Could bitcoin fail?

[grondilu]

I was just reading this quite good document about bitcoin written by a Yale student.  In this document, the guy describe many of the possible ways bitcoin could fail.

It is the best critic of bitcoin I have red so far.

So, could bitcoin fail?   Yes, it could.

But you know what?  The current financial system has shown us so many flaws, so many disgusting priviledges for a few too big to fail corporations, that I just want to give bitcoin a try, even if it might be risky.  I just don't want to hoard any national currency any more.

Someone wrote somewhere something like :  "Current financial system is completely messed up.  Give geeks a chance."

That's exactly the spirit.

[nodemaster]

Very interesting reading. At the moment I handle Bitcoins like every highly speculative stock. Don't have them if you are not prepared to loose all of your money. On the other hand Bitcoins have a major advantage over highly speculative stocks: It is much more fun and the community is more friendly   However I demand, that someday Bitcoins have to be too big to fail as well  

[Alex Beckenham]

Where do we send our typos?

'cypherphunks' is a phunny one.

[Stephen Gornick]

[...] I just want to give bitcoin a try, even if it might be risky.  I just don't want to hoard any national currency any more.

Someone wrote somewhere something like :  "Current financial system is completely messed up.  Give geeks a chance."

That's along the same lines as the message from this article by Duane Johnson:

This also happens to explain why the the left is correct to want regulation, while at the same time the right is correct to want deregulation--when the system itself is flawed, it seems that we need both more and less regulation.

  Is the bitconomy the frontier of economic innovation? #bitcoin
  http://canadaduane.posterous.com/is-the-bitconomy-the-frontier-of-economic-inn

[rebuilder]

Define "fail".

[grondilu]

Define "fail".

See in the doc mentionned above (section IV to be exact).  Several scenari fit the description of "failure".

[asdf]

tl;dr version?

Does this paper talk about anything new, or is it running over the same points discussed many times in the forums?

Sorry, I'm just too lazy to read the 44 page document.

[rebuilder]

See in the doc mentionned above (section IV to be exact).  Several scenari fit the description of "failure".

I read the doc, but I'm not sure any of the scenarios actually spell outright failure. They might bring the exchange rates down, but I don't really think that counts. Failure would be a near-total cessation of Bitcoin use IMO.

Personally, I feel the biggest risk in terms of government action would be for several states to declare Bitcoin illegal, perhaps USA and EU, or maybe even some international convention, and start cracking down on it. Sting operations could really make people wary of trading BTC.

[grondilu]

Does this paper talk about anything new, or is it running over the same points discussed many times in the forums?

It's a nice summary anyway.  And at no point the guy is making definitive assertions.  Just reasonnable hypothesis.

It seems to me the guy is quite impressed by bitcoin, and he wanted to make a sincere full report about it.