I think bitcoin is a hint of what currencies could look like in the future. I think there will be a great many attempts to create this sort of crypto-digital currency. Most will fail, but someday may well be enduring success stories. Bitcoins themselves are scarce, but digital currencies like bitcoin are not scarce. Anyone with the right skill set can create a cryptocurrency (not me). Over time the technology will improve, and over time perhaps governments (and other massive organizations) will support them. Looking at the horse-race that is cryptocurrencies, this horse (bitcoin) may well be the favourite at the starting gate, but the odds that any one cyrptocurrency will win this race is low. Thus I think it is fair to say that bitcoin probably won't succeed. The main reason people buy bitcoins is the hope that there will be a big pay off. Bitcoin is gamble. Perhaps that what bitcoin really is, more than anything else, a lottery ticket.

Still it is an intriguing concept, and while I have pointed what I believe to be its disadvantages, in theory it does have great attributes, but I just can't see how the pros outweigh the cons, but I haven't closed my mind yet.

Litecoin and namecoin to mention but two lesser knows. (though namecoin is a system for generating website names, not currency, it uses the same algorithm and in theory could completely replace the centralised authority model which the current Domain Name System the internet is currently running on - imagine, your local network config just needs to point at the namecoin server/shard to do it's DNS requests instead of whatever the current system is doing...)

@spyman, surely it's still worth the gamble with $10 you happen to have lying around...

orathaic, it probably it worth a gamble. I get the impression that bitcoin hasn't peaked yet. If anything interest is growing and growing. There's a thread on Whirlpool.net where people are discussing investing all of their superannuation in bitcoin (which in Australia at present does not seem to be allowable under the law).

www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/12/bitcoin?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/jpmorganjumpsin

Interesting take on the issue.

I like the point that real bitcoin value is not cashed out bitcoin value do to all the fees associated and the effort along the way.

I just invested in both BTC and LTC. Next stop, the future!

^ or bankruptcy. :-)

Just get everyone to invest $10 in bitcoins, then see what happens...

"^ or bankruptcy. :-)"

lol It's not replacing my 401k. It's more of a hobby than an investment strategy.