The brilliant thing is, if the author controls the host server of this article and it gets near the top of Google results for its title, watching the article hit-rate [1] should be a neat way of predicting the inevitable bitcoin crash! Probably several hours in advance. He could market out this service for Big Bucks.
[1] After the article stops being front-page-HN'd, at least.
Not really, because (as the OP states) there are many places that will sell you BTC but not really allow you to get cash back out, e.g. because of your location.
> [1] After the article stops being front-page-HN'd, at least.
He could just check the referrer. This can be spoofed but the majority of people following links, even here, won't do that. Then he can rule out getting posted to other social media and just look at people coming from Google.
[1] After the article stops being front-page-HN'd, at least.