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Topic: If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream... - page 2. (Read 4375 times)

newbie
Activity: 49
Merit: 0
Personally I somehow doubt that it could ever get that far (although I would love to see it do so) - I think the best that can really be hoped for (realistically) is for Bitcoin to become a major currency for online services and virtual goods as well as a new form of stored wealth that is much more easily transacted than gold (or other commodities).

Governments (while they continue to exist) are extremely unlikely to ever give up control of their fiat currencies (or of course their taxes).

+1
legendary
Activity: 1890
Merit: 1072
Ian Knowles - CIYAM Lead Developer
Personally I somehow doubt that it could ever get that far (although I would love to see it do so) - I think the best that can really be hoped for (realistically) is for Bitcoin to become a major currency for online services and virtual goods as well as a new form of stored wealth that is much more easily transacted than gold (or other commodities).

Governments (while they continue to exist) are extremely unlikely to ever give up control of their fiat currencies (or of course their taxes).
full member
Activity: 196
Merit: 100
Here's my 2 satoshis, I think that the best that bitcoin can achieve is to replace all cash in circulation in the economy. Bearing in mind that cash in circulation is only a small fraction of the total money supply. Maybe even this is a bit ambitious of a target. I can't see it being used as a significant store of wealth for the masses as people just don't have the due care and dilligence to protect and look after their bitcoins properly I'm afraid to say.
legendary
Activity: 1145
Merit: 1001

How many here are in the "innovators and early adopters" group? If that is you, you will have a bright future, in my opinion. But there will be a fight to get there.


I think nearly everybody here belongs to those groups (with regards to Bitcoin).
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500



It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.


This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.

But you can't. Price something in bitcoin without looking at the exchange rate to dollars. (You can do it off the top of your head but lets say in 18 months)

Bitcoin just started the wrong way. If it were used for example trading pictures you made, or something else easily produced by everybody instead of buying somebody a pizza it would have turned out very differently. This is a social issue not a economical or technical one.


I can and I do. Even in currencies that you would not think. But what is the history of money?


This is a social issue not a economical or technical one.


You are right, and in most every social issue there are leaders and followers. How did those funny little pieces of paper with their pyramids and such get to be in our hands? Someone simply decided it to be that way. What is the history of the paper money we use today?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LaSrxtWfgc

How did gold start out as a money?

All you have to do is to decide to use bitcoin as money, and boom, it is money. If you convince everyone you deal with to use it, job is complete. Smiley



For world domination to take effect, it takes 15 to 18 percent adoption:

http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Quote
We all sit at various places at various times on this scale, but what the law of diffusion of innovation tells us is that if you want mass-market success or mass-market acceptance of an idea, you cannot have it until you achieve this tipping point between 15 and 18 percent market penetration, and then the system tips.


And I love asking businesses, "What's your conversion on new business?" And they love to tell you, "Oh, it's about 10 percent," proudly. Well, you can trip over 10 percent of the customers. We all have about 10 percent who just "get it." That's how we describe them, right? That's like that gut feeling, "Oh, they just get it."


The problem is: How do you find the ones that get it before you're doing business with them versus the ones who don't get it? So it's this here, this little gap that you have to close, as Jeffrey Moore calls it, "Crossing the Chasm" -- because, you see, the early majority will not try something until someone else has tried it first.


And these guys, the innovators and the early adopters, they're comfortable making those gut decisions. They're more comfortable making those intuitive decisions that are driven by what they believe about the world and not just what product is available.


How many here are in the "innovators and early adopters" group? If that is you, you will have a bright future, in my opinion. But there will be a fight to get there.

legendary
Activity: 1264
Merit: 1008
If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream and actually succeeded in killing off some fiat currencies, it would make just about every person on this forum incredibly wealthy. The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Speculate on how you think this would affect the world we live in.  What would be different vs today's world?

I would speculate that most geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people will not be able to resist temptations and will not be able to run the marathon, most will be sprinters and will sell out most or all BTC holdings way under 1000$ per BTC to the banksters.



+1

Yes, people will sell bitcoins all the way up.  (duh, for every buy there's a sell)  The demographic will change.    

In the end we will have eliminated a certain amount of fraud from the monetary system but we will still have a bunch of rich assholes making many of the same dumb mistakes as the rich assholes of a century ago.  



hero member
Activity: 780
Merit: 510
Bitcoin - helping to end bankster enslavement.
For Bitcoin to go mainstream, there must be incentive for merchants to take Bitcoin over fiat. Better yet, incentive for merchants to decline payments in fiat, and only accept Bitcoin. Unfortunately only illicit markets serve this functionality at the moment..

In order for the internet to go mainstream, there must be incentives for merchants to run their business on the internet than have a brick an mortar store.  Better yet, incentives for merchants to have no physical store.  Unfortunately only kiddie porn traders use the internet.

NOTE: If you don't know, many NEW businesses where invented by people who saw the POWER of the internent as "brick and mortar" stores lagged behind.  Understand that old style businesses do not need to accept bitcoins, new businesses that use bitcoins because its a useful and powerful tool that gives them tremendous advantage over old style businesses.
sr. member
Activity: 420
Merit: 250
If Bitcoin ever did go completely mainstream and actually succeeded in killing off some fiat currencies, it would make just about every person on this forum incredibly wealthy. The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 

Speculate on how you think this would affect the world we live in.  What would be different vs today's world?

I would speculate that most geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people will not be able to resist temptations and will not be able to run the marathon, most will be sprinters and will sell out most or all BTC holdings way under 1000$ per BTC to the banksters.

depends on whether or not there are other things you can exchange for (of value) at that price.

if we're where we are now, with little to buy and mostly the whole thing just being a medium of speculation, then yeah you're right.
sr. member
Activity: 342
Merit: 250
I'm sure being incredibly wealthy will be nice, but am I the only one who's more excited about the "I-Told-You-So's"? Because those are gonna be epic. Wink
legendary
Activity: 1400
Merit: 1020
Ever played any online game with ingame currency? There are no pricetags in dollars. Well at least used to in Diablo III that is possible too. The difference here is item prices in dollar follow their ingame gold value not verse visa.
That's the point I'm trying to make if bitcoin started as a trading tool for something valuable but not necessarily costly (for example game items or pictures) it would have evolved very differently. It's already too late for that since we have almost half of all bitcoins valued in dollar instead of something fundamental.

I wouldn't say it's too late to change that…
sr. member
Activity: 454
Merit: 250
Technology and Women. Amazing.
It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.

It is more accurate to say that fiat is backed by Bitcoin than to say Bitcoin is backed by fiat. Money, in whatever form, is only as good as what it can be traded for, and it makes more sense to hold Bitcoin than fiat since one suffers from indefinite inflation and the other doesn't. Realistically, neither of them are backed by anything tangible. If America woke up tomorrow knowing what fractional reserve banking is, you'd likely see a financial revolution, and people would stop caring about USD, and instead care about trading resources and units of value that don't suffer from inflation.
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
The only reason you can pick a price for a thing in dollars is that you are surrounded by dollar price tags. If the dollar was gone you'd have to find another way (like looking around at the BTC price tags, yes it's circular, it's already begun).

Ever played any online game with ingame currency? There are no pricetags in dollars. Well at least used to in Diablo III that is possible too. The difference here is item prices in dollar follow their ingame gold value not verse visa.
That's the point I'm trying to make if bitcoin started as a trading tool for something valuable but not necessarily costly (for example game items or pictures) it would have evolved very differently. It's already too late for that since we have almost half of all bitcoins valued in dollar instead of something fundamental.
legendary
Activity: 1246
Merit: 1014
Strength in numbers
It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.


This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.

But you can't. Price something in bitcoin without looking at the exchange rate to dollars. (You can do it off the top of your head but lets say in 18 months)

Bitcoin just started the wrong way. If it were used for example trading pictures you made, or something else easily produced by everybody instead of buying somebody a pizza it would have turned out very differently. This is a social issue not a economical or technical one.

The only reason you can pick a price for a thing in dollars is that you are surrounded by dollar price tags. If the dollar was gone you'd have to find another way (like looking around at the BTC price tags, yes it's circular, it's already begun).
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.


This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.

But you can't. Price something in bitcoin without looking at the exchange rate to dollars. (You can do it off the top of your head but lets say in 18 months)

Bitcoin just started the wrong way. If it were used for example trading pictures you made, or something else easily produced by everybody instead of buying somebody a pizza it would have turned out very differently. This is a social issue not a economical or technical one.
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500

The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people.  


Yeah, that would be a really world altering change!

Bill Gates   $61.3 billion
Mark Zuckerberg  $21 billion
Larry Ellison  $37.9 billion
Sergey Brin  $18.7 billion
Larry Page  $18.7 billion
Carlos Slim  $60.6 billion
Kevin Rose  $160 million
Vlasimir Yevtushenkov  $9 billion
The Late Steve Jobs  $7 billion
Azim Premji  $15.9 billion
Satoru Iwata  $7.8 billion
Masayoshi Son  $7 billion
Jeff Bezos   $8.7 Billlion
Pierre Omidyar  $6.3 Billion
Eric Schmidt  $5.9 Billion
Ronald Burkle  $3.5 Billion
Mark Cuban    $2.6 billion
Peter Thiel   $1.3 billion
Peter Cashmore   $95 million   

and on and on and on and on...........



Where are the ones who really opened up the doors for the ↑above? Dennis Ritchie and Kenneth Thompson? ( http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Kenneth+Thompson+Dennis+Ritchie+unix )


Torvalds is worth maybe $20 million and his stuff is given away for free.


By the way, the richest man, Carlos Slim,  is heavily involved in mobile.
hero member
Activity: 546
Merit: 500
It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.


This is only partly true. I personally would enjoy taking USD out of the equation.

I would accept only bitcoin, period.


All money is based on trust in a system, ability to be recognized, and usability. In this era of transition, digital money is an easy choice to make. Just make it. Smiley


I suggest seeing this → ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LaSrxtWfgc ) and making a final decision.
full member
Activity: 125
Merit: 100
It wouldn't make sense for bitcoin to kill fiat currency since it is entirely backed by fiat currency.

Face it, if you couldn't exchange bitcoins for dollars, not one single person would bother with them.  Just go to any thread where someone is scamming/selling something.  Everything is translated in US dollar value.
sr. member
Activity: 454
Merit: 250
Technology and Women. Amazing.
For Bitcoin to go mainstream, there must be incentive for merchants to take Bitcoin over fiat. Better yet, incentive for merchants to decline payments in fiat, and only accept Bitcoin. Unfortunately only illicit markets serve this functionality at the moment..
newbie
Activity: 50
Merit: 0
If the power of currency creation is taken away from governments and big banks, we will have more freedoms and more limited governments. The intelligent people that take the time to understand Bitcoin and its possibilities earliest will benefit the most, as they should.
legendary
Activity: 1792
Merit: 1047

The new wealthy elite would be roughly 95% male, and dominated by geeks/nerds/libertarians/smart people. 


Yeah, that would be a really world altering change!

Bill Gates   $61.3 billion
Mark Zuckerberg  $21 billion
Larry Ellison  $37.9 billion
Sergey Brin  $18.7 billion
Larry Page  $18.7 billion
Carlos Slim  $60.6 billion
Kevin Rose  $160 million
Vlasimir Yevtushenkov  $9 billion
The Late Steve Jobs  $7 billion
Azim Premji  $15.9 billion
Satoru Iwata  $7.8 billion
Mark Zuckerberg  $4 billion
Larry Page  $17.5 billion
Masayoshi Son  $7 billion
Jeff Bezos   $8.7 Billlion
Pierre Omidyar  $6.3 Billion
Eric Schmidt  $5.9 Billion
Ronald Burkle  $3.5 Billion
Mark Cuban    $2.6 billion
Peter Thiel   $1.3 billion
Peter Cashmore   $95 million   

and on and on and on and on...........

Had to quote you so I could read the text... Thats small!
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