Bitcoin Hits $1 Billion
As usual on HN, any submission about Bitcoin is met with concerned comments about its high volatility, present impracticality as a currency, disadvantages versus precious metals, current concentration of transactions in a single exchange (MtGox), potential for market manipulation by governments and/or speculators, etc.<p>This is analogous to being present at the creation of the World Wide Web, but instead of getting excited about its obvious potential, one decides to stay on the sidelines because it's still unproven technology, almost no content has been made available online, commercial opportunities are virtually non-existent, etc.<p>As hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky said, "a good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."  Judging Bitcoin based on where it is today, instead of where one thinks it will be in the future, is shortsighted.<p>--<p>PS. My full thoughts on Bitcoin's potential: <a href="http://cs702.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/on-the-potential-adoption-and-price-appreciation-of-bitcoin-in-the-long-run/" rel="nofollow">http://cs702.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/on-the-potential-adopt...</a> -- I wrote this almost two years ago, but my views haven't changed since then.<p>--<p>Edit: In hindsight, I see how my quoting Gretzky could come across as arrogant, which was not at all my intention.  The only point I was trying to make is that <i>new</i> technologies like Bitcoin should not be judged based on what they look like today, but rather on how one thinks they will look in the future.