Let me tell you somethingelse.
I agree and disagree with some of the statements.
1. Bitcoin is too big to fail. People who say this don't understand all the ideas, movements, organizations, and businesses that were much much larger than bitcoin and have totally failed.
2. Governments can't squash bitcoin because it is decentralized. This is mostly false. What governments can do is make it illegal to own, trade, process, use bitcoin and any business that does will be shutdown and confiscated. If a government did that, it would all but kill it for that country. No business/bank/rich person would touch it for fear of being shutdown. Small people wouldn't touch it because what could they do with it. And if enough big countries like the US, Canada, China, Japan, and the EU did this, yes, bitcoin would become all but worthless world wide. People often say bit torrent is decentralized and wasn't squashed and this is true, but when I download a movie, it has value because I watch it. If I buy a bitcoin and there is literally no place to use it, its value is 0.
That being said, I don't think either of these scenarios will happen. I think bitcoin will find a happy place in the world. If it gets as big as Visa, I think that will be a great success and is a realistic goal. Warren Buffet said it well when he said, "Bitcoin is just a really good way of sending money, but you know what, so is a check". The reality is that the financial system as a whole has a huge infrastructure developed for moving around money, and for the most part it was getting along just fine before bitcoin came along. When we talk about bitcoin verses fiat, we are talking about something similar to Telsa verses all other forms of transportation. Those forms of transportation have been very well built up and for all their faults for the most part work pretty well. That is the case with money as it is now. Yes, it has huge problems and there is definitely a few things bitcoin does better and definitely will have some wiggle room to get in there and make a name for itself. Telsa has some wiggle room to move into the field of transportation and gain some serious market share, but it is by no means going to replace all forms of transportation. Bitcoin simply anytime soon isn't going to replace gold, government bonds, travelers checks, personal checks, debit cards, credit cards, gift cards, and good ole cash, but there is room for it to be a brother and compliment to some of these. I think this is the realistic and logical near term realization of bitcoin.
Well let me tell you something else.
I agree and disagree with some of your statements.
1. Bitcoin is too big to fail. People who say this don't understand all the ideas, movements, organizations, and businesses that were much much larger than bitcoin and have totally failed.
Failure is usually due to human error.
And regardless of the fact that the core dev team is behind Bitcoin, should they fail, Bitcoin protocol is open source
That being said I wouldn't say Bitcoin is too big to fail.
I would say that at this point it would be VERY difficult for Bitcoin to fail.
2. Governments can't squash bitcoin because it is decentralized.
The only thing governments can do is Tax it, spread FUD and link it to criminal activities.
Should a government declare it as illegal then you can rest assured that it will be used only "illegally". Think of Silk Road for example.
Businesses had no clue what Bitcoin was (let alone start accepting it) yet Silk Road was a multimillion dollar business and it only worked with Bitcoins when they were worth peanuts compared to today's price.
Way too many coins out there for their holders to just accept that loss, so Black Markets will emerge.
That being said I do agree that Bitcoin simply anytime soon isn't going to replace gold or fiat.
Let's not forget that at this point it's value is based on fiat. Take that away and what is Bitcoin worth?
We have a LOOOOOONG way ahead of us until Bitcoin becomes more popular because the truth be told, the majority of people who hear about it don't really understand it and therefor call it a scam.
