Bitcoin Forum

Will we ever use Bitcoin for day by day use? Buy a bread, a phone, a car, an appartment? Or Bitcoin will more likely be a way of just storing value and we have to rely on altcoins to use them daily?

I think bitcoin is kinda asset, not currency cuz it's not supported in stores yet and is not that simple to use for regular people. It's mainstream cuz it costs a lot.

As an alternative to money yes, as the only currency, don't think so. I even think that Steemit has more chances than Bitcoin.

They are already mainstream - hence banks trying to exploit their value.

I'm not particularly enthused by bank-issued novel cryptocurrencies, though.

The entire idea is to not rely on a central issuing agency.

Bitcoin and other coins are being used in stores worldwide. I don't know where you're getting your information, but you should be more aware. There are even major companies, i.e. Paypal, Overstock, Newegg, that accept Bitcoin and even some alts depending on the store. Education and awareness are key. Try looking into www.cryptofunds.online to see more information.

Bitcoins main problem is that it's not centrally controlled. Currently each transaction on the blockchain uses kWh, equivalent to, on average, 2-3 days of electricity in a UK house.

It's not scalable and it's grossly inefficient because of it.

You don't understand. Not being centralised is the whole point. As for energy waste, do you realise how many computers and buildings full of people are working right now to process that sandwich transaction you made at lunchtime?

In terms of popularity, I would say that bitcoin is already mainstream. However, if you are referring to being a daily payment method, I think that won't happen, due to the significantly high price of a coin, long transaction times and high transaction fees.

Crypto currency will be the cause of the next great economic crash

Not the next one, that will be caused by an asset bubble, and is imminent, but maybe the one after that.

Not being centralised leads to gross ineffeciency in the name of "security" which turns out to be a false promise to begin with because bitcoin is so difficult and impractical to use in reality that every single transaction system involves using a third party application run from a centralized location which has far, far less security than the underlying protocol, rendering the entire thing pointless to begin with.

Well if you are talking about bitcoins being a media mainstream, then yes it has become mainstream in terms of so much discussion being going around in the media and people becoming more and more aware about it,but if you are talking about its usage becoming mainstream, then it is gonna take some time, people are still relying on paper currency, since it is an age old system and therefore trustworthy, for bitcoins to become mainstream in usage its gonna take a lot of time

Well perhaps if traditional financial systems weren't so corrupt, people wouldn't feel a need to diversify to something not controlled by the 1%.

Well, they are easier to carry around than cowry shells.

The current volatility in the market makes it very dangerous for unassuming investors.

"Ethereum... which had seen its value rise fiftyfold since the start of the year to $300 a coin"

ETH (Ethereum) dropped to nearly 200 dollars per coin from a high of nearly 400 dollars, went up again to 250 and is now around 270 on my exchange. This is in a space of a week.

The speculation is based upon future projections of use but the block chain technology of four years ago, or more, such as BTC or ETH has become dated. Updating it is cumbersome. So, it would be easier to start new currencies for new projects, especially if there are easy to use exchanges to exchange the currencies. The market share of BTC has already been dropping considerably.

I would recommend that no one makes any medium to long term investments in the classic cryptocurrencies, perhaps small amounts on new start ups if one researches the technology and foresee it being scalable.

There is no evidence of a causal relationship between the dip in Ethereum's market cap and the hoax that Vitalik had been killed. The entire cryptocurrency market lost around tens of billions of dollars at that time - it was a market wide crash.

You should really alter this piece. You're promoting a false narrative that has no bearing on reality.

Im afraid not. We cant use Bitcoin to buy our simple needs because mainstream adoption is just getting started. Bitcoin is more like a commodity than a currency. Also there are things that should be fix before it becomes a real currency. The scalability and the issue of legality. These two are slowing down the adoption to make Bitcoin at the mainstream. Bitcoin transaction is now costing you about $25 for every transaction. That hurts. The scalability of Bitcoin is the main problem of Bitcoin that should be fixed soon. It's not funny anymore. Who would want to pay more on the fee than the fund you are going to send? I hope LN implement soon.

Money has been practically the same for hundreds of years, controlled at a centralized source, etc.

Money is now entering an new era, acquiring new dimensions, becoming decentralized, and becoming smart :)

It will take a while for people to get used to this, but they will....

The criminals have got used to it very quickly indeed. That's what happens when you have no centralised control.

You're referring to (private) bankers, right?

The first use case is almost always criminal as institutions are slow to move and have pesky regulations, especially when it comes to finance. As with the internet, it will change very very quickly. Buckle up.

How people equate the current financial system as something trustworthy is beyond me! Cryptocurrency's decentralised mechanisms will allow the population to vote on it's future.

No, and only an ideologically blinkered fool would think so.

logical fallacy

Sorry but the current system it totally open to criminals just as much as bitcoin. At least with bitcoin you can see every transaction on the ledger.

I think it won't because it's to hard to understand for ordinary people and also there is no infrastructure for it like accepting in every store.

How, exactly?

There’s a quaint idea going around of moving towards an environmentally sustainable, peaceful World supported by appropriate money, currency and finance systems. Complementary currencies could play an important role, if we weren’t so busy feeding greed.

it.s a good time to buy oll cheep altcoins for 1 sat.  some of them have total velue less 5 btc.

No. Judging by the lack of comments.

inB4 someone says Tulips!

However high things get advanced, we won't be getting bitcoin mainstream. It'll always tend to be a technology to serve better than the banking network. Same as the altcoins serving to be the alternative to bitcoin, bitcoin serves as an alternative to the traditional system we follow.

Oh dear. Perhaps we should ban cash?

Thank you for this wonderful suggestion, we will be implementing it soon.

The Government.

Automobiles should not be encouraged. They will only aid kidnappers and drug smugglers.

Photographic cameras should not be encouraged. They will be used to create child porn.

Electricity should not be encouraged. It aids fraudsters, murderers and rapists.

It's like Email add industry way back then they develop how many years. and here comes bitcoin that will change the banking system and especially all the taxes and charge of fees

I think we will in the future. Actually some countries are starting to invest and trust bitcoin, even some countries banks are starting to store their own bitcoin. However, some countries are banning bitcoin because they think it's an investment without security. Well, we will just see in the future if bitcoin will be used freely by people.

Crypto currency is still only developing. In order for us to be able to make not only large purchases in bitkoyne, but also small household purchases, there must be a certain legal and technical basis for this. This is not yet at our proper level. In addition, recently, most bitkoyna accumulated a lot of problems with the bandwidth of its transaction and their high cost. These problems seem to be solved after the launch of the "lightning" project. Therefore, we can say that we are going to the fact that after a certain time we will really have bitkoyn, which can be paid for small household purchases.

Bitcoin is slow to transact, energy intensive and if you lose it, you really lose it. You can't just call the bank to get it back.
It is, at the same time, intriguing and a very intelligent design. Nonetheless, it carries the seeds of its own destruction.
If you don't already know, bitcoin is 'produced' by vast data-centres, consuming on aggregate the same energy as the whole of Ireland. And that's with a current minuscule market cap.
Sustainable? Naah...

Have you considered the vast number of data centres full of whirring computers it takes to run the very Internet we converse on? It's only 'worth it' if you consider it worthwhile. You simply don't consider bitcoin worthwhile. While others clearly think that Bitcoin has tremendous value with much more to come. Perhaps they are wrong, or are you missing something?

Well - we have currency today that is free and fast to transact, free to store and enables others to prosper, since our surpluses can be lent to others. Transactions are also guaranteed so that you are protected from fraud.
Bitcoin is very slow to transact (about 10 mins), costs a lot to store, is not easy to lend and the big problem is this: if you are defrauded, then tough luck. It's gone.
There maybe 250,000 active users of bitcoin, consuming more energy than the whole of Ireland, just to keep this ponzi scheme going.

The internet on a whole uses a lot more energy than Bitcoin, but it is a lot more efficient in that I can send multiple online data transactions for a fraction of the energy expenditure required to make a single Bitcoin transactions.

If Bitcoin had the same activity and economic output at the internet does currently, the energy expenditure needed to secure it would be orders of magnitude larger than the internet.

You are forgetting Moore's law. And Bitcoins finite number.

The intention was to have p2p transactions, so third parties like Banks, would be avoided. So, using bitcoin as a mainstream currency would be like missing the whole point. It's not only because of technological issues like scalability, slow transactions and high fees, that will not make it work like a currency. Although there are companies accepting bitcoin, the high volatility makes it risky to use as a currency.

took me 10 days to sell my shares into FIAT..get the money into my traditional bank, send thsat money from Australia to overseas where I live then withdraw that money from my local ATM - all attracting fees..Then I bought my Bitcoin and had it in my wallet in 8 mins..LOL..

Very good points and exactly why I think - on its own - Bitcoin is a fantastic invention. However, plenty of fantastic inventions fail. And I think this will be one of them.
Blockchain, on the other hand, is much more interesting....

Could anyone explain to me why if Bitcoins and other 'currencies' are so valuable, the seller would want to be paid cash for them?

To complete a real-world transaction in which the buyer / seller requires a traditional currency.
Plenty of trades take place solely in bitcoin.
Think: drugs, extortion, you get the idea.

I'm not sure I really understand your comment. You could just as easily ask the question the other way around. Using cash to buy something is a method of exchange, that's all. Buying a cryptocurrency with cash is no different than buying foreign currency with cash. The only measure of the value you could ascertain from either transaction would be the exchange rate.

"One of the newest offered to market is Tazos..."

No Tazos are something different, does anyone proof read this stuff ?

I highly recommend anyone curious of the space to research Ethereum. It is gaining traction for good reason. It's a bit like Bitcoin but you can run code called smart contracts on top of it, making it very clever. As a currency alone, transactions are done in seconds for cheap compared to Bitcoin which for the same price will take hours or you can pay very high fees for the transaction to go through quicker.

Bitcoin has scaling issues (and other issues) because it is the original and still number 1. Ethereum, while very promising, has the same issues awaiting it. I think the will both solve their issues over time and continue to live happily side by side.

Yes, Bitcoin will perhaps solve it's problems. But at least Ethereum has a roadmap with plenty of developers working within to advance it's technology.

Ethereum has the biggest scaling issues of them all, all related to a concept called concurrency. Not even close to being capable of doing what it says on the tin and may never be able to.

I prefer your second opinion like BTC to be storing value. The costs prove it us. I dont think BTC will go down to costs of alts so we will use them for daily.

Just a heads up to anyone getting into this field. Amongst the genuinely revolutionary tech is a minefield of scams and people simply pumping their own investments. For every over night millionaire there is a bunch of bag holders. Be very wary of people recommending this or that. Do your own research. Don't get emotional and 'panic buy'. And only invest what you can afford to loose. It's truly un unregulated wild west. Be careful.

bitcoin in the future will be a coin that can be used everyday if bitcoin is legend in various countries, and the use of altcoin I think only limited to be traded alone can not be used for day-to-day transactions because bitcoin more dominate for use transaction.

I do a lot of research and all should do the same. The projects I mentioned are pretty solid. Most importantly these are relatively still in early stages of development or growth, bigger risks or bigger rewards, if as this article suggests crypto will go mainstream.

Sorry..replied to wrong comment. Guardian doesn't allow you to delete??

Not the least of which is the utter bullshit spouted by the people behind it in this piece. It's pure word salad.

Etheruem is completely different to Bitcoin and it has already forked once so it is not immutable, it is inflationary with no cap on supply etc, it is nothing like Bitcoin and is not many as a store of value or payment method.

People are using bitcoin from a long year and so I think it is already in a mainstream.

For sure it will be mainstream. It's becoming mainstream now imo. Even my grandma is talking about XRP (true story).

It`s because BTCChina and ViaBTC, two biggest BitCoin markets in China, is shutting down. My suggestion: do not invest in BitCoins right now, everything was rising must fall. Just wait, till BitCoins will fall on 70–80% and then you can buy them again. ;)

Bitcoin is already being used as an exchange for goods and services which I believed is the purpose of it. Thus, calling it a cryptocurrency.  But from what I observed and in my opinion, bitcoin is being use as more of a stock rather than a monetary. I think the creator of bitcoin develop it for the purpose of being a currency rather than as a stock. 

I believe that bitcoin is the main one and will always be there and new projects will never be bigger than its capitalization and price.

I believe BTC will get mass adoption but later on other faster and better, anonymous cryptocurrencies will be used more than BTC as it's quite slow already.

I do not think that bitcoin can be mainstream because no one had suspected bitcoin to reach this height and no one knew it could be so fast we were predicting that it could become 10k at the end of this year but it is not the end and it is already at 16k.

i think blockchain technology will be mainstream one day, yes.

I think that most likely the second option. Bitcoin will be an alternative to a cell in a bank for storing valuables, you do not need to make bunkers or special safes at home, it's enough to keep a password in secret. And for daily use will be used some altcoyins.

Until we find a way to improve BTC scalability..we will not be able to use it for our everyday buys..and BTC will keep on being considered as a store value.
But in my personal opinion if we think that today the most used store values are gold and real estate...and if we consider that both have lots of costs..for instance for gold one must pay for its storage and transportation...or in the case of real estate we have ordinary maintenance costs and high level of taxation.
So considering all of this BTC might reach for real a value above the $100K because it might become very soon the most reliable store value in the world.  ;)

I've never intended to use Bitcoin for my daily expenses, as long its value continue to increase. I don't ever want to lose this kind of opportunity, having a passive investment that has a low chance or risk getting losses. However, Bitcoin has becoming more mainsteam, as more sites continue to accept this digital currency as a payment method. One thing I notice is that most goods were all digital or intangible, such as prepaid mobile loads and utilities. But still, if there's a chance to be fully mainstream, I stil prefer to use cash rather than coins. If BTC value become more stable like fiat money than the situation would be pretty different.

Currently Bitcoin is still gaining attention and users through the speculation of its price. Even though this prevents BTC to be used as a currency for now, the whole world is looking at BTC now. Once the "rising and dumping" or better put the "speculation" phase is over, it might be quite possible that BTC can be used as a currency. For instance, a good time point would be, once all coins are mined or if the price is stable for a longer period of time. For now, it's rather prime time to buy and sell BTC for profits. 

The price of bitcoin has been changing. How should the price of the goods be determined in the process of use

Yes if you are living in a country or a community where most of the people are involved in crypto then chances of having day to day use with those things is possible.

When the value has reached the highest peak like $50,000 - $100,000 or more everyone will treat it as storing value but still transactions will exist.

I truly believe that bitcoin has gained its popularity in tge mainstream. Though it has been created years before, in the presence of todays technological advancements from smart phones,  smart TV's, and digital world I yhink it will gain more attention in the mainstream in the coming years.

I think bitcoin is already mainstream, but the level of usability for day to day expenses still vary from whichever country you are in. In addition to the viability of bitcoin for online transactions, some countries are already accepting bitcoin in stores, in schools, or even in real estate.

If you are talking about popularity then yes, bitcoins are certainly mainstream, but if you are talking about bitcoins as a mainstream currency then we may see it becoming so in the near future as it gains more support.

In crypto world bitcoin is mainstream but in terms of use bitcoin still not accepting in some store but i heard slowly bitcoin is accepting locally even here in my country some restaurant are accepting bitcoin as payment the good thing there you can just swipe or scan the barcode its just like an ATM card that you can just swipe and you paid.. So i think bitcoin will be useful in the future the only problem for now in bitcoin is volatility of the price..
The price is not stable anytime soon the price could be drop or increased its value..

It can not be denied that there are still friends of us who never know what bitcoin is. it is our responsibility to share what we know. In the year of January 2, 2014, we are ready to know, BNM states that BItcoin is tidah valid in Malaysia. This we see because still again The presence of Bitcoin and also digital wang is still early to enter the mainstream. Nor is the lack of presence of bitcoin, the various schemes that may be said to be fiddling with the use of bitcoin tickets as a means to gain profit. The emergence of skim-schemes and scammers is what is ruining the name of bitcoin in Malaysia. Between the 2 downs are bitkingdom and also ethrade.
Do you know the lords and ladies of bitkingdom and ethrade in google we are at no 1? within a year.

For now it's a big no bitcoin's fee it is too high, people will not pay something that the fee is higher than the item, besides that long confirmation is the main reason here... Maybe the alternative such bitcoin cash is suited for this case, bitcoin itself is not suited for small transaction it's kind of like an asset not as a currency.

Actually, you are talking about using bitcoin in everyday work. But it has not spread so much, but it will expand in roughly all the cases. In that case, you can make payments for everyday work with it.

Bitcoin is not yet the mainstream and has not been legally recognized, but I think within three years if Bitcoin continues to grow, it will be recognized by the government and will be monetized. to transaction

Isn't it already the mainstream coin of all crypto coins? Not sure if I understand the question correctly.

Hello. i dont think its mainstream. A lot of people have heard of it but they dont know what it can do or what it is supposed to do. Crypto and bitcoin will become mainstream in 2018 i think. There are a lot of projects (especially in the Ethereum ecosystem) that will lift cryptos up (before the great fall and then the rise again :)

Cheers

We can see today that Bitcoin is still lack of acceptance in the mainstream. But I believe in the future the scenario will likely to happen, many people will consider accepting payments with Bitcoin and possibly with other cryptocurrencies too. The cryptocurrencies scene is hard for ordinary people to well-understand about it so, I expect its need a time for people to acknowledge it.

yes you can buy bitcoin for bread, phone, car, an appartment, etc. if seller trust about value bitcoin.

today more and more bitcoin users as transactions. despite being banned by the government and the state.

not to use bitcoin as not as nasty as buying drugs

There are many new companies that are starting to accept the Bitcoin as one mean of their payment offer. Bitcoin is changeable and transaction with that coin are connected with the mainstream users and management but nevertheless, Bitcoin has high fees right now and buying the simple cheap things like the bread or the cigarettes in the stores or something else could cause nonprofitable transactions on both ends. Bitcoin will stay at the top of the coin chain for a very long time and it will be included in more and more companies as the payment mean but it will never become mainstream currency like FIAT.

Actually Bitcoin will be mainstream very soon, much people already know about this currency. If we looking the popularity of Bitcoin now it will be make Bitcoin increase the value. And it will make some famous outlets will accept Bitcoin as payment.

For purchasing some items, it might be used for payment. But, for little things such as buying bread or something, it is still far off to happen.

Don't think you will ever be able to use it mainstream until they sort out the processesing speed and high transaction fees. 2 to 3 transactions per second is not commercially viable for the mainstream businesses to ever use it. Can you imagine filling up the petrol tank and then sitting there for an hour ( if your lucky) while the payment is confirmed! Yesterday l had to send a 26 cents payment, that l could only pay in BTC, cost me $12.00 in transaction fee's. Not going to cut it commercially.

have bitcoin you can live anywhere

could be like that, we can see what will happen in the future. If bitcoin can make daily life it might be similar to e-money

I guess. But it is too early to tell. Bitcoins are just too small in terms of supply that is why we will have trouble using it on a day-to-day basis globally. If we are to use bitcoins everyday, it should have a stable price first and enough to supply the whole world with bitcoins. Bitcoins also must have gold reserves to make sure it is insured.

I think the same with you and I think it is difficult for bitcoin to get stable for the price because we do not yet reach the highest price and it still too volatile. maybe it is better to be like now and we can have a chance to make money from bitcoin and I think we can use the other coin to buy something and bitcoin will only an adjustment for that coins and the other. bitcoin itself needs many things before the price is stable and we need approvals from every government so people can free to use bitcoin in everywhere.

It depends on how one defines mainstream. For me, it is when it is government-regulated, millions of merchants accepting cryptocurrency and an exchange.

Most of the people are using Bitcoin as Asset these days but acceptance to stores are gaining, too. You can use Bitcoin Debit Cards, OverStock and some other reputed stores accepting Bitcoin and if you google a little, you would see there are lot posh houses are being sold with Bitcoins.

I agree with your point of view, waiting for people to accept bitcoin may take time.

yes bitcoin is gradually going mainstream..

I'm not really sure if Bitcoin will ever reach this level of mainstream aka. to be able to buy bread with it or pay taxes etc. in order for this to happen, BTC needs to beat the banks and everyone knows that this can't really happen at all. Yes BTC goes more and more mainstream with every single day and lots of new and new services start accepting BTC, but we are waaay waaay behind in order to start using Bitcoin in our everyday life.

There are still a lot of problems and obstacles to conquer before bitcoin can go mainstream I feel. Transaction fees and the waiting time is getting worse by the day I feel.

A lot of people treat Bitcoin as their asset more than a means of spending. Which is why many would keep their Bitcoins rather than start spending them.

Yes it will hit mainstream as soon as this LN gets added on. Shouldn't be much more time now but probably because big update takes 6 month or something still.

Storing value mostly as it can be easily conveted into fiat which has a much higher acceptance rate. Since btc can be converted for a nominal fees it seems to be the best of both worlds. If supply was more it would definitely be a powerful currency.

i hope bitcoin will be a part of the world and consider it as a good source of income or a job

Bitcoin is mainstream right now it shows that the blockchain network is very fast than the generation of mobile network mainstream. Bitcoin will multiply its value for the next few months . this is a good start for everyone buy the dip while the whales are accumulating.

why not? we dont know about our future. the appearance of bitcoin has transformed all financial institutions in every country including private banks and central banks. do not be surprised if bitcoin will be used for small transactions such as buying milk to buy bread.

Maybe bitcoin has already crossed that line.
Every media I open online has already articles about bitcoin or crypto currencies.
And the good old tv news mention it more and more often as well.
I beliebve that a big part of the people in older generations, they have a negative attitude towads crypto currencies, no matter what.
But from the younger generations many of them are informed about bitcoin, some already have bitcoins.
In my opinion the step towards mainstream has alredy happened as good as it's possible.

what do you mean ever? it already is.  what are we all doing here if it's not mainstream?