It takes roughly 10 minutes to mine and distribute each new Bitcoin.
If it took 10 minutes of massive computer power, plus huge electricity costs, to verify every transaction at my bank, it would be bankrupt in one business day.
Besides personal financial anonymity, I see no other advantages to a Bitcoin economy.
People keep telling me I need to read this book or that book.
If someone like me cannot understand a financial system without reading entire books, that is a huge barrier to general acceptance.
Bitcoin has dropped 10% in value in the last week. What happens if it drops 25%, and "Pool Miners" start turning off their hugely expensive, transaction verifying, computers?
To my eye, this looks like a "Last Man To The Exit Door" enterprise.
Specifically - the only winners will be the guys who convert their Bitcoins to fiat currency - BEFORE the whole thing stops.
Yup—one major problem with Bitcoin is that anyone who owns any now has a conflict of interest if they recommend it to anyone else.
That is one reason I cannot take the Bitcoin pushers seriously.
Time will tell.