[wyldfire]

> That being said, I'm one of the people who have always mocked bitcoin. There are so many obvious problems with it, and some of the people in the cult built around it lack a hilarious amount of self-awareness.

Don't lump supporters in with a "cult." Just observe: it's been here for a long time and if there were a way to turn it off it would've happened by now.

IMO it's never going away. ICOs will come and go. Altcoins will come and go. Bitcoin is here to stay. It's not tulips, it's not a ponzie scheme.

Will it obsolete credit cards or cash? No, that's unlikely.

Will it obsolete precious metals? No, that seems unlikely, too.

Will its value stabilize against fiat currency and become a real safe store of money? That's unlikely to happen soon IMO but maybe in some decade or two?

Bitcoin is new and the use cases don't completely 100% overlap with cash, credit cards, bearer bonds, stocks, precious metals, contracts. But it does line up really well with some uses of each.

The defeat of bitcoin would only happen if its mathematical or functional model collapsed. For example: transactions execute Too Slowly, disk space required for node operation became Too Large, node operation became Too Expensive, hashing algorithm no longer considered Safe. Transaction speed, disk space, computation -- for the most part these are all fairly negotiable/reconsiderable by the humans who see some value from bitcoin's continued operation. If global changes make these things not work, the market will find a balance. See all of the recent pushback regarding transaction speed/cost and how best to solve the problem. Even if we end up with Bitcoin[0], Bitcoin[1], Bitcoin[2], I would argue that each of them Are Bitcoin and individually and collectively continue to illustrate bitcoin's success.

EDIT: actually one huge risk could be united global censorship by treaty -- this would destroy a lot of its value and utility (but the network would never stop, it would serve the black market exclusively).

[leereeves]

> but the network would never stop, it would serve the black market exclusively

All the computers required to keep Bitcoin running would be an easy target for law enforcement.

[wyldfire]

shrug, difficulty adjusts, asics get smaller, cooler, enclosures designed differently, miners hide them in drywall or wherever we hide prohibited stuff these days.

[and0]

Imagining the scene from the end of Goodfellas, with Lorraine Bracco flushing handfuls of asics down the toilet.

[leereeves]

If Bitcoin becomes such a fringe currency that only criminals use it, what value will it have? Even criminals need to trade for legitimate goods.

[owebmaster]

Criminals have customers so their customers would exchange his money for BTC with another criminal before. I guess it is pretty much like how it works today.

[stale2002]

So now law enforcement has to shut down every Bitcoin node in the world, including the ones that are run exclusively on tor in 3rd world countries, AND shut now any new ones that pop up?