How many people have not heard about Bitcoin? I ask people about it all of the time and almost everyone looks at me puzzled and then asks me what it is. Only a couple people have even heard about it. One was very much of a "libertarian" mindset so he had studied it. I live fairly close to Los Angeles so this is a highly populated area in the US and even pretty "high tech." I am starting to see more things in the news though and it is slowly gaining some awareness. But there is no way we are at the "halfway point" yet. I guess if it remains a "niche" currency, perhaps, but there is so many things in the works that it is highly unlikely that happens.
We can't just rely on this though. For all we know bitcoin can still die before it reaches its potential or remain a niche that only a handful are willing to use. I'm on your side but I'm just being realistic
I think that's what I am saying too.
Surely we see quite a bit of attention going into the expansion of bitcoin with increased merchant acceptance and also the spreading of ATMs, but there is also some pull back too, such as Apple making matters difficult and regulations and China FUD and various incidents of BTC being stolen (GOX). So in that regard, we may NOT know that we are more than halfway through the life until after we have past the point of half way.
I also see that there is a lot of bitcoin potential, and that is why I have diverted quite a few of my investment funds from other asset classes, such as index stock funds to instead be invested in bitcoin. NONETHELESS, if next year we have a 10X increase - then we can be assured we are NOT half way yet in bitcoin's adoption...... But if we do NOT, then we may need to question whether we har past half way or whether a different model is more applicable to bitcoin.
Anyhow, maybe I am just getting a little more concerned about my investment based on this nearly 5 month long downtrend in prices...