I think the incentives of the bitcoin system to hoard money and the massive bias towards early adopters will be the downfall of bitcoin. All the advantages of anonymity and irreversibility are voided if there is every reason to keep hold of your money and let it increase in value. Several people on HN claim to have hundreds of thousands of bitcoins, making them worth more than 0.1% of the entire economy. Whilst the real world has its (possibly unfair) share of billionaires, the majority of these have come through substantial business innovation. Bitcoin "billionaires" come through luck and early adoption, and in my view it makes it more unfair than our current system.
I think that bitcoin will continue to have some success in areas that wish for privacy, but will not reach the heights that some people predict.
I think that bitcoin will continue to have some success in areas that wish for privacy, but will not reach the heights that some people predict.