Typically, Bitcoin cultists have dismissed the latest which demonstrates that Bitcoin has a fundamental vulnerability. Some salient facts pertinent to this issue largely ignored by this community of rampant speculators.
1. Despite what Bitcoin cultists claim, Bitcoin does have a central authority. Specifically, the group responsible for the most popular Bitcoin client wields as much power over Bitcoin as any central bank does over state fiat.
2. A fork of the most popular client with what we shall call a war miner module (extra credit for spotting the gaming reference) would quickly become popular with all those people who invested in ASIC hardware, but ended up out of pocket as mining difficulty moved ahead of them.
3. There seems to be a foolish assumption that nobody would bother exploiting this systemic flaw in Bitcoin because to do so would destroy the very thing they would be investing in exploiting. Alas gentlemen, you shall be hoist be your own petard. For all the talk of a brave new world of cryptocurrency, free from the ruinous short-termism of state fiat, what you have is a community whose engagement with Bitcoin is entirely speculative in nature. It's all about riding the bubble and cashing out before it explodes, very few people seem truly committed to Bitcoin as a currency, rather a means to acquire more of the sate fiat they claim to detest. You've collectively recreated the very worst excesses of the Wall St. Mafia, and as a consequence there are plenty in the Bitcoin community who will seek to exploit this core vulnerability for profit.
The greed that created the bubble in Bitcoin will burn it to the ground just as quickly.
I think we're beyond the speculative stage of bitcoin. Investment firms like Accel Partners wouldn't be putting $9m into companies like Circle if they didn't have confidence. Besides, Accel wouldn't give two shits if they lost $9m, but their reputation is also at stake, and by putting faith in bitcoin - I think that says a lot.
Bitcoin has withstood a colossal amount of negative PR, it was victorious when Liberty Reserve was taken down, it stuck two fingers up at the critics that said Silk Road's demise would be the end of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin ATM's, Bitcoin debit cards, eBay alluding to the possibility of accepting it. These aren't small events. Bitcoin arguably, could be improved - but what system in this world couldn't?
I think we've got something that's here to stay.
The established financial order put hundreds of Billions into sub-prime mortgages. You can't on the one hand decry these people and on the other kiss their asses when they throw a few pennies (relative to their usual financial gambling activity) at Bitcoin. Their either degenerate fiscal bandits or they aren't.
