If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream...

[SgtSpike]

If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream and actually succeeded in killing off some fiat currencies, it would make just about every person on this forum incredibly wealthy. The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Speculate on how you think this would affect the world we live in.  What would be different vs today's world?

[koin]

If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream and actually succeeded in killing off some fiat currencies, it would make just about every person on this forum incredibly wealthy. The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Speculate on how you think this would affect the world we live in.  What would be different vs today's world?

don't be a douche  mmmk?

I am pretty confident we are the new wealthy elite, gentlemen

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=12156

[Vladimir]

If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream and actually succeeded in killing off some fiat currencies, it would make just about every person on this forum incredibly wealthy. The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Speculate on how you think this would affect the world we live in.  What would be different vs today's world?

I would speculate that most geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people will not be able to resist temptations and will not be able to run the marathon, most will be sprinters and will sell out most or all BTC holdings way under 1000$ per BTC to the banksters.

[mobile4ever]

I would speculate that most geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people will not be able to resist temptations and will not be able to run the marathon, most will be sprinters and will sell out most or all BTC holdings way under 1000$ per BTC to the banksters.

I agree with your speculations, but there is an idea:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=77151.0;all


that could spread Bitcoin across the world in ( perhaps ) a matter of months.

The people who will be weak enough to sell their bitcoins for paper money will not be able to affect the value of Bitcoin if it is entrenched in multiple societies.

[DavinciJ15]

A fool and his money are soon parted.  Many of us who "would have been" wealthy would have lost it to money smart people and there will be a lot of people saying dam they wish they kept their bitcoins.

Nikola Tesla was very smart when it came to physics and electronics, however he was less than proficient when it came to understanding human relations and their wealth.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist that if I make something that gives people free energy your not going to get someone to fund it. The fact he could not figure that out and trick the fools that funded him is why he died poor and broken.  

The bottom line we all can't be smart at everything and common sense is not common.

Davinci
BTW: Just because I understand this does not make me an exception.

[FreeMoney]

If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream and actually succeeded in killing off some fiat currencies, it would make just about every person on this forum incredibly wealthy. The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Speculate on how you think this would affect the world we live in.  What would be different vs today's world?

Absolutely not. A lot of people around here have ~0 coins and another group are in bitcoin debt.

What % of world wealth do you think men have now?

But yeah, it'll be higher % smart people than now :-)

[Sitarow]

The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Yeah, that would be a really world altering change!

Bill Gates   $61.3 billion
Mark Zuckerberg  $21 billion
Larry Ellison  $37.9 billion
Sergey Brin  $18.7 billion
Larry Page  $18.7 billion
Carlos Slim  $60.6 billion
Kevin Rose  $160 million
Vlasimir Yevtushenkov  $9 billion
The Late Steve Jobs  $7 billion
Azim Premji  $15.9 billion
Satoru Iwata  $7.8 billion
Mark Zuckerberg  $4 billion
Larry Page  $17.5 billion
Masayoshi Son  $7 billion
Jeff Bezos   $8.7 Billlion
Pierre Omidyar  $6.3 Billion
Eric Schmidt  $5.9 Billion
Ronald Burkle  $3.5 Billion
Mark Cuban    $2.6 billion
Peter Thiel   $1.3 billion
Peter Cashmore   $95 million   
and on and on and on and on...........

Had to quote you so I could read the text... Thats small!

[bigbox]

If the power of currency creation is taken away from governments and big banks, we will have more freedoms and more limited governments. The intelligent people that take the time to understand Bitcoin and its possibilities earliest will benefit the most, as they should.

[kwoody]

For Bitcoin to go mainstream, there must be incentive for merchants to take Bitcoin over fiat. Better yet, incentive for merchants to decline payments in fiat, and only accept Bitcoin. Unfortunately only illicit markets serve this functionality at the moment..

[TheBible]

It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.

[mobile4ever]

It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.

This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.


All money is based on trust in a system, ability to be recognized, and usability. In this era of transition, digital money is an easy choice to make. Just make it.


I suggest seeing this → ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LaSrxtWfgc ) and making a final decision.

[mobile4ever]

The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people.  

Yeah, that would be a really world altering change!

Bill Gates   $61.3 billion
Mark Zuckerberg  $21 billion
Larry Ellison  $37.9 billion
Sergey Brin  $18.7 billion
Larry Page  $18.7 billion
Carlos Slim  $60.6 billion
Kevin Rose  $160 million
Vlasimir Yevtushenkov  $9 billion
The Late Steve Jobs  $7 billion
Azim Premji  $15.9 billion
Satoru Iwata  $7.8 billion
Masayoshi Son  $7 billion
Jeff Bezos   $8.7 Billlion
Pierre Omidyar  $6.3 Billion
Eric Schmidt  $5.9 Billion
Ronald Burkle  $3.5 Billion
Mark Cuban    $2.6 billion
Peter Thiel   $1.3 billion
Peter Cashmore   $95 million   
and on and on and on and on...........

Where are the ones who really opened up the doors for the ↑above? Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson? ( http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Kenneth+Thompson+Dennis+Ritchie+unix )


Torvalds is worth maybe $20 million and his stuff is given away for free.


By the way, the richest man, Carlos Slim,  is heavily involved in mobile.

[ElectricMucus]

It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.

This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.

But you can't. Price something in bitcoin without looking at the exchange rate to dollars. (You can do it off the top of your head but lets say in 18 months)

Bitcoin just started the wrong way. If it were used for example trading pictures you made, or something else easily produced by everybody instead of buying somebody a pizza it would have turned out very differently. This is a social issue not a economical or technical one.

[FreeMoney]

It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.

This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.

But you can't. Price something in bitcoin without looking at the exchange rate to dollars. (You can do it off the top of your head but lets say in 18 months)

Bitcoin just started the wrong way. If it were used for example trading pictures you made, or something else easily produced by everybody instead of buying somebody a pizza it would have turned out very differently. This is a social issue not a economical or technical one.

The only reason you can pick a price for a thing in dollars is that you are surrounded by dollar price tags. If the dollar was gone you'd have to find another way (like looking around at the BTC price tags, yes it's circular, it's already begun).

[ElectricMucus]

The only reason you can pick a price for a thing in dollars is that you are surrounded by dollar price tags. If the dollar was gone you'd have to find another way (like looking around at the BTC price tags, yes it's circular, it's already begun).

Ever played any online game with ingame currency? There are no pricetags in dollars. Well at least used to in Diablo III that is possible too. The difference here is item prices in dollar follow their ingame gold value not verse visa.
That's the point I'm trying to make if bitcoin started as a trading tool for something valuable but not necessarily costly (for example game items or pictures) it would have evolved very differently. It's already too late for that since we have almost half of all bitcoins valued in dollar instead of something fundamental.

[kwoody]

It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.

It is more accurate to say that fiat is backed by Bitcoin than to say Bitcoin is backed by fiat. Money, in whatever form, is only as good as what it can be traded for, and it makes more sense to hold Bitcoin than fiat since one suffers from indefinite inflation and the other doesn't. Realistically, neither of them are backed by anything tangible. If America woke up tomorrow knowing what fractional reserve banking is, you'd likely see a financial revolution, and people would stop caring about USD, and instead care about trading resources and units of value that don't suffer from inflation.

[chmod755]

Ever played any online game with ingame currency? There are no pricetags in dollars. Well at least used to in Diablo III that is possible too. The difference here is item prices in dollar follow their ingame gold value not verse visa.
That's the point I'm trying to make if bitcoin started as a trading tool for something valuable but not necessarily costly (for example game items or pictures) it would have evolved very differently. It's already too late for that since we have almost half of all bitcoins valued in dollar instead of something fundamental.

I wouldn't say it's too late to change that…

[Roger_Murdock]

I'm sure being incredibly wealthy will be nice, but am I the only one who's more excited about the "I-Told-You-So's"? Because those are gonna be epic.

[paulie_w]

If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream and actually succeeded in killing off some fiat currencies, it would make just about every person on this forum incredibly wealthy. The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Speculate on how you think this would affect the world we live in.  What would be different vs today's world?

I would speculate that most geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people will not be able to resist temptations and will not be able to run the marathon, most will be sprinters and will sell out most or all BTC holdings way under 1000$ per BTC to the banksters.

depends on whether or not there are other things you can exchange for (of value) at that price.

if we're where we are now, with little to buy and mostly the whole thing just being a medium of speculation, then yeah you're right.

[DavinciJ15]

For Bitcoin to go mainstream, there must be incentive for merchants to take Bitcoin over fiat. Better yet, incentive for merchants to decline payments in fiat, and only accept Bitcoin. Unfortunately only illicit markets serve this functionality at the moment..

In order for the internet to go mainstream, there must be incentives for merchants to run their business on the internet than have a brick an mortar store.  Better yet, incentives for merchants to have no physical store.  Unfortunately only kiddie porn traders use the internet.

NOTE: If you don't know, many NEW businesses where invented by people who saw the POWER of the internent as "brick and mortar" stores lagged behind.  Understand that old style businesses do not need to accept bitcoins, new businesses that use bitcoins because its a useful and powerful tool that gives them tremendous advantage over old style businesses.