I never said "bitcoins don't exist".

Can you cite where anywhere is saying that they're going to auction the bitcoins off? The article that we're commenting on simply doesn't say that, it only says that they're going to convert (they literally used the word "convert") them to US dollars. maybe it's shitty of them to write it like that, and maybe it's shitty that I don't assume as you do. But your argument is based on your own theory, and nothing that I see fit to recognize as correct. Cite me something other than your rude comment, or fuck off.

Yeah, I think perhaps the article left out valuable info, like that it was going to auction the bitcoins. All it says is that it's going to convert them into US dollars. Anytime the government sells things, then they do so in order to get money which already exists. Here, it appears to me (and I could be wrong) that they're just converting them. So in the end, the US government is buying the bitcoins, as a means to create US dollars. Dunno, it just struck me as odd.

According to TFA:

So it appears that they're simply going to 'convert' the bitcoins to US dollars. As far as I understand how auctions work, this isn't it at all. No one ever 'converts' a seized car into dollars, they sell it to someone that had already owned US dollars. Here, it appears to me (and maybe I'm wrong) that they're going to print US dollars in the name of bitcoins. So bitcoins disappear, and US dollars appear. So the US government is essentially buying bitcoins.

I thought bitcoins weren't legal tender.

I know exactly what you mean. At my house I have a clock that shows how close I am to having sex with Natalie Portman. It's been at 1 minute till midnight, since 1999.

How has no one taken this, what would appear to be a nitch market (writing an OS for ATM machines), and done something with it? I mean hell, my oldest cell phone had more operations than an ATM. How did it do that without windows?

There is no political solution for politicians. They're simply men ('men' as in men and women), and cannot be trusted to do what's right over what they wish, anymore than any other men. When the terrorists take over, they'll be dressed as nice businessmen, and will be heavily involved in the political scene. Perhaps this has already happened, as fear is the governing body's tool of the day.

Don't be worried folks, this shit'll be over before you know it.

From wikipedia:
Reflecting international events dangerous to humankind, the Clock's hands have been adjusted twenty times since its inception in 1947, when the Clock was initially set to seven minutes to midnight.

They give a good graph here.

Have you looked into Twonky? It's what I use. Works exactly how you'd want.

...we get metal-detectors at movie-theaters? Ooo, or how about those X-ray (nude) body-scanners.

There, fixed that for ya. I mean, if we're going to go all out here with our fantasies of the future, then I'm sure that there will be no men, just women. If the elite have been 'growing us regulars' for so many years to develop the technology needed for them to be able to sit around and do jack-diddly, then I'm sure that the elite women will certainly kill off those old elite geezers at some point. :)

No, I just gave a horrible example, in order talk about how Coke and Pepsi are very closely related. Patents relating to food items and computer-related items are vastly different, but I'm not near as knowledgeable about computer-related items as I am food-related items. I really should have just said nothing, but when the article is about patents, and someone brings up how copyright will still be in place, it makes me think that they are confusing the two, because they are not similar at all.

If 90% of the population is unemployed, then who's going to be buying the products made by the robots? If the general population is flat broke, then growing your own food is the same, if not better, as printing your own money.

And I can't see why anyone else would.

copyright:
the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.

Patent:
a government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period, esp. the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention.

If I find a way to grow orange corn, and add a buttery salt to it, and sell it as "BringsApples Corn (TM)", then no other person can sell corn and call it "BringsApples Corn (TM)", but they can grow orange corn, butter it with salty stuff and call it "Similar_Name Corn (TM)". Since I'd have my own recipe, your corn may not be as good as mine, or it may be better. Look at the similarities on the ingredients of Coke and Pepsi.

But if I patented "orange corn" then no one else can even try to compete. I know that this is a stupid example, and I'm sorry that I couldn't come up one closer to the programing world. But when people start getting patent-happy, they start patenting things like a virtual shopping cart, or a "like" button. It's crazy.