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Lerc

It seems to be following a repeating pattern.

* Bitcoin builds infrastructure.

* People notice bitcoin isn't going away

* Media says Bitcoin will make everyone Gazillionairres

* Bitcoin skyrockets until infrastructure comes under strain.

* Something involved with bitcoin breaks

* Media(not neccisarrily the same media) says Bitcoin is all over, and everybody will lose their bitoin, their home, and their dog.

* Price drops.

* Bitcoin builds infrastructure.

* People notice bitcoin isn't going away

We seem be going into the build infrastructure phase. That's where genuine value actually gets added, and doesn't actually stop at the other times, It's just when the craziness is going on it's hard to see from the noise.

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You miss many elements with this summary, not the least of which is Bitcoin reaching a point of maturity with regards to regulation and compliance. To a large extent, that's happening next week in DC.

Yeah, It wasn't meant to be a detailed analysis.

Having said that, I'd be inclined to put regulation and compliance milestones under the heading of infrastructure.

If you mention Bitcoin now, People also don't assume you're a crazy Libertarian buying drugs off the internet (your parent's might still). In a funny sort of way that's infrastructure growth too.

That's true and a good point: mass market familiarity is certainly an asset. I'm not sure I'd call it infrastructure though, more like an environmental factor. Infrastructure, to me, means internal.

> * Bitcoin skyrockets until infrastructure comes under strain.

Source? Unless you consider the failure of Mt. Gox an "infrastructure" problem, then this is not the case.

It's hard to see how that wasn't an "infrastructure" problem. Mt Gox was the largest BTC exchange - an integral bridge from old world to BTC world.

Not the failure of MtGox, but their day to day operations were significantly impacted during the peak hype.

Other Exchanges had problems, I remember the "you can have bitcoin next friday, when we've got some ourselves" episode (bitinstant perhaps?).

Even the most prepared business are going to have trouble when everyone decides to come knocking on your door in in the space of a fortnight. You can prepare for rapid scaling, but you can't hire and train people overnight.

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