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Let me clarify my position: the utility of decentralized digital currencies on society is so enormous that it is inevitable that they will succeed. Decentralized digital financial transactions are an invention as big as the Internet.

Is it Bitcoin that will succeed, or some other cryptocurrency? I don't know, but it has a good shot at it because it has the first-mover advantage and benefits from network effect.

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By the same utility argument there should be no nuclear weapons, an all out push for zero emissions energy, and world peace, but don't hold your breath. There are existing, very powerful stakeholders such as the governments and militaries of numerous world powers who would far prefer that financial transactions not be anonymous. Tech folk sometimes forget that their bodies live in meat space, not cyberspace, and whoever controls the guys with weapons (i.e., controls police and armies) controls meat space.

The difference being of course: nobody has a clue on how to achieve no nuclear weapons, 100% zero emmission energy, world peace, etc. So you might wish it, but it just not going to happen right now.

But Bitcoin is a known solution demonstrating how to implement a decentralized digital currency. It is working. Today. So the utility it has, and the impact it is about to make on society is enormous.

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