What could go wrong with Bitcoin?

[i287853]

No, he talks smart. Smart investors always prepare themselves for the worst.
I do agree though with LoyceV when he says "all eggs in one basket" is not the best thing to do.

all smart investors prepares themselves for the worst and does something about it before it happens. There should be signs, as a smart investor you should be able to read and anticipate these signs and work your way of of it. I dont see the worst happening to bitcoin in the near future though so you’re good.

[1714699718]

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[subitlist]

I'm now 21, and I have about 99.9% of my wealth in Bitcoin, I started to accumulate since 2013 till today, almost going to buy every time there's a dip (consolidation).

Many people have same goal/dream like me, hoping that Bitcoin will grant them earlier retirement or luxury life, but what could go wrong?

What's the possible scenario that could render Bitcoin into worthless, and what're the probabilities of that happening?

Don't get me wrong, I love Bitcoin, and I like how it makes us able to afford luxurious stuff, but I also wanted to be mentally prepared for the worst possible scenario.

Anything could happen with btc or any other coin. There is something powerful that we cant control. It could be people or groups of people..

[RetireWithBitcoin]

I also wanted to be mentally prepared for the worst possible scenario.

Here you go: Bitcoin can lose 99.9% if it's value. Done.
[/sarcasm]

Why would you prepare "mentally", if you can prepare by spreading your investment? All eggs in one basket is a very risky strategy, it's great as long as it goes up, but you're literally risking everything.

What's the possible scenario that could render Bitcoin into worthless, and what're the probabilities of that happening?

If crypto taught me one thing, it's that everything is possible. Most Bitcoins are still in the hands of a few people with very strong hands, but if they start panic-selling, the market gets flooded with cheap coins.
It can also go up 10x or more. I'm betting on that, but I don't risk everything. In retrospect, I could have had 20 times more now if I would have gone all-in when I started with crypto.

To answer your questions, mainly it's because as I said I'm 21 this year, I still have a lot of time to recover almost any lost, most people at my years only have debt, thus my risk-tolerance level is high.
I do understand the benefits of diversification as a finance major, and I did plan to do so in near future, but not until Bitcoin hit my target price.

Another way of saying is, put all my eggs in one basket and watch them carefully, I'm so far devoted almost all my time in Bitcoin, I trade Bitcoin as my full-time income source, so I watching Bitcoin really closely.

I'm more interested to know what could go wrong with Bitcoin, instead of my investment approach.

[Dalivien]

sometimes i get scared too, sometimes i feel its gonna die and some other coin gonna go high

[RetireWithBitcoin]

I believe most people misunderstood what I try to discuss here, I'm not talking about the investment approach or my portfolio structure that's concentrated with Bitcoin.

I wanted to discuss, specifically "What could be gone wrong with Bitcoin, that could render it into worthless"

So far these are what someone pointed out, and my opinion:


1. When the government of countries started to ban Bitcoin, making it illegal to use.
My opinion is this is very very unlikely to happen, governments of countries can't even work together on solving a single problem such as global warming, or eradicating poverty from less developed countries, so if we're talking about governments reach consensus to ban Bitcoin together is not likely to happen, think of what's the benefits they can all share? What about a few top influencing countries banning Bitcoin? Look at China, does it work?

2. When people stop using it.
Very unlikely to happen as well, it's like saying when people will stop using FIAT?

3. When miners switch to other altcoins
Not likely to happen there's a lot of huge mining company or individuals has invested lots into Bitcoin, and it's mining operation, simply switching into some other altcoin is just going to harm them financially, look at those who switched to BCC then switch it back to BTC.

4. Being replace by altcoins / forked coin of  BTC
This could happen but it's not likely to "replace" but work parallel with Bitcoin, it's like we have Gold, silver, platinum in real world, so it could happen in Cryptocurrencies world, forked coin is fine then, as I would be having forked coin and the original Bitcoin

5. Stronger computing technology like quantum computing
I've been thinking more into the code of Bitcoin, however, I wasn't a programmer, won't be able to understand as much as possible, but from what know is, Bitcoin can be upgraded, updated, so it doesn't sound like a major problem as well.


Everything being said above is just my opinion, especially point 5, I'm not a programmer and wasn't good a reading code, so correct me if I'm wrong or share your experience? Thanks


hope we can make this a good discussions

[HonestSurfer]

Here is my quick list of reasons for which Bitcoin might disappear (going in the order of probability):
1.   Regulatory ban: majority of countries decide Bitcoin is a shady parallel economy that cannot be controlled and better just prohibited; e.g. closing down exchanges, closing gates between fiat and crypto worlds...
2.   Government hack: destroying the system with some kind of brute force (51% attack) or new technology (quantum computers) for which only a few countries in the world have enough resources and knowledge (e.g. China, Russia, maybe USA).
3.   Regular hack: a hacker exploits the systems and tries to use it for own good or just destroy it for fun and accolades (remember Ethereum...)
4.   Technological failure: one of those BIPs goes terribly wrong…
5.   Competition: other currencies do the job much better (faster and cheaper transactions etc.)
6.   Other: no more marketing, people get tired of it, new technology comes, too many frauds, the impractical volatility, no use in the real economy etc.

[Titanos]

To be prepared for these situations you should split your investment. Don't put all your money in bitcoin. I advise you to have an investment in real life to afford bitcoin dumps and uncomfortable situations.

[lzby2000]

I admire you. A young man with a good eye. I started investing when I was 18 years old. When I was my age, I only knew how to watch movies and spend money traveling everywhere

[junoreactor]

Yes, actually reason 4. is a one that would make me worry (a bit), Bitcoin is the big name, that's why it attracts so many investors.
But then it is a very hard thing to predict.
What I know for sure, is, when you are the first one to enter in a specific industry (so here, cryptos), your competitors will need to work much harder to overtake you. I will still trust Bitcoin to adapt to all "competition" it faces, like I said, it is still had the big advantage of being "the big name", the name that now everyone has heard of, even those who say "I do not understand anything about cryptocurrencies

[RetireWithBitcoin]

Here is my quick list of reasons for which Bitcoin might disappear (going in the order of probability):
1.   Regulatory ban: majority of countries decide Bitcoin is a shady parallel economy that cannot be controlled and better just prohibited; e.g. closing down exchanges, closing gates between fiat and crypto worlds...
2.   Government hack: destroying the system with some kind of brute force (51% attack) or new technology (quantum computers) for which only a few countries in the world have enough resources and knowledge (e.g. China, Russia, maybe USA).
3.   Regular hack: a hacker exploits the systems and tries to use it for own good or just destroy it for fun and accolades (remember Ethereum...)
4.   Technological failure: one of those BIPs goes terribly wrong…
5.   Competition: other currencies do the job much better (faster and cheaper transactions etc.)
6.   Other: no more marketing, people get tired of it, new technology comes, too many frauds, the impractical volatility, no use in the real economy etc.

Yeah, you pointed out something I didn't mention in the list, the BIPs that might be gone wrong and open an exploit for abuse.
Another thing is, the debate between developers/users with conflicting interest could make the progress of Bitcoin future upgrade become stagnant as well.

About the brute force attack is very unlikely to happen, it's simply not worth the attack at least at this moment

[kirikmax]

Choosing the bitcoin and accumulating it is the right thing to do and in the future it will be more potential so don't be too think about negative things.

[Rinsend]

Choosing the bitcoin and accumulating it is the right thing to do and in the future it will be more potential so don't be too think about negative things.

when someone thinks about what makes a bitcoin fall or thinks something is wrong with bitcoin,
this is a foolish thought.
and it's true you do not think negative about bitcoin.
because bitcoin is a valuable asset that will never die.
and whenever time permits,
there is nothing too late about learning to use bitcoin

[HonestSurfer]

Here is my quick list of reasons for which Bitcoin might disappear (going in the order of probability):
1.   Regulatory ban: majority of countries decide Bitcoin is a shady parallel economy that cannot be controlled and better just prohibited; e.g. closing down exchanges, closing gates between fiat and crypto worlds...
2.   Government hack: destroying the system with some kind of brute force (51% attack) or new technology (quantum computers) for which only a few countries in the world have enough resources and knowledge (e.g. China, Russia, maybe USA).
3.   Regular hack: a hacker exploits the systems and tries to use it for own good or just destroy it for fun and accolades (remember Ethereum...)
4.   Technological failure: one of those BIPs goes terribly wrong…
5.   Competition: other currencies do the job much better (faster and cheaper transactions etc.)
6.   Other: no more marketing, people get tired of it, new technology comes, too many frauds, the impractical volatility, no use in the real economy etc.

Yeah, you pointed out something I didn't mention in the list, the BIPs that might be gone wrong and open an exploit for abuse.
Another thing is, the debate between developers/users with conflicting interest could make the progress of Bitcoin future upgrade become stagnant as well.

About the brute force attack is very unlikely to happen, it's simply not worth the attack at least at this moment

True, I think you are right about such attack - for the moment. I compiled this list really quickly so I am sure I missed many things. However I think what might need more emphasis is the usage by the real economy - which you have actually mentioned in your point 2 (you posted your list just shortly before I posted mine).

Somehow I find it hard to imagine that BTC will stick around even where there is no actual widespread usage in the real economy (e.g. payments, remittances etc.). I am not sure that it can keep up as a mere store of value. Well again, its just my hunch, not based on any hard data.

However it would be great if this debate would get more different opinions to see other reasons as well.

[noictib]

Choosing the bitcoin and accumulating it is the right thing to do and in the future it will be more potential so don't be too think about negative things.

when someone thinks about what makes a bitcoin fall or thinks something is wrong with bitcoin,
this is a foolish thought.
and it's true you do not think negative about bitcoin.
because bitcoin is a valuable asset that will never die.
and whenever time permits,
there is nothing too late about learning to use bitcoin

Yeah , I agree with you because here no chance to get loss in the bitcoin . If you have fear or already faced any loss in the bitcoin then surely you have not much experience in this field Because a small knowledge and understanding can explain us that how we can handle the flcutuations in the price and how with the down and up in the price we can make profit .
Here we need only a perfect understanding that how the system works .
If you will try to see the negative things then ofcourse you will see negative only but if you will see toward the positive things then surely you will find lots of opportunities to make profit and profit  and new new ideas to generate business  .

[learner 7]

I do not like one moment in bitcoin, that miners control the network and ordinary users do not have any influence. They decide whether to be an upcoming hardphone with a hard fork or not

[teejayrichard2]

Only thing that can go wrong is government all over the world placing a ban on it thereby making bitcoin worthless..this is unlikely to happen though as countries are adopting bitcoin transactions daily..

[sandaru]

Hi.. Never be worry about bitcoin as it's unbreakable. Keep looking never settle.

[DoublerHunter]

The only thing that could go wrong in bitcoin is the market, if the correction will come then it will hit hard on us for sure because the price jump is too big and the correction will become big also. Overall, there is nothing to worry because corrections and dumps are just normal for a decentralized currency so just keep calm and be smart in managing your emotion and bitcoins.

[crptotrader007]

The worst case scenario is that all the countries in the world ban all crypto currencies. This won't happen though as the support from the community is large enough. If this happens then the market will crash instantly and the value of all coins will come down drastically. I have started holding BTC recently when it was $4000. The goal is to collect as much BTC as possible and hold it for as long as possible. Will sell them if any worst case scenarios come to be real.

[Riya R]

It's great that you started saving bitcoin from 2013. That was a really wise decision. But I am no sure if it is wise if you invest almost 99% of your wealth in bitcoin?! You can diversify your investments because every investment option is associated with many risks and Bitcoin is also not an exception from it.