Bitcoin Forum

Security? Crime? Inflation?
Bitcoin is money and thus serves the same functions that any money does: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.But can it prominently satisfy all these functions?

I feel its more education than anything, honestly for someone like myself I heard of bitcoin way back in like 2010 or so, sounded interesting wanted to spend 20$ on buying some but opted not to (bad decision could have made some money).  The reason why I didn't? It was confusing as hell to understand how to even get started. Fast forward now to 2017, I'm only starting to get in on this, and why?  Because there are slightly more resources now to understand what in the world bitcoin actually is and how to actually get started. 

Maybe if one day from an early age if people's kids are taught how to use bitcoin and what it is, then it will become more mainstream.

The government is the main obstacle that hinders bitcoin. The crimes are not caused by bitcoin, it is caused by people and they use bitcoin to make that crime, even fiat is not to be blamed so why blame it on bitcoin. Inflation is not a new thing. It has always been there since fiat exist and since bitcoin is like fiat in a way, then inflation will be there also. As for the security, bitcoin's security is strong enough to withstand attacks, wallets and exchanges are the one who are prone to attacks.

Going back to the government (in some countries), they impede bitcoin's progress and growth because of its anonymity and decentralization. We cannot blame bitcoin for being like that because bitcoin is bitcoin and that's that, the government just have to compromise and deal with bitcoin just the way it is.

people love to blame others for their mistakes or what they lack.
it is not the government, it is not the banks, it is not .... it is users themselvs. when you see people are not willing to spend bitcoin (use it as a currency) and see bitcoin as only an investment which they will hold for 100 years you can't really expect merchants to accept it and eventually reach mainstream adoption.

None of these. IMO, the biggest issue is the lack of partnerships with the major online retailers such as Ebay, Alibaba, and Amazon. If any of these major online shops start accepting BTC, then the userbase will increase by many times.

Nothing. You just have to accept that Bitcoin was not meant to be a "mainstream" currency. How can it be? It is slow, there is no charge back feature and the government will have a hard time controlling it. But that does not mean you should stop using or stop having some of it.

Security = Bitcoin is the most secure form of payment
Crime = Fiat is also related with crime along with bitcoin, this can't hinder the growth of bitcoin
Inflation = Bitcoin have ZERO inflation so this doesn't make any sense

Bitcoin will be mainstream currency, but it need some time.

nice answer mate those information is not been broadcast that's why people awareness should be taking care as well
from this point bitcoin can be popular will gather more interest coming from investors and businessman, the more they
understand those advantage the more interested they can be to this system.

It needs a lot of time. It has many flaws that needs to be fixed. When it becomes a mainstream currency many users will be using it, but with these many users, it needs fast transactions and lower fees,

Totally agree with you, Government, they want control of your life but with Bitcoin, they lose this control. I believe they are just fighting a lost battle

That not enough people use it or know about it and some countries prevent BTC from spreading across.That for me are the biggest reasons,also the misunderstanding about BTC that some people have.That's why it's good for us to have campaigns about BTC where it is explained in an easy and understandable way because many people hear about BTC but don't associate it with something positive

The only thing standing in Bitcoin's way now is global governments. They are so closely linked to the fiat banking systems that they cannot distance themselves from it. The fiat banking system is the building blocks of the financial world and a system that helped to keep some governments in power.

They also help these governments to control and monitor individuals with their private internal ledger systems.

Once these governments break away from these traditional systems, we might have a much better future. ^smile^

Security should be a major stepping stone, if major exchanges can't secure their coins, how will my Granny manage it?  Crime doesn't really matter, it is used as an excuse. People commit crime with cash, crypto and bank transfer.

Inflation also isn't really an issue in a growing market. My 1 bitcoin is worth more than it was, even though it has been 'reduced' in value by inflation.

I think you missed scalability and the lack of a true need! They are 2 major issues, people don't see why they should use Bitcoin.

nothing, were about to become mainstream. enjoy !  ;)

Education is good, but it can not change the fact tt btc is often associated with crimes, tax evasion, ML. 

The question needs to be clarified before it can be answered.

By mainstream currency, do you mean fiat currency? If you do here's the reason it can't happen:


By mainstream currency, do you mean a regularly used means of exchange used by the masses? If you do then it depends on government regulations and acceptance.

Japan for example is becoming more open to Bitcoin than any other country. The U.S. treats Bitcoin more like a commodity and has stiff laws against making a competing currency. In the U.S. a man named Bernard von NotHaus was found guilty of counterfeiting charges for minting and distributing a form of private money called the Liberty Dollar. There are ways around that problem even in the U.S., during the Great Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage. Scrip is legal but, by law, may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States. That's kind of where Bitcoin is now but people have always been hesitant to accept scrip as they would government fiat. It will take some time for wider acceptance to happen because trust must be established first.

You're right, Bitcoin could serve all the functions of money you outline. It could be a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. Widespread use as those functions depends on governments regulation of Bitcoin (or lack of), the individuals willingness to accept scrip instead of their local fiat, and bitcoins continued evolution. Right now, today, Bitcoin isn't ready for the job.

regulation, come to my mind first, after all amazon and other are not accepting bitcoin because of no proper regulation, japan did experienced an increase after they regulated and accepted it as a payment

if every government follow what japan did, you can be assured that bitcoin will be successful

For faster transactions and lower fees, segwit need to be activated and it is quite not sure when all this political drama over block size debate will end so that we will get segwit and LN afterwards.

You are right about mainstream. Just like the US dollar.

volatility, age and adoption.
that is all the things that are "slowing down" the process. when price changes a lot as in big swings and the media is full of propaganda against bitcoin then regular people get scared of wanting to try bitcoin out. you know people love their money and don't want to lose it.
which is why it is a slow process and taking a long time.

although Japan is seemingly getting ahead of the rest of the world and they are reaching that stage.

Of course the scaling issue that has been causing continual disruption to the market price of bitcoin. I think this is foremost factor that been hindering us for the last couple of years for bitcoin to be really mass adopted globally. I agree with you that Japan is leading the way for bitcoin to be used by a lot of people globally.

I think the main obstacle in bitcoin becoming the mainstream currency is its volatility. Bitcoin's volatility makes it awkward as a cash substitute.  Every transaction is a gamble.  For the seller, they must add enough to cover possible losses between the time they make the sale and the time they then either spend the bitcoin or trade it for fiat currency.

As a "daily means of payment", bitcoin is a clunky solution looking for a problem that almost doesn't exist.  In most countries where people have sufficient computer means, network means, education, .... to even be able to use bitcoin, there are modern fiat means of payment in place with which bitcoin cannot compete in terms of ease of use, legal protection, rapidity, generality, reliability, security, and yes, cost.
The "cost of a daily transaction" is in most of these places, negligible as compared to the taxes one has to pay on the transaction (value added tax, income tax, ...), you can pay with your credit card in a store, it takes 10 seconds, and what's more important: if there's a dispute, you have legal recourse.  If there's a computer mistake, you're not accountable.  If you've been stolen, you will get refunded.

All these are things that bitcoin payments cannot provide, if even technically bitcoin were capable to handle this kind of payment, which it isn't:
- at the moment, bitcoin can handle only about 4 transactions per second world wide
- you have to use the software correctly
- if you send you bitcoins by mistake, there's no recourse
- if you want to be sure that your transaction is taken into account, you have to wait a multiple of 10 minutes
- you need network connectivity (not only the store needs it, you need it too)
- you need to secure your wallet, as you are entirely responsible for any form of theft.

On top of that, bitcoin's price is volatile with respect to the price of things you want to buy.

All this makes that bitcoin is not solving any issue for most people, who already have a better solution to that.

Bitcoin is useful, however, for all those things where you cannot do the thing with fiat, or where it is difficult, risky or expensive to do with fiat.  In other words, in unregulated or illegal environments, bitcoin is an interesting means of payment.  Bitcoin used to be used also if privacy was a concern, but people are slowly finding out that bitcoin is a worse night mare on that side than fiat.  Fiat, as long as it is used legally, is pretty private.  It is not anonymous against law enforcement, but it is perfectly private against your employer, your neighbour, Google, or a Chinese hacker.  Bitcoin isn't.

So no, as compared to fiat, bitcoin is a clunky solution to an essentially non-existent problem for far most people.  It does have a niche application for all those payments where fiat cannot go, and where all difficulties in using bitcoin over fiat are acceptable.

But the main application of bitcoin is "greater fool game".  Most people holding bitcoin are in the belief (correctly until at a certain point) that they will be able to sell their coins for more fiat than the amount of fiat they bought them for ; that is, in finding a greater fool than themselves when acquiring their coins.

I think that is not possible at this time, later not known, but the tax is the revenue of all countries

Bitcoin haven't reached majority of population. This is one that hinders bitcoin go as a mainstream currency. Even this cannot be indicated because bitcoin is too young to reach the entire population in a short time of around 8years.

I think the other alt coins, or the changing value of dollars. I believe that even though alt coins are being converted unto it, some people want other alt coins rather than bitcoin, but I dont even know why.

Bitcoin is structurally not fit to become a mainstream currency. The reason you have mentioned in not the main roadblocks, let me point out , why! Remember, money is produced by the government and government controls its flow to the masses. Also the value of any money is backed up by an asset like gold. Do you find any similarity with bitcoin here? No!

Bitcoin is not generated by government and not backed up by any asset. Only public trust is what we got for bitcoin. So bitcoin looks good as an investment or a method of online transactions where government doesn’t have much to do. Bitcoin is not meant to become a mainstream currency, take it as an investment and prosper in life. 

False.

Complexities along with the fact that people aren't prone to changing something they're satisfied with.

A lot of people simply don't care about all the issues that the fiat system prevents and the fact that their wealth is being tallied lower and lower and the work they do means less further on as long as they're able to still do the same things they do these days. That's ignoring the fact that for a lot of people Bitcoin is a lot more complex than a piece of plastic and a PIN.

I think all these things are matters that affect current bitcoin. we know that bitcoin is very closely related to inflation. in addition to the bitcoin many people who use it for criminal offenses. not spared also some time ago frequent hacking against bitcoin wallet. This is very sad indeed, but until now we certainly must continue to support the development of bitcoin in the world.

Going to have to fully agree with ya on this one, some people say the reason for us not being able to go mainstream is the scaling issues that we have and how high the transcation fees are. Don't get me wrong this is one of the issues that Bitcoin isn't able to go mainstream but I feel that Government is the driving force behind stopping Bitcoin from ever going to everyone.

This is based on the simple face that the Government is going to want to have control over the money that is moved within their country and up to before the point of Bitcoin they did (Fiat Currency) now they don't like that within Bitcoin their losing control so they have to do something and they tack regulations on it.


Yeah dude Money hasn't been backed by gold since like the 60's I think? Don't remember the year but now it's backed by the faith of our government.

I think it is being decentralized itself is hindering Bitcoin to become mainstream currency.   As of now government does not support decentralization, mostly they need centralized currency so it is easier to implement updates and fix problems and most of all regulate it.  Aside from that  Bitcoin is really young and still under experimental state.  So definitely government wants to see more from Bitcoin to be able to acknowledge it as a mainstream currency.

Yes, the government wants to control all operations. And to enter a new official currency you need some time, perhaps the disappearance of another currency because of this.

Actually a lot of people are willing to spend Bitcoin but they don't know how to do that since very few places accept it. Like someone said in this thread if Amazon or ebay were accepting Bitcoin it would become popular much faster. And I think those who see Bitcoin as a long term investment are in the minority, because most people want to have something right now, not waiting for it 20 years, let alone 50 or, like you said, 100 years.

Security will be my main concern because where others are reffering to government as a major standing block stopping bitcoin, they also have something to pick as excuse and that is the issue of security which means anything can be achieved with free flow of funds whether legal or illegal. And  in this era of insecurity all over and terrorism still having sway despite the various controls, then government cannot be too careful in which is a valid concern if you ask me.

Good answer. I have read some comments here that says it will be a mainstream currency and the funny part is there are people who mindlessly agree without considering why it is almost impossible to become one.

The infrastructure the banks built is there and it will last even if there is Bitcoin trying to disrupt it.

What comes first to my mind is the bitcoin is in a civil war.
the author of the article says high volatility, negative contonations and lack of regulation are all the factors.
 http://news.8btc.com/what-hinders-bitcoin-from-becoming-a-mainstream-currency

Nothing hinders Bitcoin to become a mainstream currency. It just that it is not yet prepared for that. There are still lots of people who does not have any idea about it. There are still countries who doesn't approved it. Maybe in the future, Bitcoin can become the universal currency. It has a very promising future.

the scaling "debate" is the new thing disrupting the price of bitcoin. it has not always been this though. throughout the years there have been many different things that made the price similar to what it is now, fluctuating, crashing, rising fast,...
the problem is that market is still small and the exchanges have too much power on their small orderbook size to swing the price around a lot.

I think it's because, sometimes, people like to see and feel things. Bitcoin exist only online, so people still have some doubts about it. All the fiat currencies in the world can be seen and felt, but it's not so with bitcoin and other crptocurrencies, and people are used to such system of money.

I'm not so sure that when they would "see and feel" their bitcoin, that is, sleazy Chinese stealing electricity to feed their mining hallways, they would feel better about it  ;D

Acceptance and Awareness are problems that hinder bitcoin to become the mainstream currency not Security, Crime or Inflation, people need to be open-minded about Bitcoin because they don't know anything about it. They should try to get out of their comfort zone and try new things in life. Security is not a problem in bitcoin, as it has a strong network or type of security that can prevent unexpected attacks. So by having this kind of security, crime can also be prevented. As for inflation, there is always a huge possibility that bitcoin will continue to grow as more people starts accepting it.

This is all true but even if all this was solved and in best order it's not very likely that Bitcoin would be mainstream currency. And not just Bitcoin, any virtual currency and the reason is exactly that, virtual cryptocurrency. This world and the finances despite all progress and technologies are functioning prety much traditional and conservative so material fiat money will rule this world for a long time.

I think its near impossible for Bitcoin to become mainstream,
Like other crypto currencies it is used primarily as a trading commodity.

but it can improve to become another payment system.

This is how I evaluate it

This could take a number of things: Adoption, Awareness and Acceptance

As has been mentioned if lets say the top 10 global online retailers adopt and accept
Bitcoin as a payment option awareness and acceptance could follow.

So if the awareness raises in the general shopping population how do they
purchase in bitcoin because their wages and assistance are all paid in fiat?

They have to buy bitcoin with fiat, whats the advantage? This is the acceptance issue!

It can be but i think it's because bitcoin is anonymous and can be use in crime so government cannot accept it and also we know the the bitcoin is a virtual currency and cannot be control the roaring high price of it government cannot accept a currency that they cannot control like what is happening in the bitcoin community 1bitcoin causes a thousand dollar.

I'd have to agree with you but I don't think these companies feel the need to do something like this as they probably don't think it would change the amount of business in which they get. I think that they think that people will be using them regardless of if they accept a crypto-currency like bitcoin and they'd rather not have to go through all the loops and bounds of having to go ahead and accept it.

As they would have to be spending money on a dev team to set them up with accepting it even if they used Coinbase, BitPay or one of those platforms that takes a flat 1 percent fee to use I think?

But one of the other big issues is that scaling problem with the amount of money it costs to sent Bitcoin and it's really not worth all the trouble for most normal people I guess.

Bitcoin is a currency but not money. Before it can be considered money the government must have first have a declaration stating that bitcoin is to be treated as money or a legal tender. But given the situation of bitcoin today the only declaration and treatment of some state towards bitcoin is to consider it as a commodity with a value that can be used as a form of financial payment.

The challenge that I see here that is most likely causing the delay which is unconnected to government is the change in the traditional way the financial system is being configured. Although, we have seen several developments happened to the financial system, but this development is gradual and even aligning to the traditional thing we all know but what bitcoin will be offering is a complete deviation from that system which I see most governments of the world, are currently not ready for as they are busy with politics and declaring war here and there.

What i am thinking is tt if government can actually regulate btc, it might be adpoted by more people, and it's good for btc which acts independently.

I believe educating our children is the single most important way we can empower Bitcoin's future users to ensure its remains a growing success. Also teaching the senior community could be a good use of time too. My gramps loves the latest technology. Doing a lot of microtransactions or making small bets like playing poker or Loteria a Mexican lottery/bingo game could be a good way as well.  ???

Bitcoin takes a lot of educating and no matter how you try to spin it, you mine as well say Bitcoin was brought to us by Aliens or Humans from the future to save us from our current monetary system.  ;D

It is already the mainstream currency in the digital world but as we all know we have the physical money we know that the government will not make the bitcoin as main currency because they cannot control the price just what happen a 1 bitcoin cost thousand dollar.

Goverment and people awareness of bitcoin is the main obstacle for bitcoin to become a currency. Goverment want to have their own currency which they can control, Goverment also has the right to create some regulation for bitcoin. No proper regulation = no merchant dare to risk their own business to accept bitcoin.

The really hinders the bitcoin in being the mainstream currency because it is anonymous and basically the government cannot control the bitcoin price and we all know that we have a physical money which we use i think we are not just ready for a big change in the currency if we all erase the physical money and just use a digital currency we need to change slowly and step by step in order to be successful in this thing.

The transaction fees used to be encouraging and the time it takes to confirm a transaction doesn't take that long. Now, transaction fees has soared so much and you risk losing your bitcoins if you don't pay the higher fees. If those things aren't a hindrance, I don't know what are.

Now it's a hindrance but the main obstacle is the government based on the nature of the bitcoin that is an anonym that makes bitcoin itself in the eyes of the government many gaps to be used as a crime tool. Whereas bitcoin has features that are not owned by other currencies.

other famous alternative coins hinders it, alt coins divides the number on investment, people invested in different alt coins but at the end of the day , they will just convert it to bitcoin.

The transaction fees are back to 'normal' for now, they only rise if there is a backlog of unconfirmed transactions.
Besides, even if you add too little fees, you won't lose the coins you've sent, it will either get sent very slowly or the transaction is dropped.

The way I see it is people awareness. That is, how people will be awakened on a global scale to show confidence not only in bitcoin but in crypto currencies too. But even if people really want it, is there any possibility that banks and the governments world wide let it go of? I don't believe so. Banks are interested about blockchain for their purposes but they don't like bitcoin.

The difficulty for some people to understand it and the lack of usage by individuals which overshadows the compelling reasons (decentralization, lower fees etc.)
Awareness and adoption will lead to more awareness and adoption, it's a circle. But right now there's no awareness, though it's increasingly growing. What's more, Bitcoin cannot handle transactions at a mainstream level. The current scaling debate is only making matters worse. Eventually, it will become mainstream, unless some other coin replaces it.

BTC wallet being not easy to use and technology not known to regular people are just few factors that affect it to become mainstream. When I first look at the wallet address I have after learning how bitcoin works, it feels scary how how do i memories these? I can't even put in mind that 6 character password I have.

Lack of awareness In the people about Bitcoin.
Lack of partnerships with some huge companies like Amazon and eBay.
Anonymous transactions feature because government's want to know all of your transactions.
Decentralization, because government's hate what they can't control.
I think all of these related to Bitcoin will hinder Bitcoin to become a mainstem currency.
And recently the delay in the confirmations of transactions.

People like to use Bitcoin for weird things, I am sure that Bitcoin is not a mainstream currency because of that fact -it's because people complain on the speed of the confirmations.

Banks and the people with real power dont like it because they live of centralization of moneyhandling.

Core team is determined to make bitcoin to shit, so that solutions that are controlled by the establishment can replace it.

It is due to the fact that Bitcoin is mysterious that is people without enough knowledge what really it is. They see it as dangerous, full of risks, which results from the infamous scenes in connection with the cyberworld that is online scammers particularly.

Slow confirmations is one of the reasons why bitcoin has been slow to reach the mainstream. But I have thought of things that will make bitcoin impossible to be included in the mainstream currency and one of it was the number of bitcoin in circulation and the second is that the countries are treating bitcoin as a commodity with a value rather than a currency. With this given fact it will be impossible for bitcoin to be included in the mainstream currency but the positive side is it will be accepted as a mode of payment for goods and services.

First of all Bitcoin is sadly limited not unlimited biggest fault. Secondly government can't charge any tax on it so they won't allow it. One can never know the real identity of a person in Bitcoin transactions, so if you are scammed you can't do any thing about it. Then the biggest nightmare is the speed of the transactions sometimes it takes days and weeks. Oh and I forgot to add you need to pay fees. So government accepting all this is difficult, but then recently Japan gas accepted it, so this could be a game changer.

You can't really blame banks or government, because bitcoin by design is supposed to decrease the power they have over a person's wealth. Of course they will be opposed to it. Bitcoin however is supposed to be disruptive and succeed regardless of what banks and government want to do. How will the government stop you from sending out 500-bytes of transaction data into the internet? Shut down the entire internet? There's not much they can do.

People need an incentive. Average people don't immediately see the incentive for using Bitcoin over more established and common payment methods. There's just no benefit to pay for coffee using BTC instead if your Visa.

The way I see it, there is only one benefit for using bitcoin. And that's untethering yourself from the institutions that have designed systems that make it easy for them to take cuts of your wealth away from you or regulate the kinds of businesses you can run. Mainly through various taxes or "fees" that you cannot escape from. There is no other reason to use it. Ultimately, the benefits of avoiding these costs have to be realized and taken advantage of by merchants, and the savings have to trickle down to the customers which will function as an incentive for them to move at least parts of their wealth over to digital currency.

For instance, an online business that offers a 25% discount to users who pay with Bitcoin over traditional payment methods. That will make sense for everyone.

Indeed, if we would like to see every single country switching its previous currency on bitcoin , that would have been a big problem.
It is not really fast right now, because of the blockchain issues, and the fees are way too high.
Imagine that you have to pay for a every single thing with bitcoin, if you would like to buy matchsticks, the transaction commision would cost evem more that the product bought!

But after all, it is very secure store of value, still more better than a regular fiats: but we need changes to develop it ultimately.

I thinks is luck of partnership bitcoin needs a lot of partnership in many company in order to become the mainstream currency if no store is accepting bitcoin no one will gonna use bitcoin in some cases but still bitcoin have anonymous transaction.

Bitcoin being accepted by the mainstream would be pretty nice. That would mean that the price of Bitcoin will be pretty high because there would be more people are using it to make payments and that such.
If Bitcoin does get to the point where it's worth a bunch of money then I kind of have a feeling that Bitcoin's Blockchain will slow down because there won't be as much people wanting to spend to coins online or offline for fiat.

Indeed the government is the main reason why bitcoin does not become a mainstream currency. Because the legality is the issue in some country where the government tend to block bitcoin on transaction because they know that there is a higher chance to develop bitcoin resulting  for choosing bitcoin instead of fiat or paper money where they can manage and control. We all know that bitcoin is not legal in terms that the government cannot manage people transaction. So in other they cannot have a part of money out of bitcoin or in other term corruption. So for me bitcoin being a mainstream currency is not so need by bitcoin for now because bitcoin is good as of now to its transaction and price changes. And for me its the best way to attract people on using it as it develop more to become a true mainstream currency.

I think you've illustrated perfectly what "hinders bitcoin to become mainstream": there's no need for it.  Bitcoin doesn't offer to the mainstream, any marvellous possibility that they don't already have: be able to pay for things on the internet.  Most people buying stuff on the internet, have credit cards that allow them to.  Most people that could use bitcoin, have bank accounts (fiat bank accounts) that they use for receiving payments and sending payments.  Even though it costs some money to do so, this works very well for most people, and bitcoin doesn't solve a problem for them.
The fantastic possibility that bitcoin offers: "paying people on the internet", has already a widely used solution for most people, a solution they know, works well, and they are comfortable with: their bank and their credit card.  So why would they use bitcoin ?

The very fact that you say that this will make bitcoins very expensive, means that you are essentially (like most people) into it for "gains".  But what are gains in bitcoin ? They are: buying bitcoins cheap (and hence, early) to sell them expensively (and hence, late) to the last layer of adopters: a greater fool game.  Greater fool games come down when one runs out of greater fools.

Of course, there is the possibility of a global financial crisis that brings down the entire fiat system.  THEN, of course, people will not trust their banks and their credit cards any more.   Then bitcoin or other crypto will offer them something they can use, and that solves a problem for them.

But as it is now, there's not much in normal usage that can create a demand for bitcoin by most people.  If you tell them that they can stop using their bank, but now they have to go to an exchange on the internet, do a registration with AML/KYC rules, send their fiat money there, to get bitcoin, do finally their payment in bitcoin on the internet, what's the difference between a bank that is strictly under legal scrutiny, and an exchange that is somewhat more risky ? You have to use your bank, an exchange, and bitcoin, and pay fees on all of them, instead of just using your bank.  What good is that ?

There ARE applications of crypto: where fiat cannot go.  But most people don't go there either.

And yes, the greater fool game of "buying bitcoin now, when there is still low adoption, and sell it later, when there's full adoption" can still go on a long time.  But if you see that almost everybody already adopted bitcoin, why would you join ?  And who will pay for it then ?

But you realize that in doing so, you create another problem.  There are a few whales out there that, if bitcoin were the world's money, would possess essentially several percent of the whole world economy, for the sole feat of being early adopters, the ultimate winners of the greater-fool game, when the whole world bought into it.  The Bill Gates of this world would be small players against some Roger Ver, MPex, and those twins, and, who knows, the owners of the original Satoshi keys if that was a group or if he was an employee.  You'd have the ultimate kings of finance there, like no banker's family ever dreamed of in its wildest wet dreams, and nothing to say about it.
On the other hand, whatever entity would be "mining" / "signing" or whatever making the block chain, would be the ultimate financial control institution.  Right now it is a few Chinese guys.  What will it be then ?  That's far worse than the current fiat system as matters of control, permission, seigniorage and wealth.

The main reason is the inflation since volatility is the cause why some traders are affraid to trade bitcoin. Crime doesn't belong since any for of money can he used negatively. Regarding the security, bitcoin is proven to secure its holders.

Let's turn it more in the right path. As people know that money is something that has a physical form that is, ofcourse, used as a medium of transactions or exchange. Bitcoin on the other hand has no concrete form that only exist in the cyberworld hence judge it without a proper knowledge aside from what they know and in connection with this is the infamous news about online scams which weakens the credebility of the things goin on in the online world.

Ignorance might be one of those major reasons together with its complexity at first glance which drive the older people (those who work especially in government offices) to stay away with this for they can't really underastand it without trying to.

Awareness together with proper knowledge and having a wise decision in regards with the risk it shoulders like the fiat money that we have today but only with a touch of a new and more modern way.

I would think that the money on my bank account doesn't exist in any other physical form than as a number in a bank computer (and hopefully, its backup).  I think that most people, since they use bank cards and credit cards, are used to "plastic money".
I simply think that for most people, bitcoin doesn't solve any problem that they can't already solve, in any more practical way, on the contrary.

I essentially only use bitcoin to buy services on the internet (like VPN and VPS) when I don't want it to be too easily traced to me (I have no illusions about the safety of that towards 3-letter offices, but I don't think I'm a problem for them).  But buying stuff on Amazon is easier with a credit card, and less stressful about making a mistake.

these coins do not have physical form that's why they cannot be used as mainstream currency. there are people who do not have access to the internet, these people certainly cannot use bitcoins. if bitcoins are accessible by the poor then there could be a chance of it becoming a mainstream money.

I personally think a lot of it the news it gets. Outside of Bitcoin related media outlets the only news that hits the mainstream is negative news. You will see articles about someone getting scammed through the use of bitcoin. Or you will hear about a healthcare company getting hit with Crypto locker and they have to spend X amount of Bitcoins to get their data back.

Stuff like this happens anyways, its just unfortunate that it gets tied to Bitcoin then ignorant people assume that people are doing this BECAUSE of Bitcoin.

It would be great for positive news to hit the mainstream news and get some traction.

the transaction issues, it maybe one of those reason, many people are being disappointed in the transaction of every payment that we are waiting, it takes hours or day , and in our online wallet, as time passes by, the transaction fee are getting big too.

Yes, but I doubt that the government will make a proper regulation that will benefit both people and the government. Instead, they will implement a law or policy that will surely let them control people using bitcoin and it will only benefit them.

You are forgetting one thing. You want to do everything on-chain forever. I expect that won't be the case with bitcoin.
Off-chain solution are only matter of time and will happen whether we like them or not.
Bitcoin will evolve, it won't be as anonymous as before, it will be quite transparent, but that is the price we shall pay for mass adoption.
We can't have private and anonymous coin which will be accepted and regulated by government. It won't happen.

it cannot be hold or cannot be seen in reality, yes it has all the guts to be known all over the world but it takes more time for it to be popular enough, it need also more people that serves our witnesses that bitcoin is real and it may help us everyday.

I am pro bitcoin, but bitcoin can not make it in the mainstream if other countries would not make it as one! well each countries represent their own unique Fiat that are rotating in and outside their country, and by exchange rates this have made possible, and bitcoin was not really a country but a community and many people would not use it because of the knowledge they truly known with it.

That is a really good point for me, I dont know how can anyone not agree with your opinion, that the crime doesnt make any influence on the bitcoin, because as you said every single currency may be used for the same purpose, like the gangs in US are using $ for paying gang members and to make settlements between criminal groups.

I think that the biggest roadblock for bitcoin currently, is that the price is way to volatile to see big part of the world using it as a another payment method.
It is because that the people who do not want to speculate, won't use bitcoin because it is simply not stable enough to use it as a store of value for them.

In fact, the question is not so much "on chain" or "off chain" ; that's only a technical matter.  The question is: what use case can crypto in general, and bitcoin in particular, bring to the mainstream that they didn't already got solved ?  I don't see any mainstream use case for these things, because the "law abiding citizen" has already all he needs for his payments.  You can buy stuff on the internet already with credit cards.  You can send money where-ever you want with your bank.  *in practice* bitcoin or most crypto don't help in anything a mainstream, law-abiding citizen may want to do with money, because you first have to obtain crypto through an exchange (a kind of dangerous bank on the internet where you can lose your money, where you have to send money from your actual bank), then do your payments, and don't make a mistake because there's no recourse.  It is only in those cases where it is difficult, expensive, dangerous or impossible to do the payment with your bank directly, that you go through the hassle of paying an exchange with your bank, withdraw the coins, and then pay using them.  There ARE such cases, but it is not to pay for the rent, to buy a car, to buy your groceries, to book a trip, to pay for a cab, .... where paying with a credit card works perfectly, and in any case with a lot less hassle than with crypto.

In all the useful cases, you certainly *don't* want the thing you're using to be like a bank, with legal control, transparency etc... because in almost all those cases, your normal bank can do the thing too, and you get legal protection on top of it.

The only "general use case" I can think of crypto, is when the local fiat system will be disfunctional, but you can for sure count on the fact that in those cases, there will be a serious crack-down on crypto ; and most probably, it will be extremely dangerous to try to pay your groceries with crypto, unless on top of that, the rest of government control crumbles.  I wonder whether the internet will continue to function in such areas.


Bitcoin has never been anonymous, but has been considered like that by error.  If it is accepted and regulated by government, one has already a working system, that's my point.  I really don't see the use of "regulated crypto".  That's a contradiction, which has strictly no use case.

The only mainstream use case I see is "greater fool game".  If you hodl bitcoins or other crypto because "the price will increase because more people will buy it", then the last layer of users buying it will not see a price increase any more.  To what greater fools will they sell then ?

If still waiting or there is an obstacle to turning bitcoin into a valuable currency.

Is there any other solution to speed it up?

how lucky you are embraced bitcoin in 2010 even though you didn't buy anything at that time, well from 2009-2017 which is 8 years i think bitcoin is too young to be a mainstream currency, however i agree with you  that lack of adoption it's a major factor why bitcoin can't be a mainstream currency this is due to people are just too lazy or ignorant to use bitcoin, but i believe 50 years from now bitcoin would be more accepted globally, the other reason is government we all know that the government will not adopt bitcoin since they can't control it.

Bitcoin is simple cannot be hack we know that but the government cannot risk there money or currency if they are going to make bitcoin as a maincurrency we know that bitcoin is successful but at this time bitcoin is still in the process of test so we cannot use bitcoin maybe in the future also what i this hinders bitcoin the most is bitcoin it self we know that bitcoin is anonymous and many transaction can be illegally made everywhere .