In 1887, Ludwik Lazarus Zamenhof created an international auxiliary language known as Esperanto. Zamenhof's idea was to achieve global peace by unifying everyone under one only language, politically neutral and easy to learn. Nowadays, the most optimistic statistics say that 2 million people speak it around the world. Of course, the idea of Zamenhof to achieve global piece was a complete disaster, and nearly 130 years after its creation, the Esperanto is way behind the most spoken languages, for example, it isn't even in the top 30 languages with the biggest number of articles in Wikipedia.

In the 21st century, someone decided to somehow follow Zamenhof's steps, only this time in the economic field. The result was the bitcoin, a currency that doesn't depend on governments nor central transmitters, call them banks if you want. It is still relatively new, and as such is considered as experimental software. However, the entities that pioneered it have already suffered big robberies which have devalued the bitcoin by more than half, compromising its survival.

In a world where technology evolves very quickly, where the society is almost always connected to the net, the bitcoin seems to be the future to a unified society, without having to deal with foreign exchanges (something the euro, as a physical currency, has already tried, with debatable success) and, the most important thing, without having to deal with the banks. Well, it looks like the success should be guaranteed.

But the reason I cited the example of the artificial language Esperanto is because of a key question: does the society at large want to be unified? Can all countries really come to an agreement, with all the conflicts that are still going on, and that unfortunately seem to be on the rise? And, specifically with the bitcoin, in a society where the vast majority seems to look more for their own benefits rather than helping the world be a better place, do you really think the banks (better said, the bankers) will give up their business? 

My answer is a resounding NO. The bitcoin seems to be doomed to trip with the same stone as did the Esperanto, a stone called current world. But maybe I'm being too gloomy, and I've lost faith in that the world, the society, each and every one of us, can really change.

The Bitcoin has been falling for a while and doesn't look like it could ever rise to the point that it was before in terms of value, but I think that it can last for a really long time. It probably will collapse, but in many many years.

Well it's gaining traction again as several more legit websites are taking bitcoin as a payment option. As long as people keep accepting it as a currency, the more traction they will get as a legitimate business. Although if they do start getting big, some of the larger countries are probably going to start trying to strong arm them as it's a possible way around the tax structure similar to the old Swiss Bank Accounts.

Jordanv78 : I heard that Microsoft has started accepting Bitcoins for some services now, so Microsoft kind of serves as the mold for Bitcoin because I feel that as long as they accept BTC, it won't fail, but once they stop, the value would drop drastically.

zanderlex : Reddit and Wordpress accept bitcoin and those are large sites. As well as places like overstock.com just to name a few off the top of my head. Although I personally won't be running to invest in bitcoin, it does seem to be gaining more traction than people expected.

Jordanv78 : Think you may ever invest in btc at any point? I never invested, but I have done a bunch of programs to get a ton.

As more and more shops accept it, it can only gain in popularity. Sure, it's wildly yoyoing at the moment, but don't forget it's been online for only five years so people still aren't familiar with it. Plus, since there is a finite number of bitcoins to be mined, it will withstand inflation better than any fiat currency

I've got to be honest.... I don't know much about bitcoins, but I've never been terribly impressed with them.  My husband seems to be of the opposite opinion and think of them as the next really big thing.  This is probably just due to my naivete about them and the fact that they aren't very popular.  Whatever the case, I don't really have any interest in them.

It certainly seems that bitcoins possess immense potential, especially as society nowadays is seeing a transition towards technology, and digital transactions. I do think that society nowadays is not at a stage where unification, whether in the form of a digital currency or a language can indeed occur, but my opinion is that bitcoins are a product of mankind's ambition. Whilst i've never taken much interest in bitcoins myself, i find that they have immense potential and can definitely become something big in the future.

To be honest guys, I've wanting to learn how to dig up bitcoins for quite a while now.
The current issue I find is the following:

  Bitcoins are not accepted everywhere, you have to find a bitcoin bank that will allow you to then convert them into actual money
  Bitcoins are now days the criminal coin, with this I mean that in the Deep web is the only accepted currency, so how long will it be till they become illegal?
  Bitcoins have for them there whopping value. A bitcoin now days is worth as much as 500 dollars, which is a significant amount taking into account that they can be farmed with the correct knowledge and equipment.

So please, reply with your opinions on this.

All hail the Dogecoin. TO THE MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!! (I actually am pretty fond of this currency and the community, although I don't deal in Doge as much as I should).

Joking aside, I think the Bitcoin will stick around. Although it may never achieve the traction it deserves, it has received a lot of positive press. People who know a bit about Bitcoin tend to view it at least fairly favorably, imo, at least from what I've heard. I love the concept, and I hope that if Bitcoin falls, a similarly implemented but more stable currency will take its place.

Bitcoins are very difficult to earn, put a big toll on your video card to mine (I don't understand why the mining programs use the graphics cards) and take forever to earn 1 coin.

I can't see this as a future currency. It really has no actual value, its just arbitrarily given a value with nothing to really back it up, like the US dollar. (lol)
Right now, I think its a hyped up "currency" that is destined to fail.

The Bitcoin, I never really knew what the Bitcoin really was until I start hearing about it in the news a whole lot more last year. Although to my personal standpoint with the whole Bitcoin issue is that they want to merge all the currencies in the entire world into one mega currency called "Bitcoin". I think it's good at the same time, not so good.

If you look at an example of all the countries that their currency is the Euro, although most of Europe uses the Euro, and it's a lot more easier to use because countries in Europe are a little small and kind of formed an union with one another, but at the same time, if you count with all the taxes you have to pay when you have to ship it outside your country, that kind of defeats the purpose on having a bigger currency to my opinion. I think it a country just manage to keep their current currency, then it won't really be much of an issue and you can switch your currency to the country's currency that you're living in, I sure know you can be able to do that.

As for the whole Bitcoin situation going on, I think it's more in likely going to flop and be pretty much forgotten in the past, because even if you order things online, you'll be using your country's currency, no matter where the package is coming from, no matter if it's from the Dollar zone (anyone of them), the Euro zone, the Pound zone), the Yen zone, or any other currency zones in the whole world. So, for Bitcoin taking over will seem pretty pointless to my point of view. Who knows, I might be wrong though and it might make the world a better place. We won't truly know on what's in store with the Bitcoin.

I'm going out on a ledge and just explaining what I think.

Since I'm a Christian, and I view current events from a Biblical standpoint, I think this Bitcoin stuff is all bad. Let me explain.

See, I believe that there will be an end to this world, and we are living in the end times of this world. And in the Bible is portrayed the end times by a system of a one-world government, and a one-world currency.

I think the Bitcoin is ushering in the means of one-world currency.

Just my thought on the matter.

tRIUNE : You don't have to be Christian to believe the Bitcoin can lead the world to an end. In the 1990s, Germany's currency, the German mark, was so devaluated that a beer would cost 4 million marks. By economical logic, if this happens with a one-world currency, we're done for. But as many people said before, the Bitcoin will never stand alone as the only currency in the world, because the governments will surely restrain some of the properties it has right now once its use becomes wide enough. So don't worry, no end of the world in sight.

EX Palen : That is true, the German Mark was just like every other currency prior to World War I, and after that war, the Treaty of Versailles totally destroy Germany, although Hitler did make Germany's economy slightly better, but then World War II broke out (all thanks to him), then after that war, it destroyed Germany economy even more, and it takes a whole lot of German Marks to buy even one thing, and that's why when the Euro was invented, Germany quickly hopped in.

So, I think it's good to have one currency, but at the same time, it could be a bad thing, let's see on how the Euro goes first before we switch to a one-currency economy.

Man, dandelions are pretty!

IgorBird122 : How the Euro goes? As an European, let me answer that for you: absolutely bad.

True, since all Europe is united, if one country is having a hard time, the continent as a whole can lend a hand. The fact is: could that hard time be caused by the Euro and the change of currencies in each country? Personally, I think yes. I've seen the change from our old Peseta to the Euro, and personally I would love to go back to those times (also the coins were lovely, I still keep some as a memento of the 20th century).

The problem isn't uniting everyone under one same currency. The problem are equivalences. That's what made the Euro fall in disgrace. Back then, many people was confused about how the new equivalences were, and still nowadays many people does the equivalence to better understand economical issues. I don't see Europe still adapted to the Euro, and with new countries acquiring it every year that passes, I don't see the Bitcoin implanted in Europe, being extremely optimistic, in less than a few decades.

Just like any novel ideas, it has its ups and downs. However, unlike Esperanto, bitcoin has more substance to it. It developed like other languages, i.e. spontaneously.

Unlike regular currencies, it has a fixed number of units, keeping it from inflation. With more and more businesses accepting bitcoins, its future actually looks bright.

as you said the bankers and other "fat cats" the middle man the money and make a lot of money doing it won't give up their positions and i highly doubt every one would use it kind of making the whole system flawed. i do have a few questions

what is backing this money if not a goverment or any such establishment? what is making the money have any value? how exactly does this money work is it paper coins or virtual? what current economic debt not just individual but from country to country do you think they will be willing to forget money owed? i really don't understand how this whole system works in general!

my conclusion it's doomed just like that language