It would be wonderful, yet dangerous, if this happened to the Bitcoin system. Why?
Objectively:
- Participation declines
- Difficulty falls
- Exchange rate falls
- Blockchain maintenance becomes less intensive
- Major changes to protocol have less resistance
Subjectively positive:
- Bitcoin falls off established institutional threat scale
- Necessary protocol changes can be more readily implemented
- Excess irrational speculation is culled
Subjectively negative:
- System domination by concentrated interests becomes a strong possibility
- Reduced external capital flows could hamper resurgence for a long time
This is being approached from the perspective that 2009-2012 was a practical, live proof-of-concept run for Bitcoin. Now that the system has proven itself resilient and viable, being suppressed would allow development, refinement, and implementation of vital features. The end result being that Bitcoin's 'second-coming' would be even more potent than the first.
As the path being pursued by current regimes strangles their own economies, national populations will finally recognize the
dangers that have beset them. By then it will be too late to escape, and the search for alternatives commences. Bitcoin remains an ideal system to counter the dying paradigms, so it should make an explosive return; a
dark horse to all except those with true understanding of the system and follow the developments.
None of this suggests that the USD/BTC rate will go to zero, or that the present blockchain will fall into obscurity, only that the relative shrinking of Bitcoin from today's marginal public awareness could be a boon rather than a death knell.
