Bitcoin Forum

Question of the Day: Bitcoin - Fad, or here to stay?

CA interviewed Jason Trost, George Voyatzis, Rosalind Wade, Roibeard Long, and
Lars J. Nilsson, as they share their opinions about Bitcoins, if it's just a fad, or if it's here to stay.

Watch the video: http://calvinayre.com/2014/03/21/business/bitcoin-fad-here-to-stay-qotd-bl-video/ (http://calvinayre.com/2014/03/21/business/bitcoin-fad-here-to-stay-qotd-bl-video/)

What do you think?

I have seen this lately...another article said Bitcoin "caught us by surprise".

As if the statists learning about Bitcoin and starting to think about the implications of disrupting their system wish they'd caught it earlier so they could have worked to squash it earlier. Instead it had enough momentum before they found out and they were caught off guard.

Now they are praying that since they just found out about it and that they have seen talk about it for a few months they are just closing their eyes hoping that it will go away like a fad.

We are just getting started.

Someone is worried about their government money fad ending. I cannot wait for the "remember when" stories about government money.

I'm surprised to see so much different and opposite views about btc future

almost no fundamental invention is not used by the human race once discovered

fire
wheel
writing
maths
printing press
barter
gold
paper money
train
car
plane
rocket
ship
agriculture
electricity
IC
tcip
moder medicine
bitcoin protocol

so no. BTC protocol / crptos are here to stay

I'd go so far as to say the BTC protocol is one of the most significant inventions in human history, it offers self determination back to the individual away from the "group, gov, tribe, king etc, (always not you)"

essentially its elision of sovereignty back to the individual and a lot more.

alot of inventions that empower the individual as well as bitcoin is always here to stay...even if governments say you can't have it.

bitcoin is here to stay, in its current form or in a form of an alternative blockchain style ledger

its an invention that once created cannot be uninvented

just like email was to the post office

or webpages were to print media

they are all here to stay until something better is created

While this is true, just to play a little devil's advocate, many of those technologies were improved upon.  Someone built a better mousetrap if you will.  I think crypto-currency or whatever you want to call it will be here to stay, the essence of Bitcoin.  Whether Bitcoin will be the penultimate or just the beginning of something bigger, who knows.

Though I can't exactly articulate why, I have a very strong feeling that Bitcoin will be honored as a foundational protocol long-term.  It will be the Grand Daddy of crypto-currency, existing long into perpetuity.  Even if a multitude of far more impressive options come after it.  I just have this feeling that based on its beginnings, and current progress, it will carve out its own space, and remain there, among many other options in the future.  I don't see it going away.  Maybe its the eventual awareness everyone will have of its brilliance.  Some level of honor and respect will be granted to it.  

-B-

5 years is a little long to be considered a fad.

After this years Inside Bitcoins at the Javitz center NY, I'm inclined to think it's staying awhile:

www.mediabistro.com/insidebitcoins/new-york/ (http://www.mediabistro.com/insidebitcoins/new-york/)

The question you should be asking yourself is this:

When the fiat system collapses and Bitcoin immediately plunges in value due to the instant distaste for all things intangible; will you still support Bitcoin when you watch the exchanges crumble? Will you sell out? Where will you store your wealth?

I will keep Bitcoin, and I completely expect that type of emotional response when the fiat system collapses. I believe the benefits of Bitcoin will survive and shine in the future...

Plus, I think gold will be appropriated by the governments en masse, theft will be a major issue for tangible money when such a great portion of the population is shocked into destitute. Everything will lose value except the things necessary to protect and preserve your life at first. I think Bitcoin will recover for its benefits are obvious to me and many others...

The cryptocurrency technology is definitely here to stay. Whether bitcoin is going to be the crypto that truly goes mainstream, however, remains to be seen. I think it will, because there is too much infrastructure for bitcoin to be overtaken by other cryptocoins, even considering its current technological drawbacks (like long confirmation times).

Bitcoins, i'd be inclined to say fad.

I think cryptocurrency will be implemented at some point, though I don't think it will be BTC for 2 reasons.

1. Public mining wouldn't work.  China would be able to mine far cheaper than the US or Europe ever could, and I don't think the US or Europe would be comfortable with giving China that much money and power.

2. It'll be at least a few decades before paper and coin money is no longer needed, and I'm not sure BTC will be the best thing out there when the US is ready.

Agreed. I envision a future where there are multiple altcoin blockchains to make digital currency truly decentralized. Having everything stacked on top of the bitcoin blockchain is a form of centralization within itself.

I think Calvin Ayre on BCT is just a fad.

His web page is broken. The fuck video doesn't even load with adblocker enabled.

Here to stay (after surviving a prolonged and sustained attack by everyone with something to lose in their respective fiat systems, i.e. government, finance industry, the Fed, etc..) 

How in the hell would they even stop it?  Turn off the internet?

Internet - fad, or here to stay?

I don;t know about bitcoin

But cryptos are definitely not a fad, there to stay for sure...

true its not necessarily BTC, but it will be a state independant crypto or a bundle of them

How can we know? It's only 5 years since Bitcoin came out, the course of history will tell

Most things "go away" eventually, if you looked at the technology that was in use 10,000 or 1,000 or even 100 years ago, most of it is now obsolete.  I don't think a specific payment protocol like Bitcoin is comparable to general human practices like agriculture or barter, physical phenomena like fire, or fundamental frames of thinking like mathematics.

True, we stopped using that fad called the Internet ages ago too.  Oh wait!   :o

But the Internet is based on the physical phenomenon of electricity, and Bitcoin is built on top of that and the fundamental frame of thinking of cryptography, a branch of mathematics.

Sorry mate.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9TnW-ZUZ-Y

I dont think goverments will use any decentralized cryptocurrency as main currency. Bitcoin is here to stay for those who like idea of P2P

I don't think they would use one either.  I do think they would use a centralized one though.

I'd say its here to stay in some way shape or form.  Someone even posted a video of billionaire investor Kevin O'Leary talking about bitcoin on an investing show in which he said he though it was here to stay.  His reasoning was:

1) it hit $1 Billion market cap
2) people started to actually exchange physical goods for bitcoin

And this was about a year ago when he said this, way before it hit the new ATH of over $1000 and before places like Overstock started to accept BTC.  I'd say he knows what hes talking about

I also feel very surprised, there are so many good suggestions.

You're right, after all BTC is only 5 years of history.

How about a long-term "fad" that is here to stay?   :D
Bitcoin is a revolution.