15 Bitcoin Predictions for 2015

I believe that Bitcoin has just gone through a trough of disillusionment in 2014 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/Gar...

From here on we will start to see the benefits of Bitcoin and specific use cases takehold

Some good predictions which paint a bullish 2015 for bitcoin believers. My money's on 2015 being a year which an industry-wide shakedown will occur. Weak players as we've started seeing in the mining industry are going to fall by the wayside to create a much stronger ecosystem.

* There will continue to be nothing that Bitcoin does better than existing systems, apart from money laundering and purchasing illicit goods.

* No, not remittance. The expensive bit of Western Union is in fact that last mile. http://www.reddit.com/r/Buttcoin/comments/2ne03g/the_buttcoi...

* It will remain difficult to turn your Bitcoins into conventional currency (which is the only reason there's such a spread between exchanges).

* It will get even harder to turn your conventional currency into Bitcoins, as any exchange not being run by blatant crooks puts you through the anti-money-laundering mill.

* The protocol problems will continue not to be fixed, unless Mircea Popescu can be convinced to go along with the Bitcoin Foundation. No 20-meg blocks for you!

* 99% of current hash power came online in 2014; this will be very price-sensitive, and much will go offline as the price drops, maybe coming back next hash adjustment.

* Miners will continue to sell their coins immediately to cover costs: we are near equilibrium, where the cost of mining 1 BTC approaches 1 BTC.

* Transaction irreversibility will remain Bitcoin's sticking point, as speculators who are insufficiently computer-savvy keep getting burnt.

* More exchanges will get hacked and/or just take everyone's money.

* Everyone who bought in the last year and held is a bagholder. Their claims and speculation will get increasingly frenzied. Ask for numbers supporting all claims, particularly the ones in this infographic.

* The bagholders and gambling addicts will continue to be taken by obvious scams, e.g. the two Ponzi scheme sites in just the last month.

* Altcoins will continue to be even scammier than the Bitcoin ecosphere, boggled as I was to realise this.

* The price is presently being held up by speculation and wishful thinking. No new reason will come along.