Why Bitcoin is doomed to fail, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[sublime5447]

Schiff made that same AppleCoin point too, only more eloquently I think.

What if some organization, say some bank in China, sees the advantages of Bitcoin and makes their own. It's a 1:1 copy of BTC, only they premine it, and also declare that 1 coin is worth 1ounce of gold.

Why would anyone still mine Bitcoin? You could switch your miners to mine this new coin, and boom, you're getting free gold. Then the bank can work in coordination with governments, rich folks, and really just the 1%. The people won't know the difference. To them the utility of using a Cryptocoin is the same whether it's Bitcoin, some AltCoin, or a Chinese BitGoldCoin.

But wait, there's more. Sure you could use BTC. But then good luck securing your coins. That's already a problem. Storage solutions at the moment are just not good. I've personally lost 1BTC that way back in the day. Many people have lost much more. But no need to worry about it with the Chinese BitGoldCoin. It's already being issued by a bank, so they'll also guarantee you safe storage at their servers. It's already a bank. And since it's centralized, there's no need for the community to run full nodes.

It just paints a picture of a theoretical 1%-backed CryptoCoin to do a hell of a lot better with the general public than Bitcoin can do.

That is why we need to develop a viable digital currency. With a definable unit and a elastic supply. We need to make a coin with a standard, some people think of the standard as the backing of the currency, but it is not the convertibility to gold it is the acceptance of the market place that backs the currency. I say we choose a standard/backing and develop a way of expanding and contracting the currency supply fairly and randomly, I suggest 1 unit of currency = 1 joule of work for the standard.  

[BitThink]

1. IT'S A DECENTRALIZED CURRENCY

Does this even require any explaining? Do you honestly think that the current financial system that controls Trillions of dollars in the current global economy, is going to give up their power to some guy Guatemala because he ran he's 1990's computer the first year of Bitcoin.

Let's all open up our history books and see when the 99% won against the 1%? Almost never, and even when they did “win” it was basically the 1% handing off power to another form, and still running it behind the scenes just to appease the people.

Even if they allowed Bitcoin to become successful, they will regulate it so heavily, that it will pretty  much lose any “benefits” that it had, (Europe is preparing to tax and regulate Bitcoin) and pretty much becomes centralized and just like anything else.

The current system will stay in power with centralized control, hence why they will create their own digital fiat currencies replacing their paper, to even gain more control.

regulated == doomed? Many people think otherwise. It's not possible for bitcoin to go mainstream without being regulated.

Moreover, even bitcoin is regulated, you still have much more freedom than fiat or gold. You can carry it everywhere without worrying about being confiscated. Try that with a box of cashes or gold. You will never need to worry about your account is frozen, and when you receive payment you don't need to worry about its fake or it's from an frozen/empty account. You also don't need to worry someone will keep printing a lot of money to dilute your holding. Even if bitcoin becomes more centralized than now, these features will not be changed. Please tell me how these benefits are lost after regulation?

2. CENTRALIZED MAIN DEVELOPMENT

Basically the “official” releases come from the Bitcoin Foundation. The development is pretty much centralized. Even if people fix everything wrong with Bitcoin, the foundation makes the final decision on what to include in it's next version on it's own priorities. This is basically all run by “Gavin” who caused Satoshi to disappear after he decided to meet with the CIA. The same guy who has not addressed any of the issues going to be discussed below for the whole time he has been in control. Whether by accident or on purpose is not the point. The point is the main trusted Bitcoin client is controlled by one entity, and everything they say, do, or don't do goes.

Do you understand open source? The source code is open, so even it's controlled by 'Gavin', everyone can understand what the code does. Moreover, everyone is free to implement its own version as long as it follows the same protocol. The trust is because of the transparency, not blind trust on someone or some organizations/governments.

3. FLAWED ARCHITECTURE

Size

11 GB today.
100 GB 1.5 years from now
1 TB 3 years from now
10 TB 4.5 years from now
100 TB 6 years from now
1 PB 7.5 years from now
10 PB 9 years from now
100 PB 10.5 years from now

You think average people will store a 100TB worth of data? No. The solution cut the blockchain into pieces and store the whole blockchain only on specialized nodes, kind of defeats the purpose of decentralized than doesn’t it?

How did you get those data? Completely made up or from some source? It's not a complex problem and we can get the correct value by doing some simple math:

There're around 150 blocks generated a day, and the block size is 1MB, then the block size increases 150MB per day. After 10.5 years, its 10.5 * 365  * 150 = 574 TB. How did you get 100 PB, which is almost 1000 times larger? Moreover, apparently with the block size limit, the block chain size increases linearly, and why you get a exponentially increase?

The block size limit itself may cause some issues, and you pointed out below, but here you have a self-contradiction that assume the block size increases exponentially, which is certainly either lack of analysis or just want to get any data support your argument, no matter it's true or made up.

Some may argue 574 TB is already huge for average users. Yes, it is huge for average users(1) with current disk size (2) and network speed(3). Then 1) average user does not need to download the whole block chain to use bitcoin. 2) imagine how large is the hard disk and how fast the network speed  10 years before, and then imagine how they will be after 10 years? Moreover, for professional users and organizations, download 574 TB and you will have a copy of the bank for all world, isn't it really cool?

Double Spends

Double spends are already occurring, and have occurred since over 1.5 years ago, and it will only get worst as time goes on, and bigger merchants and higher ticket items come online the then you will really see the “bad pool operators” start to take advantage of this.

Nobody is going to double spend on a cup of coffee, nobody is going to commit fraud for small amounts, well at least not in person, but they will for big ticket items.

Apparently you can accept 0 confirmation for a cup of coffee, but at least 6 confirmation or more for big ticket items. It's already a common sense and I really don't know why you put this issue here?

Slow Speed

Waiting for a transaction to fully confirm, is not feasible for day to day transactions. Yes let's hear the Credit Cards take 180 day confirms. One no they don't they confirm instantly, the money is just on hold for 90-180 days if the merchant sells a crappy product and refuses to honor warranty or remedy the issue. If it's fraud, say someone uses someone else card to buy something, the money does not come out of the merchants account, the credit card company takes the hit. Secondly, most important the buyer pays and gets his goods immediately, unlike Bitcoin where they have to wait for a few confirmations to be sure.

As you said, no one will double spend on a cup of coffee, so it's pretty feasible for small merchants to accept 0 confirmation policy. For large transactions, do you really think it is too slow to wait 1 hour to confirm 1M dollars of value be transferred from USA to Australia?

Un-Scalable

Bitcoin can barley handle a few hundred thousand transactions a day, what happens if the transactions grow to 10 Million, 50 Million, 100 Million which are all still relativity small transaction numbers compared to the 6 Billion people in the world. It simply can't handle it.

This is valid concern due to the current block size limit. However, let's open our mind and don't think on-chain payment is the only way to pay. Some third party bitcoin 'banks' will certainly emerge and people can open accounts and put a small amount of bitcoin in it. Then they can do daily small transactions instantly and the transactions are off-chain. Yes, I know the Inputs.IO fraud but it does not mean Inputs.IO itself is not a good idea.

51% Attacks

51% attacks which don't have to be 51% of the network, as they can do it with far less hashpower, such as ghash.io 29% the two biggest pools combined make up over 51% of the network and can literally destroy Bitcoin at any second. It doesn't even need to be the pool operators, it can be hackers who take over the pools.

How and why?

Unstable Exchange Rate

It can never be used as a sole currency to replace all other fiat currencies. Why? Because it's price is unstable. It must always rely on another fiat currency to have any sort of monetary use, no merchant is going to transact when the price of the currency fluctuates 50-200% a day. The only way to stop this is to have actual control of the currency and adjust creation.

Is gold price also not stable? It increased from $700 to $2000 in just one year. Is it surprise for bitcoin to be volatile in its early stage?

4. NO BENEFIT OVER FIAT

With everything mentioned above it shows that Bitcoin has no real advantage over fiat for 99% of the people in the world. You can't pay your bills or general living expenses in it, can't buy much with it. It's slow, not consumer friendly, as once a payment is sent there is no charge back method. Guess what 90% of the world are consumers not merchants. If Bitcoin doesn't appeal to the regular consumer who buys goods from merchants it will never succeed. Even if it succeeds it's doomed by it's very architecture which can't handle the success.

The only use it has, is sending small internationally pretty quickly, which then again gets converted to fiat for people to actually use. What market is there for small international payments 5-10% of the world?

No entity would trust high sums of money to be transferred with Bitcoin with all of it's flaws. Want to know how right I am and how wrong you are? Bitcoin has about 3 million users in a 5 year period. Facebook in that same time had what? 600M-1 Billion users.

Not to mention by the time, I have opened 10 accounts just to buy and convert Bitcoin, I could have swiped my credit/debit card 1000 times.

You seems missed the main benefits of bitcoin. 1) No one can keep printing money so there's no worry for inflation. 2) No one can confiscated your account. 3) No one can stop you from carrying bitcoin from one place to another place. 4) No one can forbid you to pay a certain address.

You can try to provide a facebook like service and ask people to pay for sending messages. Then how many accounts you will have after 3 or 5 years, if its still alive. This comparison is totally nonsense and even worse than comparing orange and apple. At lease orange and apple are both fruits, right?

5. CONCLUSION

Even if Bitcoin or another crypto currency fixes all of these issues, they are still doomed to fail because of reason #1.

With zero advantages and quite a few disadvantages over fiat, centralized incompetent development, and inhert flaws Bitcoin is doomed. So next time you get excited about Bitcoin growing, and can't wait for it's mass adaption, just know it's own growth is another nail in it's coffin. Bitcoin is digging it's own grave.


Before all the geniuses on this forum come and give your wonderful flawed opinions, and say how wonderful it is, and it's going places, and I am wrong, and Gavin will fix everything, and Bitcoin will take over the world as a currency and payment system. Please refer below to get a reality check:

Bitcoin users in 5 years: 3 Million

Remember none of the issues existed in the previous 4 years, so is it logical to say 'look there're only 3M people after 5 years, so it proves that my reasoning is correct. People just don't want to buy it because of the reasons I listed although none of them make senses then.  Can I ask how many people know of bitcoin 1 year ago?








[/quote]

[Mikcik]

BITCOIN can be practically destroeyd if several governments would come out at the exact same moment (or even made some paper deal(signed document)) and say we ban bitcoin, or we ban merchants from accepting bitcoin payements or we will HEAVY tax the merchants that accept bitcoin etc....

I REALLY didnt saw this issue discussed thorougly. It was brought up only a little, mildly. It seems like people really dont get it. Yeah, if gov. does so, the bitcoin will survive, but what will be the price...Huh Today price is i think largely driven be speculation of higher future price, of much greater acceptence in future... What will happen to the price, when several goverments will come out coordinately and clearly, decisively and long-termly will tell the world their final statement on bitcoin - (brutal tax or prohibition of acceptence). If they make it clear and loud than majority of people will accept that bitcoin is finished. And no... nobody will really fight on the streets or protest agains bitcoin BAN, cause nobody (majority of society) doesnt really care about it (or even know about it)... Also noone will violate the gov BAN (when there was prohitibition on alcohol in USA in 1930 or the current war on drugs, it really didnt stop the people from using these substances, but thats just because they give something to you, they make you "feel good", simple holding of bitcoin doesnt make feel good (if yes, you are weird :-) ), so nobody will break the BAN).

What then... the price will crash to somewhere almost worth nothing, and stay there forever (if the ban is clear, loud, decisive, documents are signed and its accepted internationally within many states, the bitcoin is DEAD and the ONLY thing that could ressurect is the change of the BAN from gov.)
I own little bitcoin and im not a beliver really but im also not againts bitcoin... I would like to see bitcoin get to 1 000 000 $ because i might get rich :-) . But dont you get it people how fragile it is and how easily it can be destroyed...? What would be the reason for holding bitcoin if you would be certain that for gov. its a dead project and NO (!) merchant in their right mind will EVER again accept bitcoin?? Sure, it might be and "underground" internet currency but that would be used only by a few people and the price would be really low...

And belive me, the recent thing with some "pseudo" ban on bitcoin from China would be NOTHING compared with the decisive paper, signed agreement amongs few important states... And even the china weird pseudo ban slashed bitcoin to somewhere around 380 dolars :-)...
And also, belive me i really dont think that any GOVERMENT gave bitcoin a real thorough think and consideration YET, if bitcoin starts to threaten some national currencies, you will see the circus, most gov i think dont take bitcoin too seriously stil, when they will, prepare for a quick ban by a simple hand sign of some paper document, voila, DONE.

The goverments can print their own money (Well ok, the central banks) and THEY WILL NEVER give this sweat, sweet, SWEET advantage away.

So whats your take on this, why do you think gov wouldnt act in the future in the most probable way that i just drawed?

[BitThink]

In one case bitcoin is doomed. If Everyone is like the above post author, who is non believer but bought some BTC, do nothing to promote it and just want someday it will worth millions. They will abandon the ship as soon as some governments ban the bitcoin. Do you think there's any reason for these kind of speculators to be rich overnight?

Fortunately, there's enough true believers there to work every day to bring more features and more applications. Moreover, they are advocating and explaining so more people could have a better understanding.
Bitcoin can only succeed with these people.

[Mikcik]

Oh my god, shame on me  , im such a bad person  ..., you are naive, belive it or not, the people like me are the majority of the of the bitcoin owners... There might not hold the majority of the coins, cause they are not early adopters but they surrely make the majority of the people who INVESTED in bitcoin. Beside i dont think i get rich overnight, i bought somewhere in the begging of the year, and the more i read about bitcoin, the more im getting conviced that it wont succed in the longer or even shorter run:-(. And people like you are one of the reasons... i gave a STRONG argument, why dont you argue its false? I would like to buy additional bitcoins, even have the money ready, but this particular argument is a one big STOP/HOLD sign for me. So PLEASE someone, argue this argument and disaprove it... (if you can, and no, this argument in its "whole depth" hasnt been adressed anywhere yet).
BTW you should never "emotionally" stick to your investments, thats just stupid because it blinds your judgement.

[BitThink]

Oh my god, shame on me  , im such a bad person  ..., you are naive, belive it or not, the people like me are the majority of the of the bitcoin owners... There might not hold the majority of the coins, cause they are not early adopters but they surrely make the majority of the people who INVESTED in bitcoin. Beside i dont think i get rich overnight, i bought somewhere in the begging of the year, and the more i read about bitcoin, the more im getting conviced that it wont succed in the longer or even shorter run:-(. And people like you are one of the reasons... i gave a STRONG argument, why dont you argue its false? I would like to buy additional bitcoins, even have the money ready, but this particular argument is a one big STOP/HOLD sign for me. So PLEASE someone, argue this argument and disaprove it... (if you can, and no, this argument in its "whole depth" hasnt been adressed anywhere yet).
BTW you should never "emotionally" stick to your investments, thats just stupid because it blinds your judgement.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying anything like you are a bad or a stupid person. I'm just saying if we all just buy and hold and do nothing else, bitcoin has no chance to succeed.

As for your concern, here's my two cents. If you buy bitcoin is for double or triple your fiat in the end, then yes all your concern is valid. One of The biggest risks is certainly the governments. If they united to ban bitcoin, it's possible for bitcoin to be in underground forever and maybe never worth more than 10 dollar again.

The true believers, however, think bitcoin is the future of money and they don't believe the government and fiats anymore. Maybe you are in a country where you have 100% trust on your government and fiat. However, in many countries, fiat is not so safe at all. As we know, US and China all print a lot of fiat every year, and people's life saving all significantly reduce due to inflation. Some people are in a worse condition, they don't believe their government anymore cause they will go bankrupt or there may be some kind of revolution. What can they do? Buy US dollars or gold? It's really risky to keep save and avoid confiscating. Bitcoin becomes the god giving for them.

So the short answer is that if you trust more on governments and fiat, go for the traditional investing cause bitcoin is too risky. If you don't trust the government and fiat 100%, you put some part of your wealth ino bitcoin, cause bitcoin is created to hedge the risk of fiat failure, huge inflation or political disasters, not to be rich with no efforts.

Thanks for your kind reminding about not to be emotional on ones investment. That's a great advice and I agree with it completely. However, being emotional means you try to find all reasons to defend your opinion but do nothing really help. In my case, I just want to clarify that bitcoin could be an ideal store of value in the near future and for it become true, all true believers should contribute to this project. Yes, I think bitcoin as a project more than a pure investment. More we can do for it, more chance it will succeed.

Think for a second, all people in the world have a equally fair way to store their wealth safely in bitcoin, carry it everywhere freely, and never being afraid of huge inflation, disaster, war, government bankruptcy, financial crisis. Isn't it a brighter future?

[MikeyVeez]

Oh my god, shame on me  , im such a bad person  ..., you are naive, belive it or not, the people like me are the majority of the of the bitcoin owners... There might not hold the majority of the coins, cause they are not early adopters but they surrely make the majority of the people who INVESTED in bitcoin. Beside i dont think i get rich overnight, i bought somewhere in the begging of the year, and the more i read about bitcoin, the more im getting conviced that it wont succed in the longer or even shorter run:-(. And people like you are one of the reasons... i gave a STRONG argument, why dont you argue its false? I would like to buy additional bitcoins, even have the money ready, but this particular argument is a one big STOP/HOLD sign for me. So PLEASE someone, argue this argument and disaprove it... (if you can, and no, this argument in its "whole depth" hasnt been adressed anywhere yet).
BTW you should never "emotionally" stick to your investments, thats just stupid because it blinds your judgement.

^

[MikeyVeez]

Oh my god, shame on me  , im such a bad person  ..., you are naive, belive it or not, the people like me are the majority of the of the bitcoin owners... There might not hold the majority of the coins, cause they are not early adopters but they surrely make the majority of the people who INVESTED in bitcoin. Beside i dont think i get rich overnight, i bought somewhere in the begging of the year, and the more i read about bitcoin, the more im getting conviced that it wont succed in the longer or even shorter run:-(. And people like you are one of the reasons... i gave a STRONG argument, why dont you argue its false? I would like to buy additional bitcoins, even have the money ready, but this particular argument is a one big STOP/HOLD sign for me. So PLEASE someone, argue this argument and disaprove it... (if you can, and no, this argument in its "whole depth" hasnt been adressed anywhere yet).
BTW you should never "emotionally" stick to your investments, thats just stupid because it blinds your judgement.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying anything like you are a bad or a stupid person. I'm just saying if we all just buy and hold and do nothing else, bitcoin has no chance to succeed.

As for your concern, here's my two cents. If you buy bitcoin is for double or triple your fiat in the end, then yes all your concern is valid. One of The biggest risks is certainly the governments. If they united to ban bitcoin, it's possible for bitcoin to be in underground forever and maybe never worth more than 10 dollar again.

The true believers, however, think bitcoin is the future of money and they don't believe the government and fiats anymore. Maybe you are in a country where you have 100% trust on your government and fiat. However, in many countries, fiat is not so safe at all. As we know, US and China all print a lot of fiat every year, and people's life saving all significantly reduce due to inflation. Some people are in a worse condition, they don't believe their government anymore cause they will go bankrupt or there may be some kind of revolution. What can they do? Buy US dollars or gold? It's really risky to keep save and avoid confiscating. Bitcoin becomes the god giving for them.

So the short answer is that if you trust more on governments and fiat, go for the traditional investing cause bitcoin is too risky. If you don't trust the government and fiat 100%, you put some part of your wealth ino bitcoin, cause bitcoin is created to hedge the risk of fiat failure, huge inflation or political disasters, not to be rich with no efforts.

Thanks for your kind reminding about not to be emotional on ones investment. That's a great advice and I agree with it completely. However, being emotional means you try to find all reasons to defend your opinion but do nothing really help. In my case, I just want to clarify that bitcoin could be an ideal store of value in the near future and for it become true, all true believers should contribute to this project. Yes, I think bitcoin as a project more than a pure investment. More we can do for it, more chance it will succeed.

Think for a second, all people in the world have a equally fair way to store their wealth safely in bitcoin, carry it everywhere freely, and never being afraid of huge inflation, disaster, war, government bankruptcy, financial crisis. Isn't it a brighter future?

Bitcoin can be all these things and more if they updated it properly. As of right now and anytime soon it won't be able to handle the transactions if they grow too much.

Bitcoin has a major fear also, that is electronics and internet going down.  In a generation of 2 world wars and countless others, an EMP could totally wipe out entire continents infrastructures. Hence the need for physical coins but that is getting shutdown in the US at least.  Reason #1 is already coming into fruitition with recent world government actions.

This post if people had half a brain can see it is not just about Bitcoin but about all decentralized cryptocurrencies which bitcoin represents,  they will never grow mainstream,  only government coins will. This is not to say as mentioned before that they cannot serve a role within small communities to have local economies, who opt out of the coming beast system. Even then most of these communities won't have need for money as they will most likely be barter communities where everyone also works a specific role for it's survival.

The whole point is to be aware that at one point Bitcoin along with other decentralized currencies might go back to historical values of a few dollars or cents, unlike what the majority of people say on here based on flawed nonsensical arguments.

This doesn't mean that the price can't hit $10, 000/btc just know that if it does it is driven by speculation and not fundamentals so be prepared to lose it all just like any speculator.

[Bismarckbkk]

For bitcoin to succeed it needs to attain practical value.

You should never use bitcoin to store your wealth. You can speculate on it but dont use it for savings.

Even if you think it will increease in the value the reason you shouldnt save in it is simple.

Money is not a commodity. In an economy what is traded are goods and services not currencies.

If people were to trade silver gold and cryptos they would starve to death. Nobody would know how to build or house or assemble a car.

Money is a utility to facilitate trading, to make it easy and quick.

For bitcoin to be money it needs to have the same practical value that fiat has. As long as the world functions on fiat this is going to be super difficult because there is going to be so much cost incurred by exchanging btc to fiat

everytime you transact that I think it wont have  an edge over fiat Especially with government obstacles in place.

I love bitcoin and the network but I dont close my eyes for the obvious obsticles it faces.

[JohnyBigs]

For bitcoin to succeed it needs to attain practical value.

You should never use bitcoin to store your wealth. You can speculate on it but dont use it for savings.

Even if you think it will increease in the value the reason you shouldnt save in it is simple.

Money is not a commodity. In an economy what is traded are goods and services not currencies.

If people were to trade silver gold and cryptos they would starve to death. Nobody would know how to build or house or assemble a car.

Money is a utility to facilitate trading, to make it easy and quick.

For bitcoin to be money it needs to have the same practical value that fiat has. As long as the world functions on fiat this is going to be super difficult because there is going to be so much cost incurred by exchanging btc to fiat

everytime you transact that I think it wont have  an edge over fiat Especially with government obstacles in place.

I love bitcoin and the network but I dont close my eyes for the obvious obsticles it faces.

Bravo, unfortunately many do close their eyes. They will have much greater worries than Bitcoin.

[TippingPoint]

Bitcoin already has practical value.  It does not yet have universal practical value.

For many people, Bitcoin is the best option to transfer wealth from one jurisdiction to another.

In many environments, inflation and government controls steadily rob people of their earned wealth.

Bitcoin is not yet valuable to everyone, but it has become extremely useful to some.

And it has even greater potential value.

[DontMineMe]

All I have to do is unplug you! What Internet  ever heard of outage...it happens!

[BitThink]

For bitcoin to succeed it needs to attain practical value.

You should never use bitcoin to store your wealth. You can speculate on it but dont use it for savings.

Even if you think it will increease in the value the reason you shouldnt save in it is simple.

Money is not a commodity. In an economy what is traded are goods and services not currencies.

If people were to trade silver gold and cryptos they would starve to death. Nobody would know how to build or house or assemble a car.

Money is a utility to facilitate trading, to make it easy and quick.

For bitcoin to be money it needs to have the same practical value that fiat has. As long as the world functions on fiat this is going to be super difficult because there is going to be so much cost incurred by exchanging btc to fiat

everytime you transact that I think it wont have  an edge over fiat Especially with government obstacles in place.

I love bitcoin and the network but I dont close my eyes for the obvious obsticles it faces.

Bravo, unfortunately many do close their eyes. They will have much greater worries than Bitcoin.

First you complain no one responds to your reasoning. Then for all those responses to your concerns, what did you do? Closing your eyes. For example, why do you keep silent on this simple question: where did you get that ridiculous block chain size?

[silverfuture]

bitcoin is antifragile, it isn't just resistant to attack, it benefits from it. Bitcoin is far from doomed. It is winning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaQQ_47OfIM

[$1vEr.$urfer]

Yes #1 is the biggest one...when the USA, EU, and China, India, etc, ban the use of BTC and make it a felony, then usage will die off really quick.  If they can make homosexuality illegal in some of these countries, they can certainly make bitcoin illegal.

yes they can certainly ban bitcoins, and just like banning homosexuality wont stop homosexuality, so too will banning bitcoins not eliminate the use of bitcoins. In fact quite the opposite effect will occur i suspect.

[Mikcik]

Yes #1 is the biggest one...when the USA, EU, and China, India, etc, ban the use of BTC and make it a felony, then usage will die off really quick.  If they can make homosexuality illegal in some of these countries, they can certainly make bitcoin illegal.

yes they can certainly ban bitcoins, and just like banning homosexuality wont stop homosexuality, so too will banning bitcoins not eliminate the use of bitcoins. In fact quite the opposite effect will occur i suspect.

OMG, this is to misinformed and SO SO SO WRONG... If these govs ban using bitcoin, no normal merchant will accept it (besides some underground ones) and if noone normal accept it, and its quite clear that noone will accept in in the future, the price will CRASH.

[MikeyVeez]

Yes #1 is the biggest one...when the USA, EU, and China, India, etc, ban the use of BTC and make it a felony, then usage will die off really quick.  If they can make homosexuality illegal in some of these countries, they can certainly make bitcoin illegal.

yes they can certainly ban bitcoins, and just like banning homosexuality wont stop homosexuality, so too will banning bitcoins not eliminate the use of bitcoins. In fact quite the opposite effect will occur i suspect.

OMG, this is to misinformed and SO SO SO WRONG... If these govs ban using bitcoin, no normal merchant will accept it (besides some underground ones) and if noone normal accept it, and its quite clear that noone will accept in in the future, the price will CRASH.

Don't mind him typical fanboy behavior. Why don't you read about  homosexuals in communist countries? How well they did! The most homosexuals in recent history have existed now without persecution.

Seriously, what goes on in your mind to think persecution = good lmao I give up on the bitcoin community, another reason bitcoin is going to go nowhere it's filled with people who don't even have simple logical capacities.

[Bismarckbkk]

Bitcoin already has practical value.  It does not yet have universal practical value.

For many people, Bitcoin is the best option to transfer wealth from one jurisdiction to another.

In many environments, inflation and government controls steadily rob people of their earned wealth.

Bitcoin is not yet valuable to everyone, but it has become extremely useful to some.

And it has even greater potential value.

Oh sure it does have practical value for some, I agree . But not to the point of what many people wish for as a universal cunnercy or even an alternative currency . It is fairly easy to make bitcoin unattractive for the majority of people.

[silverfuture]

  The point is that homosexuals exist whether or not they are banned, so will bitcoin. You might not read about it and the activity may be hidden but it exists. Maybe the price will be lower, maybe higher but even if banned by .gov, really all it has to do is be able to solve problems for a segment of the population in order to win. It does that and it has been doing that for some time now. The price is starting to reflect the fact that it is a solid protocol foundation for other layers to be built upon to create the best value transfer system man has seen yet (open source, peer to peer distributed network, adaptable, and antifragile.  The bitcoin network is not just computers, it is people. These people are also a decentralized network of thinkers, coders, economists, entrepreneurs, hackers, speculators, etc. who have given Bitcoin (and bitcoin) a serious look and decided to join in. Many have dedicated their entire lives to this project. Don't tell me that doesn't have power.

  I've been an early part of many trends in my life from music to mixed martial arts. I know a trend when I see it now. Bitcoin is gaining critical mass because it has the kind of hardcore supporters, and the technical veracity that are so necessary for mass adoption of anything really positive. Some of you rednecks can go ahead and shit on it all you want . It really won't hurt me at all as my choices will be the same to support this idea. The detractors here are rank newbs. You should have been around during the long, slow slide from $31.66 to $2.00 to see some real "something awful" type trolling. Government may be powerful but it can't really force everyone to comply with all of it's rules and making things illegal does not make them go away. So far, bitcoin's been kicking fiat (and gold's) ass. C'est la vie.

edit- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s3T9opvPHI

[hdbuck]

  The point is that homosexuals exist whether or not they are banned, so will bitcoin. You might not read about it and the activity may be hidden but it exists. Maybe the price will be lower, maybe higher but even if banned by .gov, really all it has to do is be able to solve problems for a segment of the population in order to win. It does that and it has been doing that for some time now. The price is starting to reflect the fact that it is a solid protocol foundation for other layers to be built upon to create the best value transfer system man has seen yet (open source, peer to peer distributed network, adaptable, and antifragile.  The bitcoin network is not just computers, it is people. These people are also a decentralized network of thinkers, coders, economists, entrepreneurs, hackers, speculators, etc. who have given Bitcoin (and bitcoin) a serious look and decided to join in. Many have dedicated their entire lives to this project. Don't tell me that doesn't have power.

  I've been an early part of many trends in my life from music to mixed martial arts. I know a trend when I see it now. Bitcoin is gaining critical mass because it has the kind of hardcore supporters, and the technical veracity that are so necessary for mass adoption of anything really positive. Some of you rednecks can go ahead and shit on it all you want . It really won't hurt me at all as my choices will be the same to support this idea. The detractors here are rank newbs. You should have been around during the long, slow slide from $31.66 to $2.00 to see some real "something awful" type trolling. Government may be powerful but it can't really force everyone to comply with all of it's rules and making things illegal does not make them go away. So far, bitcoin's been kicking fiat (and gold's) ass. C'est la vie.

edit- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s3T9opvPHI

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