'Shutting Down' is almost impossible, Bitcoin is like p2p file sharing, as long as 2 people are using it than it cannot be.

However, it can be severely choked.

Evil never fails.

extinction of the human race might cause bitcoin to fail, but hey maybe some aliens will come by, find it a cool idea and take it up!

Right now a government could run an on going 51% attack without much trouble. I don't think we're completely out of the woods on this until the value of a days blocks is well over a million 2012 bucks.

I don't think interest waning to near nothingness is even a remote possibility at this point, but I guess that is a scenario.

My understanding is that mainstream crypto has never broken suddenly, there is always time to switch. But it isn't completely impossible I guess.

As Bitcoin grows and gains popularity, and hate, and takes business from large and monopolistic foundations, a 51% attack will be a viable option for these people. The only problem is that most people with any sense realize Bitcoin is a great thing, and probably wouldn't want to kill it. But then again, all it takes is the man in control of a SHA256 optimized supercomputer pressing a few keys...


If a 51% attack comes about, I wouldn't doubt that someone with power will be ready or at least willing to counter it.

Ohh and today's my birthday

Not going to happen.

A huge bureaucracy trying to keep a step ahead of hackers. Not gonna happen.

If we have a world like that, then how we buy our rice and beans is the least of our worries. That's a little Alex Jonesy for me.

We will likely not have a world like that unless people are convinced they can't secure their own software.  If people get scared enough about a "terrorist" compromising or abusing the systems of the world and killing them, we might have the world described above.

Fortunately, most of our cybersecurity has come from private developments. We believe people like ourselves are capable of taking care of things. Else, people would give government "gods" an excuse to take everything over.