Bitcoin Forum

Recently I really got interested in cryptocurrency, so I have been reading a lot and started following blockchain related news and projects. What really caught my attention is the SEC rejection of nine ETF applications. I think this is in a bid to usher in mainstream adoption, but many argue that it's a problem of regulation, and others are saying the price instability of cryptocurrencies is hindering mainstream adoption. what is the solution to mainstream crypto adoption?

We don't need any ETF, and the average Joe doesn't even know what is ETF. Go in the street to ask about, you will maybe find 2% of people who know what you're talking about. So I don't see how it can help with the mainstream adoption. Only the Bitcoiners care about ETF with the hope to see any accepted, and it's not to get Bitcoin recognized, it's just a matter to see the price jumping to make more profits.
#FollowTheMoney

The post above hits the main points. An ETF won't make any difference in terms of mainstream adoption, at least not a direct impact. It's just a way of bringing in institutional money and pumping the price. That in turn could increase interest from the average person but they still won't stick around unless there's a real use case and a level of price stability. I do believe an ETF will be accepted soon however, the SEC will give feedback each time as to why they are rejected and eventually a middle ground will be found.

Better have no ETF for the bitcoin because it will bring more institutional investors who just do bump and dump the coins so the crypto currencies will become a full time investment rather than the currency system.
The solution to mainstream adoption is start accept bitcoin as currency and start using bitcoin where you can spend that.

The 'solution' is to have people switch their mindset. Instead of looking at Bitcoin as an investment or get rich quick tool, see it as sound money.

The more people use it as money, the more Bitcoin's utility value increases, and thus its price will increase as well. It's pretty shitty if you're here solely for the increases, because you're missing the whole point of this decentralized revolution. Converting Bitcoin to fiat is just trashy in my opinion; you're selling Gold for Copper, which is just a very bad deal.

Complaining about fees isn't an excuse to not use Bitcoin as money. I use PayPal from time to time as well, and the last time I used their service to move $20 worth of value, they charged me a whopping ~$2.5 in fees. The last time I used Bitcoin to move value it only required a fee of $0.05 so who's getting a better deal, PayPal users or Bitcoin users?

if you define mainstream adoption as SEC approving an ETF for bitcoin and wallstreet wolves coming in bitcoin market and shit all over the market then i don't even want that "mainstream adoption" to happen. and trust me you don't want that to happen either. because a much more volatile market with a lot of manipulation would be the result of that and this kind of situation will postpone the real adoption which is merchant adoption and adoption as a currency.

exactly. people don't really care about etf and that has nothing to do with mainstream adoption which will happen gradually rather than overnight.

Exactly, we don't need ETF for mass adoption. For mass adoption we need more people to buy Bitcoin and use it, that's all. The more people will use it the faster it will be used as a normal currency and the price will explode.

I think cryptocurrencies is not yet in the mind of sec to recognise it as money or stocks. ETF will one day get approved just that we have to allow time to take it cost.  We are going to understand the role of bitcoin and blockchain technology in our society the way we are using internet now.

What do mean my mainstream adoption?

But I have to agree with what others have said, ETF's ≠ Mainstream adoption. If bitcoin be mainstream, it should be adopted as online payment method. I want to to read this report: (https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/research-centres-and-groups/ic3re/CRYPTOCURRENCIES--OVERCOMING-BARRIERS-TO-TRUST-AND-ADOPTION.pdf). It is written by professor William Knottenbelt from Imperial College London and Dr. Zeynep Gurguc from Imperial College Business School. The study says that crypto can become a mainstream payment scheme in the next 10 years.

I think this news will run out quickly along with everyone's boredom about the SEC's decision for many reasons, everything is good if we use cryptocurrency very well and carefully against fraud and cunning people out there, now it takes a long time to show it to others that crypto is able to do it without any help, fans who are increasingly showing how potential it is to move forward, to forget it and focus on what you plan, positive values are always there without us knowing.

Like I'd always say, mainstream is when I can buy a hotdog from a vendor on the street and with instantaneous transaction, be on my way in a matter of seconds just like in the case of fiat. The lay person has greater influence over the usage of crypto since it's peer to peer designed. This is the leverage crypto has over credit cards and other payment systems and processors. Utrust, Pundi X and others are truly working to achieve that goal. But recently I stumbled upon another upcoming ICO, MFChain. Well, they have so many promises, and if anything they've promised is true, then mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies is closer than many think. What do you guys think?

Well lets face the issue of ETF. It might not have any direct impact to bitcoin but we know that its acceptance will increase the whole business of cryptos but, it won't be accepted because SEC wouldn't do that if there are no outright regulations. For me, whether it will succeed in later days, does not matter to bitcoin's value.

One of the many solutions that would contribute to mainstream adoption is to start with yourself. Keep on using Bitcoin as a currency so that more people will be encouraged to spend Bitcoin then merchants will follow after they start to notice the demand. It's not a quick process but we'll get there at some point.  

Teaching people that don't know Bitcoin is another answer but this is difficult to pull off because not everyone could easily understand what Bitcoin is all about and there are others that lacks interest.

Use!
People need to use cryptocurrencies. We need to encourage its use. They need to spread it and talk about it. Have this expectation that only the financial market can be considered for the Bitcoin becomes popular is absurd.

Bitcoin was made to disruption the financial institutions. And not to be just another asset used by banks and speculators.

I am sorry to tell you but unfortunately, I think it's too late. They all consider bitcoin as an investment and don't plan to change. They don't care about the evolution and adoption as long the price keeps to increase over the years.
The dream about a decentralized currency with any central bank is dead, especially since 2013
Most of the transactions are only about trades, etc Not about real uses as it's supposed to be

However, it had become the best speculative assets and people tend to forget what Satoshi wanted it to be, to be used in real life situations just buying hotdog as someone has pointed out. And Satoshi's white paper is aptly titled:

Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System

One could argue that because of the scaling issue, bitcoin can't be a electronic cash system and proponents of Bitcoin Cash is pointing this out, but I do believed that it still be used as originally visioned by Satoshi, by having Lightning Network and Segwit adopted by merchants and bitcoin enthusiast alike.

Not really, Bitcoin adoption has been growing (slowly) over the past few years without needing any ETF. The only positive thing that the ETF could do for Bitcoin is to allow an influx of fresh capital from institutional investors, it doesn't mean that if it gets approved Bitcoin will suddenly go mainstream.

Merchants want security and also something that is legit, and I think regulations will further add more legitimacy to Bitcoin making merchants adopt a new payment method like Bitcoin. We also need people to trust Bitcoin (regulations can also help with that), they need to realize that they can be their own bank, no more centralized bullshit.

Correct, as if miraculously bitcoin was going to be adopted by all and sundry
if ETF was going to be accepted.

Regulations can only affect the entry and exit points of bitcoin and crypto but
the currency itself cannot be regulated.

More adoption will come as more and more people realise what butcoin can
offer but it will be slow. Im not sure i want bitcoin to be mainstream, can it be
mainstream with a limited supply? What definition would people put on MAINSTREAM?

The professor argues that cryptocurrency is already been used as a store of value, it further needs to be used as a unit of account and medium of exchange, which can only be archived through a friendly and conducive regulatory environment. The report further stress that technical issues as regards to scalability, volatility, and privacy will need to be addressed. I just read the first five pages, though professor is optimistic that cryptocurrency will attain adoption  within the next ten years...

You mention Pundi X and Utrust as some projects working on this, i have seen mfchain, but currently checking out bakkt project which claim their solution will fully collateralized the buying and selling of bitcoin. Do you think that mfchain or any other project stand a chance to providing this solutions 1. volatility 2. scalability 3. Regulation 4. privacy. Knowing fully well that cryptocurrency was design to be decentralized and many users prefer to remain ananimous, with cryptocurrency traders benefiting from this volatility, and recently pump and dumps happening in the crypto space?

I absolutely agree with your point, the more people use bitcoin the more it value will increase

ETFs was never meant to become a way for mainstream adoption this is just a way for financial institution to finally put BTC as an investable asset and financial institutions is not the biggest market we need to adopt. If we want BTC to become a currency or a payment method of choice we need more people to use it as what its made for and not rely on ETFs being approved by SEC there are other ways this can succeed and one of them is through legislation which is happening right now in a lot of countries. If we have a proper law we can start to see that a lot of people will personally use BTC.

As contribution to what you have stated above. Cryptocurrency as we all know storm the world in a speculative manner, individuals were basically concern about how much they can leverage this to earn massively, but less aware of the original use case 'censorship resistance' that is 'financial autonomy' for every individual as it is stated in the first white paper.
This very wrong notion towards crypto invention has made it possible for its use for fraudulent activities anonymously. For this can be a very good reason that resulted in the SEC rejection. The big question is if the emphasis on crypto regulation is to reduce cybercrime, fraudulent act. Will it solve cryptocurrency volatility? will it influence mainstream adoption? What should be of great concern is, making "Blockchain technology" prove its high reliability to gain more acceptance from government and big financial players, and this could only be achieved through:

1. Make clear of cryptocurrency through education: this could be achieved when crypto projects continue leading discussions about this 'technology' organizing conferences, blog post, video clips, if possible a movie etc. In summary public awareness campaign is important.

2. Easing security concerns: making individuals/ investors to be in charge of their funds as opposed to the conventional banking system, for Linkchain team is working hard to bring this to reality.
And If the crypto 'bitcoin' can be restored to the original use case and these above mentions are tactically applied then, we will be several inches closer to mainstream adoption.

First of all, I'd say that ETF rejections really has nothing to do with mainstream adoption whatsoever.

While an approval would definitely be nice, it's not going to all of a sudden mean that actual bitcoin usage will increase. In fact, the only category of users that will see an increase will probably be financial institutions such as investment banks. ETFs are aimed at these types of people, who deal with investments. Average bitcoiners will never even directly deal with an ETF, which is why I think it's been overhyped and quite irrelevant.

What needs to happen for mainstream adoption is really some sort of incentive to use it. I believe that would be bitcoin as a international currency on the internet, while being a store of value. To achieve this, there needs to be surges in merchant adoption which we're already seeing, however, this will take more time before it could become anything "mainstream". But bitcoin could already be considered to be quite "mainstream" in terms of helping people get their money out of fiat in some countries with strict capital control, even though it could be considered to not be so elsewhere.

ETF was indeed a step in that direction. The one very specific reason why people still can't identify with crypto is that of its unregulated and dissociated characters. With more institutional investors coming into crypto space and having a sort of a common ground and drive for mainstream application, will give more rigidity to the industry. But for now, we are largely speculative and bullish about crypto with no substance to stand on.

All I see about ETF is a quick adoption for investors and a quick buck for those who invested early. I don't see ETF helping us make Bitcoin a currency that we could use everyday. I only see it as a way for the price to either increase or decrease. I'm still not sure what would be the best solution but some adoptions are already taking place.

Since you agree with the fact that regulation is needed, why do you then think it will have no impact on the value of bitcoin? Many are making money from crypto through speculations though, many on this thread have agreed that SEC approval does not equal mainstream adoption. How will regulation be achieved?

You mention merchant adoption, i agree with that. I have read about mfchain, Utrust and Bakkt. Which other projects are working on merchant adoption? Though i have notice very high volume of BTC from countries with difficult economic stability like Turkey.

Apart from merchant adoption we need to expect the the business people's adoption and governments move towards the cryptocurrencies. As of now we did not find the big reach from the government side at all.
I see this SEC decision these much time but there is no any positive view from their move.
If they accepted the ETF this month also then we can decide that it will not be a right to pass with them.

Aside from Turkey, we have Venezuela and Zimbabwe as well. Its already proven that bitcoin can be used as hedge against countries we suddenly have deep economic instability for whatever reasons. Yes, merchant adoption should be the top on my list as well. There are a lot accepting bitcoins, but we need more in order to get started this whole mainstream adoption.

About the SEC, I'm totally against any ETF for now because the market have shown to be very volatile and more investors are likely to lose money here in they are not careful. Another reason why I don't like ETF's is not the custodian will be very influential thus manipulation is not reduced but it can be worst.

You got interested in crypto at a bad time. ETF has nothing with crypto. And ETF sucks. I don't know how much emphasis I have put on the statement that has basically said that ETF sucks, but I have said that alot in the past weeks.

Crypto adoption is irrelevant, for most cryptos are outright useless shitcoins. What matters is bitcoin adoption,and for that people need to understand how it works and accept it as a currency. Until then,keep dreaming about adoption.

Exactly, if this goes to an acceptance then every big players and governments will just play the price of bitcoin,  authority will be upon them since the system will be regulated if application will be accepted,  there are advantages and disadvantages about this issue but in my side I would likely to have it accepted but not regulated.

Nothing, bitcoin will rise up itself without ETF implementation because ETF has nothing change the price of the bitcoin.
Before bitcoin raised up in the market by itself and no ETF implementation so it is possible that it will happen again.
The price movement that we can help the market make green is not to panic selling even how many FUD news comes, stay strong and hold your portfolio not to sell you bitcoin. In that way, we can help market and even how many ETF application we don't need that.

ETF is one of the solutions to increase the fame of bitcoin when the price skyrocket once again, but it's not the solution for mainstream adoption. Believe it or not, bitcoin created not meant to be a mainstream means of payment due to some limitations.

Although we want it to be, bitcoin isn't ready yet and many changes required, but the most important is a country acceptance. We can't use it as much as we want if the government does not acknowledge it as a legal payment method, and layman won't accept bitcoin in their business, merchants or store.
The solutions? Deal with the government and bitcoin core.

What made you think that ETF will take us towards the mainstream adoption?? If you are still thinking so, please check your facts! In all 9 of the ETFs that were rejected, only one of them were proposed to be backed by physical bitcoin. Rest all 8 ETFs were proposed to be backed by trading notes and bitcoin futures of CME group. If you think these are mainstream adoption, then you are living in a fool's paradise.

The mainstream adoption can only be fueled by the clear legal framework which is largely missing in majority of the countries. Merchants will only show interest in accepting bitcoin, only if they see clear legal grounds created by their government, otherwise not! Japan, Germany and Malta have already paved the way for mainstream adoption, but I don't see any other country with the similar status. ETF is only here to fill the pockets and purpose of the corporates, not us!

Absolutely.SEC approving bitcoin ETF will not be a solution.Almost majority of bitcoin holders now have bought bitcoin considering it as a high ROI giving asset.It was in past when people bought bitcoin to support this wonderful technology and also to use it as a payment system instead of banks.Only if the mentality of bitcoin holders switch back to use it as a payment method,then only we could expect bitcoin to enter main stream usage.Just buying bitcoins and making it idle will not help. Quote

these deviations are intended, no one said that cryptocurrencies will be accepted instantly. The market is not ready yet

yes it's true that it happened because of adoption. maybe it would be better if there is an agency that calculates the population so that adoption can be well controlled. to reduce adoption, i think

It's not a matter of finding a solution, per se. Adoption and organic network growth happen spontaneously and over time. Sometimes growth is stagnant or linear; other times it's exponential. Bitcoin's built-in economic incentives appear to be solid, so as long as Metcalfe's Law keeps doing its thing, we just need to sit back and wait.

An ETF doesn't matter. They're mostly just for traders and fund investors. It's safer and much more true to the original intent of Bitcoin to simply buy, hold and use BTC rather than bother with securities like ETFs.

As Lubin rightly suggested in an interview with Bloomberg, it's glaring that the Blockchain industry has evolved several times over. This being said, every bit of innovation arising from new economic instruments and technological breakthrough will only push us further than we are ready for. I seriously think this is why the market has been dwindling and yet to settle at a real price. However, all fronts for adoption to be considered, ETF alongside the bakkt underpin an important adoption potential into the mainstream financial market.

As for Bitcoin buying and hodling, honestly, that ship has sailed. The best thing is to learn to trade and if the asset improves in worth, make sure you have enough to leverage. Old tricks are waning in this industry, have a combo. Invest in new ICOs [okay, permit me to shill a little - MFChain], trade the best assets against the FOMO cryptos, and hedge just about enough for hodling purposes.

No, I don't think that accepting ETF proposals is the right path to success, so to speak

And yes, it is mostly the price instability of cryptocurrencies which is preventing crypto from genuine adoption, though it looks more like a vicious circle of sorts. Simply speaking, Bitcoin ETF's can be thought of as the cart before the horse problem. If you look deeper into the assets which derivatives are traded via ETF's, they are all established stuff in the real world, like gold or other commodities. When there'll be real "mainstream" adoption, all these questions and problems with ETF's approval will go away on their own

Cryptocurrency market already run for more than 9 years without ETF and its good. Maybe ETF is good for crypto market but i think its not everything for cryptomarket. The important thing in any investment is not be panic and mostly what happen in market recently because many people panic with fake news

these deviations are intended, no one said that cryptocurrencies will be accepted instantly. The market is not ready yet

Solution remains peer-to-peer decentralized transactions. It is the original goal of Bitcoin for a good reason. Other solutions (especially the centralized solutions ) are corruption of what Bitcoin represents . .
ETF and other like it are uneccessary distraction in my opinion . Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrency have visions. We need to stick to the visions by all means.
 Centralization must be avoided.

I agree with your opinion mate since Bitcoin is decentralized asset we don't need those ETF thing for Bitcoin to workout maybe they need Bitcoin for them to workout with the biggest Bitcoin community all over the world. Life goes on with decentralization they may call it as revolutionary currency but still they can do nothing about Bitcoinas people arround the world are united as one with Bitcoin which fiat can't as all countries prefer use their own shit that is why they will find ways to eliminate Bitcoin but the fact is Bitcoin community won't let that to happen.

BY now it has become clear that the SEC will never approve Bitcoin ETFs. But there are a few loopholes, that can be exploited by the Bitcoin users. For example, Bitcoin-based businesses can try for listing in the major exchanges such as NYSE and NASDAQ.

People are forgetting the simple yet powerful adoption technique.

If we try to find a way to legalize bitcoin to the fullest, like really make it something common and allowed by the government and taxed by them, the first thing we can do is give out ads on televisions and put up papers everywhere and so forth. I think it can be amazingly powerful if you could just grind the way regular companies do.

Yes, bitcoin is a huge innovation and people working for blockchain and new coins and ICO's and all that are amazing developers who are very futuristic however marketing is simple, you need to market it old fashion way to get the old fashion people.

Thats a better stand dude,since this ETF thing is breaking the market again.separating bitcoin and altcoins in capitalization.but for me bitcoin and the altcoins can stand without this and can be mainstream in future,the popularity of cryptocurrency is spreading the whole universe and this will take another couple of years to become true

ETF or not we got enough movement to keep this thing going. There are people willing to invest ride the wave. With every plunge whales dive in and have their fill, with every spike newcomers jump right in and inject new money.


I actually only heard of the term after I became familiar with bitcoin and I still have a hard time understanding it.  ;D

That is not the right word because despite the challenges that is being faced, never is not the right word. Several years ago people would have said same sex marriage would never be allowed but today it has happened. Several years ago some people would have agreed that a Blackman would never be US president but it happened and another relevant is the issue of cannabis which of course would have been said cannot be legalised but today states have changed the narrative to the surprise of many.

Bitcoin ETF would still be approved but it will happen when we all don't expect it. When everyone is not even banking on a positive outcome. Mainstream adoption is the continuance gradual penetration of the importance and the solution that it brings. That will bring about mainstream supported by policies.

Mainstream crypto adoption? Transparency and regulation. That is it. Nobody would want a business which is gaining anything from terrorists and the like. One of the cons of crypto imo is its transparency. Nobody knows who you are in the blockchain. But they know you are there.

Well, that is the original goal, but the question now is how many people are actually making that P2P transaction.
I totally agree that ETF proposals and other bullshits are simple distractions which no one should even really bother about, and what it would bring in apparently, would just be more money, but not from adoption, instead, from the same manipulators who would always want to make things work their own way.

What we need now for mainstream adoption is to see bitcoin properly in use as a currency with no issue of slow transactions, high fees and then we get to have easy payment for services or goods, and let's see if bitcoin will not hit the mainstream level of adoption.

Obviously, we still have a lot of progress that need to be make when it comes to scaling in particular, so being ready for the mainstream is something no one can really look forward to at the moment. As long as we are able to get the currency aspect of bitcoin out and people start using it in real life, I am sure the rest would just be history. The solution right now to mainstream adoption is to see proper real life usage with scaling problem solved, and that is not what we have so far.

First of all, we need to know. ETF is an important decision! But it is not a must! While Bitcoin is already a global currency, the ETF is only the US decision. Yes it is very important to be approved and I hope. But it is not right to link Bitcoin's future to this!

out of the 9 rejections, a solution will definitely come out so that by the end of this year bitcoin will increase or at least like last year, and I really expect that ;D

The key to mainstream adoption is real participation. You cannot have 90% people sitting back and waiting for the price to

increase and 10% people spreading the word about Bitcoin and also asking merchants to adopt Bitcoin. If everyone just made

a little bit of effort and went out there to spread the word about Bitcoin or just to actively get involved in getting merchants to

accept bitcoins, then we would have had mainstream adoption. We do not have time to be passive price watchers, we need

action from everyone involved in Bitcoin.  ::)