What could really stop bitcoin now?

[acayne]

Hi

I'm curious as to what people think could really stop the whole bitcoin-"currency" now (from growing in a curreny with a market-capitalization > 30 billion USD. ATM it is at 300 million.)

-Dotcom's "mega" will support BTC
-Reddit.com will support it(or already does?)
-we've got "pure bitcoin-based" multi-million dollar businesses (silkroad, satoshiDICE, mtGox,...)

What can stop Bitcoin now?

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[Meizirkki]

Blockchain becoming too large for normal computer to calculate?

[Akka]

A large dump from a big holder is all that it takes.  

I admit it looks good for BTC right now, but don't forget Bitcoin is the first of this kind and still experimental. There might be problems occurring that we can't even think about jet.

Also, 30 B, do you really believe this? ~3000 USD / BTC. Bitcoin have to be a lot more useful to be worth that much.

[acayne]

Blockchain becoming too large for normal computer to calculate?

I don't think that will be such a big threat. Pure clients don't need the whole blockchain anyway and pruning the blockchain doesn't sound too complex as well. Haven't thought about it that much though, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[megaman11011]

Hmmm.... Galactus stopping by for dinner would kill  it pretty quick. Aside from that I can't  think of much .

[Luno]

What we really need now is smooth exchanges. The latest days stories of slow processing for people trying to buy a Bitcoin can bring this crashing down.

Further It hampers price discovery, so please exchanges get your act together as you are playing with fire here.

If they are afraid of loss due to exchangerate fluctuations, They don't have the cash to run such a business, or they should implement some automation so that anyone buying a Bitcoin with credit card make their business buy one on Gox the same second. Their only risk would be a fraudalent purchase not a 5% increase on all Bitcoins.

[Stephen Gornick]

What can stop Bitcoin now?

These won't stop bitcoin, but any one could definitely reverse Bitcoin's current direction:

 - FinCEN going after exchanges for not filing as money transmitters (and/or for not registering as money service businesses) for selling "prepaid access".  (This includes those exchanges serving customers in the U.S. regardless of where the exchange is located).
 - Coinbase, BitMe, BitFloor, and CampBX being served subpoenas to cough up the USD and BTC transaction history for each of its customer accounts.
 - Blockchain.info being raided for mixing service, logs sized
 - Update to Adobe Flash released in January includes previously undetected wallet-stealer code that executed on all systems at 8am UTC February 19, 2013. [this is a hypothetical threat.]
 - etc.
 - etc.
 - etc.

[acayne]

A large dump from a big holder is all that it takes.  

I admit it looks good for BTC right now, but don't forget Bitcoin is the first of this kind and still experimental. There might be problems occurring that we can't even think about jet.

Also, 30 B, do you really believe this? ~3000 USD / BTC. Bitcoin have to be a lot more useful to be worth that much.

About the big dump of one shareholder: Hasn't there been a "large dump" of many shareholders because of mtgox-hacking already? Think the price was about 30USD/BTC then as well...why shouldn't it recover? The  advantages of bitcoin don't disappear because of it, so I think this can't really destroy it. But please elaborate on your point of view!

I completely agree about it being experimental and about coming problems we can't realize yet. But because of it being experimental and different it's also more useful than any other currency. In fact I believe it can grow to that extent. What's the "market capitalization" of the EURO and why would it be more useful than Bitcoin, for example?

[Jouke]

Code:

./bitcoind stop

[mintymark]

Code:

./bitcoind stop

Yeah, that would do it!! LOL!!

[wateristasty]

The NSA could takeover 51% of the hashing.

[DannyHamilton]

I suppose if the lead development team were to get into a disagreement about a change that would fork the blockchain, and both were to implement their own solution incompatible with each other, that might cause enough damage to result in a collapse of faith in the bitcoin concept and eventually put a stop to bitcoin.

[c0ldfusi0nz]

If any first-world government decides to flex their legal muscles to shut down exchanges, that will kill off the adoption rate and at the very least cause bitcoin usage to stagnate.

[Mike Christ]

If any first-world government decides to flex their legal muscles to shut down exchanges, that will kill off the adoption rate and at the very least cause bitcoin usage to stagnate.

That's an issue that affects more than just Bitcoin   But I agree.  It's more so, people allowing their governments full control over every aspect of their lives that the first-worlders can just say "Bitcoin supports terrorism" and anyone without half their brain functioning (not uncommon in Murica) would destroy any BTC they had and preach the message to their peers.

[taltamir]

- Blockchain.info being raided for mixing service, logs sized

I thought bitcoin was a distributed p2p network exactly to prevent such a thing

If any first-world government decides to flex their legal muscles to shut down exchanges, that will kill off the adoption rate and at the very least cause bitcoin usage to stagnate.

This seems like its just a matter of time considering they have cracked down on any alternative currency in the past.
What can bitcoin do to survive in such a state?

That's an issue that affects more than just Bitcoin  But I agree.  It's more so, people allowing their governments full control over every aspect of their lives that the first-worlders can just say "Bitcoin supports terrorism" and anyone without half their brain functioning (not uncommon in Murica) would destroy any BTC they had and preach the message to their peers.

Name a country where this isn't common (ugh, double negatives!)

[greyhawk]

-we've got "pure bitcoin-based" multi-million dollar businesses (silkroad, satoshiDICE, mtGox,...)

Ah, yes, the multi-million dollar businesses: a black market and a casino. Yeah, that historically always went well. No really, it did, except for those that got their brains bashed in or got sunk in the Hudson or gunned down in the street. But: there's always new blood to take up the slack.

[Mike Christ]

Name a country where this isn't common (ugh, double negatives!)

I really hope there is one, or we're truly screwed  If not, let's invent one.  We'll call it Acirema

[wateristasty]

Name a country where this isn't common (ugh, double negatives!)

Iceland

[taltamir]

Name a country where this isn't common (ugh, double negatives!)

I really hope there is one, or we're truly screwed   If not, let's invent one.  We'll call it Acirema

My parents emigrated to america a mere 10 years ago and its already going down the drain. I have been desperately looking somewhere to emigrate and can't find one sane nation on this globe.

[greyhawk]

What about North Korea? They're decidedly anti-western. Well except for their leader's private entertainment, but otherwise? Decidedly anti-western.