Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin, as a completely new way of payments, has been founded in 2009, now it's been almost 10 years. In comparison to existing payment systems it is still very new and also the technology that is needed for Bitcoin is unique and special.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of using Bitcoin:

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Advantages:

• Bitcoin is a global system and not limited to individual nations.
• Bitcoin is safe against inflation, as bitcoins cannot be multiplied, such as FIAT money, but limited to a maximum number of 21 million. These are to be emitted until the year 2140.
• Bitcoin has a decentralized peer-to-peer system and when established, central banks, credit card companies and regulators would lose power. The power would then return to the citizens.
• The miners who handle the transactions are rewarded with new bitcoins. This makes the system strong (it would take 51% of the total hashrate to successfully attack Bitcoin)
• Bitcoin is globally accessible and can be used anywhere, within minutes, by anyone. Signing up and handling are as easy as creating a mail or sending an e-mail.
• Bitcoin is absolutely forgery-proof due to the automatic checking of the participants. In addition, the source code is open-source and therefore visible to anyone.
• Network transfer and validation with Bitcoin can be completed in minutes and anywhere in the world.
• No personal or sensitive data is transferred between Bitcoin sender and Bitcoin receiver.
• Bitcoin is pseudo-anonymous when compared to card payments if you use Bitcoin correctly. In the Bitcoin-Blockchain you'll see every transaction but not know who has sent the transaction if you don't know the owner personally.

   

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Disadvantages:

• The Bitcoin system is deflationary. As Bitcoin owners often speculate on ever higher price rises, they barely spend their bitcoins, but collect them in their wallets without putting them into circulation (can also be seen as an advantage that Bitcoin is worth more and more)
• So far, there is still a relatively low acceptance because Bitcoin is still hardly known to the majority of the population.
• The Bitcoin software is still in constant development and not all functions and services have been established or even developed by the general public.
• Only 8 transactions per second (but the development of the Lightning Network should improve that)
• Early adopters, like users who have already purchased large quantities at very low prices, are already benefiting much more from the price increases.
• If a country stops trading in bitcoins because of banks, it can cause a sudden price dumps, since then Bitcoins can only be traded illegally
• The banks and rulers will try to criminalize the owners of Bitcoin

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Ultimately, the benefits are far greater and more important, because the disadvantages are all solvable. The long run supports Bitcoin and with 10 years it is not very old.

Do you have advantages or disadvantages to add?

I think the biggest disadvantages for me are lack of regulations and uncertainty related to bitcoin, it is not backed by anything so it is very speculative and people think it is unreliable.

I don't think lack of regulations is a disadvantage. It depends on the regulation but if I see all those unnecessary KYC precedures, this is something we don't need. Finally we will lose a bit freedom if we implement all the things, the governments want. I agree regulations can be good, if we can sort out some shitcoins and better regulations to protect investors from scammy ICOs by regulate ICO companies, but after all most regulations are done to prevent getting power back to the citizens.

So Bitcoin has no disadvantages regarding the current money system on this issue.  ;)

I think you wanted to say here "per second" not "per minute".
Good summary overall, i think of Bitcoin more like of digital gold more than currency. But its not clear yet, everyone have their own opinion for now.

Thanks, I've corrected it  :D
8 transactions per minute would be a big problem...

I agree, Bitcoin can be seen as digital gold, too. It's something you can own independant of financial crises, like printing money and inflation.

Lack of regulation is a disadvantage to you? Why so? I think thats one of the reasons why Bitcoin is sought after due to it being unregulated and largely untaxed throughout the world.

It is backed by something what you mean is its not backed by something physical like gold.

You forgot one main disadvantage. The slow development and the barriers to rollout changes. Bitcoin could be faster and more comfortable with just a few minor changes (from the technical point of view) on the consensus, but unfortunately you can't roll them out because you will cause a fork.

This is one of the reasons which holds back bitcoin and of course the high fees and low acceptance from big companies.

Until bitcoin is regulated, it can be easily manipulated by the whales and that is a huge disadvantage.

That is i think complet list of disadvantages and advantages of bitcoin, for me it has more advantages and there will be more and more of them in future thanks to more and more users which will be coming to our world in next years.

I think the advantages of bitcoin can also be added to help the economy of a person quickly and disadvantages of bitcoin is cannot avoid hackers

these are basically the same thing.

the reward has nothing to do with making the system strong against 51% attacks. the system is strong against such attacks because of the large hashing power and the fact that it will cost a lot to perform such attacks.


the only thing that is actually a disadvantage in this list is the TPS. others are not disadvantage of bitcoin. and most of them are basically the same argument about the price.

That's not always the case (huge backlog of unconfirmed transactions + multiple inputs/outputs usually lead to a higher fee).

It's "pseudonymous". You might want to explain the latter part (in order to not mislead newcomers).

This isn't a disadvantage (you can't list it as an advantage either, since it doesn't apply to everyone else).

With the way banks have become so corrupt/unreliable, I think decentralization is a major selling point for crypto generally.

What is the best technology for cryptocurrency now? Or you can tell me better topic for this questions?

The major advantage of bitcoin to me is the swiftness of remitting money to any part of the world with the freedom it offers to the parties involve by concealing the transaction of the sender and receiver identities. However, the disadvantages of bitcoins is the inability to reverse a transaction in case a mistake is done.

Any currency aiming for mass adoption should solve the problem of scalabitlity and be suitable for micropayments. Stellar Platform is pretty fast and fees are low, I also like the wallets / decentralized exchanges - stellarterm,  stellaport, interstellar..- it's easier to trade any token on network paying low fees. that's why it's one of my favorites right now.

I can agree, changed this in the OP. At the moment we can see this issue in the ETH network: a transaction costs up to $10. Bitcoin had these problems in early 2018.

True, also changed in the OP. The way Bitcoin is made it is almost anonymous if you are using different wallets for transactions. This way is also more secure.
Thanks for your corrections.

I agree with you, this is maybe the best reason using Bitcoin, Satoshi created Bitcoin in 2008, a financial crisis.

In all the advantages of bitcoin I like most is the advantage: Currency without borders
Because Bitcoin exists in cyberspace, it is a currency without borders. You can buy and sell Bitcoin from any location in the world using your smartphone connected to the Internet. This makes Bitcoin out of the tax payer list. Today, there are several ways to earn Bitcoin for free. Provisioning anonymous services for foreign buyers or proxy trading in Bitcoin helps to earn Satoshi or Bitcoin units.
You can ask banks and other financial institutions abroad to pay interest and dividends in Bitcoin and ask for a higher interest rate for crypto payments

About advantages
Transactional convenience: Any transaction has a limit on the transfer and receive money, but for bitcoin there is no limit. You can send unlimited number of bitcoins to your friends. No matter where they are in the world they will also receive. You can also send at any time no one can manage the amount you send.
Ensure security and confidentiality
Every bitcoin transaction can be done and completed without any personal information. Transaction information is still kept, but your identity is kept private. This is one of the outstanding advantages that you get when investing in the field of virtual money.
Bitcoin can not be faked
The cost of testing gold is very high, and bitcoin testing is not costly and the truth is that bitcoin can not be faked. Because bitcoin is not shown in physical form.
The cost is extremely low
There are no intermediaries involved in the field of virtual currency investing. However, you still have to deal with the transaction but it is not worth it.
On the downside
Not many users: The fact is that the field of virtual money is still quite new and not many people know. The people of Vietnam have been used to using gold and silver. People are very shy and anxious to invest in this field.
Somewhat unwieldy: In order to invest in bitcoin you need to have certain knowledge to get involved in this area. For those who are not technologically savvy, they can not participate in bitcoin. If not understood, the risk of fraud is very high.

Good answer. For me this is a great positive aspect of Bitcoin compared to digital card payments promoted by the big card companies. The use of Bitcoin doesn't show your identity and you can send Bitcoins peer to peer very easily.
The knowledge someone needs for Bitcoin transactions is quite easy, if one really try to understand it and be careful.

I think there is simply no disadvantage of bitcoin for the long term holders, if you are a trader then there are lots of disadvantages you can face in the short term.

Bitcoin isn't just an investment to a lot of people. You might see it as just another investment, but many here actually want Bitcoin to succeed. On the other hand, when I invest in a company on the stock market, I couldn't give a fuck what happens to that company as long as I can make some money and get out at the right time. Bitcoin is not that

Agreed with Your Opinion, That Bitcoin have Advantages and Disadvantages, But i think advantages of bitcoin is when we make a profit and disadvantage is when we are lose any aset. Bitcoin now down, Take action to save your aset

I agree here, making profits can be a good thing but it's more a sidenote of Bitcoin. The main interest of Bitcoin is to change the money system in a better way. Making it decentralized instead of it's actually centralized character. This was Satoshi's intention when he invented Bitcoin.
And over all I'm looking forward to see Bitcoin succeded in every point mentioned above :)

Among all the advantages of bitcoins, the speed of which transactions are made is the one that make bitcoins prefer than other form of payment and the  disadvantage of bitcoins been irreversible when transactions already happen is what makes me dislike it.

Transaction speed of Bitcoin is I think relatively low compared to other payment options and compared to other coins, speed is currenty sufficent, altough it needs to be improved in future, but I'm not concerned about it because the lightning network will do a great job to process more transactions per second.  :)

Advantages:

1. Send money to anyone from anywhere.
2. Decentralised i.e no local authority to impose tax or limits of transfer
3. Prices are always going up.
4. Quick and easy.

Disadvantages:

1. Not for people with less tech knowledge
2. Once you send your funds to a wrong address, you lose all your money as transactions are irreversible.
3. Price Volatile in nature.

Hope that helps.

I agree except number 3. Since 12/2017 Bitcoin price decreases.


Number 2 and 3 are valid points but I think number 1 it's very easy to learn Bitcoin's use.  ;)

Thanks for sharing!

OP updated

For me the advantage of being an early believer / adapter in bitcoin surely has already been reaping the benefits of bitcoin. If you're just a newcomer then I cannot say the same thing.

You forget that early adopter did transactions in Bitcoin. They took risk , with their time and money and helped it in growing. AFAIK no early adopter has any stash of Bitcoin they always used it for doing transactions. ( Like purchasing 2 pizzas for 10000 BTC.)

Yeah, agree here, this point can also be seen as a neutral one, but many people don't feel comfortable having huge whales, also if it wasn't intentionally. But I understand you.

This is very helpful for novices. My point is that the advantage of Bitcoin is the free currency in the true sense. Can invest globally. Its disadvantage is that it is used by some illegal elements as a transaction. Such as arms, drugs.

Advantages: The real free currency in human history.
Disadvantages: Hesitation of freedom can not be controlled, all he can smuggle arms or drugs.

Bitcoin also have limited amount of coins. When they all will be mined blockchain won't work as I see.

For me the important advantage of bitcoin is you can exchange it to money and you can spend this money without any problem  from country  who don't accept bitcoin and the disadvantage of it is btc price can be low in any moment so your profit from bitcoin will be low

the biggest disadvantages for me are lack of regulations and uncertainty related to bitcoin, it is not backed by anything so it is very speculative and people think it is unreliable.

Main advantage is that you can send a transaction any time you want and no one can stop you from doing this.

There is this biggest benefit that people can't steal your payment information from merchants like how banks do.In banking transactions,they ask you information about your credit card,your name and the number.Whereas in Bitcoin there are two keys public key and private key.Public key is usually just your Bitcoin address and is always public whereas private key is secret.

I think the biggest advantage of it is the VOLATILITY of bitcoin i know that this is natural in bitcoin but the dips are getting lower and there are no increase in the price and also some disadvantage of bitcoin is the holders or the whales who are manipulating the market that's my opinion.

Yes, it's "be your own bank". You can send money anytime you want without a cetralized party you depend on. This is maybe the main advantage of Bitcoin, it can't be easily abused like some banks want to do it and by doing so, Bitcoin creates trust.