What I fear it's like: Some high-profile bad actor does egregious shit funded with bitcoin (e.g., assassination markets, terrorist finance, child porn ordinals, etc.) that stirs up public outrage. US government gets enough popular support to go hard after exchanges, legislates against full node deployment (after all, you're now hosting child porn or snuff footage), severely restricts on / off ramps, imposes some absurd crypto-specific tax rate (which hits btc -- I'm using "crypto" the way the govt does) or unrealized gains, or the like. Sympathetic countries follow suit - they can't agree on much, but the people / institutions in power agree they'd like to stay in power.

Will this kill bitcoin? No. Will it delay its ascent past the point where it's any use to me? Yes.

What I hope it's like: thriving builder ecosystem. More BDK/LDK type of projects to make it 10x easier to build stuff. Investment by giant hodlers and special interests (e.g., Saylor, Dorsey) in using their hoards to fund key open source developers and projects. More voices (podcasts, books, thought leaders) who aren't totally captured by the ancap / libertarian / conspiracy narratives -- elements of truth contained in those worldviews, but the vast majority of people who find those stories appealing are on board already. Global user growth across layers steadily upward. Government response is measured or absent for another five years, after which it probably won't matter.

All of this requires relative price stability -- giant swings cause too much damage. Hoping for (relatively) boring price movements.