Bitcoin in 5 years

[Ada_and_Alternative]

Hello everybody!

I'm a  technology entrepreneur (= staruper) and have some ideas about bitcoin/altcoin servises I want to realise.
In fact, I'm ready to start working over it, but there are some doubts. Financial expertise is strongly needed, I guess.
But at first I want to hear your opinions and discussion.

1) How do you think what will be with cryptocurrencies in 5 years perspective?

2) Is there any chance that during 5-6 years (till 2020) new coin/technology will appear and replace bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies as we know them now? Any predictions what it will be?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

[Akka]

1) How do you think what will be with cryptocurrencies in 5 years perspective?

Nobody can now for sure. There could be a serious flaw in Bitcoin that make it disappear totally.

Could be that it's stunning successfull.

Never forget it's still an experiment.

As for Altcoins, if there would go something wrong with Bitcoin (no matter if legal or technical) it would affect all alts as well. If Bitcoin goes down all of them will go down, too. If not, I doubt all or even the majority will still be around then and I doubt that any of them will get the adoption as Bitcoin.

If your service doesn't involve currency exchanges, I see no point in including alts, as the majority of potential customers is in Bitcoin anyway and every altcoiner is able to pay in Bitcoins as well.

2) Is there any chance that during 5-6 years (till 2020) new coin/technology will appear and replace bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies as we know them now? Any predictions what it will be?

Sure, if any would do some significant thing better. If I could know what actually would be such a massive improvement that it could replace Bitcoin, I would try to build it. So far I haven't seen any Improvements of real significance.

[pabloangello]

In 2019 Bitcoin will be in economics books.

[teukon]

None of the above.  All five poll options seem extremely unlikely to me.

[Ada_and_Alternative]

None of the above.  All five poll options seem extremely unlikely to me.

What is your forecast for BTC and others? What would you like it to be in 2019 and after?

[Ada_and_Alternative]

In 2019 Bitcoin will be in economics books.

What chapter? "Financial (r)evolution" or "The Bitcoin Bubble"?

[skivrmt]

None of the above.  All five poll options seem extremely unlikely to me.

Exactly this.  None of the options, or all the options.  Bitcoin -may- be replaced by something better, but first to the market in this setting has a HUGE advantage.  It probably will be used for a lot of everyday buying and selling, but not everything.  It won't replace fiat completely, or nearly at all, too many reasons to explain why but it simply won't.  It will still be used for speculation and gambling.  And it will still be used for illegal activities. 

I just think as the years go by it will be used more and more mainstream for everyday things and less and less for the other options.

[An amorous cow-herder]

1) How do you think what will be with cryptocurrencies in 5 years perspective?

2) Is there any chance that during 5-6 years (till 2020) new coin/technology will appear and replace bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies as we know them now? Any predictions what it will be?

Thanks in advance for your answers.

1.) The spread of possibilities is far to big to be certain, but a somewhat optimistic case would be the following. Online wallets pop in mayor industrial nation with good connections to banks, making spending and buying similiarly easy to using paypal. Current wallet application is deprecated anyway since the blockchain has gotten far too large to store on your average computer. BTC transactions account for 1-3% of online trade, especially for use cases which would traditionally require currency transfers.

2.) If BTC achieves such a high level of use quite a couple of protocoll changes are necesarry, which may or may not require a hard fork anyway. In other words bitcoin (as it implemented currently) may be replaced by bitcoin (on a protocol level without changing the blockchain).
Other possibilities for deprecation could include a yet unknown flaw in SHA256 hashing (which would affect all other SHA256 based cryptocurrencies as well) leading to scrypt-based (or a totally different hashing algorythm) currencies replacing SHA256 based ones.
Not seeing anything that would replace cryptos so far. Far bigger risk is imho that cryptocurrencies dont gain enough acceptance to achieve wide-spread usage.

[EcuaMobi]

I would say:

"Used mainly for value storage, online transactions and international transfers."

I think it will be more similar to virtual gold than virtual currency.

[TPN]

Replacing the Fiat, crypto will become the new currency

[skivrmt]

I would say:

"Used mainly for value storage, online transactions and international transfers."

I think it will be more similar to virtual gold than virtual currency.

Did you quote this or make it up yourself?  It's by far one of the best explanations I've seen describing what most likely Bitcoin is starting to become and one day hopefully it will become. 

The main difference is between BTC and gold though is this is a lot easier to trade and "use" for everyday purchases, transfers etc.

[AlexM]

None of the above.  All five poll options seem extremely unlikely to me.

[EcuaMobi]

I would say:

"Used mainly for value storage, online transactions and international transfers."

I think it will be more similar to virtual gold than virtual currency.

Did you quote this or make it up yourself?  It's by far one of the best explanations I've seen describing what most likely Bitcoin is starting to become and one day hopefully it will become.  

The main difference is between BTC and gold though is this is a lot easier to trade and "use" for everyday purchases, transfers etc.

I made it up myself. Quotes are to suggest it to be added to the options.

I agree BTC is much easier to trade than gold, basically because it's digital/virtual.

[Caiapfas]

BTC will be gone as all crypto that doesn't offer protects cash offers.

[lemfuture]

replaced by a faster coin.

[aminorex]

Bitcoin can be the faster coin, via an adjunct protocol.

[miaviator]

Banned in 17 countries.

[Ceballos]

Banned in 17 countries.

+1 

[SirBitsalot]

In 2019 Bitcoin will be in economics books.

I could see it! Imagine whole classes and even universities based around the learning and mastering of computing Bitcoins. You could have people specializing in mining Bitcoins, understanding Bitcoins, improving Bitcoins, and even predicting what will happen with them. It's very fascinating.

[skivrmt]

Banned in 17 countries.

+1 

This actually may be true!  But even if true, the good thing is their is still another 179 other countries that it will be legal in.  And as long as China, US, Russia, England, etc aren't part of the 17 I think we'll be ok.