The underlying basic tech of bitcoin may flourish under another new improved infrustructure/name down the road, but I think Bitcoin in itself has seen its best days, and lost grasp of its reigns in a downward spiral once the Mt. Gox debacle first hit. It's in an unrecoverable phase, ironically akin to the excuses the scamming exchange operators give.
OK. I can respect that opinion. I even agree with some of what you say. I think your fatalistic conclusion is absolutely wrong, however.
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Nobody has a crystal ball. But like ass holes, everyone has an opinion. And it is of *MY* opinion (and probably less popular because we're on a bitcoin promoted forum) that bitcoin exhibits all classic characteristics of a bubble market...AND COMBINED with the long string of negative press/fraud...will continue in its downward price trend until a) future investors shy away, b) current holders jump ship, and c) interest naturally dies down.
So all market bubbles are fatal?
Here's the thing. You sound like you may have entered this space not long before (or perhaps even after) the spectacular run-up of a year ago. But for Bitcoin, it was just one more cycle of a repeated pattern. Sure, the magnitude was larger, but proportionally on-track with previous cycles. As, I expect, will be the next cycle.
You can draw whatever conclusion you will from the absolute value of the last crash. But it is by no means our most significant crash proportionally. And looking at the history (sorry for semi-quoting myself):
Peak $1200 USD, before receding over a year's time to ~$275?
Peak April 2013 at $240, before receding to $65.
Peak August 2012, when it shot up to $15 before losing over half its value.
Peak Feb 2012 - $7.50 before dropping to $4.30.
Peak June 2011 - $35 before crashing to $2.25
Peak Q3 2010 - $0.50 to $0.20
Peak Q2 2010 - $0.18 to $0.05
... sure, each peak is followed by a trough. But here is the important observation to make: each successive trough is higher than the last.
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The euphoria phase of bitcoin is over, imo.
Again, you're speaking as if the last peak was the only euphoric phase. I see a roughly periodic wave function with exponentially-growing magnitude. How much of humanity was involved this time? Heck, most of humanity has not even heard of Bitcoin. I believe that next cycle, a larger share of the population will be participating. Larger magnitude yet.
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And unlike for certain recoverable bubble markets like the stock market and housing...bitcoin is not a necessity, but rather an alternative and luxury.
I'm fairly well convinced that the entire world fiat money structure is likely to collapse some time within my lifetime (I recognize some other rational people may not agree with my assessment). When that event transpires, an 'alternative' will be a necessity. If Bitcoin is mature enough when the cataclysm is upon us, Bitcoin would be a wonderful alternative. Indeed, it is a nearly ideally-engineered money - as opposed to that fiat shit. And if Bitcoin can be grown such that it merely overtakes fiat, we can avoid the effects of the collapse altogether. But, yet another discussion for another thread.
To the rest of your post, I'll just respond that this wave was not the first, and I believe it is unlikely that it was the last.
