The One Thing That Could Stop Bitcoin

[NathanJB]

Can any one thing stop Bitcoin? No, at this stage Bitcoin is unstoppable. Bitcoin's existence does not depend on a single person or government or any country for that matter, even China.

Why is China so overestimated in terms of influence over Bitcoin's existence? If China will all of a sudden decide to ban everything that is related to Bitcoin, the existence and growth of Bitcoin will not stop. It will continue to grow and get adopted across the world. Sooner or later, China will realize it has to be friendly to Bitcoin again because Bitcoin becomes the main global currency and it cannot allow itself to be left out of the world's development.

[gentlemand]

Communities make up the development of Bitcoin. Therefore, only the developer community and the user community can stop Bitcoin

Dying from within is indeed the only way it's going to happen.

If users, miners and developers give up on it then all you're left with is some useless code. Even then some enthusiasts may keep it ticking over but it would be a curio from then on.

I've no idea what would inspire a mass walkout but nothing else will kill it off.

[bounceback]

if it's true that China wants to stop bitcoin or stop bitcoin mining, it's only a trivial thing for bitcoin because miners aren't just in China how many well-known countries or large countries want to mine bitcoin and also support bitcoin. then if China stops promoting bitcoin then it doesn't make bitcoin weaker, it could be an opportunity for other countries to get bitcoin.

[Capt00]

IMO, the only thing that could stop bitcoin is if no one will ever want it, let say another coin come up and for some reason people got drawn and decided to not use bitcoin instead. But I think it is impossible because bitcoin is becoming more and more popular nowadays and many are now investing to bitcoin so I think even if all bitcoins will be mined a lot will still use bitcoin and that it is very impossible that no one will ever use it in the future.

[teosanru]

Another thing that could stop Bitcoin is complete political censorship by all the countries around the world after which People would be left with no option than to reduce the usage of cryptocurrencies. Also, not to forget that maybe bitcoin is decentralized however it still needs a bit of approval from governments to operate because people are never going to forego government laws to use bitcoin. Moreover deflationary currency structure is also a great hurdle in the success of Bitcoin. I hope it can overcome these problems only then widespread adoption will be possible.

[DaftAjax]

I think even if all bitcoins will be mined a lot will still use bitcoin and that it is very impossible that no one will ever use it in the future.

If the day would come that all Bitcoin have been mined, expect a large amount of increase in the market price. How can I say this you ask(?) Simple, Scarcity, the less the quantity of a priced object the high its value would be. I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks its "bubble" price last 2017.

[darkangel11]

I think even if all bitcoins will be mined a lot will still use bitcoin and that it is very impossible that no one will ever use it in the future.

If the day would come that all Bitcoin have been mined, expect a large amount of increase in the market price. How can I say this you ask(?) Simple, Scarcity, the less the quantity of a priced object the high its value would be. I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks its "bubble" price last 2017.

This is unlikely because halvings will make sure this process lasts for decades. The number of bitcoins per block will be lower and lower and finally you will need x number of blocks to get a single bitcoin. It will of course increase its value but it will be a gradual thing not something like OMG today was the last mined bitcoin! No more mining!
Like others said in this thread the only way for it to die is if we get bored and abandon it.

[DaftAjax]

This is unlikely because halvings will make sure this process lasts for decades. The number of bitcoins per block will be lower and lower and finally you will need x number of blocks to get a single bitcoin. It will of course increase its value but it will be a gradual thing not something like OMG today was the last mined bitcoin! No more mining!
Like others said in this thread the only way for it to die is if we get bored and abandon it.

I agree with you, mining Bitcoin will not end anytime soon.

But my answer is for this statement:

I think even if all bitcoins will be mined a lot will still use bitcoin and that it is very impossible that no one will ever use it in the future.

I'm not exactly saying that the mining of Bitcoin will end anytime soon. But what I meant was, if we arrived at that time when all of Bitcoin have been mined, then Scarcity will strike Bitcoin. And I doubt that mankind will abandon Bitcoin, no human will pass-on for something that benefits them. For now, we can relax and just pay attention to the current trend on the market.

[Juggy777]

I think even if all bitcoins will be mined a lot will still use bitcoin and that it is very impossible that no one will ever use it in the future.

If the day would come that all Bitcoin have been mined, expect a large amount of increase in the market price. How can I say this you ask(?) Simple, Scarcity, the less the quantity of a priced object the high its value would be. I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks its "bubble" price last 2017.

This is unlikely because halvings will make sure this process lasts for decades. The number of bitcoins per block will be lower and lower and finally you will need x number of blocks to get a single bitcoin. It will of course increase its value but it will be a gradual thing not something like OMG today was the last mined bitcoin! No more mining!
Like others said in this thread the only way for it to die is if we get bored and abandon it.

@darkangel11 many people who use bitcoins are not aware of how halvings work, hence they’re paranoid thinking that bitcoin mining is coming to an end. Also I don’t think people will ever get bored with bitcoins, I say this with confidence because bitcoin is yet the king of crypto’s despite so many alts being available in the crypto market. Hence in my personal opinion I feel people will always continue to use bitcoins.

[lionheart78]

I'm not exactly saying that the mining of Bitcoin will end anytime soon. But what I meant was, if we arrived at that time when all of Bitcoin have been mined, then Scarcity will strike Bitcoin. And I doubt that mankind will abandon Bitcoin, no human will pass-on for something that benefits them. For now, we can relax and just pay attention to the current trend on the market.

Bitcoin is created to be mined forever, I never think mining of Bitcoin will end.  The block reward may probably exhausted but the transaction fee can be mined in place of that.  Miner is the one who secure the Bitcoin network so it is intended upon creation that it will not cease even though the reward is depleted.  This is well thought by Satoshi since by the time the reward is exhausted, miners have still the motivation since by that time, reward from the mined transaction fee might be higher than the initial block reward of BTC.

[error08]

Nope, mining is not the reason, moreover, bitcoin mining in China is no longer conducive because the governments intensified their efforts to crack down on bitcoin miners and some of those miners have already moved out their mining facilities from China. Their pools getting bigger due to many people from around the world joining the mining pools.
Nevertheless, something that can stop bitcoin is just the internet blackout for good, even if people do massive sell-off, bitcoin still exists and works properly.

[Kelvinid]

Nope, mining is not the reason, moreover, bitcoin mining in China is no longer conducive because the governments intensified their efforts to crack down on bitcoin miners and some of those miners have already moved out their mining facilities from China. Their pools getting bigger due to many people from around the world joining the mining pools.
Nevertheless, something that can stop bitcoin is just the internet blackout for good, even if people do massive sell-off, bitcoin still exists and works properly.

Maybe for some reason(good) but I'd never think that it could be a long time shutdown. Internet is very important for us now, a lot of transaction needs this thus, I don't believe that there is a reason to block the internet for that sake. We have to forget of thinking that crypto/bitcoin will be shutting down cause it won't happen, in fact, it is growing fast which means that it has a place to stay in here.

[TwoSides]

There is only 2 thing that can stop bitcoin to grow or stay in this world

1. If and  only if every country (no one will be left) will unite on not accepting BTC and will banned them on every people they have.
2. IF and only IF there will be no demand and every one will send it to burning wallet address.

as long as there is a few accepting and having it, BTC will never be gone!

My thoughts exactly. It has always been a supply and demand thingy. If there's no one who needs it then it will be gone eventually.

[squatter]

Dying from within is indeed the only way it's going to happen.

If users, miners and developers give up on it then all you're left with is some useless code. Even then some enthusiasts may keep it ticking over but it would be a curio from then on.

I've no idea what would inspire a mass walkout but nothing else will kill it off.

Existential protocol failure would do it. I could think of a couple routes to that end.

One would be failure of its Byzantine fault tolerance, due to inadequate mining incentives. Right now, Bitcoin mining is heavily driven by speculation. Years down the road, it won't be. That fact combined with dwindling block rewards could theoretically send hash rate into a downward spiral that could create the financial incentive for large scale reorg attacks. This is one of the arguments for strictly limited block size.

Another would be the quantum computing threat. If exploited in a zero-day fashion, the reliability of the blockchain would be irreparably broken. No rollback would be able to properly secure outputs for their rightful owners.

[Kakmakr]

The trade wars between the USA and China can make things difficult for US miners, if China stops exporting ASIC miners to the USA and even some other countries, but there are loads of countries that do not have trade restrictions with China and ASIC chips can be exported to those countries and then bought by the US customers from those countries.

I think the guys in Silicon Valley can definitely start to compete with the Chinese manufacturers of these ASIC chips to create a secondary suppliers for these miners. 

[Murat]

If you say about one thing that could stop Bitcoin then I dare to say that the internet system is the main pillar of this platform, if you could stop providing the service of internet then there will be nothing about cryptocurrency and even Bitcoin, But it doesn't happen because, without the Internet, we are nothing. we could do nothing, we will be nothing, So stopping Bitcoin is not an easy way, because of the decentralized system, Nothing would be able to stop it in the future. China has got a lot of initiatives but they can't dominate on this platform yet, so it will have vanished when it doesn't have any demand in the market. when it doesn't have any value then people naturally stop it, But Bitcoin is the future of the monetary world in the coming future.

[Beparanf]

I don't think China can influence or overtake the Bitcoin network even though it hosts most of its BTC's major mining pools. This is a wrong perception of China's supposedly dominance over the network and this is simply because these mining pools are composed of aggregate miners not necessarily located in China just like an ordinary miner from another country joining a mining pool from China.

Aside from that, in terms of nodes that supports the Bitcoin network, China is  only currently ranked no. 8 among the top 10 countries who holds the most number of nodes. Unless otherwise China holds more than half of mining power and more than half of nodes, it would be very difficult for them to "own" the network so to speak. Imho.

Reference: https://bitnodes.earn.com/

This explains all, its not always about China, for how many times China's government bans bitcoin yet it still here able to trade, to mine and do transactions in it. China might gives tons of numbers in transactions before but it's not necessary mean that their the ones who have power on it. Without them bitcoin will still be bitcoin, if the price weren't big as what we wanted, someday as many adopts it other than China it can reach it's ATH again, let's not put too much favor that Bitcoin belongs to them unless United States and European countries gives the spot to them in terms of number of nodes.

[Vertex_ICO]

Though China can have a big impact on bitcoin since the largest hashrate in mining bitcoin comes from China and even the powerful mining hardware are also coming from China. The antminer series that are hot stuff on the market are made by bitmain which is located in China. Also the electric cost in mining in China is much cheaper compared to other countries. But even though that is the case even if China dumps all of its bitcoin and all miners in CHina stops mining and even if bitmain stops producing bitcoin mining hardware bitcoin will not stop. Other country will see this as an opportunity and will replace China, remember as long as there is profit companies will race to catch that opportunity.

True, China is kind of the ideal environment for Bitcoin miners in terms of electricity costs and mining pools. However, if China does dump its Bitcoin, it will negatively impact Bitcoin to such a degree that it could fail. Ultimately, this is an unlikely scenario but not completely impossible. You sound like you know a lot about crypto though. If you're into trading, you should check out Vertex.You can find loads of good offers on coins on the marketplace.

[Vertex_ICO]

While it's true that most of mining hashrate comes from the world populous country China, it's still not necessary that China will be able to overtake the bitcoin network. Also, as others said, it's not necessary that people from individual pools are from China itself. So it will really be hard for China to gather enough mining power to overtake the bitcoin network. Besides that, day by day the mining power is constantly getting distributed as more people are using the network and mining. So it would be even harder for China or any body to overtake the network as the mining power is getting distributed itself.

You have a point - although it is possible that China may someday overtake the Bitcoin network and they have already established a strong presence. China remains a popular choice for miners regardless of nationality because of their cheap electricity, and leading Bitcoin mining pools.

[Edraket31]

While it's true that most of mining hashrate comes from the world populous country China, it's still not necessary that China will be able to overtake the bitcoin network. Also, as others said, it's not necessary that people from individual pools are from China itself. So it will really be hard for China to gather enough mining power to overtake the bitcoin network. Besides that, day by day the mining power is constantly getting distributed as more people are using the network and mining. So it would be even harder for China or any body to overtake the network as the mining power is getting distributed itself.

You have a point - although it is possible that China may someday overtake the Bitcoin network and they have already established a strong presence. China remains a popular choice for miners regardless of nationality because of their cheap electricity, and leading Bitcoin mining pools.

 I don't think so, China has no enough power to do that, they even banned Bitcoin but still it is growing, maybe Bitcoin could stop if something new discovery could replace it, faster and more stress free, just like the new tech developing right now the quantum generation. We don't know what future holds, so better to always keep ourselves updated all the time.