Bitcoin Forum

I see the biggest threat to this project as the very system it seeks to displace. That is, the banking establishment.

Isn't it inevitable that the Federal Reserve Bank will at some point buy every coin ever generated and completely wipe out the economy?

Well... we could just start afresh with bitcoin2, or whatever, but will this ever get off the ground when central banks have everything to lose from allowing it?

I'm not an economist. Is this a legitimate concern? What are your thoughts?

Bitcoin is not trying to replace anything. This isn't an insurgency. It's trying to be a better currency.

The Fed will only pay attention to Bitcoin once it's gone mainstream and by then the Fed won't have enough money to buy every coin in existence.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

The key is maintaining the velocity of growth and innovation high enough so that the adversary can't catch you. It helps if the FED are an incompetent cabal.

I hope your right, but I disagree about insurgency; on a level playing field bitcoin WILL displace every fiat currency controlled by a central bank. Think about it, people will stop using banks, stop paying taxes, markets will be difficult to regulate when their transactions can't be monitored. They will lose their stranglehold on the economy. Key to the power structure is the control of the money, which is precisely what bitcoin usurps.

this is a very good discussion but I am just wondering if we should discuss this publicly in such a public forum

That would just raise the price of however few coins are left. The economy would keep on going like before.

Why not? It's hardly a secret as it seems to be first thing people think of when they hear about Bitcoin. (But let's not forget the great efficiency gains!)

I am not so optimistic about bitcoin's success.  As it stand, it takes effort by bitcoiners to build business and economic activity, as well letter writing campaigns and such to expand bitcoin usage to the globe.  This is something that the bitcoin community must keep sustaining throughout the period before takeoff. Even when there seem to be large growth, it is probably not the time to be complacent.

We probably really don't know where the takeoff point is until long after bitcoin disrupt the economy.

Speaking of "letter writing", this might be of interest to you:

https://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1342.0 (https://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=1342.0)

If the Fed wants to buy every bitcoin in existance let them.

Then start a new bitcoin network. If the Fed keeps buying bitcoin you can retire rich after some years. :D

At the moment, the biggest threat to this project is being technically incapable of surpassing 33% of Paypal's average daily volume (much less VISA's transaction volume, or world total USD volume).

How can we sell bitcoin to serious investors, with built-in limitations like the 463 transactions/minute limit (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1314.msg14748#msg14748)?

Since the community is composed of hackers and ciphergeeks at the moment, it is indeed one of the goal. However, we don't know the true goal of Satoshi.

I don't think we should question satoshi at every step. He gave us this great protocol (it's no more than that actually) and that's it. If we are not happy about a decision, we can change it, should the network deteriorate we can switch. Satoshi's done very much, and I don't think he has all these evil intentions everyone is dreading. I understand the need to be skeptical sometimes but in this case I think we have a fairly good idea of what satoshis intentions are: creating a nice little payment system that could one day be able to compete with the big players out there, not the world domination  8)

We will soon (http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1350)

I was stating the fact of the matter. We truly don't really know why Satoshi did the thing he did. Yes, there are guesses and speculation.  No matter how accurate they are, they are just speculation and guesses.

Who cares what Satoshi's goals are? He has given us a wonderful tool. We can use this tool for whatever we decide is our goal. History has shown that new technologies often end up being used in ways which the original inventor didn't intend, or couldn't even imagine.

bitcoin will never become big (or bigger than what it is already) for 1 simple reason: ANONYMITY.

anonymity and money just don't go together. US government and EU won't allow this thing to make a step further.

Tax avoidance, money laundering, no control over big transactions... Soon even prepaid cards will be dead, because VISA says it's all gambling money, terrorist money, there's no control etc.

ACTA, COICA, DIRECT, Cyber laws etc etc. In it's current form Bitcoin has no future. There's just no green light for it.  :(

Not true at all.  Perhaps bitcoin operates purely pseduonymously, but the transactions are still recorded and the goods and services it is traded for can be monitored.

Paper dollars are purely anonymous, but they certainly aren't a threat to the government.