[PeterWhittaker]

The main failing of this and other articles - and bear in mind that I am not a bitcoin fanboi, own none, and question whether I should - is that many, many people fail to recognize that cryptography has in recent decades resulted in several sui generis inventions, that is, things in themselves, things entirely new that cannot be reasoned about with analogy to past things, for there are neither analogies nor homologies.

Witness the digital signature: When properly done, bound to the signer and the data being signed and entirely unique. A brand new thing that could never have been done before, not even slowly with other tech.

Thousands will criticize bitcoin, etc., for how they are like past things, few will grasp how the world is fundamentally different for their introduction.

How?

How the heck should I know? I'm not that visionary, nor that smart. None of us will really know for a few years yet, perhaps longer.