Ask HN: Where do you think Bitcoin will be by 2020?

11 points by rblion ↗ HN
I have a friend who believes it will be $100,000 per BitCoin and his reasoning is 'supply and demand'.

5 comments

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It is a very big world, and many people will not have a single bitcoin but will still use the network as a transfer mechanism, savings vehicle etc. This is not unreasonable.
There will be around 18M bitcoins in 2020. [1][2]

[1] https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Controlled_supply

[2] https://bashco.github.io/

This paper [3] suggests we'll be needing to upgrade to quantum-secure hash functions instead of ECDSA before 2027.

[3] "Quantum attacks on Bitcoin, and how to protect against them" https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.10377

Hopefully, Ethereum will have figured out a Proof of Stake [4] solution for distributed consensus which is as resistant to DDOS as Proof of Work; but with less energy consumption (thereby, unfortunately or fortunately, un-incentivizing clean energy as a primary business goal).

[4] https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Proof-of-Stake-FAQ

I have no idea. My best guess is that it won't be anywhere near where it is now, but whether it will be higher or lower is beyond me.

When Bitcoin options are available, I'm thinking about a straddle - an arrangement that makes money if it goes up or down (enough), and loses if it stays the same.

Note well: That is not financial advice. And I probably won't even do it myself.