Bitcoin disaster scenario

[WestDogg]

If there is ever a disaster event that hurts Bitcoin significantly - a hack of all major wallet services, massive theft, blockchain bug/virus that destroys coins, etc, what do you think will happen?

Will the majority of participants leave and the rest try to pick up the pieces? Will the project fold and give way to the next most viable altcoin? Or will it threaten the future of all cryptocurrencies?

 

[Zangelbert Bingledack]

There are many bad things that could happen. The only realistic catastrophic scenario is if the ledger got messed up. And even then, it has to be so messed up that jumping to an altcoin is better. That's a pretty high bar, because of how much valuable information is encoded in the ledger. Some might take this as advice to hold 0.1% or 0.01% in altcoins

 

[sickpig]

users move to another crypto coin because Bitcoin lost its value. value to the user. value as a payment network. in other words if Bitcoin will lose its utility in the eyes of current users. @rocks explained this concept fairly well here:

https://bitco.in/forum/threads/gold-collapsing-bitcoin-up.16/page-230#post-8578

 

[WestDogg]

sickpig, I can see a shift to an altcoin in the case of Bitcoin gradually losing value. But if it's something catastrophic, then these people will have no liquidity left to buy altcoins. An additional problem is that they will be angry and presumably discouraged from participating in cryptocurrencies and may move to a safer asset class.

 

[Bagatell]

@WestDogg Don't forget the @.