Yes...
I know the standard answer... - the government can't do nothing about BitCoin, it's a peer-2-peer thing, and it shall survive just like bit-torrent survived no matter what, and they will have to shut the internet in order to shut down bitcoin....
You are expecting the less likely threat, because the power elite don't shutdown what is popular, they find a way to own it.
The bigger threat is the government will not shut it down, but rather embrace, help it grow, and control it so they can turn off your ability to eat individually if they don't like you:
Bitcoin: The Digital Kill Switch
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bitcoin-the-digital-kill-switch-160612
Bitcoin is diabolical, but only an expert can see it.
BINGO! On this and everything else you've said in this thread. I just heard of BTC 2 days ago, so there's much for me to learn. From the limited understanding I have so far, it's already become fairly evident that one or a combination of several different things are in play here...
- 1) BTC is the creation of the power elite (using your title) and made to look homegrown.
- 2) BTC is a great product with an even greater marketing campaign but nothing more. Closer to "Cabbage Patch Dolls" in the '80s or "Beanie Babies" in the '90s, than a sustainable currency.
- 3) This is just one of the test currency models considered for the global, cashless economic system that will soon be implemented....more testing to come in the very near future!
- 4) BTC is genuine and was created in the high hopes of bringing something new, something free and something that works to the world
- 5) #4 is accurate and the only reason it hasn't been crushed by government(s), elite, the Fed, World Bank, etc., is because they're watching to see how they can use it themselves
- 6) #4 is accurate...at first, but it's been taken over by the powerful and is now (or soon will be) just another corrupt, evil and oppressive system that will soon be used to manipulate and control the masses
I've always been a pessimist, it keeps me from chasing after every wild fantastical new thing, I prefer it. While most of the things listed are quite negative in nature, there is nothing here that's so unlikely as the idea that BTC is going to replace the economies of the world with zero resistance, influence or intervention from the power elite (I do like that term...think I'll steal it ). There's also nothing here so unlikely as the fantastical belief that BTC will reach some of astronomical value some have predicted. The most prudent plan for people who have a sh*tload of them, is to watch for the perceived value to begin it's decline and then dump them quickly. Novelties like this tend to burn really hot and really fast once they catch, but they burn out every bit as quickly...sometimes quicker.
Yes, the BTC phenomena is pretty darned intriguing and interesting. As you stated though, someone will eventually come up with something better and BTC will fade into history like so many other novelties before it. My personal thought on the whole thing is, whether it began with the elite or whether it ends with them, this is just one of the stepping stones along the road they're building for the sheeple.