Quote from: Marbit on August 03, 2015, 02:56:56 AM

Quote from: BruceSwanson on June 01, 2015, 06:24:07 AM

Without a defining killer app, I am confident that Bitcoin will, in fits and starts, inevitably return to its 2009 levels. It would be pointless to guess how long that process will take; or when that killer app will appear although I am also confident it will appear at some entirely unpredictable point.

I'm easily old enough to remember the very early days of personal computers. I remember a story from The Wall Street Journal in which a reporter interviewed a small-business owner (I think an auto-repair shop) who had bought an Apple II. The reporter asked the man what he thought of his purchase. The man stared glumly at the Apple for a moment and then sourly commented: "The damn thing just sits there."

Exactly. The world was just never going to buy into a command-prompt environment in a really big way. But the Mac came along and then the world began to change. (Be like the Mac! Bill Gates commanded his troops developing Windows 95.) And so it will be with Bitcoin. The world will never buy into it until an environment comes along that makes it easier, safer, and a lot more fun to use. Until then, the price will suffer periodic whale-dumps and then sort of bounce, spurt, and finally just roll along long enough for people to start talking (again) about "Bitcoin's recent price stability." And then yet another whale-dump will splash the water and the retroactively obvious cycle will begin again.

If you decide to go, then you will miss out on the killer app that will send Bitcoin to the moon and beyond. If you decide to stay, then you will watch the value of your stash just ebb away before your eyes. That choice defines your control.

As for me, for now I'm going to stay. But I've got Coinbase and can go in a second. That could happen at any time too.

[Comment added June 23, 2015:

My conclusion: stay. The blockchain itself will be the killer app upon which all other apps and bitcoins' fiat value will depend.]

I understand the point your making, and it makes complete sense to me. I see potential in a couple ventures coming up to disrupt the current crypto-world with security as their prime focus.
I hope we see the killer app as soon as possible, it's much needed, p2p lending sites are becoming a nuisance, scam ridden market, defaulters etc has really made use of bitcoins a little difficult and unsafe.

I agree -- but I'd be especially careful about crypto-world ventures offering security as their prime focus. I got my fingertips singed by Coinport's scam exit. "Everybody's somebody's fool," the song went. Frankly, I wouldn't even fully trust Coinbase.

But that said, I think the crypto-world's Acquired Integrity Deficiency Syndrome will be solved in relatively short order when the BofA's of this world get into bitcoin -- or rather bitcoin's blockchain. But by then the big speculative opportunities in bitcoin prices will be gone. its fractional ups and downs will be breathlessly reported on the Nightly Business Report.