Hypothetical Bitcoin Questions for YMB **Episode Released!** NOW DISCUSS!!

[tim-tams]

Update 6/12: This episode has been released!! Please tune in to see if your question was mentioned and then come back here to discuss what we talked about! Thanks to everyone who contributed!

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Update 6/9: This episode has been recorded and will be released this Thursday. We'll let you know when it's out!

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Hello there! Daniel Brown here from YouMeAndBTC.com. We host a weekly podcast there and had an interesting idea recently. We want to collect all sorts of hypothetical questions related to Bitcoin and try to respond to them on the show. Submissions can be as wild or as serious as you want, provided they are truly hypothetical. The situations posed must not be real things that happen with Bitcoin (i.e. what will happen when the block reward halves?). Instead, we want things that are impossible.

A good example of a wild question: What if Bitcoins were actually digital unicorns waiting to be released into the real world?

A good example of a more serious question: How would people use Bitcoin differently if there were to be 21 billion coins instead of 21 million?

Both of those types are acceptable and encouraged. We will take any that we like and discuss them on the show. I made this topic self-moderated because I want to avoid everyone getting sidetracked with a debate about just one or two questions. You may respond briefly if you have any thoughts about someone else's question, but in general, we want this thread to be just a cool list of questions. Feel free to submit as many as you like. We will do our best to mention who submitted each question that we talk about on the show.

Let me know if you have questions about how this all works or anything too. Thanks and have fun!

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I got one, but you probably won't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Bearing in mind that the person in question is on record in stating that such-and-such is 100% NOT true, thus the following question can now be considered 100% hypothetical: What if a pedophile (NOT accused) was elected as a board member of The Bitcoin Foundation?

Remember, this is 100% hypothetical, and if you believe that this is not the case, then clearly state such on this forum.

~Bruno Kucinskas

[tim-tams]

I got one, but you probably won't touch it with a ten foot pole.

Bearing in mind that the person in question is on record in stating that such-and-such is 100% NOT true, thus the following question can now be considered 100% hypothetical: What if a pedophile (NOT accused) was elected as a board member of The Bitcoin Foundation?

Remember, this is 100% hypothetical, and if you believe that this is not the case, then clearly state such on this forum.

~Bruno Kucinskas

Yeah that's probably a good question. I haven't done much research on this so I don't really have an opinion right now, but I think it's safe to say there is some uncertainty. That would make "What if a DEFINITE pedophile was elected?" a hypothetical question.

Thanks! Keep them coming!

[Ron~Popeil]

What if the hokey pokey really is what its all about? And will it be sha or scrypt?

[tim-tams]

What if the hokey pokey really is what its all about? And will it be sha or scrypt?

Definitely something we need to be thinking about these days haha. Bring on more!

[franky1]

what if basement dwelling armchair activists that live off social security, actually got off their ... behinds.. and used their computer skills in bitcoin jobs.

what if people stopped worrying about factors that wont affect them in their lifetime, and instead found solutions to todays problem

and for the tinfoil hatters
what if the zombified sheeple that happily accept the government screwed them, that happily drink fluoride water to keep them zombified. all, at the same time woke up tomorrow and decided not to be screwed over...

[Yakamoto]

Would it be possible for another alt-coin to overtake Bitcoin within the next 5 years in terms of value and avaliable kiosks to use it?

[b!z]

Would you rather fight a Bitcoin-sized Dogecoin or a hundred Dogecoin sized Bitcoins?

[serenitys]

What stage of bitcoin adoption is required before the following takes place:

1. USD is dethroned as the world reserve currency
2. US economy tanks and bankrupts the country
3. US government starts pushing draconian style tactics to scare/prevent people away from bitcoin
4. The people in the US recognize bitcoin has serious advantages over us currency and begin to abandon it


Add timeframes to make it more entertaining

[Beliathon]

What stage of bitcoin adoption is required before the following takes place:

1. USD is dethroned as the world reserve currency
2. US economy tanks and bankrupts the country

No stage of bitcoin adoption is required for these things to happen. These eventualities were set into motion long before Bitcoin was invented. It's self-destruction at its finest.

[Ron~Popeil]

What stage of bitcoin adoption is required before the following takes place:

1. USD is dethroned as the world reserve currency
2. US economy tanks and bankrupts the country

No stage of bitcoin adoption is required for these things to happen. These eventualities were set into motion long before Bitcoin was invented. It's self-destruction at its finest.

Bit coin can ease the pain of the inevitable transition. Maybe even provide an orderly one if they are smart. 

[tim-tams]

What stage of bitcoin adoption is required before the following takes place:

1. USD is dethroned as the world reserve currency
2. US economy tanks and bankrupts the country
3. US government starts pushing draconian style tactics to scare/prevent people away from bitcoin
4. The people in the US recognize bitcoin has serious advantages over us currency and begin to abandon it


Add timeframes to make it more entertaining

I'm not entirely sure that those are hypothetical questions, but they could certainly still be worth talking about. Thanks!

[tim-tams]

Would you rather fight a Bitcoin-sized Dogecoin or a hundred Dogecoin sized Bitcoins?

Great question haha I can almost guarantee this will make the show.

[TheButterZone]

If it's placed in geostationary orbit above the aurora, will jgarzik's bitcoin satellite be powerful enough to broadcast the blockchain over the whole globe via the magnetosphere?

[tim-tams]

The following questions are from grubles in the #bitcoin-otc IRC channel. I'm posting them here for others to see and so we don't forget about them.

1. What impact would a flaw in sha256 have on Bitcoin?

2. Is there a possibility of altcoins with the same name as Bitcoin having an effect on price, like has happened with penny stocks with similar ticker names?

[Este Nuno]

What would happen to bitcoin if tomorrow we noticed Satoshi moving some of his coins mined in 2009?

What would happen if bitcoin core devs started dying in mysterious circumstances? Could bitcoin recover from such losses?

If GHash.io was discovered executing sucessful double spending attacks on the network, would people still have faith in bitcoin?

If people started targeting large mining operations with bomb attacks to attempt to lower the difficulty, how would miners respond?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

What if Bitcoin was really created by Raëlians?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABlism
http://rael.org/



The following pic is begging to be photoshopped. Please don't disappoint!

[tim-tams]

What would happen to bitcoin if tomorrow we noticed Satoshi moving some of his coins mined in 2009?

What would happen if bitcoin core devs started dying in mysterious circumstances? Could bitcoin recover from such losses?

If GHash.io was discovered executing sucessful double spending attacks on the network, would people still have faith in bitcoin?

If people started targeting large mining operations with bomb attacks to attempt to lower the difficulty, how would miners respond?

Those are all exactly the sort of questions we're looking for. Thanks!

[medicine]

Hypothetical: What would happen if the bitcoin network was hacked and then restored by a fork?  How would that affect us in 2014?  How much value would be lost in the network? 

This is off the top of my head, you can alter/refine it anyway you like.

[serenitys]

Okay fine...


what would happen to bitcoin if we all woke up to Red Dawn tomorrow to discover we're being physically invaded by China AND Russia who've had just about enough of our shit?