Bitcoin has shown tremendous resiliency through technological challenges, DDOS attacks, closed exchanges, media ignorance, and FUD. In fact every time a government entity closes an exchange or puts any kind of squeeze on Bitcoin it validates its legitimacy and its power. It makes me want to buy more Bitcoins not less. On the path to mass adoption there is one big hurdle that we have yet to face and it is the hurdle that worries me much more than governments. It is corporations. And really they are the same, corporations use their lobbying leverage to dictate policy.
Furthermore major corporations have a tool that is even more relevant in this currency crusade, its the massive marketing machine geared towards influencing the general public.
Corporations already are showing their interest in digital currencies and payment systems (Amazon Coins, Apple Passbook, Facebook Credits). These attempts are feeble and will be crushed by Bitcoin as we all know. As time goes on Bitcoin will continue to elude government regulation and thwart competing systems but will remain on the fringes of society. There is a tremendous opportunity for these large corporations to come together and say "Hey Bitcoin is open source. Lets claim it as our own and tweak it for our profitability." What are some obvious tweaks? Well some that come to mind is that the hard 21M limit becomes "managed", nodes are licensed, and users are required to register for accounts.
Obviously this system is no longer Bitcoin but they can market it to the public as Bitcoin and lobby for its government approval. "It has all the same benefits as Bitcoin but it will not harbor criminals". "It still has nodes and is not owned by any one entity so it is still decentralized". "It has all the same benefits as Bitcoin but it will not deflate". "The beta version of Bitcoin was a tool for pedophiles and terrorists, but now Bitcoin will be safe"!
There is a reason why companies spend millions of dollars on lobbying and advertising. Obviously no one on this forum will be suckered in but stimulating commercials of the new bitcoin with flashing lights and bikini models does have an influence. With government officially recognizing bitcoin and corporations developing its infrastructure, this digital currency could penetrate mainstream.
Merchants may say "Let them try! We will stay true to Satoshi's Bitcoin!". However now that bitcoin is under the claimed ownership of large corporations they have the power to frivolously sue any small merchant using vanilla bitcoin for infringement. Much like how Anheiser Busch frivolously sued Dogfish Head brewery for a beer that Dogfish invented. With a sanctioned alternative government can also justify a much tougher stance on anyone accepting regular bitcoin for goods and services.
What all this is leading to is yes the decline of central banks. But that power is not returned to the people but instead redistributed to large corporations. Information, technology, and social networking giants have an opportunity to also BE the centralized banks of a currency built on the internet.
The 5th episode of Lets Talk Bitcoin has an interview with Charles Hoskinson and he does a great job of articulating the issue.
https://soundcloud.com/mindtomatter/e05-communication-is-key-lets
