April 3rd, 2014 
CryptoBadger The Wall Street Journal posted a short interview with Wences Casares, CEO of bitcoin startup Xapo, regarding his thoughts on the future of bitcoin. Casares predicts that one decade from now, a single bitcoin will be worth somewhere between half a million dollars and a million dollars.
That’s quite the lofty predication, and one that isn’t entirely surprising coming from a guy that runs a business that depends on people buying and holding bitcoins. However, Casares is far from the first person to make such a prediction, and there are fairly rational models that support single bitcoin valuations in the 5 to 6 figure range.
I’ve personally stated many times that I believe the far future (5+ years, in technology) of bitcoin only holds two possibilities: it either fails to catch on and its value drops to zero, or adoption reaches a critical mass and its value skyrockets far beyond where it is today. A scenario where bitcoin simply stagnates and plateaus at a value of several hundred dollars (or a somewhere in the low four figures) is the only unreasonable one to me. I wouldn’t be completely shocked to see a 5- or 6-figure bitcoin price in a decade, just like I wouldn’t be astonished if bitcoin was no longer around. So I suppose a 7-figure valuation isn’t out of the realm of possibility, either.
Regardless of what happens in the future, it’ll probably be interesting to look back at the days of the ~$500 bitcoin.
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I would love it if this actually happened, but I think it’s more likely that Bitcoin ultimately doesn’t catch on enough.
Also, I think the CEO of Xapo almost *has* to say this, in an attempt to up sales. I’m not convinced he really believes his own words.
I would LOVE to be wrong about all of that, though.
Does anyone here think that you will be able to walk into a McDonalds one day and purchase a hamburger with crypto? I honestly don’t ever see that happening. Cryptos are cool and you can make a buck off them here and there, but I don’t see it as a future of currency. The U.S. Government does’t want us printing money from home which is essentially what we are doing.
I’d love to be wrong, but I have a feeling that the few BTC I have won’t make me a millionaire in 10 years.
Explain to be exactly how you’re “just printing Bitcoin at home” because I would love to know 🙂
*me
What is there to understand? We, that have mining rigs, essentially have a printing press at home. We find coins that are worth “x” amount of dollars/BTC on the market and trade them in for money/goods.
There is no paper trail, no taxes (yet!), or regulation. You really think that the U.S. government likes this idea??
Is it impossible? No … Is it likely? No, again (unfortunately)… But this doesn’t mean the future of the Bitcoin will toil in uncertainty either. The $1 Million scenario would be a vision of large scale economic weakness in centralized banking (Think Cypress Monetary Crisis times 1,000,000) along with a widespread network of retailers and merchants who barter in Bitcoin. The next five years will be critical for Bitcoin’s future, While i am not in favor of centralization, there is much hard work that must be done to promote a singular vision that takes Bitcoin out of the dark corners black market and out of the hands of drug dealers, terrorists and arms dealers. There needs to be a reform of exchanges and the Bitcoin community must remove the emotional or predisposed idea of the Bitcoin being the vehicle an egalitarian dream. The fact is it is money … and if we want it to stabilize and gain value. We would be wise to listen to the objections , remain open mined and be willing to change …
Bitcoin’s future is unknown to all of us.
However, we can make some predictions based on our current knowledge and understanding.
As long as we have the internet, then we will have Crypto-currencies.
Bitcoin, being the first, and the most widely known will probably survive, unless some technical weakness is found in the code.
I am sure that the NSA, FBI, CIA, GCHQ etc. have got all their best heads working on how to take Bitcoin down.
The fact that they have not succeeded to date, inspires me with great confidence.
We live in economically turbulent times. The world financial system is close to melt-down and it is being kept alive by Central Bank money printing. Of course, the “main-stream” media will tell us all that there is no problem with our economies, that GDP is growing and that full employment is just around the corner.
Many people believe this, ( after all, it said so in the newspaper and on TV ! ).
However, a great many people do not believe this. Many people understand the precarious position that the world financial system is in. People who understand these dangers are getting their assets into tangibles, and away from fiat currency.
Few of us were there in pre-war Germany to witness Hyperinflation, where for example, a sackfull of banknotes was needed to buy a loaf of bread. But there are some who do remember such times, and they know that history can repeat itself.
This is why Gold, Silver, Diamonds, commodities etc. are all sought after today. People are looking for items of intrinsic value.
Money itself has no value.
It is simply a means of exchange, and it is totally reliant on confidence.
If that confidence is lost, then money has no value whatsoever.
Crypto, especially Bitcoin is seen as a store of value because it cannot be adulterated or manipulated by central governments. A Bitcoin is like an ounce of Gold. You can do what you want with it, but at the end of the day, it is still a Bitcoin. It is this independence which gives it its strength. It is the fact that it cannot be manipulated by unscrupulous politicians that inspires confidence in it.
As more and more people come to realise that central government and the big financial institutions are not working for the benefit of the population at large, then confidence in the banknotes that they issue will also fall.
I believe that within the next 5 yrs we will see trading at 1 BTC = $5000 to $10000.
Now that is not going to make you a millionaire, because in 5yrs time you will probably be paying $10 for a hamburger in McDonald’s
It all comes down to purchasing power. The power of the $ will decrease through inflation, ( hyper-inflation ? ) but BTC will grow in value.
Sure, we are all having a bit of fun right now, mining and swaping, even spending our crypto, but in a few years, what started out as fun, will morph into something a lot more serious. Its a bit like growing up. In your teenage years you just need money for beer. As you get older and have mouths to feed, then you need money for a house, for food, utility bills etc. If you are lucky you might still manage a beer or two.
So it will be very worthwhile to have a few BTC squirreled away for that rainy day.
What concerns me for crypto’s future is that is mostly what people are doing with it… squirreling it away.