Am I missing something? (or is BTC destined for greatness and soon)

[Chris_Sabian]

Check out what has transpired over the last 12 months: Massive rise, massive Goxxing, banned /unbanned / banned in China, NYDFS regs proposal, the rise of shorting, Moolah / Mintpal debacle, Russia 'ban', Australia possible 2x GST, Satoshi (Dorian & email hack), continued FUD, attacked in media, Professor Bitcorn, Schiff/Buffet et al 'Ponzi scheme', PayPal, dumps on good news.

2014 has been the year bitcoin stood up. It has been attacked from all sides, knocked from pillar to post and told 'Welcome to the Big League, son'.

But it still stands.

And slowly the narrative is changing.

We've seen the labels: drug dealing, money laundering, ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme, magic internets money. Now we've moved on to the point that says "Yeah this blockchain certainly is something. God darn great innovation. Lets just get rid of the 'meh' currency and keep this blockchain thing".

Next will be the step where entire industries jump on board. I'd say it is about a year off.

Well said.  Although the point in bold is something that I don't agree with.  There needs to be much more development before that happens.  There needs to the block size issue dealt with and some seriously good apps for people, businesses, your grandma, to use.  And those will take time

[QuestionAuthority]

Wow, things have certainly changed on this forum in the last couple of years. A quarter of the posts in this thread would have been shredded by DnT or Stephen Gornick in 2011. There's not as much cheerleading as there once was and people seem more reserved about future potential. I'd say Bitcoin is right on schedule. It will eventually end up somewhere between curing AIDS/ending world hunger and being a complete failure.

[Bitmore]

It seems clear to me that BTC will hit the big(ger) time and relatively soon.  But some folks (who do seem to have a good understanding of it) hold the exact opposite opinion.  Am I buying into the hype?  Besides regulation (which I don't think will end up being a problem in the Land of Innovation and many other countries), how else could BTC go wrong and turn out to be the fad some say it is.

The major acception by merchants is positve and negative. Positive for Bitcoin adoption, negative for exchange rate, big companies dump the earned bitcoin in stead of holding because allmost all other biznis uses fiat. As long as there are no real option for companies to spend their bitcoins, this will continue.. unless the group of bitcoiners gets much larger , so spread the word

Correct me if I am wrong, but I suspect the issue for business adoption will be at the point of taxing the transaction.  It has to be exchanged into fiat at the present exchange rate to establish the tax cost per transaction at that point, no?  Thus it can't stay in Bitcoin from transaction to transaction, but has to bounce between fiat and Bitcoin as the buying customer and tax law dictates.  That complication is intimidating to vendors.

[luckyluigi]

I believe it will take some time, but all the signs are there... so just keep calm and hoard some coin.

Read this article:
10 Reasons You Should Be Paying Attention To Bitcoin Right Now

[BlindMayorBitcorn]

Wow, things have certainly changed on this forum in the last couple of years. A quarter of the posts in this thread would have been shredded by DnT or Stephen Gornick in 2011. There's not as much cheerleading as there once was and people seem more reserved about future potential. I'd say Bitcoin is right on schedule. It will eventually end up somewhere between curing AIDS/ending world hunger and being a complete failure.

It's 2014. The square community is onboard now

[Unbelive]

Soon we will be able to say that 2014 was magnificent year for Bitcoin. Doubt anyone in the beginning of 2014 would expect Bitcoin would reach as fast as it will in 2 months time. If next year will be so successful, i doubt it will, Bitcoin will be really destined for Greatness.

[novacn]

"It seems clear to me that BTC will hit the big(ger) time and relatively soon." How did you draw that conclusion?
PS I do believe in btc, but I think it will take a lot longer time for it to be mainstream. With current price ...

[funtotry]

Wow, things have certainly changed on this forum in the last couple of years. A quarter of the posts in this thread would have been shredded by DnT or Stephen Gornick in 2011. There's not as much cheerleading as there once was and people seem more reserved about future potential. I'd say Bitcoin is right on schedule. It will eventually end up somewhere between curing AIDS/ending world hunger and being a complete failure.

Well I would certainly say that bitcoin will in fact not ever do anything like cure AIDS or end world hunger, this is simply not something it was designed to do. There is really no imaginable way that something can go from being a more efficient way to send money to making medical breakthroughs.

Bitcoin should make economies more efficient and third world countries would not need to rely on a shaky banking system or any kind of third party to "hold" their money so, in theory it may help world hunger but even this is a far stretch

[Jybrael]

The ones that are bearish and "abandoning ship" are probably the ones that got in at the high, got goxed, or merely thought of Bitcoin as a get rich scheme.

The ones that remain bullish are holding coins steady through thick and thin.  The same ones that view it as an innovation, a versatile payment method, and the (crypto)currency of the future.

Time will tell who's right, but looking at it objectively, Bitcoin is only 5 years young.  Gots a long ways to go.

I totally agree with you. Its only been 5 years since the coming :-P of bitcoin. All the people abandoning ship were mostly the folks that only joined it after seeing Bitcoins price rise up to 1000$. I would rather hold on to my coins..(Sadly the few that I have) and wait and watch how things go.

[spazzdla]

If the public doesn't adopt it.. if we can't make storing and moving bitcoins easy for the moronic 99% then bitcoin will never be anything.

[pitham1]

Wow, things have certainly changed on this forum in the last couple of years. A quarter of the posts in this thread would have been shredded by DnT or Stephen Gornick in 2011. There's not as much cheerleading as there once was and people seem more reserved about future potential. I'd say Bitcoin is right on schedule. It will eventually end up somewhere between curing AIDS/ending world hunger and being a complete failure.

Well I would certainly say that bitcoin will in fact not ever do anything like cure AIDS or end world hunger, this is simply not something it was designed to do. There is really no imaginable way that something can go from being a more efficient way to send money to making medical breakthroughs.

Bitcoin should make economies more efficient and third world countries would not need to rely on a shaky banking system or any kind of third party to "hold" their money so, in theory it may help world hunger but even this is a far stretch

Bitcoin might help the world in ways we cannot imagine. The internet definitely has!
People in remote parts of Africa would be able to receive small donations from people across the world. This could provide meaningful relief in a famine.