Quote from: nottm28 on June 25, 2013, 11:10:18 PM

Quote from: Severian on June 25, 2013, 11:05:06 PM

I have great faith in Bitcoin's concept and the crypto behind it. I have no faith in the majority of Bitcoin's users and developers to have an inkling about who and what they're up against.

me too

I as well. Ironically, Severian and a number of others in his/her class are a big part of the reason for this...I hate to say.

To clarify slightly, I feel that most of the developers with the possibly exception of Garzik are under-estimating the type of pressure that can and likely will be brought to bear against Bitcoin as/if it continues on it's present trajectory.

From the user's perspective, I think that relatively few fully conceptualize the technical issues associated with trying to operate at scale, and particularly if there is any sort of coordinated technical attack. Most Joe Sixpack types have way to much confidence that the future environment will look a lot like the present and/or place confidence in the types of organizations who have the technical and political power to scale up making it A-OK-ish with them if the solution is centralized.

Again though, I have confidence in the blockchain itself and my position within it. Come what may, I expect with a fair degree of confidence that it will have residual value regardless of what happens to messaging aspect of the solution. How much value is difficult to know. And if I am wrong about this, a lot of scumbags and thieves will also end up getting burnt so there would be a silver lining to an unfortunate outcome.