[2017-12-18] Bitcoin ‘Will Return To Niche Product’ Says Senior ING Analyst

[moriskarlov]

A senior economist for the Eurozone at ING has said Bitcoin will “return to being a niche product” once current “hype” has dissipated.


ING ‘YET TO BE CONVINCED’ ON BITCOIN’S COMPETITIVENESS

Quoted by CityAM, Teunis Brosens appeared to suggest that the reversal forecast represented the bank’s “current thinking.”

The comments mark further critical thinking on Bitcoin from the Dutch bank, with CEO Ralph Hamers last week saying he is “yet to be convinced” on how cryptocurrency’s current valuation can be managed effectively.

“Nobody can forecast the future, but our current thinking is this: one day, beyond the hype, bitcoin will return to being the thriving niche product that it was in its initial years,” Brosens continued.

"Users will include tech nerds, people obsessed about their privacy, people afraid for (hyper)inflation in traditional currencies, and people wanting to circumvent central banks for ideological or criminal reasons."

…BUT IT STILL HAS ‘POTENTIAL’

Banks have faced increasing criticism for top executives’ continued downplaying of Bitcoin in particular in recent weeks as prices head towards $20,000.

While the narrative legacy finance is ‘scared’ of the emerging technology’s potential remains, public statements by the CEOs of major players and associated businesses have served to cause anger.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Bitcoin’s rise, Goldman Sachs’ CEO Lloyd Blankfein repeated his perspective that Bitcoin “isn’t for him,” while the network’s own CEO Michael R. Bloomberg confused Bitcoin and Blockchain, before claiming Bloomberg was itself a Blockchain.

Echoing reservations from Bitcoin’s myriad banking critics, Brosens voiced concerns about its regulatory status.

“Bitcoin proponents argue that volatility will fall as Bitcoin adoption increases. That may be the case. Yet bitcoin remains money with fixed supply, lacking a central bank to manage price stability,” he continued.

Despite adding that Bitcoin faced “serious impediments” which would halt its capability to challenge extant payment methods, however, Brosens did concede that in developing economies, Bitcoin still had “potential.”

http://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-niche-product-senior-ing-analyst/

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[Gotottack]

I do not subscribe to the idea that Bitcoin will return to being a niche product in the market. I mean, how is this so? We all know how big it is at present; and so, how can something so big be back to being a newbie in town? It may depreciate in value just like all others but it will never come to a point whereby it will be a niche. Remember this one here has made so much potential to a lot of people. It has changed the lives of so many around the globe. With this, I do not think it will ever come back to its original dimensions.

[TraderTimm]

"The automobile will stay a hobbyists obsession."

I'm sure other fools in the past are guilty of saying similar things.

A major bank analyst saying bad things about Bitcoin? Oh the shock, the horror!

[Alt.Estate]

He does not specify the size of the niche, neither state that Bitcoin will get cheaper, for example. 

[richardsNY]

What's new here? Banksters saying that Bitcoin is a bubble, a fraud, a hype, not serving a purpose, paradise for criminals, etc, is soo 2013/2014.... I don't even understand why they are still trying to say something about Bitcoin, while they have only been making a clown of themselves with this nonsense. They were wrong in previous years, and are still wrong today. Main point of importance is that if we had to believe them, Bitcoin would never be able to reach the $1000 level again after the MtGox debacle. Nowadays even the average joes don't seem to take these banksters seriously anymore, and rightfully so.

[iamTom123]

What's new here? Banksters saying that Bitcoin is a bubble, a fraud, a hype, not serving a purpose, paradise for criminals, etc, is soo 2013/2014.... I don't even understand why they are still trying to say something about Bitcoin, while they have only been making a clown of themselves with this nonsense. They were wrong in previous years, and are still wrong today. Main point of importance is that if we had to believe them, Bitcoin would never be able to reach the $1000 level again after the MtGox debacle. Nowadays even the average joes don't seem to take these banksters seriously anymore, and rightfully so.

These bankers are quite disrupted with the continuing rise of Bitcoin. They are in fact very much confused on how to treat Bitcoin...whether they should join the party or totally dismiss the whole thing as just a temporary shining object. Of course, bankers are now compelled to criticize Bitcoin as it can pull away a big business from them if they will not instead adopt unto it. Sure, there are problems with Bitcoin right now but what can you expect in a baby platform just 9 years old. Now, we should really be asking how good are these people in predicting the future and let's see if what they are saying will really come true. The same words had been said to anything that was new and revolutionary before so this is nothing new but just a rehash of the same words used in the past few years against Bitcoin. Yet the more finance people are speaking against Bitcoin, the more it is rising. So maybe we should always encourage these people to speak up against Bitcoin.

[1Referee]

It is today that I have seen ING speak out that Bitcoin has officially failed, and that due to the fact that Bitcoin isn't what it was created for (currency to conduct payments). The only thing I found them to be on point with what they said, was that people are not going to pay $10 for a pizza, where on top of that have to add another $10 to pay for the fees. It's the only thing that made sense from what they have said, but it directly also shows how they completely fail to see the bigger picture, which is how close we are to having Lightning Network functional. People for some reason add too much value to what Bitcoin was initially created for. Bitcoin offers people the freedom to use it how they want, but with LN operational, Bitcoin will then rise like a phoenix and start taking over things for real. If they are so fixated on Bitcoin's currency aspect, then they can have it at that point.