Quote from: cacoethes on April 13, 2012, 01:42 pmUnder current law, no more so than buying chickens to barter for hogs.Government has no right to tell individuals and communities what they can and cannot place value in. The value of the bitcoin is derived from the community that uses it.I think you're right, exchanging money for a consideration or swapping one form of good or service for another does not amount to money laundering. As I said previously, under UK law at least bartering Bitcoins for cash would count as an income and in theory should be declared on your tax return.Bitcoins are a common method of purchasing illegal goods and it'd be very naive to say that they are not commonly used to facilitate illegal transactions e.g purchases of drugs and weapons but trading in them is no more illegal than using a twenty dollar bill to fill up your car.V.