In my opinion Bitcoin will fail. Can you trust a currency that is reliant on vulnerable technology?? With the creation of a number of new competing cryptocurrencies being developed and eventually diluting the market. If a cyber attack occurred would your Bitcoin be safe. Would you intrust thousands of dollars to the system? How long before Government infiltrate this technology and causes it to fail? Why would Government do that? Because central banks will not tolerate a currency that they do not have complete control over, thats why. If they cause a failure in the system, then people will lose confidence in them, unless of course the federal government comes to the rescue and offers to insure the currency FDICA baby. Look what they did to Precious metals. The feds found a way to manipulate it and fix it. The banks simply print and sell enough paper contracts to dilute the market. Some say that there are up to 200 hundred paper contracts per ounce of gold. The silver and gold markets are easily moved by the simple push of a computer key. They must regulate it in order to keep the value of the dollar intact. The same is true with cryto. If they let the market run, paper currencies would diminish in value. Is it possible that the cryptocurrency was ordained by the central banks as a trail to see if people would buy into this type of monetary system? But for now enjoy the wealth it has created, just don't think they will let the party continue.
Well there are already suspicions that Bitcoin's mining algorithm might be weak:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Hashcash
And then of course the ASIC chips can be backdoored.
Or you can have a dangerous malware totally infest all ASIC miners.
Yes these are all potential threats that we should worry about. However the cost of these exploits would be billions of dollars.
And even if they execute it, people just wont stop with cryptocurrency, they will just find a way to make it more secure.
However you cant compare the rigging of the metal markets. That is a government market, totally controlled by the government.
In Bitcoin the government has far less influence and no direct control, only if they perfect a malware, which I pointed out above would cost, potentially billions.
Good luck. I have to say I am impressed with BC and I love the fact that it is not regulated. Big brother always kicks over the blocks after you stacked them so neatly .