Bitbet can be used to automate the 18 month countdown. Im sure you can find some rich guys in this forum willing to take the bet and make a lot of money on you being right and us being wrong.
Intrigued, I looked into BitBet. Most sites discussing it are dead, and the place itself has had major ups and downs. I doubt there's any way for me to safely invest enough money to make a speculation on this trend worthwhile. I'm certainly not going to risk an escrow loss as well.
So I'll just watch. I think BC clearly demonstrated its utility over the first 7-8 years, and that's at $400 or maybe $600. All the harangue of the past 9 months will coast down back to that.