I was just thinking...Dangerous, I know. But as long as the big dinosaur banks can get free money from the central bankers (the gods in heaven) and turn around and make a tidy profit without doing anything whatsoever to help the real economy, they really don't have to concern themselves much with silly things like savings deposits or making loans.
Hence they may not pay much attention to the little mammals like BitGold scurrying around under them and living off the nuts and berries that they accidentlally knock out of the trees. It's after the free stuff ends and the mammals start taking over one of their main sources of food (transaction fees) that they may start to worry. But maybe by then BitGold will be big enough and the banks discredited enough that they can reach some sort of agreement to coexist.
Anyway, I'd really love to hear some more discussion of this issue. This is turning out to be a very well informed and interesting board to follow. Not surprising really, considering that it takes a bit of foresight and thinking outside the box to invest in XAU.