Quote from: riggasconi on January 23, 2011, 12:51:04 AM

Hi guys, I'm glad you're taking time to answer my question on Quora. I just edited it and corrected some details such as the hypothesis of "stealing" BTCs with the hypothesis of double-spending BTCs. Still, I'm very curious about your answer on the first of 4 points, given it looks like the most controversial of all. The other 3 also do concern me, in terms of fluctuations in the value of BTC: how much value will evaporate with government regulation, better forking, community infiltration, etc ? 10%, 30%, 50% ?

Again, the question is here:
http://www.quora.com/Is-Bitcoin-doomed-to-fail

Regarding your 3 other points:

1. Legal: Yes, .gov could make it illegal. However, think through your underlying premise a bit....any currency sufficiently open enough to be a "better" currency than current Central Bank currency would also be pressured via the same tactic. I mean with that premise (.gov will make it illegal), why try at all?

2. Competition: Great, I think competition would be outstanding. I don't think lots of us who support BTC actively think its going to be the "only" currency used. Whats wrong with having 10 active competing currencies? Doesn't that benefit mankind the most anyway? Moreover, due to the nature that BTC is purely electronic, there will always be instantaneous exchanges available to translate between BTC and the new XYZ currency of favor.

3. Infiltration: Again this is a 'so what?' sort of premise. Poor Linus should've never tried to create his own Linux operating system....after all IBM and MSFT may have tried to subjugate the process via its open development process.