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What most people do not realise is that it does not matter if China or the US or any country bans or criminalises bitcoin. All it takes is for 1 small country (

What most people do not realise is that it does not matter if China or the US or any country bans or criminalises bitcoin. All it takes is for 1 small country (like Singapore) to embrace bitcoin for it to be worth $1,000,000 a coin. The first country that wises up to bitcoin, starts investing in mining and other bitcoin infrastructure in a big way, and legitimises its mainstream usage as a currency, is going to reap tremendous benefits. And it's only a matter of time before this happens.

josephagoss 13y ago
At $1,000,000/btc this would mean all the Bitcoins would be worth twice the value of all the gold ever mined. Seems too optimistic.
- ankitoberoi 13y ago
  True, very unlikely but still, not impossible. Considering if bitcoin goes mainstream the demand it will generate can easily take it above $100,000 at least. To give you an example, not a single non-techie friend of mine owns a bitcoin, even today.
  - cstejerean 13y ago
    If bitcoin goes really mainstream why wouldn't litecoin and others go mainstream too? There is a finite supply of bitcoins but a potentially infinite supply of alternative crypto currencies to meet whatever demand is created by the cryptocurrency idea going mainstream. There is no need for a single currency like bitcoin to dominate and grow unbounded.
    - ankitoberoi 13y ago
      If bitcoin goes mainstream, it would definitely affect other crypto currencies too, but very little. Others may not necessarily go mainstream. The reason why I say this is since: 1) Bitcoin alone has enough liquidity to handle $100,000/coin or even more and this would not affect its usability as people can still use the smallest denomination, a satoshi. So the finite supply is not a concern at even $1m/coin. 2) Global acceptance will have an important part in making it go mainstream. Right now, online/office vendors have started accepting bitcoins but thats too little, just like how paypal was in its initial days and compared to this, very very less business are accepting other crypto currencies. I know a lot of business who plan to start accepting crypto currencies soon and all of them mean bitcoin. So, why would other crypto currencies go mainstream when you can't actually use them around the Internet? 3) No one would mind buying bitcoins at a higher price, eliminating the need for other crypto currencies. This is so because all vendors peg the bitcoin with USD or some other currency. So if bitcoin prices soar, it really doesn't affect the new buyer much.
    - thisiswrong 13y ago
      You're correct. Litecoin will go mainstream - just like bitcoin. Believe it or not but bitcoin only represents 75 percent of the cryptocurrency market [1] But people should'nt forget that bitcoin has thousands of GigaHashes per second pointed at the network and litecoin (nor any other altcoin) doesn't. Therefore, in the short term future (next 3-5 yrs) I would says that 25 percent of of the market cap will be altcoins and 75 percent will be bitcoin. [1] http://coinmarketcap.com/ http://coinmarketcap.com/
- neals 13y ago
  I once dared to dream of $100 bitcoin. Everybody laughed, nobody wanted to hear about my internet monies on parties. I think that everything is possible now.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    That's the very mindset on the onset of every bubble.
- NateDad 13y ago
  AFAIK, there isn't a single store in the United States that will let you buy anything with gold. There's several places that'll let you buy stuff with bitcoin. Double the value of all the gold ever mined actually seems like a pretty reasonable estimate. Not trying to say btc will hit $1m... but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility, especially if it really takes off, which seems more and more likely.
  - coldtea 13y ago
    >AFAIK, there isn't a single store in the United States that will let you buy anything with gold. There's several places that'll let you buy stuff with bitcoin. Yes, until they are regulated. Besides, there are far more places and people that will deal with you in gold directly, than with bitcoin.
- jasonlingx 13y ago
  > At $1,000,000/btc this would mean all the Bitcoins would be worth twice the value of all the gold ever mined. Seems too optimistic. hell, $1/btc seemed too optimistic ;)
coldtea 13y ago
>What most people do not realise is that it does not matter if China or the US or any country bans or criminalises bitcoin. All it takes is for 1 small country (like Singapore) to embrace bitcoin for it to be worth $1,000,000 a coin. Not really. That 1 small country can be pushed diplomatically until it gives up on Bitcoin all too easily. As for the "$1,000,000" thing, LOL, it seems the tulip/gold rush/quick bucks from nothing dream will never dissapear.
- jasonlingx 13y ago
  > Not really. That 1 small country can be pushed diplomatically until it gives up on Bitcoin all too easily. The fact that tax havens like Monaco, Bahamas, Switzerland, etc still thrive prove that this is not the case. > As for the "$1,000,000" thing, LOL, it seems the tulip/gold rush/quick bucks from nothing dream will never dissapear. It might be worth considering that bitcoin has already multiplied in value by 1000 times several times, from $0.001 to $1 to $1,000.
  - cstejerean 13y ago
    That is not argument for further 1000x multiplication. By definition, an asset in a speculative bubble has experienced rapid growth in its past. That doesn't mean that such growth will continue into the future.
    - jasonlingx 13y ago
      > That is not argument for further 1000x multiplication. I never made that argument. I am simply stating facts that one might want to consider before prophesizing with absolute certainty that a bitcoin will never be worth a million dollars.
      - JamesArgo 13y ago
        The numbers don't work out for 1000x multiplication, at least without vast inflation of the dollar. You would need a very large percentage of the world using bitcoin daily to get that type of return. One small country isn't going to do it.
threeseed 13y ago
Are you serious ? What country is going to deliberately undermine their own existing currency by dedicating taxpayers dollars to mining a speculative currency used substantially for illegal activities. And in the process basically throw their own businesses and people under the bus. I think you are frankly quite delusional if you think ANY government is going to do this.
- oleganza 13y ago
  Probably, no state would do that directly, but what some state could do is too notice unstoppable spread of BTC in their territory for some reason (e.g. because of their own fiscal policies like in Argentina) and instead of waiting to become irrelevant, fight, lose all karma and all funding, could develop a guideline to save the face and satisfy greedy interests of the officials. They can do a "special economic zone" or simply develop simple regulation and taxation terms. If they aren't going to stop that thing, they can profit off it over some extended period of time instead of fighting and quickly losing everything. Of course, it all depends on actual power structures and level of psychopathy. Good thing, Bitcoin does not care. If there's a fight against it, it'll only slow things down, not stop the process completely.
- stefan_kendall 13y ago
  Unless you're a country bound to a currency controlled by another nation. Say the Euro collapses. There are many countries who may suddenly decide it makes sense to switch to a new currency. Some may consider BitCoin. In the historical case of Europe, this is unlikely, but it could happen elsewhere. BitCoin might be a harbor in the face of runaway inflation. Even the swings of BitCoin pale in comparison to periods of massive inflation in several countries.
  - merloen 13y ago
    > BitCoin might be a harbor in the face of runaway inflation. Even the swings of BitCoin pale in comparison to periods of massive inflation in several countries. It might be, but there's no inflation on the horizon anywhere. The Euro is edging ever closer to deflation.
- 13y ago
recuter 13y ago
If you consider for a moment how governments mishandle regular currencies you'd realize that there is no country of any size (other than possibly Sealand) whose bureaucracy would be able to cope. In other words, nobody will risk their career to push for it even if they thought it was a good idea.
merloen 13y ago
If Singapore chooses bitcoin, what will happen to the SGD? If it will be phased out, who will buy the current owners of SGD bitcoins? If not, what are the advantages of adopting bitcoin?
brazzy 13y ago
Actually, that $1,000,000/BTC rate is the biggest obstacle to this scenario and pretty much guarantees that it will never happen: do you really think any government with with even a tiny shred of responsibility OR self-interest will tie their economy to a currency of which about 1/3rd is held by less than 50 completely anonymous people?
- jasonlingx 13y ago
  Any country that is not the USA controls only a tiny fraction of money supply in the world anyway. Going all in to bitcoin mining would actually increase their control of money supply, especially for the first movers.
- ljlolel 13y ago
  Are you joking? Switzerland? The world works that way today? You know who owns the 35 trillion dollars in offshore accounts?
Zigurd 13y ago
I always thought it would be interesting if Venezuela started accepting bitcoin for oil.
- thisiswrong 13y ago
  Or if El Salvador and Panama dropped the USD as their currency and used BTC.

josephagoss 13y ago

At $1,000,000/btc this would mean all the Bitcoins would be worth twice the value of all the gold ever mined. Seems too optimistic.

ankitoberoi 13y ago
True, very unlikely but still, not impossible. Considering if bitcoin goes mainstream the demand it will generate can easily take it above $100,000 at least. To give you an example, not a single non-techie friend of mine owns a bitcoin, even today.
- cstejerean 13y ago
  If bitcoin goes really mainstream why wouldn't litecoin and others go mainstream too? There is a finite supply of bitcoins but a potentially infinite supply of alternative crypto currencies to meet whatever demand is created by the cryptocurrency idea going mainstream. There is no need for a single currency like bitcoin to dominate and grow unbounded.
  - ankitoberoi 13y ago
    If bitcoin goes mainstream, it would definitely affect other crypto currencies too, but very little. Others may not necessarily go mainstream. The reason why I say this is since: 1) Bitcoin alone has enough liquidity to handle $100,000/coin or even more and this would not affect its usability as people can still use the smallest denomination, a satoshi. So the finite supply is not a concern at even $1m/coin. 2) Global acceptance will have an important part in making it go mainstream. Right now, online/office vendors have started accepting bitcoins but thats too little, just like how paypal was in its initial days and compared to this, very very less business are accepting other crypto currencies. I know a lot of business who plan to start accepting crypto currencies soon and all of them mean bitcoin. So, why would other crypto currencies go mainstream when you can't actually use them around the Internet? 3) No one would mind buying bitcoins at a higher price, eliminating the need for other crypto currencies. This is so because all vendors peg the bitcoin with USD or some other currency. So if bitcoin prices soar, it really doesn't affect the new buyer much.
  - thisiswrong 13y ago
    You're correct. Litecoin will go mainstream - just like bitcoin. Believe it or not but bitcoin only represents 75 percent of the cryptocurrency market [1] But people should'nt forget that bitcoin has thousands of GigaHashes per second pointed at the network and litecoin (nor any other altcoin) doesn't. Therefore, in the short term future (next 3-5 yrs) I would says that 25 percent of of the market cap will be altcoins and 75 percent will be bitcoin. [1] http://coinmarketcap.com/ http://coinmarketcap.com/
neals 13y ago
I once dared to dream of $100 bitcoin. Everybody laughed, nobody wanted to hear about my internet monies on parties. I think that everything is possible now.
- coldtea 13y ago
  That's the very mindset on the onset of every bubble.
NateDad 13y ago
AFAIK, there isn't a single store in the United States that will let you buy anything with gold. There's several places that'll let you buy stuff with bitcoin. Double the value of all the gold ever mined actually seems like a pretty reasonable estimate. Not trying to say btc will hit $1m... but it doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility, especially if it really takes off, which seems more and more likely.
- coldtea 13y ago
  >AFAIK, there isn't a single store in the United States that will let you buy anything with gold. There's several places that'll let you buy stuff with bitcoin. Yes, until they are regulated. Besides, there are far more places and people that will deal with you in gold directly, than with bitcoin.
jasonlingx 13y ago
> At $1,000,000/btc this would mean all the Bitcoins would be worth twice the value of all the gold ever mined. Seems too optimistic. hell, $1/btc seemed too optimistic ;)

coldtea 13y ago

>What most people do not realise is that it does not matter if China or the US or any country bans or criminalises bitcoin. All it takes is for 1 small country (like Singapore) to embrace bitcoin for it to be worth $1,000,000 a coin. Not really. That 1 small country can be pushed diplomatically until it gives up on Bitcoin all too easily. As for the "$1,000,000" thing, LOL, it seems the tulip/gold rush/quick bucks from nothing dream will never dissapear.

jasonlingx 13y ago
> Not really. That 1 small country can be pushed diplomatically until it gives up on Bitcoin all too easily. The fact that tax havens like Monaco, Bahamas, Switzerland, etc still thrive prove that this is not the case. > As for the "$1,000,000" thing, LOL, it seems the tulip/gold rush/quick bucks from nothing dream will never dissapear. It might be worth considering that bitcoin has already multiplied in value by 1000 times several times, from $0.001 to $1 to $1,000.
- cstejerean 13y ago
  That is not argument for further 1000x multiplication. By definition, an asset in a speculative bubble has experienced rapid growth in its past. That doesn't mean that such growth will continue into the future.
  - jasonlingx 13y ago
    > That is not argument for further 1000x multiplication. I never made that argument. I am simply stating facts that one might want to consider before prophesizing with absolute certainty that a bitcoin will never be worth a million dollars.
    - JamesArgo 13y ago
      The numbers don't work out for 1000x multiplication, at least without vast inflation of the dollar. You would need a very large percentage of the world using bitcoin daily to get that type of return. One small country isn't going to do it.

threeseed 13y ago

Are you serious ? What country is going to deliberately undermine their own existing currency by dedicating taxpayers dollars to mining a speculative currency used substantially for illegal activities. And in the process basically throw their own businesses and people under the bus. I think you are frankly quite delusional if you think ANY government is going to do this.

oleganza 13y ago
Probably, no state would do that directly, but what some state could do is too notice unstoppable spread of BTC in their territory for some reason (e.g. because of their own fiscal policies like in Argentina) and instead of waiting to become irrelevant, fight, lose all karma and all funding, could develop a guideline to save the face and satisfy greedy interests of the officials. They can do a "special economic zone" or simply develop simple regulation and taxation terms. If they aren't going to stop that thing, they can profit off it over some extended period of time instead of fighting and quickly losing everything. Of course, it all depends on actual power structures and level of psychopathy. Good thing, Bitcoin does not care. If there's a fight against it, it'll only slow things down, not stop the process completely.
stefan_kendall 13y ago
Unless you're a country bound to a currency controlled by another nation. Say the Euro collapses. There are many countries who may suddenly decide it makes sense to switch to a new currency. Some may consider BitCoin. In the historical case of Europe, this is unlikely, but it could happen elsewhere. BitCoin might be a harbor in the face of runaway inflation. Even the swings of BitCoin pale in comparison to periods of massive inflation in several countries.
- merloen 13y ago
  > BitCoin might be a harbor in the face of runaway inflation. Even the swings of BitCoin pale in comparison to periods of massive inflation in several countries. It might be, but there's no inflation on the horizon anywhere. The Euro is edging ever closer to deflation.
13y ago

recuter 13y ago

If you consider for a moment how governments mishandle regular currencies you'd realize that there is no country of any size (other than possibly Sealand) whose bureaucracy would be able to cope. In other words, nobody will risk their career to push for it even if they thought it was a good idea.

merloen 13y ago

If Singapore chooses bitcoin, what will happen to the SGD? If it will be phased out, who will buy the current owners of SGD bitcoins? If not, what are the advantages of adopting bitcoin?

brazzy 13y ago

Actually, that $1,000,000/BTC rate is the biggest obstacle to this scenario and pretty much guarantees that it will never happen: do you really think any government with with even a tiny shred of responsibility OR self-interest will tie their economy to a currency of which about 1/3rd is held by less than 50 completely anonymous people?

jasonlingx 13y ago
Any country that is not the USA controls only a tiny fraction of money supply in the world anyway. Going all in to bitcoin mining would actually increase their control of money supply, especially for the first movers.
ljlolel 13y ago
Are you joking? Switzerland? The world works that way today? You know who owns the 35 trillion dollars in offshore accounts?

Zigurd 13y ago

I always thought it would be interesting if Venezuela started accepting bitcoin for oil.

thisiswrong 13y ago
Or if El Salvador and Panama dropped the USD as their currency and used BTC.