Quote from: Roger_Murdock on July 13, 2015, 06:27:42 AM

Are we delusional? Well, maybe. But this dude didn't do a particularly good job of making that case. So he claims that the people who believe that Bitcoin is "going to take over the entire planet," i.e. become the dominant global currency, are "delusional." He also says that "virtual currency is the future. There's no doubt about that. Digital payments are the future. Bitcoin is not that. Bitcoin is a step along the way. It will eventually disintegrate and atrophy. But yes, digital currencies and digital payments are the future" and that "the original genius of Satoshi is the blockchain."

Ok... so there's "no doubt" that "digital currencies are the future" and Satoshi is a "genius"... but Bitcoin is still destined to fail for ... reasons.

So what actual arguments does he advance in support of his claim that Bitcoin will not succeed in becoming a major world currency? Well, his primary argument for why Bitcoin won't become a major world currency in the future is that Bitcoin is currently relatively small with only a few hundred thousand users worldwide. Do I really have to explain why that argument is not terribly persuasive?

And then in response to the question "where did it [Bitcoin] go wrong?" he replies: "the get-rich-quick kids, they got into it and everybody saw a huge profit. You've got people like the Winklevoss twins who are pumping this thing because they're now holding 1% of all the bitcoins. And they're pumping it and saying '40,000 dollars a coin.' Well, the theory of the greater fool comes in here. If you've been fortunate enough to buy that many, the only way you're going to get out is to find greater fools to buy it from you. That's where it went wrong."

Huh? So the problem with Bitcoin is that people are speculating on its future value? I guess every financial asset in the world (including every currency) is fatally flawed. And this bit about the "greater fool" suggests that he fundamentally misunderstands the nature of money. As I've written before:

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In a sense, all money relies on there being a "roughly equal or greater fool." In other words, the only reason anyone ever trades real value for little green pieces of paper or electronic ledger entries is because they hope to, at some point in the future, exchange that money for something they really want, i.e. a good or service that can directly satisfy their wants or needs. But really, there's nothing "foolish" about money. It's a very useful accounting system for facilitating trade by keeping track of value given but not yet received. Where the "digital tulips" crowd gets hung up is on the fact that today's holders of Bitcoin expect it to significantly increase in value, observing that such a thing can't continue forever. And that's true, but it doesn't have to continue forever. Bitcoin isn't a scheme that will collapse without endless exponential growth. Again, it's just a commodity. Its price can go up, down, or sideways (as the past five years have proven in sometimes dramatic fashion). Also, if Bitcoin achieves success as a gold alternative or transactional currency, people will trade real value for Bitcoin with the simple expectation that Bitcoin will hold its value (or increase in value relatively slowly at a rate commensurate with the growth of the underlying economy).

So, to summarize, Bitcoin is doomed to fail because it hasn't yet succeeded in taking over the world and because some people are speculating on its future value.

LOL Solid solid summary conclusion AHAHAHAHAHAH, oh my god. you even transcript-ed a portion of the interview but the wrong portion as well =[ ... he said bitcoin will atrophy and disappear because of the fact of its disappearing and deflationary system .. etc etc =] just my 2 cents

additional note: technically you had transcript-ed the right portion but not all =[ ,
2nd note: after further analysis of your sentence long conclusion and settled my laughing ... I think you have to understand that bitcoin CAN't take over the world as a centralized currency because no country would recognize it , but USD is current reserve currency for many other aspects tho ...

and response to btctrader71 ... ehhh 1 usd = 330,000 satoshis ... so in the future if 1 dollar = .000001 of a satoshi then what happens ?