The end of Bitcoins?

[johnniewalker]

I have seen people all over the forum saying there's no way the Bitcoin can fail now-I hope thats true. Bitcoins are certainly not yet ubiquitous and if the average person has even heard of them they probably just associate them with drugs (Silk Road). Yes this has achieved media attention, but frankly not as much as one might think. Perhaps this is because anyone in power does not want to admit that they wouldn't know/have any real power in ending Bitcoin, and the aforementioned would be bad publicity.
So, I don't think Bitcoins will (or can) end that way. I believe the only thing that could end Bitcoins is the lack of the community and world's view of them. The issue of BFL particularly makes me scared. I don't want to make this a debate about if they will or will not produce and ship out working units-so let's just say they don't. This, in terms of dollars, would mean BFL was a HUGE scam. I believe that would get MORE than plenty of news coverage, as those in power take advantage of the scam en route to discouraging Bitcoiners and would-be Bitcoiners.
Is BFL (or could it lead to) the end or at least decline of Bitcoins?

[Prattler]

Is BFL (or could it lead to) the end or at least decline of Bitcoins?

Only if they actually make the hardware and don't ship any of it, thus centralizing >50% of the hashing power. That would be pretty bad. Let's hope it doesn't happen.

[byronbb]

If the BFL ASIC fail to materialize I think it is a negative event for the security of the network, and thus the price might suffer. Conversely if they DO ship....

[cdog]

BFL isnt a scam, its a real company that members of the community have visited. Its just a poorly run company.

They will deliver SOMETHING, the only question is WHAT (in terms of has power and wattage) and WHEN (Im guessing April-May for early preorders).

[creativex]

BFL isnt a scam, its a real company that members of the community have visited. Its just a poorly run company.

They will deliver SOMETHING, the only question is WHAT (in terms of has power and wattage) and WHEN (Im guessing April-May for early preorders).

I agree that they're a real company right now, but there's certainly no guarantee that they will ship anything. They could go belly up, be shut down by the man(FTC or AG), or just decide ASICs is too hard and decide to abscond with whatever funds remain. Either way BTC will survive.

[Endgame]

Whatever happens with butterfly labs it's not going to cause the end of bitcoins. Bitcoin is an idea much bigger than any individual company or service provider - even butterfly labs, bitinstant or mtgox. The most a butterfly labs meltdown would do is cause a minor blip on the exchange rate, and a flood of angry posts on this forum. Bitcoin itself would continue to chug along just fine.

[picobit]

If bitcoin could survive PirateAt40 and his huge Ponzi collapsing last summer and the GLBSE implosion soon after, then nothing BFL can do or refrain from doing will be a real problem. 

[NEO2012]

BFL isnt a scam, its a real company that members of the community have visited. Its just a poorly run company.

They will deliver SOMETHING, the only question is WHAT (in terms of has power and wattage) and WHEN (Im guessing April-May for early preorders).

I agree that they're a real company right now, but there's certainly no guarantee that they will ship anything. They could go belly up, be shut down by the man(FTC or AG), or just decide ASICs is too hard and decide to abscond with whatever funds remain. Either way BTC will survive.

bfl is a preorder scam  since they took the money and promised to deliver in oct2012

then after the cashed in like 20 mil, they said fak it lets do this

might take us  1 years to deliver a cost us only few mil out of 20

but at least the feds wont be looking for us

so lets make same fakin chips  hipikae

[reg]

If bitcoin could survive PirateAt40 and his huge Ponzi collapsing last summer and the GLBSE implosion soon after, then nothing BFL can do or refrain from doing will be a real problem. 

+1  I got all my assets back as most did from glbse because most involved were trustworthy and nefario wanted to avoid being permanently ostrasized from the community! the same applies to bfl the moral? like in the films - the good guys win in the end. reg.   

[billotronic]

Except life is not like in the movies... its a cold, harsh, and ruthless reality.

That being said,

Goonies never say die.