Quote from: ripper234 on March 30, 2013, 08:47:35 AM

A friend of mine asked me where I think Bitcoin is headed.
I am planning to give a talk about this on the next Israeli Bitcoin Meetup, so I thought I might start gathering my thoughts on a new thread anyway.

TL;DR of the future I believe in, with high probability:

1. Governments keeps pulling shit off like the Cyprus bank crisis.
2. More and more people, wealthy and mid class, learn about Bitcoin and its "promise of salvation from banks". They will not all understand its depth, but they will see more people they trust turn to Bitcoin, and thus will turn to Bitcoin.
3. Eventually it won't be considered a risky investment, but rather a sensible part of every portfolio.
4. Infrastructure will get a lot better, including core Bitcoin and other layers on top of it such as [http://ripple.com/]Ripple[/url].
5. Every major business accepts Bitcoins.
6. Large financial bodies will start insuring Bitcoin companies ... people would be able to deposit BTC in a "bank", and not worry about hakers (like they don't worry much about hackers today).
7. Eventually (this might take 20-30 years), Fiat will just fade away. Future generations won't understand why we even needed so many currencies to begin with. Bitcoin will become the global currency.

The details might turn out a bit different (e.g. the winning currency might not be just Bitcoin, but some combination of Bitcoin and an alt, or perhaps just an alt) ... perhaps something entirely new will come and change (improve) things so much that Bitcoin will only be considered a stepping stone towards that new thing. But the gist will be the same.

I agree with you on most points. I think a very important step for Bitcoin to take is to acquire a solid legal framework so institutional investors are able to join the party. The role of the Bitcoin Foundation is crucial in this aspect. Once this framework is implemented, all bets are off and Bitcoin will be gaining immense traction.

I doubt that an alternative currency will ever be able to surpass Bitcoin, due to the network effect. There might be some layers build on top of Bitcoin, but the Blockchain will remain.