate their tracks, but right now I think the only reason they use bitcoins is because their lack of ubiquity allows them some degree of anonymity. If they had to do their grocery shopping in bitcoin, they'd be doing their criminal activities in something else.