Bitcoin Forum

In another thread I meantioned some of the advantages Bitcoin has over cash (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1113484.0)

Truth is not many people I know personally use Bitcoin. None of my friends or direct family members do and here are some reasons why I think that is.

I have provided some workarounds to most of these "downsides". Like everything in life, Bitcoin isn't really perfect.

1) While Bitcoins are not controlled by an actual Government, etc, that also means that there is no official "customer service" for Bitcoin, especially when it comes to reimbursement; If you lose your private keys you are screwed, the coins are gone and therefore your money. Doesn't matter who you buy Bitcoins from, they can't help you at that point. Some companies have made this pretty avoidable though, by just allowing a username and password to sign into your Bitcoin wallet.

2) Not enough businesses directly accept Bitcoin. While some big name companies do accept them, overall they aren't accepted at most online and local businesses at this point of writing. There are a lot of ways around this though just because of what Bitcoins CAN buy, which can be used to trade for the item you desire. For example if a local or online business accepts PayPal but not Bitcoin, it's easy to convert it.

3) Bitcoin can be stolen through malware, social engineering, being robbed at gunpoint, etc. Malware can certainly be avoided, you can store your Bitcoins offline, encrypted, etc. on a malware free machine/device. Social engineering is unlikely, if you are familiar with Bitcoins, you are probably familiar with social engineering. Being robbed at gunpoint can hopefully be prevented by meeting in a busy coffee shop, etc.

4) Bitcoin is not "user friendly". With terms like "Blockchain", "mBTC", "Private Key", "Hashing", "QR Code", etc. I can see where a lot of not tech-savvy people would be discouraged. It's clear that Satoshi didn't design Bitcoin to be used by everyone.

5) You can't pay your Government's taxes, fees, etc. in Bitcoin (at least I know in my country you can't).

Feel free to contribute to this, I would love to hear some opinions.

on 4 and 5

4)bitcoin life span is very long, probably satoshi taked into account the fact that bitcoin will be used by future generations and not today's ones

5)there are services online that can pay taxes for you and you send them bitcoin, like cashila.com

also another problem is that not only those that don't know about bitcoin don't use it, but also those that know about it are only holding to cash out at some point in the future

so among those 3M estimated users of bitcoin, the number that are really using bitcoin is probably much less than many think..

There is no downside to bitcoin. Do your research before you buy BTC and always keep them safe!!!
There is many different ways to protect your btc! Do a search and follow directions about to stay safe from "hackers".

I think that the main problem of bitcoins (and that must be ranked as the number one of downsides) it is that he is not physical money. This make bitcoin usable only in internet and the ways that the money can be used in internet are limited. Then not to many people use internet and are even fewer those who make purchases there.

problem solved:

https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=physical+bitcoin&biw=1280&bih=864&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIpf_8x7HkxgIVylYUCh3-5w4S

I will never pay taxes in BTC to a government: that is simply paradoxical!

1) You don't have "customer service" for loosing CASH paper ... right ?
well ...  :-*

3) Usually, dumb people use the same password on facebook, yahoo ... and exchange wallet.
don't follow the white rabbit of malware, hackers and others exotic explanation.  ::)

OP this is all pretty wrong, and not a downside of Bitcoin itself.
1) One of the purposes of Bitcoin is being your own bank. This means that you are supposed to be able to handle your own money if you want to use it, thus making this point invalid.
2) That's not a downside of Bitcoin, but rather the current acceptance level.
3) Anything can be stolen through illicit means online. Are you trying to tell me that nobody has ever experienced CC fraud? You are responsible for your own money.
4) It is user friendly. For the average user "private key" and "hashing" aren't important, sometimes not even 'blockchain'. People should already know what a QR Code is since it was first released in 1997; this is not a new term created by Bitcoin. "mBTC" is also very simple, since the term 'mili' is well known
5) I thought we were going to use it to avoid taxes?

I'm pretty sure that Bitcoin has almost no real downsides (by their very definition). We could argue that confirmations take too long or that we can't process enough transactions but that is a story for another day.
What you're describing seem to be downsides of the current ecosystem/infrastructure around Bitcoin.

2 is not a downside of bitcoin, a downside would be that businesses are not capable of accepting bitcoin, and that is not the case. It is currently a limitation, because only a handfull of businesses accept bitcoin.

3) fiat can also be stolen through social engineering. Atleast in the Netherlands you dont have to buy bitcoin face to face. We have the easiest way ever, it is just like ordering food or clothes online. (bitonic.nl)

4) Totally agree, although future wallets will likely take care of this. You probably dont even need to know those terms. Although QR Code are allready out there everywhere, no problem right? :)

The only disadvantages I can see are:

1. It's not as anonymous / private as some would think.
2. It is evolving too slow now (this is also somehow good - for acceptance for example, but on long term it's bad imho).
3. Since my mother still has troubles using a dumbphone (not mentioning smartphones or computers), she cannot use Bitcoin (she don't even understand what bitcoin is). Meaning that bitcoin still has a huge disadvantage in the "fight" with fiat.

1. Still too many hacks going on. Need to be very security savvy to really feel safe storing btc online.

2. No consumer protection. Luckily there are some legit escrow providers on here, but beyond that its buyer beware.

3. Difficulty for your average person to wrap their head around btc, let alone jump through all the hoops and figure out how to buy some

The disadvantages i can see are:

4. i really think bitcoin is not really friendly right now, there is lot of knowledge that ppl need to have in order to use it property, this is a wall that we should remove if we want that moreppl use it.

5. "You can't pay your Government's taxes, fees, etc. in Bitcoin" thats the final barrier, not to pay to government, to pay everything needed with bitcoin, ppl will start to beleive on it when they can pay government, ot his daily shopping.

there are more than that ofc but related to join post that what i think :)

1) If you lose your cash, they are gone. No one would care if you lose your cash too.
2) Bitcoin is considered a much better alternative than Bitcoin, businesses are reluctant to accept them due to waiting time, acceptance rate and price volatility. The last two can be solved by Bitpay while the first one can't be solved unless Bitcoin's max TPS can be increased. Some business like Bitcoin due to the un-reversibility and low cost.
3) Your cash can also be robbed at gunpoint. Bringing only a small amount of Bitcoin for meetups would largely prevent this.
4) Bitcoin apps are designed to be as user friendly as possible. An average joe would only need to know about confirmations, prices and addresses. It is quite easy to learn.
5) Government aren't that open towards Bitcoin due to the possible risk of money laundering and terrorist financing.

Some of the concerns in this thread are legitimate but all of them are being addressed. Satoshi invented the protocol, he never intended to make it for geeks only, that's stupid. In the early days they focused on making it robust and working correctly, making it user friendly is a intermediate-final step. Of course Satoshi wanted to see Bitcoin all over the world, why wouldn't you want your creation to take over all over the place and defeat the current transaction methods?

All your points topic author are only temporary. As we speak there are created workarounds for every single one of them.

What about are you complaining about here? Money are issued by government, financial agencies but if you fuck something up and your money got stolen they won't refund you anything.
What do you need that Customer Service for?


It will change over time. If you don't want to wait you can always exchange your bitcoin to FIAT.


And you can lose your money in a 100 different ways too. No difference there. I can tell you it is a lot harder to LOSE bitcoins than to be robbed from your money.


Oh It is user friendly as much as any internet service is. And do you have to know how your PC or phone works in details just to use them? Do you know how TV or Microwave Oven works to Cook or watch TV?
To be Bitcoin user you don't have to have any real knowledge. You need your wallet and you are free to start.
 

Great, fine by me. I already pay a LOT taxes in FIAT alone.

Bitcoins are lost through missing backups when smartphones or notebooks are stolen, get broken or harddiscs crash. Holding bitcoins means being your own bank and not many realize that you have to protect it.

On top, when you die, nearly nobody dies knowing it before, the bitcoins will most probably vanish unrecoverably. With fiat on the bank account that won't happen and your relatives will not get the coins.

1) the first part is not a big problem, see Hazir's post above. the second part.. well, don't be dumb and lose the private key.

2) correct

3) malware can also steal your credit card information. you can get robbed anytime for just wearing an expensive watch. social engineering.. same as malware.

4) it's actually very user friendly if you ask me. it's just that some people get spooked when they hear all kind of things they don't understand.

5) da fack?

6. Blockchain Size &  Synchronizing issues.
Yes we may use SPV clients but it'll make bitcoin more centralized. A few people will run full nodes etc.

Comparing Bitcoin to fiat is great but it's not government backed fiat. Comparing it to online payment methods is great but it's not MasterCard or a debit card.

If Bitcoin is fiat then it needs easier to carry tokens redeemable for different denominations of btc. A $1, $10, $20 paper tokens would be nice.

If Bitcoin is an online payment method like MasterCard then it needs built in fraud protection without the inconvenience of using and paying for separate escrow.

Though you can get it back. Thats an advantage with credit cards. If someone stole from you then you make a chargeback. Thats it. Bitcoins are gone when stolen.

So really... one has to watch over his bitcoins very much.

I think the most is still too many hackers. Need to be carefull to really feel safe storing btc in web wallet.

Why store coins in a web wallet when you have better wallets? Install a local wallet [1] or buy a hardware wallet [2].

[1] https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
[2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=899253.0

This is something I find bad as well. You can recover much more easily your bank account access, this is sure.
But as you wrote, this is not a real problem: people will just have to learn to backup their stuff.
I think this will be more and more automatic in the future.




Also this is true. But it's not a downside of Bitcoin itself, it's a downside of public reception.
Bitcoin adoption is growing. Slowly but steadily.
And we can bet in some good bumps in the future, when Banks will acknowledge that Bitcoin is not a scam or a ponzi (I still see some people comparing Bitcoin to a Ponzi).
Reputation is everything for Bitcoin. One adoption will get mainstream, this "problem" will be gone.




Malware can steal your bank account credentials.
You can be robbed of fiat currency at gunpoint.
Bitcoin is no different in this from other money at all.




It's true that you need to know how to use computers to be completely at ease in using Bitcoin.
That will probably come with next generations.
People that are today past 50 years old are mostly cut out of the thing, they have to put quite some effort in understanding this stuff, unless they are IT specialists or using PCs since they born.




You can, in some countries.
That goes with the shops anyway: the more Bitcoin will spread and get better reputation, the more countries will HAVE TO implement it as a media to pay taxes.






My points about downsides of Bitcoin:

1) lost bitcoins will not be recovered... EVER. You lose your keys, they're gone. This will, in the long range, bring to a scarcity.
Even worse: if governments ban Bitcoin, they can decide that any of these that will be recovered will be transferred on accounts of which keys will be thrown away.
That would be a quick way to destroy Bitcoin in its essence.

2) Bitcoin is NOT ENOUGH to cover the whole Earth wealth. Once you divide it by 21 million, there's not enough granularity to use it for everyday transactions.
Total Earth Wealth / all satoshi: $4'500'000'000'000'000 / 2'100'000'000'000'000 (21'000'000.00000000) = 2.14$
If the whole Earth would adopt Bitcoin, there won't be enough to go below 2$ value.

3) looks to me that transaction times are too long for everyday shopping. 1 or 2 confirmations should happen in less than 1 minute imho. Hope this gets better when more nodes will be added to the net.

On-ramps and off-ramps are a hurdle to most people I know getting into Bitcoin. Many are interested, few are going to get Level-2 verification on an exhange.

i agree, bitcoin is not still mature enough that can be considered completely reliable.


this can be a good thing, because it is not controlled by any individual, group or government so you don't get screwed for example like what happened to Greeks.
and as for losing your private keys. i don't see it as a problem with bitcoin but it is the user's fault.


yes, this is a big problem with bitcoin. i always say this and consider it the biggest thing that is keeping bitcoin back.
for example when the places that i shop (spend money) at doesn't accept bitcoin then buying bitcoin and holding it becomes more of an investment. and this investment because of the volatile nature of bitcoin has high risks.


well you answered your own concerns here, all the things that you said can be avoided and also we are facing the same problems with credit cards and fiat too.


to use bitcoin you don't need any technological knowledge about things like hashing, how blocks are mined, what is blockchain.
you only need to know a couple of things. how to create a safe wallet (bank) like paper wallet which has a lot of walkthroughs. and how to buy and spend it which is made easy nowadays with online wallets like Coinbase and smartohones.


government is working with fiat so i don't see them using bitcoin ever.
but they will take taxes from you if you try to trade bitcoin :D

Every coin have two sides. :P

I am not saying the down sides are not there. I am just saying f**k off the down side. And try to live with what bitcoin offers us.

And last time checked,,,,it's plenty.

I think that the main problem of bitcoins (and that must be ranked as the number one of downsides) it is that he is not physical money. This make bitcoin usable only in internet and the ways that the money can be used in internet are limited. Then not to many people use internet and are even fewer those who make purchases there.

The biggest downside for me is it's not as easy to buy/sell bitcoins everywhere, the countries where there are legal exchanges like coinbase, it is much easier to do but where such exchanges are not available, users has to find alternatives such as LBC which is safe enough but there are a lot of scammers there and someone who is just entering the world of BTC may not be familiar with the things to look out for when trading and they become a victim. And that probably ends their Bitcoin journey before it even begins.

Shops can have WIFI connection which allows users to broadcast their transaction using that from their smartphone. Not a high connection speed is required. Alternatively, a service can create a card service and allow users to load their account with Bitcoin and it would act like a debit card, allowing users to swipe it at stores.

Little known and complicated for ordinary person. And yeah, you said about not being accepted by most businesses

Actually there are issuers of Bitcoin physical coins, but these physical Bitcoin coins are not popular because you have to trust the issuer and it goes against the trustless idea of Bitcoin. Some alternative could be hardware wallet with wireless comunication to pay in store in future, but for today you can use Bitcoin debit card - although this way you support credit card company fees which goes against the low fee idea of Bitcoin