Bitcoin Forum

Why Crypto Hasn't Gone Mainstream Yet

After a decade of trading and a market cap in hundreds of millions, it?s not yet clear ? will cryptocurrencies like Bit[Suspicious link removed]ver to the mainstream use?

One factor that could make or break a cryptocurrency is the ability to outgrow its FinTech image and put on some real economy clothes. It depends on consumers who decide whether or not to adopt cryptocurrencies as a payment method. Sadly, they are still vague when it comes trading fiat money for the cryptocurrency.

Also, some high-profile people are pessimistic on this idea of cryptocurrencies. A Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller (no pun intended) compared cryptocurrency with the Dutch tulip mania. On the other hand, Myron Scholes, another Nobel laureate, is taking part in the development of a low-volatility cryptocurrency Saga (SGA).

So, why cryptocurrencies aren?t mainstream yet?

1. Difficulties Spending
2. Poorly Understood
3. Volatility!
4. Legalities and other Regulations
5. Illegal Activities
6. Bitconnect!
7. Unregulated
8. Not a Commodity, not a Currency
9. Media Influence
10. Learning Curve

These are just the main outlines.

If interested, you can find the full article where each point is commented in detail here:
http://tokenlion.net/blog/post/117/10-reasons-why-cryptocurrency-isnt-mainstream-yet

What is your opinion on this? What are the reasons YOU think Cryptocurrency is not mainstream? If you had any crazy stories with crypto, let's hear it!

it's not like easily accessible so it's why

Im not sure cryptocurrencies will be mainstream as a spendable currency.
There is a good chance it will become mainstream as a technology.

As a spendable currency it has limitations as pointed out in the OP and I
wonder do we actually want crypto be be mainstream as a currency?
Would it be negatively impacted?

The actual reason bitcoin hasn't gone mainstream yet is because of the continuous waves of FUD being spread against it by the luddites and paid media. Of course it has scaling problems which do limit its growth, but the scaling issue would have been solved a long time ago if adoption had improved.

I'd like to see a future where people can choose between two alternative payment options - fiat or crypto, on the spot. It should be convenient from the first look.

1. Difficulties Spending - yes; until they become well regulated and secure, a mass adoption by sellers will be impossible;
2. Poorly Understood - that is the problem of the people actually.... there are so many well-written guides around; no help there, and not intrinsic to cryptos;
3. Volatility! - yes, while the volatility is exactly what is attracting the investors, it is not what the goods and service traders are looking for;
4. Legalities and other Regulations - we are slowly getting there.....
5. Illegal Activities - there always will be some... what about FIAT, there are much more illegal activities there....
6. Bitconnect! - who cares? There will always be projects like that one;
7. Unregulated - kinda like number 4, isn't it?
8. Not a Commodity, not a Currency - it will be legislatively defined... some of them (tokens) will become a commodity, while others (coins) a currency;
9. Media Influence - media influences everything really... the only problem is.... it is amazing how people tend to believe the titles although everybody knows nowadays that titles are always pulled out of context....
10. Learning Curve - good guides, really, it is easy.... and there are lots of people that can explain to other people which makes it even more easy... If you are interested, you will learn....

I do think these 2 reasons are the main thing people started to know more about bitcoin and also the reasons there are so many negative news shrouding bitcoin. Bitconnect might be the biggest ponzi coin scheme yet but the downfall of it make more people started to search about cryptocurrencies because it makes people more cautious about what investment is that all about.

Media influence on the other hand is the most corcening parts and i'm sure media has been the biggest free advertisement campaign for bitcoin although most recent news about it was negative news and comment. However it raise people awareness about cryptocurrency and i think media has done his job well until now  ;D ;D

the real question is to first define mainstream

some define mainstream as able to buy toilet roll and a pack of bacon from any 7-11, by spending crypto (retail mainstream)
some define mainstream as being traded on the NYSE (professional investment mainstream)
some define mainstream as being being able to bye crypto from many places to hold (amateur investment mainstram)

i would say lack of regulations are preventing professional investment. but when you get into the details. its BUSINESSES handling fiat that get regulated and they can apply any time they like and then handle crypto as part of that business.

but for everything else regulations for crypto are not needed, nor should they be promoted to be required. this is because getting businesses to snoop on the businesses own customers(regulations) is just adding admin onto the business, costs and also not helping the customer. just to get a "certification" that doesnt mean anything. apart from getting to say "we are professionals"

what would be something worth promoting is consumer protection. where authorities are not just handing out certificates(licences) but actually policing the businesses to ensure they do no harm to the customers. that way businesses act morally and ethically and customers will then be more willing to use them

regulations push average joe away due to headaches of applications forms and submitting life stories... consumer protection welcome more people due to being more relaxed that te business cant just run off. or is already hiding on a secret island

i find it real strange how so many people think letting a business that handles our funds should have the right to hide its identity. but require every customer who gives a business money has to identify themselves.. that is a silly reverse reason for anonimty.
businesses should identify themselves and allow the customers to not have to be scammed, stolen from and identified

Very rich people are also at very great risk, like us all. Here s an example, if suddenly somewhere in the Arab Emirates decided to buy a long-line like many people do, but in a very large volume bitcoin. In this situation, large investors need to jump out of the window, the reasons for it are understandable

A good summation of the main points. Some of them such as regulations are getting there and when they do a lot of the others will cease to be problems soon after.

Digital currency is replacing fiat currency but the speed is slow.  The reasons being illiteracy; poverty etc in many countries.  We can not expect that an illiterate man can use crypto currency because he does not know how to operate internet on the mobile.
Due to poverty even large population is not having smart phones so impossible for them presently. 
But I am sure with the passage of time ;revolution is taking place; slowly the fiat currency is being replaced by crypto.

you got some reasons right, along with bitconnect you could name some others like mt gox. But all in all, it's only natural the industry has some pitfalls holding them back, but that all will be overcome.

Yes it has not been the mainstream currency yet but this is not definite that it will not be in future. Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies are widely spread and accepted by people. And it already has been approved as payment method in my platform. So I believe it will be mainstream currency very soon. BTCBTC

According to me, I guess the reason behind crypto not being a mainstream still now is that it is still illegal in many countries.  Moreover there is always flactuations in this market which might also be a reason.

you are just repeating yourself to increase the number of reasons! most of these "reasons" are basically the same for example you say "bitconnect" which falls under illegal activity an it is not even big enough to be its own reason. you may have said Mt Gox here which was a much better reason on its own but it is old now.

in my opinion the only reason why it is not yet adopted on massive scale is the fact that there is a lot of attacks against bitcoin in the media. this is starting to change, ever since last year Japan adopted bitcoin openly but it will take time. the rest are all too small a reason to be effective.

In recent times bitcoins popularity increasing but it not reach top of the mark. There are many people who wants to decrease bitcoin popularity. It is a problem but it has the ability to overcome this problem.

i think one of the biggest reason why still most of the people is still not interested in bitcoin because its unregulated, people wants assurances before they engage to it, so hearing bitcoin is not regulated by someone they lose interest of it and thats why they need to understand fully how the bitcoin works and why

Crypto hasn't gone mainstream yet simply because most governments don't allow it. Most of your points are valid but not major. These are just some of the difficulties crypto users need to deal with. But when it comes to mainstreaming, these reasons have very little influence (except #4).

One more thing.
Cryptocurrency is less safety compared to any other invesments.
That's why people not brave enough to invest some of their money to crypto.
While the people who already involved, get much profits.

Bitcoin as well as other cryptocurrencies are widely spread and accepted by people. depends on consumers who decide it.

I agree with some of the reasons but not all of them like difficulties in spending you could easily use a bitcoin debit card.  These two reason learning curve and poorly understood should be together it looks unnecessary to see them listed as different reasons.Imo cryptocurrencies still needs time before it becomes mainstream.

This is not true there's more countries that accept Bitcoin than countries that banned Bitcoin.


It depends on which crypto you're investing on because not all crypto are volatile.

How is it not easily accessible? Signing up for an exchange is ridiculously simple, and they walk you through the entire process of buying, and even keeping, coins. They're typically very user friendly too, so complete newbies will at least be able to send/receive coins with little problems. I know people shouldn't be relying too much on exchanges, but they serve as a perfect gateway in my opinion.

That being said, pretty much everything the OP mentioned could very well be a factor. If the problem was so simple that we could easily point it out, people would have already come up with a good solution.

I see 5 main reasons that block options for cryptos: they are volatile, they are complicated, there are too many of them, there are not many real life applications except trading, bad reputation (darknet, landering, etx.). They have to prove to be stable and useful first

I think the countries are being responsible for this because many countries have banned the advertisements of crypto currencies. People are more interested about online shopping, online gaming and other online stuffs. So, if they the online orgazations start trasacting with bitcoin, they will get more customers from the other countries more as transation will become very easy to do and people wil also get to know about bitcoin.

I totally agree with you . You have pointed out the reasons so beautifully that you really deserve a thumbs up. What I can add to it is I think another reason of its being not so popular is that it is banned in many countries and its advertisement are too banned in many socia sites making it unpopular to the mass.

I don’t think its difficulties spending because it’s easy to spend. Bitcoin user knows where to spend and it’s not poor understanding it’s up to you how you understand. In the matter of volatility is completely wrong people trust this system. It’s true that in some country there are some restrictions but most of the country using this currency. Based on 10 major problems there is something right or wrong because everything has pros and cons.

1. The emotional quotient has still not developed for Bitcoin. There have to be as many retail usage case studies where Bitcoin helped people all around the world. Gold and Diamond has been marketed on emotional parameters and store of value

2. There is still a large population which beliefs in the physical presence of material for investment. Our mind has been tuned like this for years. So this can be changed over a period of time through marketing positive influence in the minds, not just talking about the monetary value. That's why people are not able to connect still

3. Governments are indecisive and not sure what to do with this moving forward. Basically, they have not done their homework for the last 9-10 years.

4. Banks are the most threatened, rather than finding a progressive way to exist, they want to kick this out without even knowing how it can help them. They are scared and creating FUD around.

5. The retail and corporate usage needs to increase. A lot of investors are watching closely on the stance governments are going to take. Once a sweet spot arrives, they will jump in. They are still not ready to take the risk.

6. A lot of us are not sure whether to support the technology (which is the main thing) or to just take them as the coins (which are traded). People are not bothered about the technology still (probably).

7. The whole crypto technology is evolving, needs to see more use cases

You are partly correct. But the topic is about crypto going mainstream. You are correct when you said that it is accepted in more countries. But only by the minority. Mainstream means being included or accepted by the  group that includes most people. And we are aware that only a very small percentage of a country's population knows and uses Bitcoin. This fact alone implies that Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency is still far from going mainstream.

I guess the article had defined "mainstream" differently; when I say "mainstream" I don't refer to how accepted it is or how many sheep are using it, it's called "mainstream" simply because it has already made it's way out of the underground.

I therefore conclude that cryptocurrency is already in the surface of mainstream because you can see it on facebook and even on tv.

True, it might be "mainstream" in that way (Facebook, TV, News) but it's not really mainstream in the financial spectrum. And I believe that crypto has a long way to go through the hurdles of regulations, acceptance and avoid bans in some countries. We're getting there!

Crypto is hard to spend and Liquidity in crypto markets is shaky. Crypto is too volatile. Cryptocurrencies are too abstract

Most people don't really understand the currency and they don't seem to care and others really don't trust the currency because they feel that they can really lose their money when they invest and this is because of what they listen to in the media.

You are absolutely right and even if I do not want to agree with it, there is just no way to deny this fact. Because even if I am such a big supporter of this industry, I cannot ignore all the flaws it has nor think that people should. In fact, I think that people should really consider these flaws and find ways to eliminate them or at least reduce them. I believe there are projects out there that are making some good solutions. I wish there will be more of them.

We reached mainstream actually but in just a short period of time and we are back to the small world that we are used to. It was december when bitcoin's exposure was so high but it did not last long because many people realized that it is not yet a complete working product.

That illegal activities thing is completely illogical. Illegal activities had been happening in the past when there were no bitcoins and will continue in future as well.

Crypto currency will not become mainstream until America recognizes it as the official currency)

 The reasons being illiteracy; poverty etc in many countries.  We can not expect that an illiterate man can use crypto currency because he does not know how to operate internet on the mobile.

the only major reason that is keeping bitcoin back from everything has always been FUD in my opinion. there is a lot of lies, misinformation, exaggeration, false scary stuff online and generally in the media. and when people are constantly exposed to negativity they  are going to be programmed to be negative towards bitcoin. and we all love FUD because it helps us make money by buying the dips so we are also to blame.
we have seen this last year with evidence that whenever some big undeniable proof against these FUDs come out the adoption explodes to the moon. and this was Japan adopting bitcoin as a legal way of payment or a legal currency.

First of all, Crypto is hard to spend and Liquidity in crypto markets is shaky
Then  Crypto is too volatile. Furthermore, Cryptocurrencies are too abstract and unreal nowadays.

I think there's only one big reason why cryptos haven't gone mainstream - most people are simply satisfied with banks, they don't experience any problems that are big enough to make them start looking for alternatives, people like the option of chargeback, since it gives them a feeling of safety when they do online purchases, and the last time people got angry at banks was more than 10 years ago, before Bitcoin was launched, and people in general seem to have very short memory. For an average citizen, cryptocurrencies have worse user experience and don't provide benefits for them, as people don't care about privacy and independence.

I believe that the year 2017 was the year when cryptocurrency and blockchain technology went mainstream (on a theoretical part) but there is a still a long way to go when it comes to the actual ground level use of it in multiple sectors around the world. It is true that the biggest challenge is lack of awareness and high amount of misconceptions planted due to the misrepresentation by the media.

That a good question, I do think it may not be possible in the nearest future for bitcoin to go mainstream because there's still plenty educating that needs to done, alps the volatility and regulations will hinder it for a while too.

You practically said it all, but just to chip in a little bit, bitcoin will hardly be adopted in mainstream because its too volatile in nature, security concerns and poor awareness by the masses.

Thanks a lot, nice info to think on
will recommend it for some friends

Thank you! Also, if we continue the same topic of cryptocurrencies, you can read about some blockchain use cases (http://tokenlion.net/blog/post/177/17-blockchain-use-cases-from-blockchain-companies)

Cryptocurrencies may have a hard time to go mainstream, but the technology will see adoption. What do you think?

Thanks for your valuable post.