What are the biggestest threats to Bitcoin?

[PetePete]

Quantum computers? Bugs in the code? Centralized mining?

Is there anything that can't potentially be overcome that is a threat to Bitcoin? Anything I didn't mention?

Thanks in advanced.

[bitomatic]

I would say bugs in the code not yet exploited.

[PetePete]

Thanks for reply.. Interesting.

[yoxedubi]

@bitomatic Yep, they sure could pose a serious threat to the whole Bitcoin world, this is one of the worst problems with virtual currency.

[BurtW]

Anything that threatens the fungible nature of Bitcoin.  See my signature.

[PetePete]

Thanks, I'm not quite sure i understand that term even though I checked the definition.

[bitcatch]

Bitcoin clones. They are the biggest threat not only to Bitcoin but to cryptocurrencyes movement in general.

[BurtW]

Thanks, I'm not quite sure i understand that term even though I checked the definition.

Basically if you have to defer to a third party "authority" in order to determine the value of something it is not fungible.

Take USD for example.  They are fungible.  If I send you $100 you are never going to say "I don't want those $100, send me a different $100"

Diamonds are not fungible.  We have to defer to a rating authority in order to determine the value.  If I send you a diamond you may very well send it back saying "I don't like that one, send me a different one"

Money is fungible.  Bitcoin needs to remain fungible.  If Bitcoin is not fungible it is no longer money and becomes a collectible.

[LMGTFY]

(Kind of) Playing Devil's Advocate here, but - what kind of bugs in the code would cause a problem that couldn't be overcome? Particularly post-Heartbleed I'm very impressed with the online world's resilience. Bugs in, say, Bitcoin-QT would only affect people using it - people with their BTC in an offline wallet wouldn't be directly affected (though they might be affected by a fall in price resulting from the bad publicity).

[BurtW]

Bitcoin clones. They are the biggest threat not only to Bitcoin but to cryptocurrencyes movement in general.

Do not agree.  Currently there are what, 50 alt currencies.  Or is it 100?  Or is it 25?  See?  It matters so little that we don't even really care how many alts there are.

[BurtW]

BTW Quantum computers are the least of our worries.  First, they do not exist.  Second, when/if they do they would not pose a threat to Bitcoin for a very long time - enough time for Bitcoin to adapt if necessary.

[bitcatch]

Bitcoin clones. They are the biggest threat not only to Bitcoin but to cryptocurrencyes movement in general.

Do not agree.  Currently there are what, 50 alt currencies.  Or is it 100?  Or is it 25?  See?  It matters so little that we don't even really care how many alts there are.

We don't need too many of them to destroy everything. Even 1 clone could be enough.

BTW, I think there are now significanly more than 200 alternate cyprocurrencies, exact number indeed doesn't matter. Maybe 80% or so of them are Bitcoin clones. The rest are clones of several other key cryptocurrencyes which became centers their own swarms of clones (parasites). I can name a couple of them: PPC, NXT. May be there are more.

[PetePete]

Seems like no one has come up with a genuinely scary enough threat to Bitcoin, I take it that people that claim there is a a lot of risk in Bitcoin apart from it's fluctuating price are merely spreading FUD?

As for bugs in Bitcoin, don't developers test for bugs in clones of Bitcoin..

[blatchcorn]

People who do not spend it

[Bit_Happy]

Bitcoin p2p code or BTC the money which you spend?
The frauds, thefts and major scams have set-back BTC a lot, since "we" have a bad reputation.
Fortunately the competition is paper money. 

[RodeoX]

Loss of net neutrality? maybe?

I worry that ISPs in the future will block ports or otherwise try impeding bitcoin network traffic. 

[sprot]

Anything that threatens the fungible nature of Bitcoin.  See my signature.

You mean Mike Hearn?

[bitcatch]

As for bugs in Bitcoin, don't developers test for bugs in clones of Bitcoin..

It doesn't matter, do they test or not, because they don't go ahead of bitcoin development. And most of them are not capable of thorough testing, all they are able to do is just copy/paste code, clone repos, change several numeric parameters, and that's it. And usually they are not even able to merge code improvements from Bitcoin to their clones in timely manner. Basically, changes are first tested on Bitcoin, and then, sooner or later (maybe never) get incorporated into their code.
Additionally all the clones have much much lower tps rate, i.e. their nets are working under much less load, and bugs are less likely to come out.

[bitomatic]

More bugs is likely to come out, it's just a matter of time.

[pr0p0f0l]

Loss of net neutrality? maybe?

I worry that ISPs in the future will block ports or otherwise try impeding bitcoin network traffic. 

Yeah this has the potential to be a problem. It all depends on how far they take it. Now, with a distributed p2p protocol like Bitcoin, there is little chance that this could affect the framework itself. However, if ISPs started targeting sites that accept bitcoin or deal in bitcoin transactions and transfers, then we've got a potential problem. Worst case scenario is that Bitcoin takes on more of a blacklist status and ISPs start all out targeting related services. If this happens though, you can bet there are going to be a lot bigger problems. Essentially, in order to squelch Bitcoin, you will have to effectively block free speech through the internet and I really don't see that happening. It has worked so well with bitTorrent