If Bitcoin became the world (Reserve) currency

[Afrikoin]

Bitcoin won't ever become a world currency. Go look at places below or at the poverty line. They can't afford to own a Bitcoin wallet or have access to one.

I beg (no pun intended) to differ, even in places like kenya people like poor farmers are doing bitcoin transactions using SMS services on old (non-smart) 2g phones! ( CoinPip ) And yes ok, not all the world has a phone, but that too is changing very fast.

Sorry Howard. i'm from Kenya and I can confirm that this is false. Farmers don't even know Bitcoin exist. Maybe Old white oligarch farmers with huge tracts of land and of European descent.

[howardb]

Bitcoin won't ever become a world currency. Go look at places below or at the poverty line. They can't afford to own a Bitcoin wallet or have access to one.

I beg (no pun intended) to differ, even in places like kenya people like poor farmers are doing bitcoin transactions using SMS services on old (non-smart) 2g phones! ( CoinPip ) And yes ok, not all the world has a phone, but that too is changing very fast.

Sorry Howard. i'm from Kenya and I can confirm that this is false. Farmers don't even know Bitcoin exist. Maybe Old white oligarch farmers with huge tracts of land and of European descent.

Thanks for the insight. You have heard of m-pesa though right?? pretty ubiquotous in Kenya, well the bitcoin derivative bitPesa is taking it's place http://www.ihavebitcoins.com/featured/kenyan-farmer-may-start-using-bitcoin/

May be a work in progress, so would be interesting to see what actual contact you have with bitPesa  over there. btw, Kenya was my all time favourite holiday destination in the 60's used to go to Silversands, Whispering Palms & Mombassa.

[Chris_Sabian]

With a market capitalization of ~$6 billion, bitcoin is very much a baby in terms of companies let alone countries.

[wasserman99]

Bitcoin won't ever become a world currency. Go look at places below or at the poverty line. They can't afford to own a Bitcoin wallet or have access to one.

I beg (no pun intended) to differ, even in places like kenya people like poor farmers are doing bitcoin transactions using SMS services on old (non-smart) 2g phones! ( CoinPip ) And yes ok, not all the world has a phone, but that too is changing very fast.

Sorry Howard. i'm from Kenya and I can confirm that this is false. Farmers don't even know Bitcoin exist. Maybe Old white oligarch farmers with huge tracts of land and of European descent.

This may be a fact today, but tomorrow and in the future this will likely change. There was an article in the WSJ last week that talked about how, in Africa use their mobile phones as their primary way of spending and holding/saving money. The penetration rate of banking via mobile is several times the rate it is in the rest of the world. Using mobile phones for storing and spending money is something that has bitcoin written all over it.

[Newbie1022]

Bitcoin won't ever become a world currency. Go look at places below or at the poverty line. They can't afford to own a Bitcoin wallet or have access to one.

I beg (no pun intended) to differ, even in places like kenya people like poor farmers are doing bitcoin transactions using SMS services on old (non-smart) 2g phones! ( CoinPip ) And yes ok, not all the world has a phone, but that too is changing very fast.

Sorry Howard. i'm from Kenya and I can confirm that this is false. Farmers don't even know Bitcoin exist. Maybe Old white oligarch farmers with huge tracts of land and of European descent.

This may be a fact today, but tomorrow and in the future this will likely change. There was an article in the WSJ last week that talked about how, in Africa use their mobile phones as their primary way of spending and holding/saving money. The penetration rate of banking via mobile is several times the rate it is in the rest of the world. Using mobile phones for storing and spending money is something that has bitcoin written all over it.

How bout we... how do I say this?? Maybe give all of the normals a 24-hour reprieve from the $10k, world currency magic bean story. Bitcoin should increase in value given the number of users and the number of transactions it can support. Apart from that, these predictions are sheer shenanigans.

[howardb]

How bout we... how do I say this?? Maybe give all of the normals a 24-hour reprieve from the $10k, world currency magic bean story. Bitcoin should increase in value given the number of users and the number of transactions it can support. Apart from that, these predictions are sheer shenanigans.

You are more than welcome to dispute any facts/provide counter arguments, but just calling the discussion 'shenanigans' as if that's a point of view we should take seriously, is somewhat adolescent.

[wasserman99]

Bitcoin won't ever become a world currency. Go look at places below or at the poverty line. They can't afford to own a Bitcoin wallet or have access to one.

I beg (no pun intended) to differ, even in places like kenya people like poor farmers are doing bitcoin transactions using SMS services on old (non-smart) 2g phones! ( CoinPip ) And yes ok, not all the world has a phone, but that too is changing very fast.

Sorry Howard. i'm from Kenya and I can confirm that this is false. Farmers don't even know Bitcoin exist. Maybe Old white oligarch farmers with huge tracts of land and of European descent.

This may be a fact today, but tomorrow and in the future this will likely change. There was an article in the WSJ last week that talked about how, in Africa use their mobile phones as their primary way of spending and holding/saving money. The penetration rate of banking via mobile is several times the rate it is in the rest of the world. Using mobile phones for storing and spending money is something that has bitcoin written all over it.

How bout we... how do I say this?? Maybe give all of the normals a 24-hour reprieve from the $10k, world currency magic bean story. Bitcoin should increase in value given the number of users and the number of transactions it can support. Apart from that, these predictions are sheer shenanigans.

I am not sure what part of my argument you are disputing. There is not a single response in this quote pyramid that talks about a specific price that bitcoin would reach. This is a valid and likely way that bitcoin will grow (via mobile payments in 3rd world countries).

[maker88]

Yeah, I don't want to be in just the top 18%. That's barley comfortable by western standards. I''d like top 5%
 

top 5 just means you own a house(not a nice house) have 2 cars, and any kind of hobby that requires some equipment, or like even a nice lawn mower and snowblower would count. thats top 5% on the planet. two cars, check, equipment intensive 'hobbies'(I'm a DJ, hobbyist music producer and a bench jeweler, as well as having a bunch of tools for messing with my porsche) check. own my own house? eerrrr not quite yet lol hopefully within the next 3 years. my sights are set on top 3%.

[ShawnLeary]

Still need a few years to go. Not easy to become the world currency!  When the price is down to a low level, I will buy more to save for the future.

You are deluding yourself if you think you are going to get them much cheaper than today. Yes volatility will remain really high in coming years, but the drops will be from much higher bases, I seriously doubt we will ever see $450 again!

Doh!!  How about $390

[howardb]

Still need a few years to go. Not easy to become the world currency!  When the price is down to a low level, I will buy more to save for the future.

You are deluding yourself if you think you are going to get them much cheaper than today. Yes volatility will remain really high in coming years, but the drops will be from much higher bases, I seriously doubt we will ever see $450 again!

Doh!!  How about $390

Yeah, I was wrong, i'll admit it! Looks like the retail adoption model is running way ahead of public adoption, so thats putting downward pressure on BTC price. I still believe this will balance out though and we will see
the next massive bubble late 2015.

[yraskk]

If bitcoin became the world reserve currency, price of a single bitcoin will be more than 1 million dollar, maybe 10-20 million dollar But this will never happen, there are strong interest to some people to avoid bitcoin use.

[howardb]

If bitcoin became the world reserve currency, price of a single bitcoin will be more than 1 million dollar, maybe 10-20 million dollar But this will never happen, there are strong interest to some people to avoid bitcoin use.

I agree, but the question you have to ask yourself is to what degree are the people who have an interest in this not happening, have control of bitcoins expansion? I believe the best they can do is slow it down hugely, but it only needs generalised adoption in ONE country, and I really do not believe the "New World Order" are that organised or diverse.

[leopard2]

Even governments that one would expect to support BTC over USD (Venezuela, Iran etc.) seem to prefer fiat over Bitcoin. The benefit from enslaving people with paper money is so great that it exceeds the benefits from escaping USD domination and sanctions. 

Hopefully that changes at some point.

[Bitmore]

well, we've seen plenty of volatility over the last 5 yrs and part of it has to do with the ongoing issuance/distribution of new coins.  that will probably continue going forward but at a decreasing rate as the curve flattens out.  thus, the supply is constantly changing, whereas with gold it for the most part (except for new finds) has stayed steady for hundreds of years and provided a stable supply backing for various fiat currencies.

but like i said above, perhaps if there was an official fixed exchange rate that was high enough to fill up the huge debt hole of USD that the Fed has helped build up, perhaps that would give worldwide investors confidence that the US will finally exert some discipline on what heretofore has been pretty reckless and aggressive expansion of the money supply for hegemonic purposes.

cypherdoc, I think we are mostly in agreement on the big picture and agree a lot with what you've said. Regarding an official fixed exchange rate, I think that could only happen once bitcoin's value was realized and settled down. Once that happens then nations with x amount of bitcoins can fix an exchange rate to y amount of fiat, but that's largely the only way it can happen.

For example when the US fixed the gold to currency price, it also had enough stored gold to back all of the dollar claims in gold and as a result there was little reason to exchange dollars for physical gold (which you could do at any bank). However once the FED was created and they started to print more and more dollars, entities which could exchange dollars for gold did so in very significant amounts. In the 60s US citizens could not exchange dollars for gold, but foreign nations could, and they started to withdraw significant amounts of gold because it was well known that there was not enough gold to back all the new dollar at the "official" exchange rate. Nixon only closed the gold window because otherwise within less than 10 years the US would have zero gold left and would have gone bust.

That is the problem with fixed official exchange rates, they only work if the fixer sets and honest exchange rate to match the ratio of both assets. The FED could fix an exchange rate, but they then could not print new dollars because doing so would throw off the ratio and start an exit from dollars as more and more people exchange out until the FED ran out of bitcoins. This is exactly what happens every time Argentina or a similar country fixes a dollar exchange rate and then has a currency crisis.

I don't know, and I could be wrong, but I really think we are ahead of, and maybe even surfing a Tsunami.

https://goldswitzerland.com/swiss-gold-initiative-2014/

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-10-28/things-make-you-go-hmmm-swiss-gold-status-quo-showdown
November 30, 2014 is the date.  Check back and be prepared, because this could set it off...