HN user
...many people on this forum have a significant financial incentive to ensure that people don't think this way about BTC.
How can you make an assertion like that with no facts? Do you know that for sure? Do you have data to back that up?
When this is no longer the case, who will agree to do this work then?
The miners will still get transaction fees even after all the Bitcoins have been mined.
Many businesses accept Bitcoins as payment for physical things. The last Bitcoin meetup that I went to was at a bar/grill that accepts BTC as payment. Most of the attendees paid for their drinks with Bitcoin. You don't need to convert to cash in order to buy things with Bitcoin.
Technical books in electronic format: http://www.cointagion.com/
So... what makes this stand out enough to be posted on Hacker news? You want to do X amount of programming work and get paid in Bitcoin. Big deal.
And what is 5 hours, really? I may be able to do in 1/2 hour what it takes you to do in 8. Or vice-versa.
How are the risks any different than with cash? Leave your cash in an unsecure location and it will be stolen as well. I would argue that the risk of government legislation is greater with fiat currencies (capital controls) than with Bitcoin, because regulations are inherently more difficult to actually enforce.
Currencies also have fluctuations in value (which central banks try to manage as best they can).