Bitcoin Forum

There seems to exist a subconscious inhibition which whispers to the individual, "Bitcoin might end. Bitcoin might die. Bitcoin might go away. All of this might be imaginary," but upon close inspection i find that the fear evaporates like a vaporous apparition.

I cannot conceive of a scenario in which bitcoin is entirely eliminated.

The only scenarios I can conjure are two: A catastrophic event that eliminates all electronic devices on the planet simultaneously, and the possibility that the bitcoin protocol and cryptography is "broken" either by exploitation of an unnoticed bug or by the invention of a Quantum Computer that is able to overwhelm the system in every way controlled by attackers.

i can conceive of no others and these seem so unlikely as not be economically worth worrying over, can you think of more?

Massive world wide exchange hacks, every exchange and online wallet provider.
People loose interest and move on, no transaction = no fees, miners pull out, blockchain stops.
Most crypto investers wiill just move to another coin i think.

Saying this i still don't think bitcoin will die anytime soon.

I think so too, it is because bitcoin has become one of the currencies in the internet  ;D

these whispers should end when you reach "Hero Member" status  :P

none of us will see a permanent end of bitcoin in our lifetimes. not a chance

What about a 51% attack, where the attacker is bent on destroying Bitcoin?
He might lose a lot of money, but if that is his intention, what can stop him?

The 51% is no longer a threat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncPyMUfNyVM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncPyMUfNyVM)

yeah but that would be a hell of a ride...

We can not all guaranteed the bitcoin will last forever..
but as long as we can use it and you are willing to gamble for profit..
we should stop our doubt about the negative thing that might happen..

Agreed. Remind me to have Satoshi identified.  ;D

everything in life gets replaced with something better. the great thing of bitcoin is its open source nature. bitcoin doesn't need and probably won't get replaced as the devs will do (i hope) everything to improve it to make it future proof.

clear because bitcoin have not start with farm miner or exchange ... it have started with 1-3 computer and buy/sell via local contact and email/wire.

compare this to emule or bittorrent ... they are alive since 15 years without any maintenance or ad promotion.

You mean like a global EMP - Solar winds or Nuclear. This not only renders electronic equipment redundant but the technology based upon it. People like me have built Faraday cages but much more planning needs doing in the event of a global EMP

Its true! Well, actually when I got to hero member I sort of lost interest in Bitcoin.

But I think i'm back. A bit.

There's no way they can pull it off. Services like Xapo store the wallets offline in actual physical vaults. They would need to go there physically and wreck all of the servers.

i like that comparison, thx.

I agree with you, because bitcoin is now widespread on the internet and became one of the currencies in the internet

1. In case of catastrophic event - bitcoin disappearance will be the least of your problems, really.
2. Bitcoin cryptography is based on known algorithms, they are proven and known to be so far unbreakable by today's tech.
3. If Quantum Computers will happen then bitcoin network could be upgraded as well as other systems - status quo will be hold.

i dont know about this. everything can happen and remove from this world..
but, i hope like you bitcoin cannot and never be deleted from everyone who want it..

Something that took out the whole electronic infrastructure of the planet is about as likely as God existing and taking a dislike to bitcoin and then smiting it out of existence.
Don't be so worried. Lol.

X-Class solar flares happen.

i hope like that... but i think everything can happen..
like a system can be broken too right?
like a human error or the same...
if cant be deleted we can stay on here and make money from here everytime and everyday..

yup there are some uncontrollable things, Like solar flares which could fry the grid system for 4 years. So In that case the bitcoin will surely suffer, Anything like the revolution happens it would mean end of bitcoin, But when the electricity returns it would be back to normal.

There is another way to delete bitcoin too, Governments buy or hack the wallets and change the pass etc it would mean that bitcoin is dead too because governments will be controlling it and we will have zero or very little amount to play with.

Well nothing is this life is sure except of death, so I can't say that Bitcoin will surely exist in 20 years and will not die, but with every passing day and with each $ invested into Bitcoin ecosystem, possibility of Bitcoin dying is less and less in my opinion.

Enthusiasm around, VC investments, news coverage, technology experts working on the blockchain and all of the other positive things currently happening are the testament to my above claims.

So we have one Faraday node, now all we need is one more, and then another, and another... :)

yeah "reroute the protocol around them" with a wave of Andreas' hand. ::)
Andreas is full of crap.

Haha, we need a network 'Faradaying' (< Coined that) in prep of a strike


Really? Nobodies worried just forward thinking.

Yeah many peaple life of bitcoin, impossible bitcoin will be deleted

If you have probabilities like that in your threat model then you better start including defenses against being smitten ASAP.

It can still be restarted, even if the entire electronic sector gets hit by a massive solar flare, if a few honest people kept a backup of the blockchain in a DVD, then the internet, and bitcoin can be restarted anytime.

Now the havoc will be huge and bitcoin's price will temporarly hit 0, but after it's restarted it will go back again, after all its not bitcoins fault.

I`m more worried of the bank accounts and havoc in the economy that this can cause.


Quantum computers are not a real danger for the forseeable  40-50 years. Even if a hyperfast quantum PC gets invented its still reasonably safe to hold bitcoins this way.

A bug could be, but i`m more worried of corrupt bitcoin core clients being downloaded , by somebody hijacking the bitcoin.org site.

Although a stuff like that can easily be detected and people will be notified.


A coordinated global hack of all exchanges and online wallet providers is unlikely, since they have different security equipment, its like coordinated hack against all bank accounts. Bitcoin is not a political enemy, yet, so its not in the target for now.


Thats silly, they wont lose interest, since constant innovation comes out every day. Plus they are invested in it, its like saying you leave 1000$ in a box, then you lose interest and never take it out from there...


The only risk I can think of, which is the biggest risk is either:

• Outright ban in the major hubs -It will shrink bitcoin back to small price and send it to the black markets
• Massive regulation & taxation worldwide - It will slow down progress, but it wont stop it
• Bitcoin 2.0 comes along with totally anonymous transactions & better security (1024 or 2048 bit protection) - Monero,DASH, and others are pretty big competitors and one day could take over

Out of these 3 bigger risks I highlighted the BITCOIN 2.0 is the biggest risk currently bitcoin has, innovation will destroy replace bitcoin eventually.
I don't think outright ban will happen now, banks love it due to regulation arbitrage, politicians love it because they can get more ***political donations*** due to bitcoin's semi-anonymity. Nobody left to ban it.

Regulation is a concern now, but it isn't as bad as you would have imagined. Yes Bitlicense has drawbacks but atleast it gives legitimacy to bitcoin, and maybe wallstreet will start respecting it.

Be that 2 years or 50, who knows but I`d invest some in Monero now and find out later :)
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"Monero,DASH, and others are pretty big competitors and one day could take over"


they are only big competitors in your phantasy  ;)

As unlikely as it may be, Bitcoin could effectively die. Deleted? No, the code can never be deleted. However, some scenario could take place in the future that causes the entirety of Bitcoin mining power to be deleted, for whatever reason. It is highly unlikely, very, very unlikely, however it is still a potential scenario.

I think many people without the detailed information of how Bitcoin works... struggle with this, because it's a digital medium... Most of us, have at any given time, had electronic

gadgets fail on us, so we have a built in caution, when it comes down to everything electronic or digital. If you ever worked with Microsoft you would have that feeling built in too.

The thing is... Bitcoin is decentralized, so this bug has to happen on 1000's of nodes for this to happen... and if it happens, the developers would react immediately to fix this.

Whatever are "deleted" can be recovered.  ;)

All those scenarios are absurd. If the whole electricity of the planet goes off your least of your worries will be bitcoin because the entire civilization will likely go on a catastrophic phase.

I think that is absurt aswell, I mean why would nuclear apocalypse happen just because the power grid went out.

In 2 years the whole power system can be replaced, why would a post apocalyptic world happen just because a few wires burned out?

Enlighten me because I dont understand. Sure alot of stock markets and financial instruments will be wiped out, but thats more like banking losses.

The economy will be burdened, no doubt, but a catastrophe, i highly doubt it.

Everything can be repaired, sooner or later, and then thing will go back normal.

i think bitcoin can never die, unless something better comes along that an replace it and be used just like bitcoin without some of its faults. and in that case i don't see bitcoin dying completely and only be used less.

are all those thread made purposely, for reassure people when the price go down? i see this trend lately, it may be effective at discouraging people in believing that bitcoin is doing bad...

I think so, maybe bitcoin can be removed if there is a better coin than bitcoin  :)

That's great to learn about this. Thanks for sharing the link.

I think most people are thinking ahead already, and planning for scenarios like these. They want to take Bitcoin to the Moon... yes, to the moon.  ::) Literally.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1183158.0

None of these scenarios will solve a giant Solar Flare, but it's always good to have a plan B in place. 

What about litecoins then, LiteCoinGuy?  :)

well i know most all of us here believe in bitcoins.
but for me. we cannot really tell what will happen in the future.
im just thinking that theres still a possibility that bitcoin will die.
at least .1% of it is the possibility sence there are countries that really
hate bitcoin and even ban it to their countries.
well its just a few percent but still not a 0% so goodluck to us.