Bitcoin Forum

Whichever nation tries to choke bitcoin, will miss the future of global e-commerce.

The future of Bitcoin lies in global use.

When the big exchanges will not be only from USA and China, when every country will have at least in airports and shopping centers bitcoin ATMs, when you'll be able to buy with BTC from your fav shop in your city/country, when selling bitcoin for your local currency is not an issue / a tough task, then Bitcoin is a succes. Globally.

BITCOIN is internet.
Internet early known on Europe so bitcoin is early known in Europe rather in Asia. When bitcoin has been adopt by europe zone ( so mostly bitcoin market hold by europe market meanwhile Asia still want to know bitcoin identity.... somekind that analogy

I'll be the advocatus diaboli:

- even though EU has increasingly bitcoin-friendly VAT rules, they remain privacy-hostile (the rate to be charged is based on the country where the customer is located), which make some business models not possible
- it's not very difficult to get a bank account in most EU countries, for private persons or businesses. There are some exceptions, like UK and perhaps Ireland.
- SEPA payments within the EU normally take one day and have no fees for smaller amounts
- debit card PoS payments and cash withdrawals within SEPA are typically also with no fees

Peter Šurda

and:

Bitcoin's future does not depend on one part of the world, a "killer app," or any other singular event or group. If it did then Bitcoin would end up being weak. The strength is that it does not fully depend any of these things.

Milly Bitcoin

The future of Bitcoin starts with the poorer countries in my opinion. Many people in cities now in Africa, as an example, have smartphones; yet they still rely on their national currencies or the US dollar, and these national  curencies are plagued by high inflation and corrupt governments.

Mexicans who come to work here, in Canada, right now still rely on Western Union to send their hard earned money back home, and get exploited with very high fees that eat into their gains.

I realize people from developing countries are slow to adopt Bitcoin, but it is them who stand to gain most by adopting it first...

No, no. You guys have it all wrong. The future of Bitcoin depends on intergalactic space travel and bringing the blockchain to emerging alien civilizations.

I also think that future of Bitcoin will be linked with EU but I will be effect of totally different reasons you may suspect.
You see EU will be crumbling in near future, Greece is first step in this direction, and economic stability will be endangered.
And there comes Bitcoin - it will be the cure for problems with € and rescue asset for people who aren't trusting in FIAT.

Bitcoin has to be global, that was the main point. If we start limiting Bitcoin by this or that country it will mean that Bitcoin failed. We must untie ourselves from the fiat system which is what is making us lag behind from where we could be at already. The future of Bitcoin is probably in unbanked countries as a bigger impact than developed countries since developed countries people are too dumb to realize on the fiat scam.

...

IMO, it's hard to say which region will make the future of Bitcoin great.  

[Yeah, I am one of those guys who says,"I don't know", etc.]

Europe, in some ways, has more respect for privacy (with respect to you LiteCoinGuy, but Europe at least in SOME ways has a culture of more privacy vs. America).

America "may" be more dynamic, so if BTC catches on with the young here, it may take off very quickly.

"Critical Mass" is what we seek, IMO.  Once a certain critical mass is hit, then BTC's future is assured.  And would be great.  But, if we do not reach critical mass, BTC might be smothered in its cradle.

And, ASIA will be the source of BIG NUMBERS of new users should BTC catch on big in Europe and the USA.  Africa next perhaps.

The future of Bitcoin will be all around the globe. Some nations will use it earlier and accept it more than others.Furthermore we might see some countries as a haven for several Bitcoin companies. But the usage will be worldwide no doubt about that.

I agree with this opinion, in the case of Argentina, those who realize the potential of bitcoin use it as a refuge since the Argentinian peso is much more volatile than BTC; retirees and savers are tired their savings decrease by 18 times in five years through succesive devaluations. Poor countries have the handicap of education and access to computers but it is said necessity is the mother of ingenuity. As soon as more people in poor countries realize that BTC is a way out to protect themselves from their own corrupt government which over inflates taxes they will start to adopt it. DR Congo taxated so much every industry in its country that the only one that flourished there was bulb/flower industry because the government overlooked and didn't taxed it as high as the rest so it was the only place where new bussinesses could grow and develop.

Or China that imo helped drive the btc price up before its government intervened in early 2014 because before, as Agaguk mentioned, chinese inmigrants had to use Western Union to bring back their money to China, many risked it and hide wads of paper money trying to get through the airport, there you have a limit of 10k $ I think to carry with you without declaring it to the IRS. Imagine when you can load millions into a SD card and carry it with you without declaring any of it to IRS. It is one of the darker sides of btc but to many enterpreneurs is an attractive feature more so if the country you live in has high taxes.

I'm not sure, it looks like there's many more places for me to spend my BTC in America.

Yes I had forgotten about Argentina! A very, very good exemple of a country that would really benefit from a wider adoption of the BTC... With their economy and Peso completely out of control, I find it very surprising to see such hesitation to adopt and have a wider use of the Bitcoin. In these countries the telecom monopolies are not as dominant as in Canada, so their monthly fees for smartphones is much easier to swallow, perhaps even with their lower salaries factored in.


BTC has been pretty stable in the past year; more so than many of these countries' currencies; having to work so hard to earn some money, if this income is kept in their inflating currencies it is much less safe than in BTC, imo.


Then you have the governments around the world who, by definition, do not like to lose any grip they can have on their citizens (this is also true even with the US and Canadian govs). So Bitcoin has to overcome this political problem; but in the end all it means is that governments will always say, by definition, varying degrees of bad things about Bitcoin, to try to keep their citizens away from it. And in Canada, people follow government guidance almost blindly; I suppose this isn't the case in poor countries.

At the end of the day, it is the people who decide. If people accept BTC in droves, all the other entities will have to follow. It is just disappointing to see that the people that stand to gain the most, are the most hesitant.

Europe is more open to new ideas and is more quick to provide favorable atmosphere to integrate in its system.London I think will be the Bitcoin's World Hub and all digital currencies will be handled through this financial hub.Europe is more flexible for Bitcoin.

I agree with this! I am not sure it lies in the US. Just look at all the threads daily by the US bitcoiners that are having difficulty buying bitcoins. All the KYC compliance and look at also BitLicense mess in NY. I don't know, maybe California is open enough, but I am not even sure about this.

Asia is not stable enough to be a leader. We still don't know the real view of Chinese government about Bitcoin. Look at Japan legislature and laws they proclaimed about Bitcoin. Maybe Hong Kong can be a major player but they are not showing enough initiative.

This leaves us with Europe, good old Europe!

Only if this nation doesn't make their own digital currency that becomes larger than its predecessor and takes over. Bitcoin can end up choking itself when blockchain technology becomes adopted by banks all over the world and used for quick internet transactions. Most transactions nowadays are being done in the internet and both sides never see cash. The same thing could be done with the use of encryption and there's no need for a tradable digital currency to be the vessel.

That thing surely going to happen in future to see nations having their own digital currencies.Bitcoin will be core currency to measure the value of those digital currencies.US there are so many restriction and so many hurdles for Bitcoin so it need some friendly and favorable situation to grow well and that will be only in Europe.Europe will lead the Bitcoin and Bitcoin related financial system in future.

I think the future is in south america where all the countries are trying to simpatize with socialist ideas and are breaking one by one.  ;D

In Brazil who bought bitcoin at 290$ is still making a profit in 230$ levels due to money value decrease.

I have read that Argentina is very much into BTC, and I even know a guy who goes there and back (and says the same: LOTS of interest in BTC).

I would expect Venezuela will be next in BTC interest.  There is a thread elsewhere on Venezuela and BTC and their economy.

But NO ONE in Peru is into it, que pena...!

I am from Europe and I do not see much Bitcoin movement ...

However, as long as you can easily exchange Bitcoin for fiat and then transfer to your bank online, you can use Bitcoin in any place.

I hate to agree with this chap, but the USA is over regulated and not very Bitcoin friendly. They do have the advantage with the well developed internet infrastructure and loads of talented engineers in the

development scene, but it will not be enough, if all that innovation goes to waste on governments set on over regulating the technology. In a sense you understand that they are under constant threat, and they

have to regulate everything to be able to monitor and control these threats, but I think they are over complicating the matter and people try to capitalize on the technology by implementing stupid license's.

This will just give Europe and other Bitcoin friendly countries the lead.  ::)

I think the UK is pushing forward enough to keep me here instead of looking into developing with Bitcoin in the US.

We are pushing forward but I hope the government don't try to regulate what they don't understand.

European banking is light years ahead of the US for the average consumer. American banking is a fucking joke straight out of the stone age. They're the ones who'll get far more utility out of BTC. There's really no reason for a European to use BTC in comparison.

The big issue in Europe is that there are a plethora of low-cost instant and risk-free payment methods already in place.

For example;
- Spending 300 euro on a credit card costs less than 0.2%, and most transactions are not subject to fraud due to 3D secure (online) or chip and pin (point of sale).
- I paid for my coffee this morning (3.65 euro) via a contactless card which cost the merchant about 4 cents to process (due to being contactless).
- Even for those without cards inter-country bank transfers are generally free and often instant.
- For those who love anonymity there are tens of millions in anonymised payments transaction monthly via PaySafeCard, Ticket Surf, and others.

...as a payment method, it just doesn't have a use case at the moment (other than darknet retail).

As a store of value in Europe, sure. However it is still inflationary and volatile, and people have low cost access to other inflation proof investments. Again, no real use case (other than hiding wealth effectively).

they will as they always did, im pretty sure they have already taken their measures, ready to rumble ;)

lets hope they dont f*ck it as always did with everything.


dont worry is just a question of time they did it ;)


i can see some hidden interest here, maybe? ;)

Europe is a continent consisting of developing nations and bitcoins was developed in this continent too. It's the home of bitcoins.
Reasons behind its development is because it's completely being legalised in most of the countries there. Countries there are now trusting on bitcoins thoroughly.
Most of the oil and reserves in Europe are now using bitcoins in their business. Government of many countries in Europe are also planning to legalise bitcoins for use in parliamentary affairs ( just planning, not sure whether they will allow or not). People also priviledge bitcoins more there..
And these are the primitive reasons.

In the beginning i think future of bitcoin lies in Europe, the reason is european people is the first one to adapt this kind of bitcoin system or at least the first person that implemented to internet

but for this past few years bitcoin has become widely recognized so i think the future of bitcoin maybe going to change in asia due to the population

If the future adoption of bitcoin lies in Europe, it may be because of a future financial disaster. People will search for alternatives, bitcoin is going to be the one that shines the brightest most likely, the other being gold. Adoption driven by a disaster isn't really the thing I'm looking for. Can't we just do this thing peacefully without a major crisis? I'm backing bitcoin either way.

I'm wondering if you people who think that the future of bitcoin lies in Europe are European or not?
As a European I can tell you I seriously doubt that Western Europe (and especially France) is going to play a leading role in allowing bitcoin to get broadly recognized. The people in these countries will only accept bitcoin when it is already widely recognized... or when Euro krashes if it does (and even then, I think they'd even be afraid to buy gold, no need to talk about bitcoins).

Reasons are that the EU already has fast and cheap bank-related payment methods. Mentalities play a big role too. Old Europe is traditionalist and afraid of change. Look at Greece. Even now, with their present disastrous situation. Is there even a single Greek on this board, interested in bitcoin, in the first place?

I think not only in Europe but to some other developing areas where the need for money transfers and fast transactions are high. It might be evident in the Europe now probably because of the economic slowdown it is experiencing right now but I tell you, once a developing country adapted bitcoin and use it in a large scale. it will be where the future of bitcoin lies.

I'd say China has big enough players with enough money to take btc  to the moon.   

well the OP was right at that time, because then there was the vat-free from europe and they also not against bitcoin at all, even concerned terrorism threat

they threat it as a fiat money, but not regulated yet

...

Europe (apology for over-generalizing) is kind of contradictory when it comes to privacy, financial matters, and even BTC.

I just read that FRANCE will NOT ban things like TOR and free WiFi, and will consider these technologies as part basic liberties.  Yet they have very high taxes, and apparently tough tax police.

Other countries too make noises about personal privacy (attack the USA's NSA for their odious monitoring of almost everything), especially Germany -- a frequent target of the NSA.

America, the purported land of the free, has contradictory notions too re BTC, and 50 different states to regulate it (not even mentioning regulations at the federal level).

My point here?  Hey, it could be that Europe may indeed be the future of Bitcoin.  Who knows?

Perfect response.  Let's take focus of certain locales, it is global that is the key.

Because their government can handle Bitcoin economy better than any other country outside Europe

Its important to the future that all countries and regions adopt it. I don't think its make
or break depending on Europe but of course its helps a ton if Europe is behind it.

The New York has bitlicense. It also has a regulated bitcoin exchange, the Gemini. The Europe does not have one yet.

there will allways be the 5 best markets

Using a new shiny blue laser I just bought, I already transmitted a copy of the blockchain to millions of alien civilizations.  No need for travel. 

This seems correct to me, muahahaha, but really the whole world needs to be involved in the future of Bitcoin.

Europe always tends to lead the way when it comes to new revolutionary type of technologies... Sure, when you think of new technology popping up you think of China and Japan; but the first people to really use it in a way where it becomes a reality always lies in the EU.  I mean, I see that a lot in my job is directed at specific medical procedures, which Europe tends to always study, use, and regulate first to make it viable for hospitals to use regularly as fast as they can, if the technology looks promising to help doctors do their job.  It just seems to me, they tend to be the front runner for this type of stuff often, and doesn't really surprise me that they would be the front runner for mainstream adoption of bitcoin.

Bitcoin can't be linked to one place due to its elusive digital nature. Bitcoin is internet. It is hard to tell if it will be more popular in EU or in US.
Both EU and US have network infrastructure developed on the level sufficient for bitcoin to dominate market, so it will depend on which countries will create better pro bitcoin regulations.

The future can lie in any country not necessarily Europe it can be Ivory Coast,Mexico,Uruguay,Caribbean and many others.

I believe as many others here that Bitcoin does not "belong" to a country, it's like the internet.
However, one region will have to be the driving force for adaption.
And I belive it's more likely that it will be Europe then the US.

I think Europe is more prepared for wide accepting of Bitcoin. Mainly due infrastructure, people are open to the new technologies and they do not hesitate to use it.
Now it`s time to show Bitcoin as trendy and hightech think which everyone needs to have :)

I bet the aliens are using bitcoins before the humans, Satoshi is an alien :P
The aliens are just now watching laughing like what a noob we have more bitcoins than those humans.

europe has done more, for not hinder the bitcoin adoption than any others countries

russia is banning, ita, china is not fully accepting it, new york and usa, have heavy restriction, taiwan was banning it too, now they changed their mind it seems...

europe instead, has treated it as another form of money, and it is vat free for them

I have always felt the same. Europe has the least hostile view of crypto currencies so far in my opinion. United States are control freaks and are treating crypto as they control everything when it comes to money.

Asia on the other side might be even worse than the US in the long run, we will see. Europe is the way to go for Bitcoin in my opinion as well!

Maybe Europe is the best place for bitcoins, but are you realy sure they will be here for long? Bitcoins have no real value, whey are just a chain of 0 and 1 and this have no value. The only value they could have is the price of the energy needed to mine them. Whenever a new crypto becomes popular enough btc will just disapear. It's not like gold where we have a limited amout of resource on earth.

There is a limited amount of Bitcoin and this is theorically 21 000 000, but that's a bit less if you remove all the lost coins. Stocks of companies also have no "real" value, but they're still being traded for money. That's speculation. Bitcoin price is based on supply and demand, like any marker in the world, so as long that there will have a demand Bitcoin will live. And since the supply is growing exponentially, golden ages are lying just ahead.

Bitcoin and other crypto cut out the middleman, and they wont like that.  the middleman will do everything in his power to keep control.  ;D

Sweden is going to be a cashless society. I wonder if there is any effort to introduce bitcoin to Sweden.

I was thinking the same thing. US and Asia seem to be wanting more and more control over everything.
So I'm not surprised if bitcoin turns out to be the most successful in Europe.

I don't think this will cause any issues any time soon.
We should all be okay as long as we can transfer and make use of bitcoin without any trouble.

True, Bitcoin has no nation, anyone in any place on earth, as long as he/she has an internet connection and bright enough talent to contribute to Bitcoin, can shine and will see rewards. If you are a magnificent coder, you can request a new BIP to be added, if you make a successful business, you can get funded by people all over the world through BTC. I don't think trying to limit it all to a single continent makes sense.

Not necessarily, like other people said, it's the internet, and that's all over the world. Everyone can contribute to it.

That is right. The Europe cannot contribute to the mining as the electricity there is too expensive.

You can't say just with the increased electricity they can't continue in mining efficiently. This is not fair. They might go with various alternatives of electricity generation. In recent time new users enrolled were lot from the European nation. If they get committed to a technology somehow they will try to visualize the outcome. I think bitcoin will have good growth and will move bitcoin in the growing path in European Nations

In EU is just a matter of time when BTC is full adopted !
 Using SEPA for buying btc with very small charge is good.
   Europe is more prepared for wide acceptance of Bitcoin.
     Europeans ara more open for new technologies i think.

I see several online shops in the UK accepting bitcoin as a form of payment. There are several in US as well. So there is no difference.

I think the future of Bitcoin lies in PoS and altcoins as Bitcoin sidechains. This means that Bitcoin would become the gold reserve backing these altcoins.

If that is the case, I think it is not good for ordinary people to transfer money. The cost could be very high.

the most popular and mass adopted of bitcoin is in europe,its norml if europe lead technology about blockchain and bitcoin,and sure its will gonna happen and spreading to asian countries.

The future of Bitcoin lies in the Internet - that's becoming an independant country.

Since bitcoin developed outside of Asia , Europe so it's reasonable if EU zone notice bitcoin first.
As we know how's EU works, when bitcoin appear on first glance on worldwide , many country try to use and make bitcoin more advance.
So as Asian , mostly only able to follow what's update that appear for bitcoin development.

I think some countries within the EU are likely to be more lenient on Bitcoin and unlikely to come down harsh on it which could happen in the US.

Because the Europeans are more oriented towards peaceful advancement in any aspect of life especially in economics, they have a well established manners towards world affairs. their people are also more oriented towards business .

No I do not see this happen, its also a fact that European country's have more influence because there are a lot of them and they can invest for sure in the bitcoin.

If Europe people step the bitcoin will succeed for sure because than the euro will disappear for the bitcoin, it would be awesome.

I don't think the future of Bitcoin is only in one Continent of the world.

Bitcoin is for the whole world, imagine the western people all have it cool now, with theire money and don't care about Bitcoin.

And all the more poorer country's of the world, are using bitcoin faster then them,And get more of it.
And then the wealth shifts to all the poor people and then the western world will be poor a fuck, because they miss their change.

I know it is a little far fetched but I think people are going to miss out eventually.

They need to realise this is something of the future and better then our current financial debt system.

I think you misunderstood what I meant, it was a positive outlook towards Europe, not negative. :)

may be, but most probably India has less chance I guess bro. It will start to arise from europe only.

I dont know why btc future lies in europe, but surely I know that in ASIA many people are using it and the amount of users will always increase rather than decreasing, though the top country being using BTC is USA.

i don't see the slightest chance of any nation state adopting bitcoin in the medium term.

Netherlands and Czeck Republic is very open to BTC, maybe Russia too if you consider that europe.

But not many other places I know other than that. I`d like to see germans , french and UK more in bitcoin.

Well I am from The Netherlands , and yes many people know about Bitcoin.
Especially my friends, I told them about it of course.
But still not open enough to fully believe in it, they like paper money to much :P

Most people in the western world ignore it because, either they don't believe in it or think it's a scam.

Nice that is good to hear. To me this is still a good news. In my own opinion, everything starts in this - awareness. Once people are aware of what it is and what it is not, only then the product will be available in the market.

Was the guy who implanted a micro chip with his private keys for his Bitcoin wallet from the Netherlands? In general I think Northern Europe is much more interested in using Bitcoins than Southern Europe. I hope people from all the European countries become more forward-thinking and take the time to learn about this new technology and how to use it.

Due to the increased users in the Europe, it is predicted that bitcoin future will be in europe. But they will face big problems when Europe gets the highest bitcoin adoptions.

I don't think that is right. I do think that the future of bitcoin is not in europe for sure. China has the largest bitcoin mining and trading market in the world, so if there's a place supposed to be the future of bitcoin, that place is China

I think that the future of bitcoin is everywhere on the Earth. Is matter of time not if it will be or where will be. As for the regulation in USA which is named "unfriendly" by the author I think that he have wrong. USA at least have regulated it. It is always much better than nothing (like in to many other countries of the world). Maybe is not as is needed but the things are made and can be made step by step when there are risks within. Bitcoin is a time bomb and if is not managed as is needed can damage not few the economies of the countries in which can be regulated as it deserve to be regulated. The fear regarding it is showed clearly at the position taken from Russia against it. Banning. It is better the "unfriendly" regulation of USA, the ignoring of bitcoin from most of the world countries or the ban of it from Russia?

their is no need for Bitcoin ATM's

ur Smartphone has 1 million X the power of an ATM

No I also think this is not needed everyone has a phone these days or something else that is digital with them so that is something you can spend your bitcoins with.

I think a ATM is not necessarily at all because everyone can just use there digital money on their phone or their smart watch in the future.

But you'd still want to hold cash right? It's a matter of preference I suppose, so yes Bitcoin ATMs would still have a market.

Yes I looked it up and there was actually a Dutch guy who injected his private keys in both his hands :D

Here is a article about it: http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/11/man-has-nfc-chips-injected-into-his-hands-to-store-cold-bitcoin-wallet/ (http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/11/man-has-nfc-chips-injected-into-his-hands-to-store-cold-bitcoin-wallet/)

Pretty sick but it is a good way they have to kill you if they want to touch your Bitcoins:D

But Yes definitely people from the western world need to become more involved.
And aware of Bitcoin and the opportunities