user1151: Many recent articles state that the great bitcoin experiment failed. Why is that? Has it? 

user323: Taking a look at the recent history of Bitcoin, say, one year, one sees a lot of problems that could hamper most projects. There was the speculation bubble, big price drop, many hacks on high-profile websites, Bitcoin being accused of promoting drug trade and so forth. At the same time there were few cases when Bitcoin was seen in a positive light - perhaps only the Good Wife episode. From that one could conclude that the project is likely to fail.
The real state of Bitcoin project is a bit more complex than that. There is a lot of money tied up with it (miners and investors), and the standard client is a quite stellar piece of software, but at the same time there are few opportunities to actually spend Bitcoins in a meaningful way, and a lot of the Bitcoin ecosystem relies on dubious security of third party applications.
Generally, the Bitcoin project will probably go through a period of remission from the limelight, hopefully giving enough time for the third party applications to shape up, the userbase to grow slowly and so forth, and only then start becoming more noticeable again, when it will start replacing other online payment processors. Alternatively, some major Bitcoin solutions might be taken down and the whole project could suffer because of that (say, if MtGox stopped operating).
Bitcoin is not dead, and it probably won't be shaped by the bigger news articles.

1151: <p>Many recent articles state that the great bitcoin experiment failed. Why is that? Has it? </p>
 323: <p>Taking a look at the recent history of Bitcoin, say, one year, one sees a lot of problems that could hamper most projects. There was the speculation bubble, big price drop, many hacks on high-profile websites, Bitcoin being accused of promoting drug trade and so forth. At the same time there were few cases when Bitcoin was seen in a positive light - perhaps only the Good Wife episode. From that one could conclude that the project is likely to fail.</p>

<p>The real state of Bitcoin project is a bit more complex than that. There is a lot of money tied up with it (miners and investors), and the standard client is a quite stellar piece of software, but at the same time there are few opportunities to actually spend Bitcoins in a meaningful way, and a lot of the Bitcoin ecosystem relies on dubious security of third party applications.</p>

<p>Generally, the Bitcoin project will probably go through a period of remission from the limelight, hopefully giving enough time for the third party applications to shape up, the userbase to grow slowly and so forth, and only then start becoming more noticeable again, when it will start replacing other online payment processors. Alternatively, some major Bitcoin solutions might be taken down and the whole project could suffer because of that (say, if MtGox stopped operating).</p>

<p>Bitcoin is not dead, and it probably won't be shaped by the bigger news articles.</p>
