andreasma

It is actually very difficult to bootstrap a successful currency that is necessary to back the security of the network. It took 3 years for bitcoin to evolve to a level where attacks against the consensus algorithm became very difficult.

Bitcoin has a tremendous "network effect", in my opinion, which may give it an insurmountable early-mover advantage. In technology it is often not the best technology that "wins", but the one that achieves broad enough adoption and recognition early enough. Good enough beats best if deployed broadly.

To experience the future of money. To gain a glimpse into an exciting technology. To learn about how money could be in the future and also become aware of how limited money and banks are today.

For the "other 6 billion" who don't enjoy international, control-free banking as we do, bitcoin represents an opportunity to become part of a global economy which up till now did not exist. For those users, bitcoin is more than just a curiosity, it might be a doorway to connect to the world.

It's still far too early. Bitcoin is at the same stage as the Internet in 1992-1993. At that time, it took UNIX command-line skills to send email. No way near ready for mainstream adoption.

However, while it took almost 20 years from the day I sent my first email until my mom used her new iPad to send her first email, bitcoin is likely to be adopted on a much more accelerated schedule. After all, there is no need to deploy much infrastructure - you can just download an app.

Overall, I expect people will be surprised by how fast the technology and adoption evolve, rather than the opposite.

There are many competing proposals to address scalability. For the most part I don't think scale is an issue right now, though it might become an issue quite quickly.

Bitcoin's consensus algorithm requires a very conservative approach to change, so I certainly think it is best to solve problems when they are actually problems and not before. Optimization and scaling should be done much later in the lifecycle of a technology, right now we're in the experimentation stage.

However, it is important to continue to research possible optimizations and make sure that no design limitations are introduced.

I am very excited to see how Reddit uses the technology of de-centralized currency. Ryan is a smart guy and reddit is a great testbed for this tech