Bitcoin Forum

Simple poll. Question as in topic.

No time limit. Vote changing allowed.

Self-moderated just in case, but I don't intend to use it.

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Things to consider:

Brand recognition - you can hardly find anyone who has never heard about Bitcoin. They sure as hell don't know how it works, but they heard about it.

Omnipresent mainstream media coverage - countless number of press hits and mentions, all the financial 'gurus' have talked about it. No one is surprised by this anymore.

Years ago most would define 'mainstream' as widespread merchant adoption, but maybe it just wasn't meant to be...

Vote. Discuss.

It's a mixed bag. I'd say that Bitcoin has certainly achieved mainstream awareness. Everyone's heard of it, CNBC and Forbes are shilling it daily, and the banks (GS and JP Morgan) are comparing it to gold.

I don't think its usage is mainstream yet, though. Just look at the transaction numbers. All cryptocurrency networks combined still represents a tiny sliver of global value transfer. And it really isn't ready for mainstream adoption yet, given the state of network congestion and the lack of exponential scaling mechanisms. With Rootstock deployed and the Lightning Network close behind, I'm hoping that the network is ready for that kind of scale in 1-2 years.

I voted "No."

The role of media and social media is very influential. My friends have asked me about bitcoin because they have seen my social media account sharing about an ICO project. Some are interested, some are not, some even consider it a fraud. About 15 people in my office, there were only 2 people interested and asked me to guide him to join cryptocurrency.
So, as you say, news about bitcoin is mainstream, but not with its use.

But isn't public awareness enough to be classed as mainstream? You can't reasonably expect majority of global population to jump on it and use it.
Assuming that (almost) everyone has heard about Bitcoin, I could imagine that those who were interested in the concept already got in, and those who aren't - unlikely ever will. If so, then BTC won't get any more mainstream than it is right now.

Looking from other angle - if you accept that Bitcoin shouldn't be viewed as currency but rather as a store of value (or investment, speculative asset etc) then you can't define 'mainstream' as widespread usage and therefore, with that point of view, 'mainstream' is already here.

Yes. It is a mainstream type of technology. It is mainstream for those in the know. It mainstream for those who know how to wield it.

Its just possible that this is peak bitcoin.

Everyone has heard of it, pre-xmas everyone was positive, now most publicity is negative/bubble etc.

Its becoming obvious that cryptos are useless for transactions other then drugs (and then bitcoin isn't the best choice)

From here I expect a slow decline into obscurity and we'll look back in ten years and wonder how stupid we must have been.

Hell ya it is, all the leading media publications now daily publish either it's news or its price's on a daily basis. Our favorite Jamie has to come and say sorry to us for calling it a fraud and then admit it's not a fraud. The father of valuation Buffet has to come out in the open and take a stand against it, I can't blame him, a lot of investment banker's would have been pissed had he taken a positive stand, that all I feel Bitcoins is already mainstream and those who miss out, we'll they just miss out.

In my country, almost every day from the newspaper, Internet and other media to see relevant information about the BTC, almost everyone know, BTC, so in my opinion, the BTC is the mainstream.

I voted Yes. In my opinion when we say mainstream, it is published on local and international media. More people are talking about it, being in the news all the time. I think that is what's happening right now.

Bitcoin is not mainstream yet and I doubt it will ever be. Mainstream meaning a government recognized currency which is widely accepted for daily expenses and also bears the assurance of the respective central bank. Bitcoin is decentralized and its circulation and generation doesn't depend on any government. So it is structurally not fit to become a mainstream currency. It is a store of value and an excellent investment asset, at least for me.

not really i think, in my country Indonesia there are few people who knew bitcoin, it maybe only 5-10% of population in my country

Yes bitcoin is considered as mainstream however a lot of people I do know does not even know how it functions. All they know is that many scams are being involved because of btc which is pretty sad. But then its their fault for not embracing this innovation. They will soon regret frowning upon the potential of btc

Yes it is main stream and the transaction fees have made us the laughing stock of the world
and this will rub off on all the other coins too.

$30 just to have 250 bytes of data saved to the block does not look good
next to "We are fighting the banks, Freedom" or the original white paper that
talked about "Virtually free transaction fees"

CPU Wars as the original concept was designed to promote has resulted in us
now having 20,000 miners just to process a mere seven transactions a second
so any developer who is worth is salt is also laughing at us.

We within the community we need to do some serious house cleaning because the
development team who could deal with the miners in seconds are clearly following
there own pockets these days and have become greedy and now the rot has set in. 

I think that pretty much breaks it down. Everyone and their dogs has heard of Bitcoin by now. Alt coiners and cryptocurrency "experts" are all over the place. Blockchain hype is as big as it has ever been.

Nonetheless the actual usage of cryptocurrencies is still in a very early stage. So adoption is far from mainstream.

As far as usage for speculation is concerned, I'd say Bitcoin is beginning to become mainstream though.


I would define Bitcoin to be mainstream once everyone and their dogs has not only heard of Bitcoin, but owns or uses it. Keep in mind that the internet had also reached mainstream awareness long before mainstream adoption.

About less than 1% of the world population uses Bitcoin, and this was achieved in a time span of 10 years. There has been exponential growth in adoption in the last couple of years. If you take the whole world's population/money/assets into perspective, I think still around 1% does seem a considerable number. IMO Bitcoin isn't mainstream yet, but on its way. Hitting $10K, Bitcoin futures/NASDAQ plans to introduce Bitcoin futures this year, there is a steady flow of Bitcoin-related news, both positive and negative from mainstream financial media outlets, IMF chief Christine Lagarde telling central bankers to not ignore Bitcoin, a few countries working on framework to regulate Bitcoin, and the upcoming G20 summit where Bitcoin is going to be a topic of debate. Not mainstream yet, but I guess the adoption phase is shifting from early adopters to early majority.

Bitcoin is very much mainstream!
But people and other institutional investors are holding back because of the current slow confirmation times of transactions and the high fees which are not suitable for small transactions.

I think bitcoin is now mainstream, because more and more people now know that bing has accepted him, and in the near future, maybe bitcoin will replace the current currency.

It's not mainstream yet and probably will never be. First truly mainstream crypto will be TON (telegram's currency), I think. It'll be a hell of a project.

Yes, bitcoin is on the verge of becoming full mainstream because everybody knows about bitcoin.
The only thing left is for the governments everywhere in the world to start accepting bitcoin as a digital store of value like gold.   

I think this is a region thing... In most first world countries Bitcoin is definitely mainstream {based on your criteria} In your

3rd world countries, with less access to mass media and internet access, Bitcoin is still relatively unknown. I visited some of

the African countries last year and I asked around and people there mostly know about M-Pesa. {This was developed before

Bitcoin in 2007}  ;)

In my personal opinion, bitcoin is not yet mainstream, though it appears so because it is all over social media and news right now. People doesn't understand it fully yet to be called mainstream like the internet and smartphones. Some people fear it because they don't understand it. Mass adoption and daily usage is needed for bitcoin to become mainstream.

it is getting there, i voted NO but my answer is somewhere in between yes and no.
there are surely a lot of talk about bitcoin but considering things globally i say there are still a lot of people in different countries that have not yet heard of bitcoin. and recognition and coverage and in short "talk" is not enough to call it mainstream adopted.

it is adopted when they invest in bitcoin and start using it.
and i still consider main part of this adoption as when merchants start accepting it.

no, totally no.

Yes, maybe people have heard about it on media or newspaper, but that doesn't mean be maistream.

A lot of people just know the name and nothing more...

- Bitcoin is by far the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, . More importantly, it is the cryptocurrency that has gained trust in the eye of the public, so no wonder it is #1 in every cryptocurrency chart.

- There's no doubt that bitcoin is the cryptocurrency that has received the biggest amount of coverage by mass media, and whether is good or bad, bitcoin is always on the headlines, even when people mention other cryptocurrencies, bitcoin always ends up in the corner of every article.

And I voted Yes, but it is really a controversial matter since one could say 'no' it isn't mainstream because it is only being of interest to a very specific public and it isn't ready to use by the general public. To me, one thing is 'mainstream' (everyone has heard of it), and another thing is 'mainstream adoption' or 'mainstream usage'. If we want to put some kind of status or rank, then Bitcoin has gone mainstream and it is now entering other sub-categories.

Is bitcoin mainstream, meaning average people have heard about. Sure.

Is bitcoin mainstream, meaning average people would consider using it. Meh, I doubt it.

I voted yes but I think it greatly depends on your definition. I think next to no one know in the first world has not heard of bitcoin and for that reason I consider it to be mainstream. I do not however believe that it is anywhere near close to being fully mainstream in terms of adoption etc, I believe we have a long way to go in that regard and people just hearing about it and starting to try to understand it is the beginning. Think back to all great technological revolution, there was a period where they were well known but not well used and it took time for people to understand them and get on board.

No, I don't think so that Bitcoin is in Mainstream even, for now, if you would have asked this question two years back then you should have expected yes from me because Bitcoin was main brand recognition in the whole cryptocurrency market. But today there are many cryptocurrencies are trending which are as valuable as bitcoin in today's world something like Ethereum. Here bitcoin is used only for payment processing whereas there is cryptocurrency which is used for multitasking. Even though bitcoin is popular and it's having the craze in all over the world, I am expecting some cryptocurrency like Ethereum to have the Mainstream in coming months.

I agree that Bitcoin became wide-known but it is still not enough to say that it is mainstream. The only thing that many people know about Bitcoin is that its value has vastly increased in the past year. Unfortunately, many people here are only after money. People want to earn money easily without doing much. I don't understand why people invest in something they don't understand. My relatives bought Bitcoin but they don't believe that cryptocurrencies will replace fiat.

For me Bitcoin is not in the stage of being "mainstream" because many are informed about bitcoin but not all of them will ever consider buying bitcoin. For me Bitcoin will become mainstream if every people has a Bitcoin wallet and they have good knowledge about Bitcoin.

there is a big difference between knowing about something and adopting it.
and usually when they use the word mainstream it is followed by the word "adoption" and we are not even close to mainstream adoption although it has started last year.

so far because of the phenomenal performance of bitcoin in a year there has been a lot of talk about it everywhere even on TV. and that is increasing awareness, in other words people know something called "bitcoin" exists. but to know what it really is offering and to invest in/adopt it is another big step.

Yes definitely most of who we knows should know about bitcoin. But we should also know that they are more people who are skeptical and wary of bitcoins as well as investors hesitant to enter due to the high price.

I'd say it's on the fringe. Everyone is talking about it, but few are actually genuinely curious enough to get their feet wet. People love talking about the massive returns, and some even bought miniscule amounts just to be able to say they "invested", but they mostly know nothing about the technology and what they can actually use it for. The recent boom is a fad, in that it's popular because it's new and it's considered cool.

I still consider mainstream as significant adoption, but I don't believe we can reach that, and Bitcoin certaintly can't even handle it, until the scalability issue is addressed.

Arguably! Not fully mainstream, with good reasons that bitcoin is and always will remain volatile, the fact is bitcoin increases and decreases has led to what is referred to as FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) and FOMO (fear of missing out).  But with the advent of other alternate coin such as CryptF coin with a new platform to ‘hard-wired’ digital coin to ‘blue-chips’ will make a great impact for it acceptance by different social class. So I think bitcoin should try to learn from other upcoming digital coin to work on their security management.

If you are talking about it in the sense of general public, no it is not mainstream yet. There might be some news about bitcoin being broadcasted but it is not yet enough to convince the majority of people to invest in.

Yes, i agree with you. I think not only me that think about this but many other people.
As of now not more people in the world know about bitcoin, if more and more people, it will be more mainstream.

Not even close to mainstream.   The word is, but not the use of it.   That's why the potential upside is still very enticing. 

I live in a country where Bitcoin is on everyones lips. They think it is a exellent store of value, because most people has made a lot of money with Bitcoin and everyone is looking for the same returns. A high Bitcoin price, draw a lot of attention from the media.

People within my circle of friends, know that I have made some significant profits with Bitcoin and they want the same. <I tell them how I did it and this is how word of mouth will spread Bitcoin adoption, because the circle just grow bigger>  ^smile^

More people are voting that bitcoin is mainstream? Why don't I feel so myself. It is not like more than 50% of the population knows about bitcoin and are using them in real life  ???

That really depends on how you define mainstream. In crypto world of course bitcoin is mainstream, among investors in general it also becoming more and more mainstream as many new investors enter this market every day. However, if you consider non investors then bitcoin is probably just something people hear in the news from time to time, not mainstream for sure as there isn't really anything to do with it right now besides investing.

I think yes, in my country, almost everyone knows bitcoin, and every day people talk about it, and I think it's mainstream.

IMO, I don’t think Bitcoin is mainstream at this moment. I doubt half of the world population own Bitcoin. But I think we are on the way to mainstream.

Its fair enough to state that Bitcoin is still far from becoming a mainstream investment, as attempts to create exchange-traded funds based on Bitcoin and other digital assets have so far been foiled by the US Securities and Exchange commission. At the same time, mainstream financial institutions are paying more attention to blockchain assets. As a result, a dose of Bitcoin makes investors portfolios less volatile. Bitcoin is primarily decentralized and its generation and circulation and doesn't depend on any government. So, structurally it is poles apart from  a mainstream currency. Hence, We as Bitcoin proponents preserve the secure opinion that the digital coins are a safe investment because they have a "zero correlation" to the stock market.

In this situation it is very difficult to determine the difference between the mainstream and simple popularity. Because of this, it is very difficult to understand whether bitcoin is a mejstirmom. I think that all the same bitcoin is very popular, among the developed people who understand cryptography. Therefore, I gave my vote for the fact that bitcoin is not mainstream.

The growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is significant, exceeding many people's expectations of the industry. Many are looking at the government and regulators' reaction to digital currencies next year, and the emergence of relevant regulators and legal systems will allow bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be accepted and used by mainstream markets.

It's hard to tell because many social media speak Bitcoin and know a lot of them, but not many people really know or join in. So what's the mainstream? I think it should not, and most people think of bit The impression of the currency is negative, as money laundering, illegal trading, hacking and so on, these labels are placed on bitcoin, temporarily still can not be cleared.

Harvard Business Review published an article in 2017 analyzing the potential for blockchain technology to break into the mainstream. The study cited an overall lack of usability as the single largest barrier to widespread public adoption:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/before-we-can-blockchain-world-need-simplifyaccess-kevin-murcko

That’s mainly just an advertisement for CoinMetro but I do agree with much of what he said.

I would say no to it being mainstream, for me, mainstream would mean its an accepted form of payment in a lot more retail based environments. Has it's name grown and now more heard of? Sure, social media was buzzing with the word 'Bitcoin' for a month or two. As is the way with social media, it's now all doom and gloom in the world of Bitcoin.

Crypto currency is a main stream market right now and bitcoin helped to get the word out without a doubt with the kind of rally we had last year and in the past,there is a huge investment in the crypto market especially from wallet street and fund houses and so you can consider it as a main stream currency ,we will see main stream merchant adopting bitcoin in due time and i am sure the development team will come out with a solution for that too in the coming years.

No. In my experience it's not even mainstream awareness yet. Most people i meet regularly have no idea what it is, but they may have heard of it. Other than my first hand experience, you could easily check its traffic. If it were mainstream we'd barely be able to transact. Additionally, I would say that the volatility of its price is an indication that it hasnt reached mainstream yet. If it were mainstream, the prices would be more stable as people would have already agreed upon its value.

I think this is the key point in order to answer your poll, and that's probably the reason why right now you have almost 50/50 results. It all depends on this point of view, and maybe you should consider deciding what perspective should we use before voting. I voted yes, because I'm considering that being mainstream doesn't need adoption as well. Like you said yourself, it's hard to talk to someone that hasn't at least heard about Bitcoin, even if they don't know what it is, and for that I think bitcoin is already mainstream in terms of awareness. It is not mainstream in terms of adoption though, and that is easily checked if you look at Bitcoin price.