And consider these facts:
-Bitcoin is open-source CURRENCY. It is not a PRODUCT being pushed and marketed by powerful elites (with their endless supply of brainwashing guru's) with really really deep pockets.
Right. It doesn't have the force of powerful elites/brainwashing gurus/a country's economy/regulatory bodies/military/etc., etc. backing it up. Those happen to be the very things that lend value to currency, stabilize that value & inspire confidence. Bitcoin has ...
-No one has tried introduce a disruptive tech like Bitcoins before, a tech that fights centralized banking
Not sure what you mean by "disruptive tech," a currency which is introduced into an established economy *on top of* existent currency to *dilute & devalue it*? I'm not sure how that's fundamentally different from printing & pumping more $ bills into the economy -- you haven't introduced anything else of value into the system, have you?
-It's a CURRENCY not backed by a centralized power <- remember this, it is not some smartphone or some piece of operating system, which are just products on top of existing products that the masses are ready to consume... the whole philosophical idea behind Bitcoins is totally foreign to the average citizen who don't understand how their papers are created
Well, see above, +
There are "philosophical ideas" that are too intricate & sublime for the average Joe to understand quickly. And some "philosophical ideas" are simply ... bad, ill-formed drivel. Clumsy mental constructs that fail the test of reality. "Average citizen" doesn't get them 'coz he's smart.
Those facts alone makes life VERY difficult for Bitcoins. So to have Bitcoins where it is today (in a relatively short lifetime of 4 years) I would say Bitcoins is ALREADY a smashing success.
Bitcoin *could* be going through growing pains, or death throes--everything you said seems to point to the latter. Yeah, the success of Bitcoin up 'till now is nothing short of *amazing*. OTOH, a horse that can count up to ten is an amazing horse, not an amazing mathematician. (somebody clever (not i) came up with the horse bit)
That said, i'm a noob, and could be dead-wrong. If nothing else, Bitcoin's wikid' interesting.
[edit] Whoops. reply to
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.2008578See, the thing is, Bitcoins are not backed by a military or force; there's no one on the magnitude of Apple or IBM or whoever else forcing this thing onto people. You'll hear very little about Bitcoins outside of maybe a random blip on a news channel or certain circles of the internet. So if Bitcoin continues to succeed, it will be because average people see the advantage of using it, not because someone forces them (or as you said, brainwashes them) to use it. Now if people are going to use it out of their own accord, and enough people follow suit, then you can see how that would inspire confidence, especially for those who want to try something new and something that's not backed by violence.
It is indeed a disruptive tech. How much would exchange students or domestic workers or others who need money transfers on a regular basis stand to benefit if Bitcoins become popular with that crowd? They can dodge fees from Western Union or wire transfers, hurting WU and other companies involved in the money transfer business. What about Ebay? What if someone set up something like Ebay but instead uses exclusively Bitcoins or other alt currencies? They just have to undercut Ebay/Paypal a little and ensure that they are responsible enough to take on the "escrow"-like role for a small fee.
I don't see how the philosophical ideas of Bitcoins is drivel... perhaps you don't think of them as important or worthy of thought, that doesn't mean that others will follow in your path. Those who do think about those ideas can gamble and potentially gain something in return. The "average joe" doesn't know how their bank operates but that doesn't stop them from putting some money in the bank. Eventually Bitcoins will expand far enough so that even the average person can gain from being in the system and lose out from not.
I can hardly see a situation where Bitcoins will "die" in a fashion where it cannot recover and once again excel. We've seen cases where it looked like Bitcoins was doomed in the past, but after some time, it is back with more vitality than ever.
EDIT: I'm not saying that Bitcoins will succeed; it might succeed but that day might not be as close as some of us like to think. But the point is that, thus far, Bitcoins has come a long way. And I think we should take the time to reflect on that and appreciate its success.
