Bitcoin Forum

How much longer do you think Bitcoin will last?

2 more years?
4 more years?
10 more years?

Or will it be replaced and deemed useless by another upcoming Cryptocurrency in the next month? Voice your opinion here!

By "how much longer do you think Bitcoin will last", I mean how much longer you think it'll be the head honcho, the king, the most popular Cryptocurrency...or even relevant.

Probably 5-10 years, i'd imagine that BTC will get replaced by something better by than, idk what. Sorta of like how myspace was the first social media, but failed, then facebook became dominant. Then there were many strong competitors, such as twitter, Instagram, etc...

Bitcoin will last forever.
You know why?

Because I will never delete the blockchain from my hard drives.

That's why!

I totally agree with this sentiment, and also wonder if an "X" coin will one day be accepted by the masses as a better alternative to Bitcoin.

For now I'm going to focus on getting the masses to adopt Bitcoin ;)

I think all currencies have come to an end at some point but usually they last 100 years or more don't they?  I think the options here are a bit limited.  I would say "100" years or until something better is developed but saying something will last "forever" is an exaggeration.

Everyone realizes bitcoin is open source, right? If there was to be some great improvement upon bitcoin, I would wager that over 51% of the network would welcome an update. Bitcoin can evolve; IF the need is great enough.

The Bitcoin protocol can and will evolve.  

http://www.coindesk.com/secondmarkets-barry-silbert-15-institutional-investors-bitcoin-believers/

It didn't take 51% of anything to create litecoin, same apply for an improved bitcoin

I added in 50+ more years, and while Bitcoin evolving may be true, it may take time to "evolve" to get lower transaction times etc etc. While, there may be other cryptocurrencies already improving upon Bitcoin's weaknesses, and will be in the future. So while Bitcoin may have the potential to be greater, that might take a while, and in the meantime there might be others who are already/have already improved upon what Bitcoin may lack.
That's why this poll was created, to see whether people think Bitcoin will be the #1 and for how long.

very interesting poll !
crypto-currency is here to stay

Crypto - yes, Bitcoin - ?

That's the fundamental question.

Bitcoin is crypto, crypto is not Bitcoin.

Evolve = hard fork? what's the difference. Not trying to troll, how does source change with out a hardfork which also means getting all the merchants to change and such.

100 years

I'd say at least 5 years. Even if a better currency appeas it will take time before enough users switch.

Evolve != hard fork as long as the majority of miners agree on it. The project is in beta and has been evolving from day one. What are you trying to say?

2-3 years may be.

I was asking if there was a difference between Evolve and hard fork or can you just change the source code? Don't know much of programming so yeah....

Changes are constantly made to the source code via GitHub. Request for changes can be pulled discussed agreed on and added to the code. On the next release these changes are in place and miners and other nodes can either accept the changes and upgrade or chose not too much the same as a lot of open source projects.

As long as the power stays on!

Technically it will never end, if at least two people keep using it.

The question is if and when it will be replaced as the most used and/or valuable cryptocurrency...

I haven't a clue. A month or a millenia I just don't know.

Bitcoin will last another 5-8 years. It will fade away like many stuffs in internet.

i doubt it will fade, there is so much money in it and with a market cap it already has, with so much support I doubt it will "fade"

Bitcoins are here to stay. As long as human life exists in this planet, Bitcoins will also be there.  ;D

Are we going to get the myspace/ facebook comparisons again?

Skipping from one free service to another with no impact other than losing touch with a few dickheads is rather different from moving tides of your own money into something new.

It'll be an epic ask to get major chunks of money into Bitcoin. Once it's in there 'good enough' become a powerful incentive to keep improving what you've built everything around.

At some point there has to be consensus as to what people are going to award value to or it'll disappear in a puff of vapour. If you look at investor interest, infrastructure investment and general excitement it's Bitcoin for now and for a long while to come.

Sure there are alts. There'll be more. They all do the same thing more or less. The same goes for domain names but a .com is worth a shit ton more than a .me.uk simply because we've collectively decided to value it at a higher level.

It's likely that a few years down the line you'll still own a bitcoin but what goes on underneath it is going to operate rather differently.

I don't think bitcoin will never end but I do think it can last at least for a few centuries.

Until the technological singularity or nation-state super-weapon apocalypse, whichever comes first.

Depends on what you mean by last.

How long before it collapses and is worth a few bucks a coin again? Probably a few years

How long before drug dealers and other illegal activity stop using it? Probably a very long time.

I only meant that if less than 50% of the network refused to update for whatever reason, the evolution wouldn't take place. I don't see how or why this would ever happen, but basically I mean the majority.

Ok once its mainstream it will last as long as people continue to use it,  Wont die from there, unless someone can destroy it

it's not technically illegal to destroy it is it?

Bitcoin will last forever.
Even if it replaced by something with a different name, BTC "started everything."

Consider how long TCP IP4 has lasted, and the resistance to IPv6 adoption.   Bitcoin will stay on top for a while.

Some grandma will be using bitcoin in 2068. But her daughter will furiously insist her to use the hexaflex vr-value protocol like she's told her sooo many times before. After a while grandma will spring back, hey look, transaction is confirmed, still works like in the old days! And then she tells some old story about a mining rig she ran...

Bitcoin is going to last for at least another 4-5 years. In this period, major things in the bitcoin code will change. I would very much like to see something done on the size of the blockchain, a solution to get faster confirmations for quick purchases. If everything get sorted out, bitcoin will have another 10 years' of life.

it all depends on if and how fast somebody will finally find out what bitcoins are good for.

One thing seems a lock. BTC will not be anywhere near worthless (and maybe not even then if it's the backbone of the new option) until there is a proven, viable, and widely used replacement. If not now, soon will be a very good buying opportunity. I'm sure China and unknown regulatory environment right now, is all that is providing this downward trend and soon the next buying opportunity.

Bitcoin will be ultimately like BBS's. There will be some people using and supporting it because they live in the past and that is fine. But it probably will no longer be mainstream someday. When i just don't know but i'm sureit takes time.

thats right my friend

BTC will last as long as the Internet.

I'd say we either completely flop and die within 3 years or there is enough mainstream adoption by merchants and consumers alike to keep us going for a long time. I'm feeling like it's going to be the former but hoping for the latter.

bitcoin already exists for half a decade and shows no sign of stagnation.
I'd say for as long as the internet exists unless a quantum computer is built or sha256/ripemd-160/ecdsa is broken, and even then it would be possible to simply change the algorithms though it could affect scalability and it won't be bitcoin per se (more like bitcoin 2.0).

May be another 10 year it will last. But within one or two year people will mining unless it price soar to $2k-3k range.

Forever, unless the internet is destroyed or something in the protocol is found to be fatally flawed.  The network effect will prevent altcoins from dethroning it, so really only total catastrophes can kill it.

It'll keep going so long as I live, I will at least make sure of this.

5 to 10yrs

100 years or so but the idea of Bitcoin will last forever.

Cryptographic currencies will last eternally...even when quantum computers arrive in the next 50 years or so.

As to whether Bitcoin will last? That's anyone's guess. It's well documented, well publicised, has a phenomenal network effect, has good acceptance by a large number of followers, is supported by a large number of PC and network enthusiasts, and is even accepted by certain commercial enterprises.

I'd say 30 years at least...and probably a lot longer.

Other coins like Litecoin, Peercoin, Quarkcoin, Darkcoin, etc, will probably come into play in the future...at this time they do not have a huge market capitalization, but things can easily change once enough followers catch on.

It will never end, in this form or another

Guys I'm shocked of the results how many people said for ever...
Bitcoin is ok but it still has its flaw wich will be fixed when a new "digital currency" emerges.
Bitcoin = Alpha stage for digital currency  ;)

Depends on the network transaction number, it has stagnated, perhaps even trending down.

It will last up until the coming societal collapse / disaster events, in which case you are going to need food, guns and shelter.

Only correct answer really.  If Bitcoin was going to fail it would have done so by now.

Now I don't think its going to dead soon as many predicting about this if you want to kill then kill this internet  :)

As long as there are good devs in d community it should survive

1 more day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyQUMf2Q6FQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=117 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyQUMf2Q6FQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=117)

It will last as long as the chain will be installed on machines!

The coming societal collapse / disaster events were supposed to happen a long time ago.
I'm ready to just get on with life.

1 week tops!

I have wondered about this. How hard would it be for companies that are backing Bitcoin to switch horses? Let's say Google invents a new proof-of-stake currency and Amazon start accepting it - and it's technically excellent.

I suspect that at a programming level, a lot of the code for wallets etc could be reused for the new currency. Especially if the new currency was designed to make it easy, and the wallets were written in a modular way. Address generation etc could be the same. Surely people could switch in 3-6 months if they had to?

That's true. Arguably it would not be in the best interests of someone promoting a new currency, to crash the bitcoin economy. It would undermine the whole concept of crypto-currencies. If my hypothetical Google/Amazon conspiracy happened, they'd probably include a way to convert bitcoin into the new currency.

True. Although I currently think proof-of-stake surely has to win in the long run, and a forward-looking technological company might decide that the sooner we adopt it, the better. The longer we wait, the harder to switch, and the more energy (of various sorts) spent/wasted on Bitcoin.

I suppose I think that if Bitcoin survives the next 2 years, it'll be so entrenched it'll probably survive the next 50.

I think Bitcoin will maintain a top 5 status for many years to come. But watch out for the altcoins, a few are rising and fast.  :)

http://coinmarketcap.com/mineable.html

The important question is how long do you think crypto currency will last, or how ubiquitous will cryptocurrencies become?

Bitcoin is to cryptocurrency what windos os is to the internet. (settle down fanboys, it's just an analogy)

CC is the thing changing the paradigm...bitcoin is the Father CC of the modern era, so people will bridge the gap and if it does even that before becoming obsolete, it's done its job and is well valued across the planet.

Cryptos are here to stay.

Until something better comes along.  Even then people will then just transfer their BTC into the new "currency."

Just look at the Euro and a lot of European countries (I'm not saying the Euro was better than some national currencies, just an example).

1 more day got 17 votes or 6.5% Lol

40 years

Bitcoin will last and grow from the next generation, as long as it becoming more down stream I see it lasting over 100 years unless theres is a new technogolgy that replaces it.

10 more years, then we switch to an alt like doge

It will be like never ending story :)

Yes well... this is hard to believe Bitcoin exist :) but it does exist and make a big noise :)
So for those reasons I am 100% sure that we will not let it go ... Bitcoin was something that world needs.
And this is just the beginning ... :)
Real world of Bitcoin is still to come.

I doubt doge will ever see any real enduring success because aside from 20 something haxors and nerds no person who is serious about their finances would take a meme coin seriously on its face. Not saying doge itself isn't serious but think about the financial community at large investing in an altcoin based on a 4chan meme.

They might be great with gamers and such but that'll be about the extent of its success. If they built up a good base and then changed their name to something more "mature and responsible" sounding, then that might expand for them.

Otherwise, most all of these altcoins whose sites or creators sound like they're 22 year old part time internet marketers slash full time frat boy gamers  are going bye bye. They will never be taken seriously beyond their niche.

Bitcoin is neutral. Possibly Litecoin. The rest - not happening. They'll be history within 3 years.

How much longer do you think Bitcoin will last?
If the real Satoshi came back and said this new coin is much better, would you switch or stay with BTC?
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=562645.0

Why do people think an alt coin can beat Bitcoin ?

Let's put in perpective:

Bitcoin, brainchild of a genius (Einstein grade genius). Has probably dedicated the better part of his adult life thinking up and making bitcoin.

Lite/Peer/Doge/Whatever Coin : A copy paste of bitcoin with anywhere between 30 minutes and 30 days of effort put in the initial developement stage.

None of these alt coins offer any real innovation that Bitcoin did not already offer, and Bitcoin does so with the fastest most secure computer network in the world powering it.

The sooner you pull your money from these alt coins the sooner you start to actually make some money. Making money on alt coins is only possible with A luck or B insider knowledge.

So unless some Satoshi Nakamoto type genius comes out and creates an even better ----->NEW<----- type of e-cash, Bitcoin is pretty safe bet.

maybe around 10-20 years from now ;D
if new coin will launch and have many advantage over BTC, we all go to that coin

50+ is my guess, but with caveats.  It's hard to know if some new concept will suddenly appear, or if some critical, fatal vulnerability is discovered in the code.

BTC may give way to a new technology just as fiat is gradually giving way to plastic/electronic money.  

Of course, I doubt fiat currency will ever completely disappear.  People like to be able to hold their wealth in their hands and that's a human trait not likely to fade quickly.

As for "never ending . . ." please, nothing lasts forever.  It will eventually be supplanted, if only because technology renders it obsolete.

The btc is the nexy $ (The rulling coin)

A solid 5 years more for sure but by then who know? A newer, better crypto may come out. WITHOUT THE NEED TO WAIT FOR STUPID CONFIRMATIONS :P

exactly how do you plan to accomplish that???   :P

There is no way to create a crypto-coin without the confirmations.

are you joking? :) I am pretty sure you are :)

Imagine bitcoin without confirmations ...