Am I missing something? (or is BTC destined for greatness and soon)

[bitcoinrocks]

It seems clear to me that BTC will hit the big(ger) time and relatively soon.  But some folks (who do seem to have a good understanding of it) hold the exact opposite opinion.  Am I buying into the hype?  Besides regulation (which I don't think will end up being a problem in the Land of Innovation and many other countries), how else could BTC go wrong and turn out to be the fad some say it is.

[LeChatNoir]

It seems clear to me that BTC will hit the big(ger) time and relatively soon.  But some folks (who do seem to have a good understanding of it) hold the exact opposite opinion.  Am I buying into the hype?  Besides regulation (which I don't think will end up being a problem in the Land of Innovation and many other countries), how else could BTC go wrong and turn out to be the fad some say it is.

Contrary to what a lot of people here will tell you bitcoin is not perfect and it can be improved a lot.

[wesk1212]

Bitcoin will
Not be big anytime soon. Im throwing my towel. I cant wait 3 ,5 years to ho to the "moon"

[madmax6688]

Bitcoin will
Not be big anytime soon. Im throwing my towel. I cant wait 3 ,5 years to ho to the "moon"

Moon for me will be when price stays between $1000 and $1050 99% of the time. That would be incredible!

[bitcoinrocks]

OK cool, these are the kinds of responses I was hoping for.  Of course it isn't perfect, but the question on my mind is will it go big or does it have a fatal flaw that will snuff it out?

[ChuckBuck]

The ones that are bearish and "abandoning ship" are probably the ones that got in at the high, got goxed, or merely thought of Bitcoin as a get rich scheme.

The ones that remain bullish are holding coins steady through thick and thin.  The same ones that view it as an innovation, a versatile payment method, and the (crypto)currency of the future.

Time will tell who's right, but looking at it objectively, Bitcoin is only 5 years young.  Gots a long ways to go.

[bitcoinrocks]

Besides regulation, why *wouldn't* it go big?

[windpath]

It seems clear to me that BTC will hit the big(ger) time and relatively soon.  But some folks (who do seem to have a good understanding of it) hold the exact opposite opinion.  Am I buying into the hype?  Besides regulation (which I don't think will end up being a problem in the Land of Innovation and many other countries), how else could BTC go wrong and turn out to be the fad some say it is.

It really all depends on where in the adoption curve we are...



One thing this graphic left out is that innovation can be represented as an arrow straight across the bottom.

---------->>>

As innovation increases so does the rate of adoption.

My belief is that we are currently somewhere around the late "Innovators" or early "Early Adopters" phase.

Determining where bitcoin is on the adoption curve is really up to you.

Prediction is difficult, especially about the future.

[tabnloz]

Check out what has transpired over the last 12 months: Massive rise, massive Goxxing, banned /unbanned / banned in China, NYDFS regs proposal, the rise of shorting, Moolah / Mintpal debacle, Russia 'ban', Australia possible 2x GST, Satoshi (Dorian & email hack), continued FUD, attacked in media, Professor Bitcorn, Schiff/Buffet et al 'Ponzi scheme', PayPal, dumps on good news.

2014 has been the year bitcoin stood up. It has been attacked from all sides, knocked from pillar to post and told 'Welcome to the Big League, son'.

But it still stands.

And slowly the narrative is changing.

We've seen the labels: drug dealing, money laundering, ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme, magic internets money. Now we've moved on to the point that says "Yeah this blockchain certainly is something. God darn great innovation. Lets just get rid of the 'meh' currency and keep this blockchain thing".

Next will be the step where entire industries jump on board. I'd say it is about a year off.

[Furio]

It seems clear to me that BTC will hit the big(ger) time and relatively soon.  But some folks (who do seem to have a good understanding of it) hold the exact opposite opinion.  Am I buying into the hype?  Besides regulation (which I don't think will end up being a problem in the Land of Innovation and many other countries), how else could BTC go wrong and turn out to be the fad some say it is.

The major acception by merchants is positve and negative. Positive for Bitcoin adoption, negative for exchange rate, big companies dump the earned bitcoin in stead of holding because allmost all other biznis uses fiat. As long as there are no real option for companies to spend their bitcoins, this will continue.. unless the group of bitcoiners gets much larger , so spread the word

[jbrnt]

It seems clear to me that BTC will hit the big(ger) time and relatively soon.

Bitcoin is always getting bigger and better. You don't need to wait for "soon". If you expect "bigger" also means higher prices, you need to wait a bit.

[amaclin]

Just think about Bitcoin as an factory.

What is incoming (at least):
1. Electricity.
2. Hardware.

What is outgoing:
1. Transactions

Now plot the graph - what is the price for one transaction in kWh and other resources.
Compare the price with one-two-three years ago.
Is it too difficult?

[bitcoinrocks]

Really, no one can point out a (possibly-)fatal flaw or danger other than regulation?

[Billbags]

Right now Bitcoin is still young. Bitcoin itself is one small app on the blockchain.  Bitcoin is the p2p payment system to be used on the massive ultra-secure blockchain ledger. You have to research and see all the things the Bitcoin blockchain will enable. Bitcoin should really take off once smart contracts get through their trial period and we can provide the facts to the general public. I believe this will be the point everyone is waiting on. Smart Contracts will enable loans, mortgages and registration of property such as car titles on the blockchain. Once the Bitcoin payment is made the door to the house or car you just bought will open or you will be able to print out your rental agreement. You see Bitcoin is the payment system that will be used for the smart contracts, not only person to person, but the smart contracts have digital agents which will have wallets also. Don't miss the whole point of Bitcoin being the means of payments for all the services that will be running on the blockchain. Thats why it was designed to act like a scarce commodity. Only 21 million will ever be available to be used to pay for all the services that will be available.

Note: Gavin said over the next 4-5 months they will be taking care of the fork, so until then I don't see the Bitcoin value going up too dramatically. THIS IS IMHO. I imagine in one year it will be looking a lot better once the fork is completed and smart contracts are running good.

Update: I forgot to include mining. We already went through solo mining to pool mining with getwork and then switched to stratum proxy with the pools. We will have to switch again, I'll link some options below.

http://gavintech.blogspot.com/2012/05/neutralizing-51-attack.html?m=1
https://bitcoinfoundation.org/2014/07/mining-decentralisation-the-low-hanging-fruit/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=281180.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QN2TPeQ9mnA

[bitcoinrocks]

Don't XCP and MSC provide smart contracts on the BTC blockchain already?

[Billbags]

Those are alts, this is BCT. I'm talking Bitcoin 2.0 smart contracts.

Altcoin links:
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/the-problem-with-altcoins/
http://nakamotoinstitute.org/mempool/the-coming-demise-of-altcoins/

[bitcoinrocks]

Certainly but lack of smart contract functionality can't be what's holding BTC back if that functionality is in fact available.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

I don't think we will go 'to the moon' soon.
Hang in there though, hold for 10 years & see what happens.
It's a long journey.

Have you got the stomach for it?

[Billbags]

Those smart contracts you are talking about are altcoins not Bitcoin. This link is Gavins proposal for Bitcoin 2.0 smart contracts:

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/gavin-andresen-outlines-bitcoin-2-0-without-ethereum/

Note: This is a good thread, I hope I didn't throw you off topic. One other thing right now that hurts us is the security of the wallet.
There are some new inovations out there, but most are too tech savy for older people. It looks like some better options may be comming out next year.

Update: I think if you go back to 1993 and follow the progression of the internet through 1999 it's kind of the same things Bitcoin is going through right now.

Note: What I was trying to say above is right now it's like Bitcoin is competing with Western Union. With smart contracts Bitcoin would be competing with Visa.


Final Answer: No I don't think there is a fatal flaw that will end Bitcoin. But only time will tell.

[bitcoinrocks]

Those smart contracts you are talking about are altcoins not Bitcoin. This link is Gavins proposal for Bitcoin smart contracts:

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/gavin-andresen-outlines-bitcoin-2-0-without-ethereum/

Note: This is a good thread, I hope I didn't throw you off topic.

Fair enough.  I just want to point out that XCP and MSC operate on the BTC blockchain in the (very off) chance that you didn't already know that.

One other thing right now that hurts us is the security of the wallet. There are some new inovations out there, but most are too tech savy for older people. It looks like some better options May be comming out next year.

You could be right about that.