Liberty Dollar != Bitcoin
Bernard von NotHaus was arrested because he was stupid, not because he was libertarian.
He was arrested because he was running an alternative currency that was starting to take hold. Nothing else.
He was trying to get people to pass off his currency as US currency to unknowing and unwilling victims.
This is not true. This is what the USA government accused him of. But just check the 5 dollar notes and tell me they can be confused:
And why would he want to pass something more expensive for something cheaper? It would be stupid. It was just an excuse by the USA government.
To some extent, the counterfeiting charges were an excuse by the government to shut down something they didn't like. However, they only got them to stick because von NotHaus was issuing little official-looking pieces of paper with "American" and "Dollar" written all over them. They could easily be mistaken for something issued by the US Government, and even for US currency, if someone had never seen US currency before. Or passed of as "the new $5 bill".
Bitcoin, however, is not vulnerable in the same way that von NotHaus's scheme was. Bitcoins are not denominated in dollars, and don't look official, and in fact have no physical form, so it is next to impossible for them to be mistaken for US currency. Furthermore, as no one issues them, there is no one to charge with counterfeiting.
The US government could drum up counterfeiting charges or something in an attempt to shut down Bitcoin, but they would have a lot of trouble making them stick. If they really want to try to kill it, they'll probably have to ban it more or less explicitly, which would be hard to do without affecting MMO currencies, gift cards, and other forms of company scrip.
