Bitcoin Forum

Hey guys,

It's been dawning on me for some time that there is one thing that businesses must hate.. credit card fees. So with this in mind why is mainstream adoption taking so long! We're not saying invalidate fiat currency and only accept BTC or Alt-coin but businesses don't seem to want to touch it?

What do you guys think the real issue is? Education among consumers and businesses? Volatile BTC price?

Tully

Probably has to do with the volatile price. Since the price of Bitcoin is not very stable, businesses are less likely to use Bitcoin because they could lose money with it. They could use service likes BitPay, but they charge fees. Most businesses use services like BitPay to convert the Bitcoin to fiat immediately.

Also, they might not want to be associated with Bitcoin because of all of the negative press that Bitcoin gets. For some reason, people always associate Bitcoin with drugs and illegal stuff when they think of Bitcion. :-\

The really issue is mentality. Most people are a bit like race horses that have visors in their eyes and only look forward... people only look for what they know and what's already established without even considering new things. So yes: education is really needed.

Volatility isn't much of an issue nowadays, especially with services like bitpay...

There has been a stunning increase in Bitcoin adoption the last couple of years. We are still on track for Mainstream Adoption, but no one knows (for certain) how many more months/years it will take.  

There's zero incentive for a first worlder to use it right now for shopping. Why buy something so you can buy something? You also have the risk of volatility, fees and lack of knowledge.

It's going to be down to the merchants to make it desirable enough for their customers to look into it. Options to be paid in BTC will also make a big difference be that wages, cashback or whatever.

adding onto that, people are scared of what they don't know, and in the mainstream media, all that gets reported about bitcoin is about how its used to buy drugs and guns off silk road. there's not much reported on the benefits (ex greece) that it can bring, and with the general population being uninformed, acceptance by the majority will be slow.

Since you asked for opinions, I'll give you mine.

Two things:
(1) Regulation / Fear: I think regulation and fear are the same thing..  I think people are fearful of bitcoin because of silkroad and the like.  Merchants without proper knowledge feel trading goods for BTC would be like trading goods for pot or heroin.  The don't get how on one hand BTC is fungible, but on the other hand it is not.  One of the travesties of silk road is that Ross got charged for using coin that someone else got from nefarious means.  Two hop guilt by association of associates.  Larger companies fear regulation and how BTC fits into it.  In the states, figuring out how to report business revenue is hard enough when reporting it in US dollars.  I think there is much fear from buisness on what new regulation will snap into place at any minute requiring them to do something silly like take a picture of any customer paying with BTC

(2) Volitility: If they pay expenses in $$ but get income in BTC there is always a spread (either good or bad) that they have to account for.  Bitpay and other services that can convert instantly to $$ mitigate some of that risk, but it still causes grief for retailers.  If on the other hand companies could pay thier expenses in BTC, then I think you would see instant adoption globally.  If there was no need to convert to $$ to pay the electric bill or rent, no one in their right mind would.

Credit card fees are consistent, Bitcoin price is not consistent. Businesses have a hard time making the business case to get involved because they risk so much with the wild swings of the Bitcoin to Fiat price. That's really the main reason.

Bitpay and Coinbase take that problem completely out of the equation. The problem remains for their customers though.

Plastic does not solve everything. Plastic is just a bit of sand to everyone's eyes. it's very, very useful, but they still charge fees, and they're quite steep in soem cases... And that's not really using Bitcoin directly :)



Exactly, thanks for adding that :)


Bitpay does eliminate most of the volatility issues!

this 100%
btc is too mysterious for most, even today. It takes a lot of time and energy to learn all about it, and that learning is peppered with countless stories of loss, so it will be a while before businesses jump on board. fortunately there are a few big companies who are leading the way, the rest will follow eventually.

once people learn abouyt btc and understand it sufficiently, it doesnt make any sense to continue the fiat game.

IMO it can have a couple of reasons:

the most important one is the volatility, nobody wants to spend something that can worth a lot more tomorrow. and nobody feels right accepting something that can worth a lot less tomorrow.
the solution for this is dumping bitcoin for fiat as soon as received, but this is an extra step while they can accept cash in the first place.

the other thing is that bitcoin is not mass adopted by users. so even if a business starts accepting bitcoin there aren't many people who know about it let alone willing to use bitcoin.

At the end it is only about knowledge, there are some people that have never used a (debit, credit, prepaid...) card ... and most important they do not know how to use a computer and/or surf internet. So before start to think "bitcoin mainstream" we should teach those people how to use a computer and explain to them why bitcoin is better than the actual economic system (based on the FIAT currencies).

I saw an adoption survey somewhere that had things broken down by demographic. Very few bitcoin owners (as a percentage of the total) are over 60. Most are 40 and under.

Most people over 80 have never owned a cell phone and never will. For bitcoin I would say there is also a maximum penetration for certain demographics but it is hard to determine with great accuracy

in my view bitcoin is moving pretty fast.

people overestimate what will happen within 1 year and underestimate what will happen within 10 years.

I think remittance market is where bitcoin will take off.

Abra for example could go viral like uber did. Most people are unaware of this app and are still paying a hefty western union fee. That's why PR is as important as the service itself, if no one knows about it no one uses it.

I sell various items on ebay and id love to be able to accept my payments as btc but last time i tried ebay took it down it :(

Looking at the responses I think one of the key issues is education. BTC is tarnished in the sense that the media consistently pump out stories involving drugs, crime and how it is used with the dark web in general. At the same time I think organisations need to look at BTC and figure out "how does it benefit us?", which at the moment the spot for processing payments looks like a ripe opportunity for BTC startups.

I'm no expert but the process of sending and receiving BTC opposed to sending currency through central authorities has so many extended benefits (processing fees, speed) but at the same time lacks the same type of security banks offer but obviously there services such as escrow.

As stated before I don't think there a huge array of benefits for your every day customer wanting payment options but does have its pros (Greece).

We're 10 years away from absolute worldwide, mainstream adoption imo. The simple reality is that people don't like change. They stick to what they know, what they trust even if it costs more.

It's going to be a gradual process but mainstream adoption will arrive, we may just have to wait a long time for it. Make sure you prepare for that day & stock up on coins because with only 21 million coins to be mined to even have 10 bitcoin should make you fairly wealthy.

I've tried many times to tell the a Bitcoin purists that this app is going to take crypto mainstream but still they resist. It has a Bitcoin wallet integrated and you can send btc like a text message. The Bitcoin community should be getting 100% behind this app. IMO

https://mobile.twitter.com/getgemsorg?lang=en-gb

Not seen this project before. I'd wager the fees charged per transaction work out more or less the same if not more than a credit card. (if you take into account the fees\commissions and the calculated exchange rate of BTC, compared to the average indexed bitstamp price)

The day some company open sources one of these, making it zero cost relative to the bitcoin network, plus only charges a one time fee for the card issue, is the day everyone wants one.

The fees are broken down here https://bit-x.com/guide/bitx-cards

More expensive than a credit card but possibly cheaper and far more rapid than having to dick around with exchanges. Depends on your spending patterns I guess.

Well business do offer to accept bitcoin but some of them backed up after some time when they found out that the volume of payment coming from bitcoin is rather low. The problem here is mainly there's a lot of people who have not learned about bitcoin. In fact, for those who know about it, they would rather hog the coins than spending it. These things take time to change. Adoption is certainly progressing but I would say it's still at a slower pace.

Mainstream adoption hasn't even begun. Why is it taking so long? Well why did it take so long for the internet to become mainstream? Why did it take so long for people to stop using paper mail and using email? Why did it take so long for people to stop fearing the concept of paying for something you aren't seeing in real life? (internet shopping).

Dude, radical change takes time, and guess what... Bitcoin is the most disruptive technology since the internet itself.

With that in mind, how long do you think you guys are going to be waiting for those precious BTC to become precious value?

What would you class as a precious value?

I think it'll be five to ten years before it starts to make proper headway and even then there'll be a long way to go.

There's no risk in getting on the internet, sending your first email or getting a smart phone. This thing is a much harder sell.

I was aiming towards monetary value but agreed buddy :)

Since i have to first buy bitcoins and then pay higher fees than i do with my credit card it would seem it is more than just mentality...

You reminded me, the key to Mainstream Adoption is many more people getting paid in Bitcoin, then all the cost and hassle of buying "spendable" BTC is removed.

Mainstream adoption came when using bitcoin will be profitable or it will be simplest way.
It will be profitable and simple when companies will be able not to convert btc to dollars, so they will get coins from customers and then pay for other services.

Bitcoin is profitable now only for worldwild money transfer.
It's the most simple way to buy pornography.
So way of adoption will be:
porno-sites will start to pay in btc to datacenters, then datacenters will start to pay in btc to electricity compnies, electricity companies will start to pay for fuel and so on.
We should wait.

This is the obvious and real issue: People aren't going to add an extra step to their transaction payment flow for no reason. It's a novelty to go out and buy bitcoins and then buy some item with the BTC, but massive adoption won't be born of novelty.

The ignorance of the community is what's holding things back at the moment. There is an imbalance. At least half of this community should be discussing ways of integrating bitcoin into the payroll side of the equation.

Once you guys figure this out, Bitcoin will become an unstoppable tsunami liberating millions and unlocking the financial chains of mankind.

The biggest issue I see with the mainstream adoption of bitcoin is the lengthy time it takes for confirmations.  Credit and debit cards will always be much faster than bitcoin.

Businesses are touching it, particularly those business whose customers ask to use BTC. So if you favorite business does not accept BTC explain to them why they should. If enough customers agree with you they will listen.

In the macro sense adoption will take time. Each country and industry has different factors that will impact adoption rates.

Patience is needed

Actually they is not true. Credit cards can be charged back up to 180 days after the purchase while Bitcoin become irreversible after a few minutes to an hour. The issue is that with credit cards the third party, the credit card company, is trusted and will protect the merchant from chargebacks while bitcoin relies on trusting the buyer to not double spend until the transaction becomes confirmed.

at some point in the future the core devs can decide to include faster confirmation times to stimulate mainstream adoption. i only think it will take several years, if ever.

Two words: Still Young

And with that time factor, comes the problem of price volatility. I think the bitcoin still needs time to sort itself out to have a settled price range. Unless that happen, no one is going to adopt a currency that is so volatile.

Really?  I thought it was only going to get worse with times.  How do the core devs get funding for this and if they have it why haven't they started.  It is very much needed.  It has been much worse in the past 3 months than ever it seems.

then what exactly is the benefit of using these kinds of cards aside from being able to use your bitcoin savings?

you are paying additional fees (more than credit card),
you don't actually use bitcoin instead you are using fiat but go through an additional step!, you don't have the privacy and anonymity of bitcoin anymore

so why use them instead of cash?

they can do it via sidechains only i can't see other ways, because the block target time will not be changed ever, random or unneeded change to the bitcoin core are not tolerated

Bitcoin is not a "product" to move into an empty market. Bitcoin needs to gain market share in a saturated market. It has to compete with already successful systems like PayPal, Credit Cards, Western Union. You cannot deny that paying with credit cards is so easy and free (for consumers). So many people use credit cards to the extent that businesses will loose customers if they do not accept credit cards. How can bitcoin compete with that?

Mainstream adoption is coming along. It will take time. First, we need more people worldwide to own bitcoin. Secondly, a way for them to use bitcoin very easily. I expect it too be much much easier than camera and qrcode, and less worries about being hacked and confirmation times. Until that happen, bitcoin can only be an online payment system in a niche market.

Simulate mainstream adoption? What are you talking about? Bitcoin is a valid alternative to send large quantitative of 'value' from point-A to point-B, without trust a third party service (like WU, moneygram, VISA, etc...). Think to use bitcoin for buy a caffe ( and multiply this action * 3-4 bln of people) is really insane (but maybe possible, who knows).

Exactly, like I said previously :



If bitcoin is not better (so ... easy and secure to use) than any other method of payment, how can we take to see it 'mainstream'?

i say it is both at the same time.
there has been quick a lot of media coverage about bitcoin in the past year but it seems like it is not enough and many people are still claiming that they have never even heard of bitcoin.

on the other hand the volatile bitcoin price makes it difficult for any business to trade with bitcoin while all their other trades are done in fiat.

It's insane now, but it will not be insane in the future. Bitcoin will scale up so small payments (like that coffee) can be process all over the world. It WILL scale up trust me. Just like nobody believed the internet would scale up at the beginning, Bitcoin will prove everyone that doesnt think so wrong.

When I read all the major cryptocurrency news sites, I get the impression that adoption is doing great. But we wont have some overnight change, it will take a few years but I'm fully confident that it will be mainstream (and in same cases already are). When that happens, those 21M coins will not be worth $270-$300.

Wait for better infrastructure, killer app and user acceptance. I will give examples:

Remember how we used credit card decades ago? We give a card to salesperson to fill in a small form, "swipe" the carbon copy form with this roller thing, phone the credit card company for a authentication code. This used to take ages and lines were busy at peak times, so end up paying cash. Merchant fee was high, not many places accept credit cards and there was no point having one.

Remember how we send email? Logon to a terminal, select email in a menu, start typing email on a blank screen including "to:" and "subject:", press some keys in sequence, it vanishes and you hope it's sent. Attaching a file was a major operation where you have to use tools to compress and then uuencode your file. Not many people had email accounts, it is much quicker and safer to fax a message to your friend.

Credit cards and email are part of our lives now. What's the difference between the ancient times and now? Technology, infrastructure, app interface, and common availability. These are what Bitcoin needs to have to go mainstream.

Although I agree with that, I believe innovation in BTC companies and products will be important and if there is one thing that hinders or prevents this, it will be regulation. You've seen how governments around the world have reacted already, and the thing isn't even mainstream yet! Even though the government claim regulation is there to protect the little guy against fraud, crime and what not, there is no telling how hard it will be to even start an app or a company with the word Bitcoin in the title in the years to come.

I love how the US is in the same boat as North Korea... just sick...
source: https://bit-x.com/guide/bitx-cards

I may be amero-centric in this view, but I think the US regulatory / judicial systems are a major barrier.  There is huge market opportunity for billion dollar investors to make winfalls in bitcoin based industry, but the investors are very slow to enter this market because so many early adopters are getting thrown in jail.  The regulatory burden is overwhelming.  This is made even worse in the areas that are not regulated.  The unregulated areas could land investors in jail for any number of out dated backward laws dating back to the steam engine.

I would like to think that the US would eventually break out ahead of the pack, but I'm not totally convinced.  I think that major adoption will follow when some country gets serious about allowing it's citizens the freedom to develop bitcoin based industry without looking over their shoulder.

In all honesty, Bitcoin is not yet ready for mass adoption. Don't get me wrong, minimal fees are great. However, this feature is overshadowed by all the hoops and obstacles companies have to go through to deal in Bitcoin, as well as the lack of fraud protection and overall user friendliness.

Why is it not ready? And there doesn't seem to be any hoops or obstacles. All they need to do is accept it which is simple to integrate whether you're an online store or brick and mortar shop. Fraud protection will be covered by a payment processor too, not that they have to worry about that much unlike credit card companies.

It is still an alpha software. Bitcoin Core is still alpha and hasn't even reached version 1.0 yet.

Yes, but it is ALMOST ready.  BC might be in alpha, but bitcoins are in beta if you know what I mean.  I think the biggest obstacle is how hard it is for the average person to buy bitcoins.  It is not that easy!

And that's a good thing. If it was easier more people might realize how backward keeping bitcoins safe is.

Imo. all comes back to finding ways for people to keep them sage easily. Once that happens all the rest follows naturally.

The hoops and obstacles lie in setting up wallets, payment processors, etc. This may seem like common sense to us, but backing up and 2FA and whatnot are foreign entities for the average Joe. There are also regulations and laws regarding btc in some regions, mainly USA. Also, for many businesses, incorporating Bitcoin also means the parties they interact with must embrace Bitcoin. Employees also need to be trained in BTC literacy. And at the end of the day, how often will clients or customers choose Bitcoin over fiat?

It seems like Bitcoin is the perfect  option at face value, but in all honesty its too much work to adopt it in order to save a few percents on some transactions.

There will be a time for Bitcoin to see mass adoptions by businesses, but that time is not now.

Education. People are stupid and don't like learning new things. and We need unique and attractive applications. Shouldn't be too hard

And we need the proper people educated aswell.  Such as people who are in power to make the laws.

One other thing is we need education BTC can be used for good.  A lot of news stories have BTC linked to bad things.  We really need to have a positive outlook with bitcoin.

I think the bad reputation Bitcoin gets for the hackings and anonymity associated with it. Many people apart of the mainstream media believe Bitcoin is for criminals, possibly because of the rep the Deep Web gives it. Nonetheless, it takes education to teach the public that Bitcoin is more than that.

And that is the hard part.  New's articles are not concerned about what BTC looks like in article just what makes biggest headlines.  Silk Road is a perfect example.  BTC was not bad it was the people and how they used it. 

But BTC got a bad rap on many many news outlets and tied to illegal activity.

You are right, the U.S policies around finances and the transfer of finances around the world are draconian now. Since 9/11, as a few in banking have told me.  And if the other institutions/businesses don't play by U.S rules, then they can't play the dollar/US economy game.

This is why you see many exchanges either US-centric or non-available to US citizens, but rarely both at the same time. It's the US that has put itself in this boat and right about now, the rest of the world has quite possibly got real tired of it. 

This has worked for the U.S for as long as the US dollar is the worlds reserve currency and the US had a strong economy of happy spenders that other countries could profit off of. But when the US dollar falls off the reserve currency horse, which it's already doing in view of oil, then the whole thing falls and the US will get left behind. That's what's unfortunate. The US is generally at the forefront of technological developments, but not this time really. Even Canada has passed a 'hands off' law for Bitcoin to allow for its development.

people don't want to pay that much for bitcoins
they think $ 280 is very for a "virtual currency" most people think is a toy currency

I've yet to bump into a stranger that actually Knows bitcoin. The few that have heard of it usually mention Mt. Gox in little to no detail. I usually take that opportunity to politely teach them about bitcoin and why its better.

Check out http://getgems.org/ (http://getgems.org/) it's an easy to use chat app that allows you to send btc like sending a text message:

Son: I need 2 btc dad
Dad: 2 btc
Son: got it, thanks

They also just released a bot which Telegram and Gems user can use coinbase from within the apps.
http://getgems.ghost.io/2015/07/21/getgems-development-update-15/

Also businesses also might not like the risk of having their business bank account closed by their bank for being linked to Bitcoin transactions. I know members of the public have had their bank accounts closed for Bitcoin related transactions, and Bitstamp had to switch banks a while back. The banks are running scared and this behavior is hindering the adoption of Bitcoin. They can't hold it back forever but they won't give up without a fight.

They can use a payment processor. Having to mess around with an exchange themselves makes it pretty unviable for a business. More risk and lots of extra hassle.

If banks start to blacklist bank transfers from Bitpay and Coinbase then we got problems.

This is a common thought-bias. You can buy as little as $5 worth of bitcoin. This is not like stocks, where you have to buy a full share.

It's education mainly in my opinion. If you were to take a school and teach all the students there how to use bitcoin then I'm sure in 5 years time that will become the most developed bitcoin space and adoption would be through the roof!

We're going to run into waves of adoption. This is inevitable, and will make for a bumpy ride, but also slower growth, which may be a healthy thing.

I'm waiting to see a wave of genuine adoption. I don't think it's arrived yet. What's going on now is a few curious people nipping around the edges. If and when it does we'll sure as shit know it.

Bitcoin has a steep learning curve. installing software is not comfortable because ppl hear about viruses and about bitcoin and hacking all the time. ppl are afraid I might do something wrong and lose yours wealth.

True. For this reason bitcoin is not ready for mass adoption.

Adoption for bitcoin and other crypto currencies is only inevitable and it is coming within a few years.

for ppl it's still easier to trust big institutions and governments his wealth is somehow protected. If the bank fails, at least the government will try to get him back some of his money. With Bitcoin, he still has to trust his exchanges, his computer, his wallet

In western countries even the school students are aware about the bitcoins. But it is not the same situation in Asian countries. If you check this forum there are many teenagers who are already own bitcoins and that is a great sign. It will hit the mainstream but when, that cannot be judged.

When I talk to people outside of the actual btc community... but people that might get into it, the issue is not at all the deep web or Silk Road etc. Rather the attitude is that porn won VHS the win over BETA, and so the dark web or porn might help help bitcoin get successful. So they only see that as a net plus... the issue is with the hacking of people's computers, and having to hide paper slips under the bed or where ever... basically the fact that bitcoin lacks a user interface to make it safe in an easy way for the individual. Some still got interested but only have peanuts in bitcoins for this reason.

bitcoin gets a bad rep because thats what the media reports on; news focused on the negatives of bitcoin (silk road, scams, etc) get a lot more attention from the public compared to the good things bitcoin can bring. "decentralization" and "helping greece" just doesnt have the same impact as "drugs, hookers, hitmen, and black market."

Very Rightly Said, Bad news travels faster then the good news, and media has played a very important role in spreading the negative publicity of the bitcoins. No one is talking about the positive side of the bitcoins and people also entertain bad news more then the good news.

Most Average Joe's don't understand the workings of the  engine of the car they drive or the internal workings of the transistors in the electronic gadgets they use. They just learn how to use the product & trust that it functions as expected. Bitcoin is no different. They just need to learn how to send, receive & secure their bitcoins without really knowing how the transactions are secured in the blockchain.

The State of Bitcoin Q2 revealed that merchant adoption has been slow this year. Perhaps a reason for this is the ambiguity over the regulation of btc payments. I think with more time the market will be trialed and tested and more business will eventually begin to feel comfortable accepting the currency in their business.

The death of the sun is inevitable. The adoption of bitcoin is not

I think it's purely down to lack of adoption by the people. If retailers who were considering it saw others who had making a ton then it's a no brainer. Processors like Bitpay and Coinbase deal with the tricky stuff.

People who have coins now are either hoarding for the future or don't want to spend at a loss. People who don't have coins really don't have an incentive to get any and spend them right now.

Only merchant adoption would not serve the purpose, we want that the maximum number of individuals also start adopting bitcoins as a currency then only it can hit the mainstream,but as still many are unaware about the bitcoins so it will take time for mainstream adoption.

education and understanding (i.e. people don't care, they are too busy for this). But really it is still too complex for most people to bother with Bitcon

The only way I see it happening if some big firms started taking Bitcoin like Ebay...then a lot of stuff would be available from the 3rd world for purchase with bitcoin

ie..no pesky cc etc or banks or wire xfers...the security is in the bitcoin (from ebay's point of view) not an issue with such xfers from overseas all of a sudden

and from the buyers (or seller of items) on ebay from such 3rd world areas of the world I would assume they could trust Ebay as well go around their sometime
crooked gov't and/or crooked high fee banks etc....would be pretty seamless for both parties I would assume ..especially if Ebay promoted it as a way to expand
their customer base in a big way

but then again I thought I'd have seen more action on that kinda thing by now ...and so far not up to my expectations... I am probably Naive :)

my 2 satoshi's worth :)

It's a trust. I think honestly that people have just hard time believing and trusting some Internet tokens and change them for real money as they see it. People are just careful, you know how your mom teached you not to trust everyone with you finances. This is what's happening. This trust needs to be earned and it takes time. But we are getting there, with the turtle speed but we are getting there in my opinion.

What average joe needs is an online wallet service that works like a bank
Banks exist because people prefer trusting them to store their savings then trusting themselves to do it.

It already exists:

https://xapo.com/vault/

You can have your Bitcoins on there, if you trust that they will not screw up. Caesars Wenceslao seems like a very trustable person and a long termer for BTC. I would trust it if I was clueless in how to run my own wallet.

"until my grandmother can use and store bitcoins perfectly safely, it is not ready for mass adoption".

Would you trust Xapo with your money - or to you think Citibank or another major bank is better at keeping money safe?

Of course banks are far far far better.

We can dislike banks for many ideological and political reasons, but let's think clearly here... for almost anyone in the developed world banks keep money safe far far far far better than any of the (let's call them...) bitcoin banks (online wallets).

But..... when bitcoins can be kept safe..... then adoption will explode!

then wait for the next generation, because current one are too locked up in their past, they can't understand new tech new grandmother should be tech savy enough for bitcoin, after all we have a long way until the mining supply will be depleted

It will (hopefully) happen within a few years. In 1995 the Internet was not useful for anyone's grandmother... only a few years later the user-interfaces made it useful for everyone.

The inflow of investing into bitcoin this year was about the same as the investor inflow into the Internet in 1995.

We are basically where the Internet was in 1995... and let's hope we see the same big leaps in terms of usability that meant the Internet was so successful.

Agreed, Same was the scenario when internet came into existence, and people started to make some weird faces and didn't support internet as a technology.

But today, everyone is using it and it has become  the necessity of the people worldwide, Same would be with bitcoins, it needs time and in future it would have the same impact as internet is having today.

One reason is that consumers don't benefit from lower transaction costs because credit card networks require that merchants treat credit cards the same as cash.

It took about 10 years for big companies to jump on the whole 'internet thing' and then even longer for e-commerce. My guess is they'll take to it a little faster now that the world is more comfortable with computers but I don't expect them to just jump on it.

The internet was kind of a no brainer. There was nothing to lose by getting on there at the time.

BTC needs to reach the no brainer level too before something similar happens. I dunno what'll get it there but maybe we'll find out in the next few years.

Time need to pass infrastructure mus grow. Internet and mobile phones weren't the thing right away either. Internet was present in 80s. in mid 90s. it was global network but it reached full adoption in 2000s.
I think bitcoiner are really impatient about this mainstream adoption bitcoin is not even 10 years old now, give it time.

I think that before mainstream adoption bitcoin needs to change, should become easier, simpler and safer to use.
If, for example, we can't explain bitcoin in five minutes to old users, they will not use it.
We also need good infrastructure, a lot bitcoin ATM around the world, bitcoin debit cards widely accepted in the world, a lot ''big'' merchants accepting bitcoin etc.

The main problem to get Bitcoin to mainstream adoption is to create enough reputation to deem it a valid currency.
You would be surprised to see how many people think Bitcoin is just "some faux money" or "ponzi scheme" or other stuff.
Most never even heard the word Bitcoin, many heard something on tv or read an article or two, but even when you will introduce them to it and will try to explain how new the concept is, they will look at you like a weirdo believing in bullshit and multilevel marketing and dismiss the discussion.
It's a slow progress, like with anything disrupting, like it was with internet in the early days.
Just wait some years, the boom will come.

adoption is not a clear and easy path.  There will be corrections and bumps in the road but if the tech is solid, in time it will be adopted.  If anything, your example of the internet shows the potential of Bitcoin, not its demise.

Adoption and acceptance are increasing at a brisk pace, despite all the setbacks. Everyday, new companies are accepting payments in BTC. So be optimistic!

There are fees with bitcoin too but that aspect of bitcoin still favors bitcoin when compared to credit card fees.  Still though, to the average user, .0001 is too much of a transaction fee for too many average transactions.  People really need to be more careful with the fees in bitcoin.  I don't think it should ever be a percentage like it is with credit cards and I think that 10,000 satoshi should be respected as WAY too much of a transaction fee.  Such a large fee discredits the value of bitcoins.

Other than the fees, the user experience is hugely problematic.  Nerds and geeks who eat/sleep/breath tech will tell you all is just fine but don't listen to them because they only speak for themselves and NOT for mass adoption of bitcoin.  Improve the user experience and bitcoin can be valuable and it has to happen sooner than later or else some other commercial enterprise will just issue the equivalent of wooden nickels and further discredit alternate currencies.

Of course then there are plenty of people who could care less about mainstream adoption and would be fine with it staying as it is now or even going further underground.

Paretos law says we only need the 20% to understand bitcoin. They will create the technology and services to harness bitcoin for the hopeless 80% I think were well on our way to mainstream adoption.

Nobody wants to adopt change that is the difficulty bitcoin is facing at a moment. People are so busy with their personal and professional they don't want to invest their time in learning something new.

That's correct, bitcoins can get into mainstream adoption only if the maximum number of people across the globe starts using bitcoins as a currency, and for that we also need that even a small merchant should start accepting bitcoins as a mode of payment, if the adoption level keeps on increasing day by day, it can get into mainstream or else not.

The adoption of bitcoin is not going to happen overnight for all, Its about having the drive to start something new out of the Box.

I would say that mass adaptation has not happened yet because so few people know what Bitcoin is and many think that the price of bitcoin is going to collapse. Since this almost happened at the beginning of the year, this has caused many to back away from the cryptocurrency and stick to fiat. Until the price stabilizes and more people become more aware of Bitcoin, the sooner mass adaptation will happen.

Right. Although six years old this technology still is in early stages. So every actual participant is also an early adopter.
And is you said completely new things need time to be understand and accepted. The internet in it's early days had to fight with the same prejudices and mainstream media brainwashing as we see it now with Bitcoin.
So having patience and a long breath is recommended.

I totally agree with all of this. Bitcoin is still in its infancy, we are only 6 years into an innovative, totally new technology. Did people really expect bitcoin to be the most used currency in the world by now at 1 million dollars each or something?

It's a long, long, long waiting game, if you don't have the stomach for it sell up & get out. Nothing good in life comes easily. Mainstream adoption will take years, maybe decades. Just set up some cold storage & chill out, enjoy life.

Bitcoin is a long term investment, look at it as a retirement fund. Keep accumulating whilst coins are cheap & hopefully one day in the future we will be the new wealthy elite.

People were scared in his day of adopting credit cards, of paying through transfers, and of buying and selling online.

I think that Bitcoin has to stablish bit by bit. Also volatility is an issue that I think could be solved if many more people used it.

The biggest obstacle is the lack of Bitcoin marketing:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1160780.0

People can't use Bitcoin if they don't know it exists and what it can do.

People know what the internet is. They don't know what Bitcoin is.
The same goes for Comcast. People know what Comcast is. They don't know what Bitcoin is.
Bitcoin needs marketing.

Ah, I see. I completely agree.

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

You'd think that more retailers would be up on this by now as this payment format is better for everyone and even if there are customer service issues, they could just refund in bitcoin like it's no big deal.

Let's be realistic Bitcoin is not a consumer ready product and won't be for a couple of years.

The reason why mainstream adoption taking so long is that Banks do not tolerate decentralized currencies and I believe this is one of the major reasons. however, another key factor that spooks people out is the high volatility and of course education is another factor with its own weight.

Exactly, what you are saying is absolutely correct, and I believe that banks and governments are creating a major issue when it comes to mainstream adoption for bitcoins, and also the awareness level among the people is not too high which is creating a  major problem towards the mainstream adoption, once the people are made aware and shown the benefits of bitcoins it would be much more easier to hit the mainstream.

In my opinion, Bitcoin right now is where the internet was in the 80-90's. Once people realise the advantages of the decentralized currency, they will come... or they will stay with their fiat currency and when we face the consequences of money printing, debt spiral and financial slavery (Greece for example, can't inflate their currency and get out of debt, because Germany and ECB doesn't allow them to do it.), when people realise that, they will come.

Simply there is no other alternative. Even gold, because we live in a digital world plus the real innovation is not the Bitcoin itself, but the technology behind it, which is blockchain.

At the same time, volatility is becoming less of an issue. Right now volatility is really low, we are in 224 days of consolidation period. Also at times Bitcoin was actually less volatile even than the Euro.

You need to be patient, there is a lot room for improvement yet. Do you think that big companies will not use bitcoin to make there international money transfers, which are super expensive right now? Of course they will, but Bitcoin is not ready yet.

Do you think that people in Africa will use credit/debit cards made by Goldman? Of course not! The current financial system is not a scalable model, but Bitcoin is!

Do you think that immigrants will continue to use Western Union to send money to there families? Of course not. Once people realise that they can do it much cheaper through bitcoin, they will change their habits!


Banks are releasing this, that's why they started talking a lot about blockchain (they don't use the word "Bitcoin" because it has association with the deep web).

Yeah, once people starts knowing the concept of bitcoins it would definitely attract them towards bitcoins, as at present everyone have heard about it but very few have used it, once they are aware about the benefits of bitcoins, they would surely switch from banks and WU to bitcoins as it is very cheap and time saving too.

You make really good points here. Empoverished zones and people groups would require, however, that Bitcoin is accepted to buy regular things where they live, as exchanging for fiat has some difficulty and is not supported in the same fashion by all countries.

Yes, the banking industry is a major reason why Bitcoin hasn't been widely adopted, but I go back to what I think is the bigger reason: most people don't know about BTC, and therefore the demand can't exist.

If the masses (not to mention the small-mid business world, even large businesses) knew about BTC and what it could do for them, there would be a demand for it. When there is a demand, it will happen. But demand can't exist for something that is virtually unknown.

Bitcoin needs marketing.

When the demand is present, especially in a market economy, innovation will (and has) overshadowed the will of big businesses and even governments.

Demand is the door, and the key is marketing.

We have several issues why Bitcoin hasn't become mainstream yet. One is it's past with several frauds who give the system a pretty bad image and of course the banks and media where pushing it.
But to be honest right now the system can not handle a new big wave of users joining the network. For that we need more capacities.Meaning bigger blocks for instance. But bigger blocks will also result in less nodes the bigger the blocks get. That will mean the system will become more centralized. That's why we are having this endless debate of how to scale and increase the system right. It's all about more time and other solutions as increasing blocksize only. Give it a few more years and let's hope that the devs can come down from their ego trips soon so that we can continue moving forward.

Nobody knows what's next when it comes to bitcoins, that’s the joy of it. The way it works is quite weird, although fundamentally it's digital cash it could be accepted as the de facto online payment system for the internet, or it could fade away into an obscure chapter of digital history. But it'll be fun to watch in either case.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What do you mean that people offers no benefits to the users.

Having the control over their money so that bank cannot seize their funds is a quite big benefit if you are asking me. Sending money for the minimal fee and nearly instant to the other part of the world is another major benefit. The list goes on and on..

The problem with Bitcoin at the moment are the users. There are not enough enough users to use these features. And that's called an adoption. Another problem is Bitcoin itself. We are really not ready for a mainstream adoption. Just imagine if we would have 2 million users over the night that would join us. The network would be paralyzed. The blocks are too small.

All of the above is called progress, so time is needed and things will line itself up.
But the big potential use cases on the massive scale are present in Bitcoin, we just need to come to that level, both users, and the Bitcoin itself.

Possibility to prune the blockchain somewhat helps in this as one doesn't need lot of storage space. IIRC current minimum is 512 MB. Network bandwidth could become a real problem though, limiting nodes only to people with very good internet connections.

No chargebacks mean that sellers have to work towards building trust.
It is not necessarily a bad thing, the bad apples will get weeded out eventually.

Bitcoin does offer benefits, but the discounts that could be possible using bitcoin haven't materialized yet.

So only those merchants who have built up trust with fiat trading would be trusted with bitcoin trading?

If those merchants offering bitcoin trading would offer discounts then they should pop up when i search for the best offers but they dont. Those discount must also be very high since my credit card gives up to 20% discount in a lot of the places i do my shoping.

Your average customer doesn't give a shit about the historical trustworthiness of who they're dealing with. All they care about is price or convenience.

People mindlessly feed their details into all kinds of crappy sites and expect to have their hand held if it goes wrong. Some type of escrow might temper that but you're stuck with third parties again unless it can be somehow automated.

Acceptance is low because people still have never heard what Bitcoin is and those that did (that are not geeks) have a vague idea of it and don't see any real use for it unfortunately. Lets hope the future will make people see its place.

What is a credit card? It's a payment processor for fiat transactions. Well then there will be payment processors for bitcoin transactions much like bitpay that can offer protection against this.

You are right. A credit card is just a payment processor and the underlaying currency is not very interesting. I dont care what the underlying currency is called. I only care about how i can use it and if it is accepted wherever i need to spend my funds.

At the moment there is nothing with bitcoin that makes it better than my current payment processor and therefore is will not get used.

What about identity theft? Everytime you pay with your credit card the merchant has to secure all the information you have to give.There is a reason why brands like Target, Sony, Home Depot, Asley Madison attract hackers like flies.
Credit cards are working as a pull mechanism. With all that data hackers can empty your account very easy or sell your in deepweb and other criminals use your datas to do some other bs.
Bitcoin is working as push mechanism. No one can withdraw from your wallet without the private keys from your public adress.
If that is not a big advantage I would ask myself what else.

First: Is the targets of this mainstream adoption very conserned with those questions?

Second: If someone hacked a site and got my credit card info i just reported it and i would get my money back. Also for bitcoin to be usefull for most people you have to use online wallets. Then you get the same problem with hacking, but no chargeback to save your ass.

Regarding your second point and wallets. Did you ever heard of MyCelium? No personal information is needed. So here you go.Hacking of websites still possible but without stealing personal and financial data.

The price is not volatile for a very long time. That's clearly not the issue.
Lack of knowledge, fake news about misusing, no big advertisement, no marketing could be real reasons.
I'm sure more people will use it after they learn. We just need to educate people in our circle.

I have MyCelium on my Android and MultiBit HD on my computer. None of those can handle the exchange rate you need for mainstream use. There is no way around using online wallets and a 3rd party to handle the transaction volume. Just imagine several millions of transactions every hour on the blockchain...

Adoption won't boom until you get people paid in bitcoin. Until then, all you'll see is merchants rarely accept bitcoin and instantly transfer it to fiat.

mainstream adoption is taking place all around us. Being in the industry bitcoin is being used very creatively everywhere. Its being used in remittances and the users do not even know its happening. I think bitcoin is just fine. If your waiting for the next bubble, then I would say that will come with the next economic crisis.

You can't force these things. A lot of things need to happen for non-tech-geeks to get involved. All of these happen in the course of Bitcoin becoming more developed in general. There's no shortcut.

This, and unfortunately some of the business end up not accepting Bitcoin, or at least go from Bitcoin exclusive to accepting fiat again, for example amagimetals.com was bitcoin only but backpedaled as it seems not enough people was using it. We need more time.

It was a bold move on their part but also an easy way to fail and make yourself look like a silly sausage this early in the game. Gradual incentivisation is more sustainable and less catastrophic.

Honestly, I think the fact that it's not mainstream yet might have something to do with the negative connotation in association to silk road (but not much)

The real reason why it hasn't gone mainstream, imo, has to do with the fact that it hasn't been publicly displayed on major news sites since the downfall of silk road and the downfall of btc's CEO.  Give it some time though, evolution of currency is bound to happen and is going to happen in the near future.  As for now, enjoy the low prices for btc and stack up while you can ;D

Although the volatility can be solved through payment processors, the payment processors still take a fee, even though it is much smaller than a credit card fee. They don't want to put in the effort to switch over.

Trust and demand are growing steadily, however, the high volatility that we still see in Bitcoin is the main reason that leads uninformed people to automatically quit on BTC

Make it trendy. Bitcoin will become fashionable for people at first. And that is how it will be adopted. Just like Starbucks was an unknown company at first, it became trendy and mainstream.

Drinking out of a cup with a Starbucks logo is nothing but a fashion statement.

I think people developing good looking mobile apps will be able to contribute to this. If your app is hard to use people aren't going to want to use bitcoin.

I can't see people using it just because its trendy. People need a real reason to use it and at the moment most don't. I think if bitcoins value started to rise continually then people might get involved then like they did back in late 2013 but when it crashes they'll soon flee so we need to hope it can grow steadily.

very few people in the world have any or truly understand what it is yet. Mainstream Adoption is a dreamlike for future and will take a few years yet.

yeah, in comparison to other assets , bitcoin is practically a toddler . so in order to go mainstream it has to grow much bigger than it has already. besides i think there are some faults in the system which needs fixing before anything big can happen.

Yes very few people are aware about the bitcoins yet and it will take a long time for bitcoins to hit the mainstream, bitcoin is getting popular day by day but it would not replace any major currency looking at the present scenario, when it replaces any major currency than there are chances that it would go on mainstream but still it would take few years.

I agree that bitcoin from a merchant adoption perspective is a negative point (for now) but it is wonderful speculative and gambling instrument

The volatile price and bad press reactions would be my first guess. It would be easy for people to leave a business just because they don't like decisions like choosing to accept bitcoin. People are strange.

There is already a large user-base in bitcoin, the only thing lacking for us to hit mainstream adoption is the number of places in which we could actually use bitcoins to buy stuff. If the number of services and merchants accepting bitcoins increased, we might actually see mainstream adoption but for now, there is a limited market in which we could actually spend our bitcoins. Agree or not, we are mainly using bitcoin for investing and not much more than that. Most of us use bitcoin as an investment opportunity to take us to our millions and not for actual spending.