Bitcoin Forum

People need to start accepting Bitcoin and keeping it, not converting it.

If you think of Bitcoin as just a virtual placeholder for fiat currency, stable coins will be the future and Bitcoin will slowly fade away.


Thoughts?

Hoarding bitcoins adds zero value to the Bitcoin ecosystem, because merchants needs to get business via Bitcoin payments for them to continue

supporting it as a payment option.  ::)  The Banks are not the real problem here, the real problem are the payment processors that are used to

convert bitcoins to Fiat, because that is not how Bitcoin was supposed to be used. Satoshi said P2P not Person to third party service.  :P  The

article makes sense, but you have to remember that governments are calling the shots, because they are not allowing Bitcoin to function as a legit

currency.  >:(

you should have said "continued using it" instead of keeping because if they keep it, it sounds like HODLing and that is not doing anything.

in any case this problem has always been with bitcoin. the price rise alone makes people want to "invest" in bitcoin instead of seeing it as a currency. that is why so many people are calling it store of value these days instead of a currency.

not unless someone finally comes up with some actually decentralized stable coin otherwise centralized ones are not even close to being 0.001% useful as bitcoin!

Hodling cryptocurrency actually does help. People are holding it because it has value to them. "worth" is given when something is valuable to someone.

I could sell someone a rock for $100,000 if they find "worth" and have the resources to purchase it.

If someone is willing to hold a bitcoin and not get rid of it because it has "worth" to them, then I am all for that.

Agree with all of the above, and I would point out that nobody is clamoring for people to start using diamonds or gold for purchases because they're afraid those things will disappear if people don't.  Bitcoin has value as an investment and people could use it to pay for things if they so chose.  It isn't necessary that they actually do.

I have no fear whatsoever that bitcoin's popularity will decrease if it doesn't get used as a form of money.  It really hasn't been used much for purchases in the ten years it's existed, so where's the danger?  It's a valuable thing that gets traded on exchanges and if that's the only thing it ever does from now until the day it dies, that's fine with me.

It's not a placeholder, though.  Nor is it a stablecoin, and it probably isn't ever going to become one unless its value seriously stabilizes--and I don't think that's going to happen.

Your statement is partially true! Conversion of bitcoin is one of the major utilizations of bitcoin. Because for every conversation, there is a buyer who is buying that bitcoin and paying in fiat to the seller! So conversation is very much important for crypto economy and that's the single most important transaction method where bitcoin doesn't have any other use!

People are not underutilizing bitcoin willingly! Rather, they don't have nuch choice to spend their bitcoins! Like if I want to buy an Iphone and the shop owner is not accepting bitcoin, what choice do I have other than converting it to fiat? People here have nothing to do with underutlization. They are lacking options to spend!

A proper cryptocoin has to be well decentralized.  Stablecoins are dependent on fiat currencies, making them(especially the centralized stablecoins) too centralized. What happens if the fiat currencies collapse? The stablecoins will most likely collapse too if they are really pegged to the fiats . Or what happens if the reserve is seized?
If we insist on having "stable cryptocurrencies" (not a good idea IMO) then we could make the  value independent of fiat.. the stability would need to be artificially maintained with algorithm.

I am afraid that the "value" will weak and investor interest then disappears ,trade will be quiet because all traders using the method hodl too ,I think contributions trade sector will make the "value" become a high as now ,looking for value with a hodl might be a good but if everyone hodl then who will sell bitcoin and vice versa? resources not all have high and equal income so we are struggling to find that value as traders

bitcoin and the technology actually has many benefits but some people still assume that bitcoin can only be used for investment or transaction tools, I personally am still looking for a lot of information about the technology in it because I believe the technology created is not only for investment and payment tools but more than that

People in the crypto communities I am in are mostly hodling and more likely to spend fiat instead of Bitcoin or any cryptocurrency they have. The thing is people are looking at BTC like at a store-of-value and long term investment and not looking to make payments with it.

There is no such a thing as all traders hodling, especially when you take into consideration that a lot people aren't interested in anything but short term speculation.... markets will be active no matter what.

With more cash settled contracts trading the aspect of scarcity and hodl becomes less of a thing as well because these contracts are very speculative by nature, similar to how they ruined gold's market and scarcity aspect.

Bitcoin's market will follow gold and there is nothing that can be done about it, so be happy that we're currently still able to explode in value like we did some months ago because that will be done and over eventually.

merchants will (for the most part) be the latest adopters. their overheads and supply lines are paid in fiat. holding bitcoins doesn't pay their bills and exposes them to potentially harmful volatility. there's no reason for them to accept bitcoins directly unless 1. consumers demand it, or 2. it becomes a standard medium of exchange and unit of account.

both of those things require mass adoption first. you can't expect merchants to do all the heavy lifting.

Yes, HODLing could help someone individually considering their so called worth of it, but it doesn't really doing any help toward Bitcoin's economy. Hodling is non-sense and all it does is to limits the growth potential and adoption of bitcoin, and if you're part of the crypto space you should consider looking at the bigger picture before deciding because whatever you do within the community will surely affect you eventually, So instead of hodling, for us to be able to create an economy that fosters adoption and help the network grow we should practice      spend and replace strategy. For instance, buying $25 worth of BCH online, then use fiat in buying $50 worth of BCH to replace what had been spent.

The problem with people is that they have been looking at bitcoin in a very different way, ever since bitcoin started rising up in terms of price and volume people saw it as an opportunity an investment rather than seeing it as a better easier and more secure way to make transactions without the control of the governments, and most of these people just take bitcoin and hold it and they don't care if it becomes widely used or not, and that is why bitcoin is still stuck in a position where it is not being accepted given its popularity.

I see the stablecoins as a springboard to Bitcoin, the popularity of Bitcoin will never be tarnished, there are some who prefer FIAT money, it is normal, but globally Bitcoin is becoming more famous, much more than in previous years even when it reached its last ATH.

In Italy, most prefer to use Bitcoin than use VISA credit cards, in France they have many stores diversifying with Bitcoin sales, such is the case where they sell tobacco.

Recently, the president of the Central Bank of Brazil praised the use of Bitcoin for allowing fast, secure and transparent transactions, the voice over Bitcoin is strengthening.
Maybe in 2020 if the launch of Libra, Stablecoin very controversial, can open the doors to business models where in the end people will prefer to exchange Libra for Bitcoin, for the simple fact that Bitcoin will go up, where it will be framed without Doubt the bullish trend. They may not want to leave their Bitcoins because they are in Hodl mode!

It's always better that people use Bitcoin actively instead of just keeping it in some wallet. If it's not used in real world Bitcoin can't express its real potential and why it's worth in real world. Keeping it just as an asset we don't use its full purpose and that is not good. But to achieve full use and full potential of Bitcoin people should be better informed and better educated about it.

What is best to be done is spend BTC as it is like buying products online with BTC. Its almost the same thing with fiat actually but this time you don't go for exchanging it with physical paper money.  For most of the though trading BTC is the way to go, people look at BTC as investment. They don't even learn the technology behind it anymore since all they care is the value of it. They still use BTC and I don't think one can consider it undertutilizing.

I think it's a pretty good article, a lot of the bitcoin enthusiasts will know that bitcoin will never grow and become mainstream if people keep thinking about it as a storage of value, not an actual payment method. Let's look at this:


It's a very interesting concept pegging certain items to bitcoin and the last time I saw this, was when HTC released their own "Bitcoin phone".

More items that are sold on a bitcoin basis needs to happen, otherwise, BTC will be kept being looked at like a secondary payment option.

I think it depends on how they use it. Especially if you are using it in business;
For example, you have buy and sell business. You are buying some items from your supplier using Fiat currency, and you are selling your products via Bitcoin. So you need to convert it to be able to run your business.
It really depends on use cases. For me, as long as we using Bitcoin for not only as investment is not underutilizing at all.

We know that the largest volume of Bitcoin comes from trading activities. And trading is one of the best utilities for Bitcoin besides using it for offline product transactions. At least now more and more people are using Bitcoin as an alternative payment in their stores. I am sure in the future the adoption of Bitcoin will continue to increase.

People and merchants can start to be accepting Bitcoin en masse if there are really a huge population of people who have Bitocin and they gonna use it everyday to purchase anything and will not continue on just HODLING the said cryptocurrency. This problem is driving into the heart and the core of Bitcoin as a currency. There is no problem with Bitcoin as a store of value because definitely people are hodling on to their Bitcoin as if their lives depended on it.

The problem is that holders are gonna hold and will not easily use their Bitcoin for anything, maybe except for emergencies in which case they gonna convert Bitcoin to cash and not necessary use it to pay anything. The thing is that we will not have a problem with merchants or businesses because they will definitely be coming if there is a big demand coming from those having Bitcoin.

Now, on the other hand, if there is no opportunity for speculations here in Bitcoin, do we really think that there will be a big number of holders? I really doubt that, sorry. People are getting Bitcoin because they are looking at it like an investment that can soon be growing by leaps and bounds and not because they can be able to buy a cup of coffee with it.

Got the point that we have to use bitcoin as a means of payment, day to day transactions to buy/sell things but the problem is that, there's no enough merchants who accept bitcoin. Well it depends on the adoption on a certain country. But not all country have enough entities that would accept crypto. Here in my country, even if there's no strict regulations on crypto, it's still hard to find shops where I can use bitcoin to pay them. In order to utilize my bitcoin, I have to convert it with fiat so I can use it to buy things.

My personal thoughts is that this two go hand-in-hand woth each other. While it may be true that continuous usage of bitcoin helps the ecosystem work, function, progress and improve over time, it is also not wrong that holding bitcoins does not increase its value. For me though, it's the extremes of each dilemma that will make Bitcoin obsolete. In simple words;

a. If all people only kept bitcoin to the point that no one uses it, it starts to devalue itself.

b. If all people starts spending their bitcoin to the point that they just want to spend everything they got, then it would also have the same effect.

Balance is the key to progression, for me at least.

People are not keeping bitcoin in their wallet because they are still considering it in the fiat aspect of it, because if we understand bitcoin very well and we want to use it as payment, we will know that there is no way that volatility can affect the quantity of bitcoin itself, but of the fiat equivalent of it.

I was going through a post recently and I saw where someone actually made us understand that it is not the fault of the users that are converting it into fiat, but the fault of merchants that has failed to receive it and those merchants that are receiving it are also not keeping it in their wallet, but changing it to fiat which is still making us to encourage the traditional banking system and that is why we see that these institutions no longer complain again.

If that is the case, if you consider bitcoin as the place holder, it seems that stable coins too? and might as well holistically considering all of the cryptocurrency. Because the thing here is that, even people convert their crypto to fiats, they will still buy and accumulate volumes of it. Most of the bitcoin and cryptocurrency trader do it since they see bitcoin as an investment platform, they will trader and convert their profit to fiats and wait for another opportunity to enter the market. Later on, they will realize that crypto will be the main currency and better stick with bitcoin and stable coins. At the end, bitcoin will not be undervalued since people will still trade it despite of its huge transaction fee.

It depends on the needs of the user. There are long term investments and short term investments. Sometimes we tend to buy and sell immediately due to prices variability. I think people are still utilizing bitcoin because they earn it hard and spend it wisely. We are holding bitcoins for long term purposes or just waiting for the best price.

There is always that great feeling when I see that sign that reads; "bitcoin is accepted here" in any shop. Personally I always try to add more value to bitcoin as I use it as a mode of payment for goods and services among friends who are into cryptocurrencies. At least, bitcoin is still gaining prominence across the globe as many brands are becoming to accept bitcoin as a currency for business transactions.

it should be like that. but this is different, the first reason may be many people who are not familiar with bitcoin. so still confused.
the second reason, people are still afraid to save assets / buy bitcoin for the future. because a lot of bitcoin records run on fraud.
the third reason may be fluctuating prices, so they are afraid of the risk of loss.

Yes people are starting to accept and adapt bitcoin right now as the new digital currency that may convert or transfer into fiat or local currency to be spend on buying things. Maybe those person that are just keeping bitcoin is just waiting for the good time before they convert it into fiat.
I don't think so that bitcoin will slowly fade away because bitcoin will last forever as long as the digital currency is alive and as long as internet is alive their will be bitcoin and their will be a value of bitcoin and stable coins will not be the future because if that's the case then bitcoin will become stable also and that would be the time that bitcoin will be have a exact amount of value or stable value.

Basically, bitcoin is one of the coins used as an asset protection value for the future, while some of it is used to invest or trade with bitcoin to get small profits, and in my opinion bitcoin can also be used as a virtual currency when experiencing economic crises such as we have seen in certain countries, and I'm sure even though some people use bitcoin for it, bitcoin won't fade because most people are more interested in bitcoin than other stable coins.

I have to disagree. Bitcoin won't spread and become a currency because people want to get rid of it by spending it. Bitcoin has become more popular and more deeply embedded in public consciousness exactly because of the holding and the resulting price increase. Think of it with other currencies: everyone wanted to get rid of and spend the Zimbabwean dollar. And that destroyed them, they are no longer currencies. But really high quality money is what people want to hold onto. The florins, ducats and sequins of the Italian city-states did not dominate Mediterranean trade because they were poor quality coins, but because they were the highest quality.

Something big certainly has a big risk too, sometimes those people don't realize that behind the risk there is something very profitable if managed well. As well mining gold, they must dig underground with risk but they are able to make good use of it. So only intelligent people are able to think like that.

I don't really know what you are talking about. I get paid in bitcoin so obviously I spend it. Thanks to bitcoin crypto is now an alternative payout option for me at more than one site that I use to make money.
Then anything I do here on top of that I get paid bitcoin as well. I only get paid in fiat from one advertising company but it is ok it just means I will always have a bit of fiat to keep my bank account open and active and to allow me to spend fiat where I cannot spend any bitcoin. Online is bitcoin all the way unless they do not accept which is about 25% of the time perhaps 33% now that payfast no longer support bitcoin.

So really for spending money I just use what I get in fiat and food and stuff I just sell 2 or 3 bit cents a month. I keep well over half of my earnings in crypto. It is so much easier to spend and much less of a headache.

You can't use Bitcoin offline unless someone agrees to take your private key from you but that will mean taking everything you got on that address, so no change. ;)
The trading volume is the greatest because there's not much you can do with Bitcoin now. Not many people accept it and those who do can't go to their supplier and also offer bitcoin for goods. They have to use an exchange to sell and then pay the supplier in fiat and again sell for bitcoin at retail prices. The economy is not ready but it can be done.

We need more and more sectors to use btc. If we only hold and no one uses btc, btc will be useless. The thing is, when someone sells, someone else buys. So if you sell btc for fiat, someone will spend fiat to buy btc. Simple math. As the supply is fixed, if we can increase the usage of btc, each satoshi will be expensive, in future.

what you think is right, because the amount is fixed if btc activity is used more, maybe the price can be higher. the problem is that the purchase of goods using btc can only be accessed in the marketplace and in the real world it is still not widely used.

Having BTC and using it properly for payment of products and services online is the purpose of Bitcoin being made which makes it easy to make payments with digital assets. But when we as traders, having bitcoin in our wallet won't hold it in too long, because trading has to keep going to get profit in every trade.

The Internet was made to help people in different offices of a company building send messages to each other and make communication faster. First computers were used as basic calculators.

Satoshi had a great idea but it doesn't mean we have to follow his way and use Bitcoin as a currency. It can evolve into a store of value like gold or remain a tradable speculative asset it is now. All uses are good so long as we have uses. No uses would be bad :P

Totally agree with this. If people will keep it and just hodl, then they are not utilizing the bitcoin. But for some reason, I am also guilty with this.  ;D As much as possible, I don't want to spend my btc. The price rise is very significant that if you enter at the right moment, you can gain a lot of profits at a very short period of time. This is the reason why many people are looking at it as investment. Because they have the chance to get good profits just by holding it.

in my opinion it's a natural if those who store bitcoin are less than those who sell it, because on average those who are members here are also looking for money that can make them eat, if not sold then they can't make food for them. that's one reason ... !!

Bitcoin only available as trading and investing many people in my country underutilizing with bitcoin function, still not allowed bitcoin as legal paymeny currency make us use bitcoin for investing assets, very easy when bitcoin have adoption in my country become legal currency payment for the future, I think need time for government want to use bitcoin as legal currency.

As a consumer who uses Bitcoin to pay for my subscription for various filesharing and other services, I can say for sure that most users would love to use crypto if it's available. Compared to other alternatives, the fees and speed ratios are reasonably good. If I can pay all my bills with bitcoin then I'd gladly do it, and I believe most would do the same. The problem is not many merchants do that.

Maybe the 'hold' and 'bitcoin is a crazy investment' mindset is still too strong, especially with how bitcoin is marketed to new users as a 'quick rich scheme'. Start educating them with what is sound money and why bitcoin is the perfect candidate for that and I think there will be more users who'd use bitcoin to pay their bills.

How do you feel when you have X amount of Bitcoin, and it becomes insufficent to pay your bills because the price to USD ratio went down 15%?

the fact that bitcoin price recently moved up from $7000 to $10000 within few days only , people still call it a bubble.

and maybe they will continue to do so , the bitcoin utility as a payment processor is fade away in my place , people prefer to consider bitcoin as an asset to store value and hoping for crazy profit in the future just like the other day when it skyrocketing 10000%!
that is a real case in real environment that what people feel about using altcoins more convenient as a payment processor rather than use bitcoin.

stable coin still have a high transaction fee like $5 , i think people won't consider it seriously as altcoins competitor because with altcoins you can pay $0.001 as a fee and it delivered in a couple secs.

I think that Bitcoin will not disappear, but become a means of accumulation or a virtual luxury item. After many years, it will be a digital analogue of antiques, which will only grow in value. There is no escape from the transition to a digital economy.

What you have said is good but it is not possible. No matter how much you try to hold bitcoin, there will be a time you will still need that money you have stored in your wallet and you will have to withdraw it because Bitcoin is not a currency and you can't use it to solve most needs. And another reason why some people will not hold bitcoin is that it is volatile and holding it you might lose value for your money.

If it was widely accepted and there are lots of people making use of it and can as well be used locally, then that would have been the best.

Bitcoin won't fade away even if everyone stops using it as a currency, because it still would be a great store of value due to being deflationary and giving users full control over it, as well as being digital. And stablecoins are subject to the same inflation that their underlying currency is, so they are bad for hodling, maybe even worse than keeping your money in banks, because you don't get dividends.

I don’t think Bitcoin will disappear. It is possible that if it’s very scarce and fees are high that it may only be used as an investment/store of value rather than for transactions. I think there are too many people that believe in Bitcoin for it to fail at this point.

I don't think that people would let it happen. Though we can't deny that most of us are just converting Bitcoin to fiat/local money for the sake that they could spend it but I don't think that will be a reason for its fall. If we could see the numbers of Bitcoin's transactions, we can say that it was moving high and its massive increase will simply mean that bitcoin will never lose its potentiality but rather to see it more and having strong market support in the future.

under utilizing ?  no i didnt think so  . on todays society people sees bitcoin and values bitcoin as a precious gem in which they prefer to kept it than using it for spending although there are still some people that use their btc for paying or been using for both paying and investing  but this does not mean that they are underutilising or underestimating the power or the potential of bitcoin  . stable coins are also the future along with bitcoin because both are useful 

That's correct. Just like we hodl and store gold n diamond since they value. Even if everyone starts hodling gold, price of gold wont depreciate. BTC adoption is slow n will take time before every store start accepting BTC, till then HODL is best policy.

Today, most people use Bitcoin who can risk a certain amount of money in order to get good profit in a certain future.  One way or another, Bitcoin is a valuable asset that is valued due to its volatility and nothing more, since there are real problems with the scalability of Bitcoin, as well as the lack of price stability, which negatively affect the situation with the legalization of Bitcoin and using it as a means of payment  .  You need to build on this when talking about why people do not use Bitcoin everyday.

I disagree, I think Bitcoin will finish it's course in order to reach it's maximum supply of 21,000,000. By then, I'm sure Blockchain will have changed significantly, and numerous upgrades for the Bitcoincoin protocol in order to keep up with all of the new consensus algorithms there most likely will be.
   I think stablecoins are a blessing. No longer do you have to trade in fear, worrying about the fluctuations in price differentials between two trading pairs. Now you can stabilize your trades, with every trade.

Exactly this is what I have been talking to people lately. Any security goes up only when it's utility is increased and utility of bitcoin lies in it's usage and merely hoarding would make it worthless one day. But the thing is that reason why people are underutilizing Cryptocurrencies is because they aren't getting anything for usage of bitcoin. Everyone is happy just how the way the world is moving even if they aren't they are reluctant enough to make any change. So either utilisation would come with time or only if people get incentivised for using Cryptocurrencies for example Governments promote it and relax taxation on it or something else. Not everyone is screwed by economic centralisation.

Unfortunately, but Bitcoin is not currently the best instrument for payment and microtransactions. Lightning Network needs to be fully working to improve speed and reduce fees. Until it becomes more convenient it will be better to use Ethereum, Litecoin or even DOGE for little transactions. For now, Bitcoin is only good for large transactions, speculation and long-term investments.

You have a point, Folks nowadays doesn't saw Bitcoin as a currency but rather as an asset due for having unstable price and seeing it as a potential for long term investment. Folks are now preferably to hold this currency rather than to spend or convert this into fiat. Furthermore, I don't think folks are using this currency as a placeholder but instead this might be considered as somehow like trading in which transactions are made between cryptocurrency and their local currency or simply fiat.

I believe the value of something increases when it comes in circulation so instead of holding Bitcoin it needs more to be circulated or transacted at various merchant counters. Once this happens more and more people will start using Bitcoin resulting high demand and when there is increased demand value of anything can increase. Bitcoin is a good choice to keep as an asset but it really needs to be highly circulated.

This is well known in the crypto community and have been discussed on this forum more than a dozen times.
Yes, bitcoin needs to be accepted as a payment method but people are still behind the regulation and stuff.
A stable coin would do a better job if people just wants a coin backed by fiat, just like what Ripple is but it will do no good to the community.
People ignore the problems that bitcoin solves and addresses the issues it creates. We have to change this mindset and look at the bright side of using bitcoin.

Before talking about bitcoin has to be used only as currency not as trading asset,we need to have places to spend it for that government need to accept it as legal tender,some governments made bitcoin legal but not as for of currency yet anywhere.So the real solution could be influence the government to change their attitude towards crypto users and don't ask for huge taxes for using bitcoins.

Bitcoin must be collected and converted, traded and use at the store for goods and services. This is how the true value will be determined and will keep adding value as it finds more utility and not just to buy and keep, it will lead to stalling and be almost worthless. We need more users. 

For me bitcoin is the way how I can increase much money by investing, not have the same with other investment bitcoin can give me profit bigger and faster than other way for investing, just some time I got risk when bitcoin down because I have waiting with little long time for get back my profit and I trust bitcoin always have positive respond from investor back to higher price.

Every single fiat currency is being used as speculative asset on the forex market. There is nothing wrong with speculation because that means there is more liquidity and utility for the money you speculate with.

The difference in money sense is that fiat is a unit of account while Bitcoin clearly is not. If Bitcoin can get there eventually, that would be an immensely important milestone, but I'm not super confident in that to happen.

Gold isn't a unit of account either, and that while it has had way more history as money than Bitcoin. Bitcoin being a store of value like gold is good enough in my opinion. The benefit is that it's far more useable as money than gold.

Well, you can erase the 'conversion' on your list, basically converting bitcoin to fiat will just pull back the development that bitcoin has. You are correct with other points and trading is the most efficient utilization of bitcoin as well as using it to daily transactions. But if you are just here to obtain bitcoin in exchange for fiats, I highly doubt that you are contributing to bitcoins development. Think of value and not by prices. Soon we can see more products being sold in bitcoin in which we can consider the true utilization of Bitcoin.

I know that using bitcoin in many transactions made us support and promote it in many ways. It is the proper way of using it as a payment in many aspects. You said that "it is not how Bitcoin was supposed to be allowed," but what if there are people in business who don't accept bitcoin as payment?

I think it is also acceptable that we can process bitcoin to fiat in terms of necessity and circumstances.


In terms of the government, not all government prohibits bitcoin as a function of their country's currency. For example, China made its currency as their legit currency for payment.

If they can do that, what about those other countries which allow bitcoin as their legit currency. Think about that.

I think the way to keep Bitcoin in existence is to use bitcoin for payment tools and also use bitcoin for trading tools. the use of bitcoin will significantly encourage adoption and also the volume of trade will continue to increase and make the demand for bitcoin increase and the price will rise.
if all bitcoin users only do hodl then the bitcoin market will not develop. but I am optimistic about the number of companies that accept bitcoin as a means of payment. will make bitcoin towards mass adoption.

There are certain factors that is necessary for this situation to work what you are talking about , not every country is Bitcoins friendly , not everywhere the government is so flexible , not everywhere it is legal to even keep them .
What else could you do. ?
In any country there are very limited things that you can do using the Bitcoins and keeping them is the only option left with them.

Forex market is just a part of fiat community but crypto trading becomes the most and primarily used this which makes the difference, and another thing is fiat comes from government so people who don't know how fiat actually created will trust it an no one is going to teach the majority that its made out of nothing. And also the physical state plays a major role, even most fiat is in the form of digital data they still trust something has to be better than virtual. So all these things happen due to a lack of knowledge among the majority of people who just act like sheep and follow what others have been doing for years.

To be honest, is almost impossible to pay only via crypto in majority of countries. Without merchants we cant pay

The thing is, even for those bitcoin friendly countries, people would still refer to either just keep it in wallets or trade with it. Let's face it, we're not yet at that point where bitcoin is seen in the same page as fiat when it comes to real world transactions. Probably for some of us here in the crypto community, it is. But for majority, there still are doubts as to whether it can be used for real transaction. More education and familiarity is needed for that to happen.

Too many people are still holding onto the idea that bitcoin is an investment and used to increase your USD value or your USD fiat. Instead of being seen as a currency. The one thing I can understand is using the USD value to increase your bitcoin storable, wherein you sell while it is high to buy back more when it is low. This is taken with an increase in bitcoin as a goal and not an increase in USD. Which is how it should be. Too many people "cash out" their bitcoin only to make fiat transactions to buy things. It defeats the purpose.

But that is the reason why bitcoin is a success. If it was a stablecoin I doubt crypto currency would be what it is today, thanks to bitcoin.
People are underutilizing bitcoin as currency, however it is being used anyway, that is what really matters for most investors and that is what still makes it interesting for new investors to adopt bitcoin.

People are underutilizing bitcoin because the government itself is not allowing people to use it as a legal currency and some countries are even banning the use of bitcoin. But thanks to bitcoin because even if we can't use it as a currency, having it as an investment is truly a blessing.

Basically even if the government ban the use of cryptocurrency, people still have the chance to utilize bitcoin in other ways. Or they can use VPN to transact using bitcoin so the restriction in their transaction will not be possible, in other case, if it is really hard for them to transact, they can still utilize it through trading it with altcoins and stable coins. But, the case here is that, people are underutilizing bitcoin even if it is already accepted in their country.

It's the issue with people's mindset, that's what it comes down to. When bitcoin rose to fame after it was classified as one of the best investments by the media, during the bull period, a lot of investors entered the market with the single mindset to make money, not to promote BTC adoption, or use it, just for BTC to go up and for them to get rich.

It's going to be hard to shift people's opinion of it being just a storage of value or an investment option, or a get rich quick scheme and get them to actually spend the coin, but it's doable and it's going to be what it takes in the future.

but in reality only a few people actually save bitcoin, others only use bitcoin to hope to get more FIAT money.
It just depends on the mindset of everyone, there are also those who are indeed hindered by economic conditions that make it unable to save bitcoin for the long term.

we know that most of the holders of bitcoin only use bitcoin as an investment tool to make more fiat money. they do not use bitcoin as a means of payment because indeed some countries in the world also have not legalized bitcoin as a means of payment. and also quite difficult to be able to find a store or company that is willing to accept bitcoin as a payment tool. if I live in a country that legalizes bitcoin, of course I will use bitcoin. therefore we as part of the bitcoin community we must always spread good news about bitcoin so that bitcoin can be accepted by the government and bitcoin can be adopted en masse.

Talking of conversion, you and I know that the only currency that many people still convert bitcoin to is the fiat and by doing so, we are still support of government which is one of the reason why you see that government does not even bother themselves again about this cryptocurrency because they know that the money will still pass through fiat and the conversion from crypto to it will still make it to be stored in the traditional bank, but if we really want to support bitcoin and we want the value to grow, we are supposed to be collecting it and then storing the ones that we are not transacting with in our wallet just like we keep the fiat that we are not using presently in our bank. If we keep our coin in wallet, it will make the rate at which the market cap reduced to slow down.

In my country there are stores that accepts bitcoin already, but only few uses it. Im planning to hold on to my btc as I see it arise before but was not able to convert it, so all I can do is wait. However if buying small amounts I pay btc when available just to test how it works and there are some customers who will be amazed and tries to know how it works.

Well, in the absence of places to spend it, we should ask merchants to accept it, and ask our friends to pay us.

I read that in places people accept Bitcoin, people get bigger tips. Or offer customers bigger discounts. This is the way to encourage and motivate them.

Don't wait on governments man this will never happen, why would they endanger themselves and their currencies?

Even if Bitcoin will turn out more of a store of value than a currency, there is still no way that stablecoins will take over the future. Stablecoins will wither along with fiat because they are based on fiat. Bitcoin will not fade if people will treat it as an asset or a digital gold. It is being treated like that today and instead of fading, it is in fact growing in value.

The correlation of stable coins does not mean much because conversions are only for a stable price level, but bitcoin cannot be based solely on saving it, because bitcoin conversion activities always support value growth. there are many holders who prioritize the possibility of bitcoin is no longer the best crypto in the future, so the activity must continue to be carried out always balanced in both functions.

Yes we need to accept the fact that bitcoin is not used as a mode of payment or payment transfer as there are other altcoins which offers lightening fast translations with lesser transaction fee than bitcoin which has reduced bitcoin just as a source of investment which is not exactly the principle on which bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto but as you rightly mentioned there are challenges to use bitcoin in real time due legal issues which will be sorted out once we have more adaptability.

What you're saying is undoubtly true. However, how are you going to convince people to do this?

It's easy enough to say it, but it's another thing completely for actual, practical use of BTC to be fostered.

I think that one of the most important things right now is the fact that people are only accepting BTCs through merchants - as opposed to accepting it directly through an integrated BTC accepting protocol. These merchants are essentially middlemen that we were supposed to eliminate in the first place, like Bitpay or whatever. That introduces the fiat part of the equation back into BTC, and makes no sense.

Bitcoin is becoming more popular, I think just need to give more time to people to accept it.

'Keeping it' is not also the best option to utilize the use of bitcoin. Just like with fiat, it's not really that ideal to collsct money because they have to be in the circulation. And with bitcoin, bitcoin won't work if we're just keeping it. It has to be used in transactions. Though it's really not the purpose of bitcoin, converting it to fiat, but it cannot really support everyone since there's no enough stores accepting bitcoin so we have to adjust to it.

We can never make a conclusion on what are the things that you need to do with your bitcoin. I think it would be better if we consider the fact that the things that you do with your bitcoin should rely on what's happening on the present. You cannot stick to one strategy knowing that there are a lot of things going on in the crypto market everyday. There are times where we need to hold our bitcoin and there are also times where we should use it in transactions and investment so that things will be set in balance.

EXACTLY RIGHT,   FedCoin, the Chinese Cryptocurrency, etc will be the future, and as you say, BITCOIN WILL SLOWLY FADE AWAY.     


Hard Facts

These limitations are there because the project is still a new one and as we progress in the use of bitcoin personally which will make it to expand, I believe that those countries will start becoming very friendly and if you see those countries that are cryptocurrency friendly now, they did not just become friendly, they were all at a point too once against the use of cryptocurrency which we can see that they finally gave in to it after seeing that it has lots of benefit to the economic and to their citizens.

It is only authoritative government that I see not accepting the use of cryptocurrency which I think we only have very few of them and even if all the bigger countries are accepting it, they might not get to accept it at any time now or in the near future.

You have no idea how many companies actually do this. I mean their Bitcoin trade is only 1% to 5% of total money they got from their company.
They can easily not sell it and keep it as savings account for worse times or retirement plan.
They don't pay taxes for it until they sell Bitcoin, but they can write costs off business.

Holding it and saving the value? well, you can't dictate the needs and wants of bitcoin holders. We can choose and use it whenever we want for purpose like trading or using it for purchasing products from different merchants. If many are starting to convert it for any purpose they have, it's their choice because they own it.

What? seriously? How many times have we heard about this?

Bitcoin have feature than other fiat currency because inflation price of bitcoin self, other fiat currency always have inflation value although you hold for long term and several years later, but with bitcoin as fiat currency you can increase your earning when bitcoin price have goes up, always recommended using bitcoin as fiat currency.

Bitcoin is not meant to kept or hodl but a peer to peer P2P virtual currency meant for transactions if you read Satoshi whitepaper you would understand better, some bitcoin hodlers nowadays are having the impression that bitcoin is to be used as a store of value thus for any pump in the price they sell off part or the whole coin.

of course it depends on each bitcoin owner itself, they can freely save or spend it according to the needs they want. as we know the bitcoin market is always active every day because of course there is always trading activity or demand and supply of market prices so that price movements have increased and decreased or can be said to be unstable.

From 2013 I have seen many articles over the internet to adopt the Bitcoin and blockchain technology but actual fact and truth is acceptance over cryptocurrency are very low in the public market.
Maybe IATA value investors can support the cryptocurrency mode of payment means we can find the Bitcoin at all the corners in the world.

Everyone has their own goals, needs, strategies and principles in dealing with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We cannot force it, of course. Although holding bitcoin provides a good opportunity, but everyone has different passions, there are those who prefer quick and spontaneous profits, for example for trading, some are on the contrary that makes it a long-term investment, some have to sell their BTC to fulfil life, many problems. Of course, we agree that BTC is very valuable for the future, no need to worry about its popularity, no need to be afraid if we understand the risks and mentally prepare for it.
So, whether or not it depends on the benefit of each individual in using it for the welfare of life, can not be generalized.

Indeed, bitcoin's price is always fluctuating unlike fiat, so it's could be good if we use it and also save a part of our earning of bitcoin because we can even earn more in the future when bitcoin's price go up. It's a very good crypto while we're talking about the price of each coin also when we're talking about the long term investment.

As of right now people are using Bitcoin as a placeholder for things like gold, silver, ect. I don't think bitcoin has the framework to be used in day to day transactions. You look at Visa which processes millions of transactions a day and  compare it to Bitcoin. The network can't handle that amount of volume, especially when factoring confirmation times. I don't think people are under utilizing BTC. It's a matter of the fact that BTC can't handle the load.

The system behind the price of bitcoin depends upon the value that the investors are willing to purchase such. People have been considering it as a good store-of-value but if we treat it entirely as a means of exchange then the value might really decrease in the long-run.

Like what most people have mentioned, an investment is an investment that is meant to be kept for long-term (or short-term depending on the need to use it).


One of the reasons on why people use it for transactions is because of its decentralized nature on which the government cannot track down the transactions. Its inherent nature becomes incidental to the usage of people using it for day-to-day transactions.

plus high costs make bitcoin more suitable for use as an investment, maybe if stablecoin is suitable for transactions. so indeed every technology has its own place for its use

For this to happen we need to develop further and zero confirmation is needed if you are planning to shift completely to BTCitcoin for daily transactions

The major difference between Visa and Master card is that they are not a currency but an intermediary between banks and merchants and the comparison is not they way we should do as these are two different things, but it would be great if there is a scaling solution that could reach those levels.

There is under utilization when it comes to international trade and commerce and export and import businesses could take advantage of BTCitcoin to send currencies world wide without the help of a third party nor any conversion charges, so they could make a huge profit on that too.

It's crazy because the value in bitcoin is the aspect of its transactions and unseizable money factors. Yet people are simply holding it, and speculating on use cases that are extremely over-exaggerated.

bitcoin is not easy to fade just because of the influence of a stable coin. right now I think that only the use of bitcoin is still not optimal for each sector, but believe me bitcoin will still have popularity and will not fade

We have many gaps between the payment system and Bitcoin. Still we are not been accepted as main stream payment option at all the places. So if we find the real payment mode better than blockchain means they can reject.
But due to decentralized medium they were not accepting BTC payment at anywhere.

The thread title seems to go against the content of the thread because keeping Bitcoin will make it underutilized. I agree with the start accepting Bitcoin, because that will help it circulate, change from one hand to another hand but keeping it will just make it idle in our wallets making it underutilized.

People need to get more informed about the concept, meaning and usage of Bitcoin and any other cryptocurrency.

Making it more rumorized will get governments attention where it needs the most so it becomes legalized in every country.
Sometimes you won't get it fully operational for your country because there's a lack of information and interest from third parties where the world illegal comes into place.

The fear of the unknown is what makes it underutilizing specially for big companies.

Some countries popularize Bitcoin and crypto such as Japan or Nigeria, but others are not profitable to do so. Many governments are afraid of cryptocurrency, because it is a tool to fight corruption and fiat money. This is why adoption and popularization are moving so slowly.

I think inducing fear will not make the situation better here. What the government and people should see in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency is the opportunity where these currencies could help them, and not by the negative implications it has to the local banks they have. People need education in crypto for them to become responsible in utilizing it and for them not to use it in frauds. Then government will see how good cryptocurrency and bitcoin is so they will have the urge to support it in their way.

yes you are right we need to use bitcoin for payment tools not just investment tools. if we use bitcoin for payment, the demand for bitcoin will also increase and the volume of bitcoin trading will always be high.
but if we only use bitcoin for investment and we continue to hold it then bicoin will stagnate and maybe someday it can be beaten stable coins. therefore we must encourage the use of bitcoin as an alternative means of payment.

In my opinion, people hoard until they don't. so a higher price turns some of those hoarders into sellers or spenders. however, it doesn't follow that hoarding bitcoins will make them worthless. If everybody stopped selling immediately and hoarded their coins, the price would go through the roof which arguably has a much greater impact on encouraging merchants and individuals to accept Bitcoin. wouldn't you agree?

The value of a currency is determined through circulation. If a currency does not circulate it does not generate liquidity, if zero liquidity does not mean it will quickly depreciate. If everyone kept Bitcoin without paying them, then Bitcoin would be pointless. Bitcoin is a currency and money should be circulated.

People are not really using Bitcoin as a currency. The reason is its inbuit deflation which will restrict the supply and demand will increase with more people joining it. People consider bitcoin more as an alternative investment which gives huge returns as compared to other traditional investment. Crypto can be good for diversification for people looking to increase their portfolio returns. When fiat an inflating alternative is available, why would people use Bitcoin for day to day transactions. This restrict the utility of Bitcoin as a currency. 

Considering the entire crypto space and the knowledge and understanding level of majority of people in the crypto space, you will understand that Bitcoin is no where considered as under utilized by people. The reason why you may think Bitcoin is under utilized is due to the fact that Bitcoin is not really used in the mainstream financial transactions. But if you are trying to tell people to use Bitcoin in their daily transactions rather than holding unto them then in some way Bitcoin is being under utilized. A lot of people in the bitcoin space see bitcoin as an investment coin rather than a currency for exchange of goods and services.  In such case, bitcoin is highly under utilized..

I disagree, currencies are not only meant to circulate and to be used as a way to exchange goods and services among people, another characteristic of currencies is that you should be able to store it and it should keep most of its value regardless of how much time passes, this is why people love to hold gold because it is a great store of value and any currency that wants to pass the test of time needs to have that characteristic and fortunately for us bitcoin does.

Isn’t that the reason why in the past, printing fiats depends on the gold and silver reserve of the country since it has no real value unlike gold that’s why it is always backed up and unlike now where fiats like USD for example is very strong hence they could stand these test but of course it is still prone to inflation. Bitcoin on the other hand is decentralized and have limited supply compared to fiat which nowadays can be printed with no real restrictions.

from what I read, the solution provided is to make bitcoin for such payments to workers or use directly for products or services so that the use of bitcoin becomes more widespread.
however, until now there have been very many people who use bitcoin as a tool that helps services such as payment of a web manufacturing service on the internet, or other things. even some people have accepted bitcoin as a means of payment for vehicle sales. this needs to be done, but all of that is limited by regulation. I am sure, this will gradually develop.

Over time perhaps. But those people who hold bitcoin at the moment are not thinking about circulation yet. It's value and it's potential value is what's keeping people from actually using bitcoin for transactions. Holders anticipate the price to go up in time hence they want to keep their bitcoins for that. It may take a while before we see actual circulation of not just bitcoin, but other crypto as well, and them being used for regular transactions like how we use fiat. Probably until the last satoshi is mined, this will be the mindset of most btc holders.

Bitcoin does NOT store value, it has zero value beyond what some greater fool will pay for it. Once that psychology ends, you will bitcoin price drop faster than you ever thought possible.  The only reason people have bitcoin is because they think the price is going to go to the moon, and that they will get rich 💰💰💰💰

NO one is PRICING anything in bitcoin.   Businesses that accept bitcoin do not really accept bitcoin.   When you pay with bitcoin, what the business is using is a system that allows you to pay in bitcoin but instantly coverts your payment into US Dollars that they receive for their goods.

The idea that bitcoin would be the future money was FALSE, and you are all about to find out that a lot of other big assumptions you are making are false.

The saying " BLINDED BY GREED" exists for a reason, and the people in this forum are the perfect example of this 🙈🙈🙈🙈

Hard Facts

not everyone can conclude like that, maybe there are some people who are indeed looking for money, so it's natural if he does not save it and immediately sell it .. !!

Yes, I agree. Basically, bitcoin can be used as an investment tool and commodity trading. Depending on the passion of each user. Not that those who choose to hold bitcoin cannot take maximum advantage over those who choose to trade or vice versa, but each has a strategy, advantages, and disadvantages.

There is another major advantage with bitcoin rather than seeing it just as an investment tool and for commodity trading, it is a currency first and foremost and it is the best form of payment if you want to send huge amounts globally and that is the potential of bitcoin and if people are aware of this property of bitcoin then traders globally will shift to this platform rather than entrusting the banks for sending huge amounts as they can save a lot of money with bitcoin.

I think really that bitcoin has not really been utilized as people are only seeing bitcoin as payment system. They only think of it as what they are gaining, they just invest to expect gains but I believe that after the halving of 2020, will are going to see more of bitcoin value.

Bitcoin is a store of value no matter how much you try to deny it, the argument that you are using could be used against gold as well, nothing is priced in gold, you cannot really buy anything with gold and yet the scarce nature of gold has made it the favourite way to store your wealth for thousands of years, the characteristics of bitcoin are similar except that it has many other advantages over gold, but you are right in one thing we are going to find out who was right soon enough.

Yes I got your point but there are so many difference between gold and bitcoin because those who have traditional invested into gold will never invest into bitcoin because they are used to the stability and gold's value increase very slow and there are no sudden dump and they are used to it. On the other hand we have people like yourself and me who will prefer bitcoin over gold due to it's advantages over gold good return on investment if we are up to date and make the right move.

not all poeple know about bitcoin. need to spread more and more, and if it people know, how to make them buy this coin? some people will ignore because it just a coin, but people will buy if it can make 'profit'. people will leave if just give what the purpose of creating bitcoin, but they will stay if it give another result.

Applications of btc are still way too niche. When vendors start making it more mainstream, I'm sure it'll start becoming more widespread.

Bitcoin has been the thing for about 2 years many sees it as an investment and not a currency at all. But I personally think of it as a commodity, means of trading of services and goods. What makes people hold of bitcoin when they expect of somehow a return based on what they capitalized. I do both, means of trading and holding to attain gains from any direction especially when the market is unideal.

once people know it can be useful as they see used publicly many will be interested but those smart enough to research and analyse the btc purpose and history they will certainly have an idea that it's a good investment too. There are amount can be used to hold and some to spend to influence other.

You're right. You need to think globally and use the coin in different ways

if we understand the initial concept of bitcoin maybe its use is not just for investment, maybe at this time we haven't found a better bitcoin application that can be accessed by the wider community. because most people know that bitcoin is used for investment or trade in crypto

many countries have begun to use bitcoin for daily use, such as an article I read that there is a bitcoin atm, e-commerce that accepts payments for bitcoin, traveling for bitcoin and others. right now I think bitcoin is easy and useful to use, but there are still regulations that make it difficult to benefit in some countries

When you want to make an investment or trading decision then obviously you want to find a way how to make more profit from investment and trading, so it's a simple reason why people are holding Bitcoin, so you don't blame those people who are doing this job. if Bitcoin would be a legal currency around the whole world then people will definietly use Bitcoin for the payment purpose so when Bitcoin will get accepted at the whole world then the use of Bitcoin must be increased and this system will become one of the most user-friendly payment systems.

How can bitcoin be underutilizing? I don't understand it.

It can be underutilized by not being used to its full potential. Feel free to check out the blog link to read more about the problems that the Bitcoin economy is facing.

Question here, what is the motivation for merchants to accept BTC at places other than the darknet?

I agree with the first point. People need to HODL bitcoin. However, I don't think bitcoin will slowly fade away, that's not going to happen, instead I think it'll get stronger and people will find solutions to problems it's currently facing. Only time will tell.

The main issue, as many others have mentioned, is its lack of stable value. Bitcoin would be used for more than just hodling if not for that and of course the lack of intent to scale on chain. Second layer does not appear to be even remotely close to panning out at the moment. At any rate, to become more stable Bitcoin would have to give up on its hard supply cap of 21 million and its emission schedule which halves roughly every 4 years. Honestly, most of the OG's have even admitted that the supply only needed to be predictable and another algorithm could indeed work. Obviously this always comes down to simple supply and demand even though the fix is moderately difficult to do. You need an algorithm that measures demand endogenously and then spits out the necessary block reward for each particular block. Basically, a self balancing mechanism but it would also need to have a way to prevent bad feedback loops. I had been developing such a solution over the last year but I ran out of money for development. Definitely a common theme for small players in this market.  ;D

Basically stable coins come in handy and in second to bitcoin only for investors and hodlers in the market. They use stable coins to save funds but not literally aims to take the spot of bitcoin. After the huge market correction, people will still go back to bitcoin and invest all of their funds from their stable coins. The main thing that I can see only how people are underutilizing bitcoin is through using bitcoin in illegal activities and also, when they sell it in price lower than the price when they bought it.

I'm all for HODLing Bitcoin because I don't think that it's going to fade away. And I don't believe it will replace fiat or is a virtual placeholder for fiat, instead I think sometime down the line it will be another form of accepted payment along with fiat.

fiat is definitely doomed to fail so we will need something to replace it. I just don't think it is going to be Bitcoin by the looks of it.

fiat or bitcoin have their respective values, maybe fiat can be replaced because the payment methods are quite old-fashioned and in an era like now that digital currencies are being introduced to the public, but I'm not entirely sure that FIAT will be lost unless the technology in the world has been used as the main commodity

No it is literally mathematically doomed to fail... now with there be another incarnation of it? that might be but I highly doubt it. I also doubt that crypto in its current form is anywhere even close to useful on that scale and for that purpose. It makes the future awfully uncertain.  ;D

I have read several articles about countries or governments that have begun to develop Fiat in the form of cryptocurrency so that Fiat will not fade. however, if Fiat is truly lost due to age, I am also not so sure that bitcoin will be its replacement. it's not because bitcoin is underutilized, but because people now see bitcoin as an investment tool, not as a fast exchange tool. for example, next year there will be halving, people are busy predicting the price of bitcoin and besides that, they also collect it to exchange when the price has risen.
but, I really hope for good development from bitcoin.

But the reality people are converting their stablecoin to Bitcoin only when they want to seek for profit and not really into bitcoin. You can see some advertisement here and there saying make profit with bitcoin while bitcoin was initially created for the sole reason of replacing that outdated paper money as well as eliminating middle men and being a trustless technology. The fact that so many people out there just consider bitcoin as a way to profit is undeniable although that could bring some huge market capitalisation but it's just underutilizing bitcoin at its best.

There are not many merchants globally that are accepting crypto as payment option. Moreover, use of crypto is also ban in many countries (for example China (https://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/041515/countries-where-bitcoin-legal-illegal.asp)) and in such areas people are HODLing Bitcoin just from investment point of view as they dont have any option to use it. I guess as acceptance for bitcoin will increase we will see more transactions of crypto.

Basically the term underutilizing bitcoin could be the primary reason why these countries mainly ban these cryptocurrencies. Let say, if the citizens aren't using bitcoin responsibly, such as always gambling, buying illegal items, (In which I highly consider as underutilization of bitcoin or using it in a negative way) it could lead to the government taking actions to prevent further harm to their people and especially to their monetary system or in their economy. To avoid these, we should start to be responsible for our selves first and apply good principles that we could share so others could be responsible as well.

Any form of money is just a tool, trying to blame the tool for what people are doing with it is senseless and governments know that, but they do not mind that because they can use that as an excuse to try to regulate bitcoin but unfortunately for them it doesn't matter what they do bitcoin is never going to bend to their rules and eventually they are going to need to accept it as a legitimate form of currency, it is understandable that some people are mad that more people are not using bitcoin as a currency and are just speculating with it but it makes complete sense, the best use for bitcoin right now is as a speculative asset and that is also one of the functions of currencies.

Because most of the people see bitcoin as something related to stocks. They don't focus on the purpose of it and the technology behind it. And I think it sucks because bitcoin is more than an investment that you can hold on for years and wait for it to grow while you are dreaming of a big house. May the government allow it to be used on things such as payments.

This is certainly a problem in the cryptocurrency market that a lot of people over look, or just don't want to admit.

We can just use exchanges if they are not in favor of it. Government do not like these things to start with and even if they accepted it, it will also based on the people if they want to use it. In our country, crypto currencies are not actually banned but here in our place, I don't see anyone using it so exchanges is my partner here.

I am not sure what you are saying here.

I think bitcoin in this days are meant to be converted since the bitcoin was not yet used or completely use in a lot of countries in the world, we also know that there are only a small number of popular companies that completely uses bitcoin as an asset or even as a method of payment to transact. Since a lot of countries are using a fiat money as their number one currency I think it was just normal to convert our bitcoin into cash because it was the best way to use bitcoin as money we cannot fully use bitcoin or mark a profit in investing in bitcoin but I think using this method bitcoin could fulfill both digital currency and an investment for the cryptocurrency community.

Actually it all depends on those who use it and their right to use bitcoin on their own terms because it belongs to them, and what is the point of bitcoin being called an alternative payment if they are not used as an alternative payment or convert it into fiat currency to be used as any payment.
and I will personally do the same thing and only use it if necessary and only as needed because I prioritize savings because I am sure in the future bitcoin will be much better and more profitable.

Personally I think of Bitcoin like at as an store-of-value and not a currency.  The scarce characteristic of Bitcoin and its functionalities make it a good solution for wealth preservation and once the market matures I'm sure it will be highly utilised as a method of payments as well. Now the volatility is too high for merchants and businesses to accept direct payments, unless they are looking to keep it for future appreciation.

Regarding stable coins we don't have any stable currency that I would use. I don't want crypto backed by garbage fiat currencies like dollars, yen, etc.

I agree with some of this. Bitcoin now only needs to be on its own. There should be no dollar or euro. Those who trade with Bitcoin should not convert their bticoins into dollars. I don't think Bitcoin will disappear. There are many reasons to use Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a very risky money. Bitcoin price is constantly moving. $ 1000-wide movements are happening very quickly. How to trust such a vibrant market. People are afraid to use bitcoin. The market needs to become more stable.

If people are waiting for the price to not move, then what is the advantage over a stablecoin? If you are worried about the pegged USD value of a bitcoin, then what is the real difference?

Because most people see noy the profit potential of bitcoin and are here only for the money using bitcoin as an investment tool instead of a currency which it is. I wonder if this kind of people has ever made a bitcoin purchase? Will they just keep buying bitcoin selling and rinse repeat and never actually use it? This is what many users here do and I think it is a problem.

Bitcoin has not become a universally accepted means of payment in the world. During these ten years, it was generally used as a speculative means for profit. However, this is not the main and especially not the only function of bitcoin. Now, like all decentralized cryptocurrencies, he will have to compete with stable state coins and I’m not sure that Bitcoin can withstand such competition.

Competition is always nice because it gives people options. If bitcoin can be accepted for its properties then It can succeed, however if people only look at it for the pegged fiat then it will have some trouble.

We cant deny that fact that bitcoin sometimes are being underutilized because of its limitation.  Bitcoin was not that fully accepted as a currency compare to fiat which you can used in your daily living but what good to it was it gives profit to us.  Bitcoin has also big benefits that can help you financially it has also advantages like what is written in the article. 

I agree to it. If you see most people who say "Bitcoin is for future and fiat is trash" and then see the hypocrisy when they turn their crypto for cash when they make profits in crypto. it's saddening that it's causing crypto to not have intrinsic value as everyone using it only as a mean to profit more.

It won't be possible until prices stabilize. You can't buy in $, sell in btc, and see how btc drops 50%

I think people are still using Fiat because the level of bitcoin usage hasn't reached a big adoption. and most of the needs still use FIAT for transactions, so the use of bitcoin will be more widely used if the adoption is comprehensive in this world. and when that happens, bitcoin can be used in many places and not just to find profits from investments or daily trading

I think we need to circulate the Bitcoin. If you want Bitcoin to be more healthy and active, somehow we need to circulate it through merchants who offer services or products that need bitcoins as payments. That is the true essence of Bitcoin's existence. To be an alternative medium of payment in every transaction.

Accepting it and using is the best way to keep the market alive and running and not just being kept or locked away. That whats it's made for, to use it for faster payments, if you read the Bitcoin white paper you would definitely understand. If all people who holds the total amount of mined BTC were just to be kept, then it would not circulate and liquidize in the whole world. It is good this way.

People have different preferences for using bitcoin. The number that uses bitcoin for daily trading is not much. Bitcoin is seen as a value storage unit. I think that way. Bitcoin will be used more in daily trading in the future.

I agree and this is what bitcoin was intended to be but there's no wrong in holding your bitcoin, it's the same as those people who invested their money into specific currency and hold it. If person want to spend it somewhere else then free to do so but they are not at fault for holding it more specifically most of people who hold bitcoin are finding profit nowadays.

I also consider bitcoin as my greatest investment in the future and this is why i don’t trade that much with it but luckily we have the altcoins as an alternative and through them we can fully utilize the purpose of cryptocurrency but yes it will still depend on the hodlers, i use some of my coins to pay for my bills and that works really good to me and very convenient.

Do you use your bitcoins to pay directly? Or do you have to convert to fiat to pay?

I understand your opinion and it is completely valid, I consider that people change their bitcoins to fiat money for two fundamental reasons, the first one is high volatility, in general, merchants do not want to take too much risk and end up losing for a sale that had already generated profits.

The second biggest problem is that there is not a sufficiently developed market for goods and services that allows people to buy what they need using bitcoin.

The stablecoins base their strategy precisely on avoiding so much price fluctuation and generating greater guarantees for trade.

I think he's paying it directly with bitcoin. There are payment processors that allows this to happen and they are integrated with that feature and this becomes the ease for the users.

Some local exchanges does have this feature.

Actually holding bitcoin will for surely help the ecosystem of it. The price of it is probably gonna rise up since it will lessen the supply in the market. The lower the supply, the higher chance that the price will rise up also. As long as the demand is higher than the supply, the price of it will become higher and higher every single day.

But that doesn't inherently mean anything positive other than superficial wealth increases that can also be lost just as fast as it is gained. I would much rather work towards having a functional currency even if it means replacing the block reward algo and total supply cap than to have "digital gold". Fiat is not going to last forever and Bitcoin is hardly a reasonable alternative in the event of a collapse.

I agree, this is a valid point because if everyone holds then the flow towards more adoption will just stop, although it might make the Bitcoin price sky rocket because if everyone holds, it will be scare to buy and demand rise, but Bitcoin price will rise at the expense of the rise of its growth and adoptability.

if we see from the existing domination, this is still not possible, the market balance must continue to run or bitcoin will move into a bubble and followed by altcoin. Such methods only apply well in the event of a bullrun, bitcoin also requires mass adoption for this decade, the long-term aspect must continue to prioritize usability as a currency and an asset at the same time.

Instead of using Bitcoin, they prefer to keep it. Bitcoin is perceived as a value storage tool. I have a similar opinion. I'm doing my transfers with the Ethereum. I'm using Bitcoin for investment. It's worth something like silver or gold to me.

As I see this situation, most hodlers became hodlers because they smelled money, not some utility. Many of them don't even think about all this "crypto vs fiat" thing, they just wait till they can ride their lambos on the moon

That sounds true because I believe most of them does not look on the development of the team, instead its hype and they speculate on it.

Eventually they'll be educated and learn that it can never happen to defeat fiat as majority in this world are still not using online money, fiat is the solution to that and bitcoin for now is not good for daily small transactions due to high fees.

I think something's value increases when it comes to circulation, so instead of keeping Bitcoin, it needs to be more exchanged or transacted at specific retailer counters. Once this occurs, more and more people will begin to use Bitcoin, resulting in high demand, and anything can increase when there is increased demand value. Bitcoin is a good choice to retain as an asset, but it really needs a high circulation.

But the problem is with the utility. People are ready to spend their Bitcoin without converting it to Fiat. But where are the options? There aren't much merchants or vendors ready to accept btc as payment. Even if they do, they will most probably convert it to fiat. The high volatility it comes with is not sound for any stable business. These are the underlying issue because of which btc is more of an investment asset which can be converted to fiat for any use. It hasn't evolved as a currency yet.

There are people that are now willing to use bitcoin and the problem is the business that are still not ready to accept bitcoin. There will no mass adoption that will happen if those merchants are still focusing to use traditional payment system than the current payment system. Our economy will boost more if we will use cryptocurrencies, there are also a lot of advantages that they can get from accepting bitcoin and using it. There are just not aware so it is the reason why for them fiat is still the best way to use.

Its high speculative aspect of it is actually damaging. People are less likely to use it because of fluctuations.

For now, the use of bitcoin are still remaining to be personal because of the lack of regulations and laws concerning it to be accepted widely by the masses and the large scale typical business on different countries. Because we can confirm it if they start to provide salaries in bitcoin and it is quite hard to implement if they will provide salaries without tax and literally, there's allot to adjust first for it to be implemented. I do really believe it will just take so long but in the future it possibly could really happen.

Any company planning a stable wholesale business must deal with money that has the least inflation and deflation, because if it is bought at a higher price and sold at a lower price, there is no profitable business there, I agree, but I think bitcoin is built as currencies , not completely.
The problem is the price fluctuation, the company is not sure when it has bitcoin, so it converts it to Fiat, it would be different if bct is more stable.

Well the main reason for this happening is because of how profitable bitcoin has become. People don't see bitcoin as a cryptocurrency or even as a placeholder for fiat, they see it as another get rich scheme that they can abuse to earn free bucks. Which is of course not what bitcoin is intended to be used for. Sadly, until this negativity is removed from the system I doubt bitcoin will get to what it was supposed to be.

This is exactly my thoughts. This is why "stable" currencies have proved to be a better option for people looking to transfer money.

This whole thread talks about how using Bitcoin has an "investment tool" actually hurts the economy.

Its not possible till the BITCOIN completely mined,Whole history and real stable price of Bitcoin will be after completion of 21million f Bitcoins.Stable coin like USDT,DAI,etc have worth and long term vision,Bitcoin and stable coins have different use people who save fiat money for long term and want to capital stable to avoid the risk of getting low go with stable coins.

Investors prefer Bitcoin because there are more chances to grow more,HODL Bitcoin to get good profit.

Bitcoin should be acknowledged as a mean of installment that doesn't peg itself to fiat monetary standards. In the event that Bitcoin is acknowledged legitimately for an item/administration and is then utilized by that merchant to buy different administrations or even compensation workers, at that point Bitcoin will accomplish an incentive inside the network and can be adopted.

I support this strategy to further increase the price. the problem is, we cannot judge them if they wanted to sell their BTC because of their personal needs. we need to further understand that not all people have the same mindset like we do. I think if we agreed to this statement, we can help increase its price and positively invite more potential investors to join us hold some BTC.

So far, for instant and micropayment, fiat is more effective than cryptocurrency. In addition, it is usually constrained by the binding legal rules in the country, it is usually not allowed to make transactions with other currencies, other than the official currency in the country. After all, cryptocurrency is very volatile, the seller must think repeatedly to determine the initial capital and the benefits, it is quite difficult to determine when cryptocurrency prices are not stable. This problem can actually be solved by using a coin stable, but back again to the applicable rules and effectiveness.

I think the opposite, if you just save it means it will fade faster, because you don't know how long you have to keep it and how long you will live. Utilizing bitcoin is not just for storage but is used because using bitcoin will create something more useful for its own growth and about popularity which should be continuously improved. Just storing bitcoin is not the right way to use bitcoin, how can you only save bitcoin but you want something fantastic growth in the future, use bitcoin in many sectors so that the growth of adoption can continue.

For me, holding some bitcoin is not as a good idea because it's like a fiat money that circulates around and/or across the world. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency has also the same concept as the fiat. Though it is not thoroughly circulates but the coin may be burnt. Burnt because there are some coins and other project are usually not being implemented and/or being remove in the currency.

I am bringing this back because we are already seeing a huge drop. Obviously the markets are down too so you can blame it on that.

Over the years, bitcoin has been used and considered as store of value and until now, it still do. I don't see any problem with that and I don't consider it as underutilizing it if it is kept that way. If people will see and use it as a currency, it is because they see the potential of it as a currency but that doesn't mean that all people should always use bitcoin that way. It still depends on how they see bitcoin - either as a store of value or as a currency. It is the way people will see it's worth.

BTCitcoin will be used more in commerce if transaction time and fees are reduced. Currently, platforms and networks are being developed to achieve this.
In particular, I have exchanged ethereum for Bitcoin to send remittances to my country. Then I found other ways that had lower rates on some peer-to-peer exchange platforms.

Value gives rise to demand, and demand gives rise to price surge. It's a natural market sequence and dynamism. I don't think it's forced on people. With time bitcoin will get its proper footing and the volatility experienced in 2017 will return. It's a matter of time and awareness is still growing.
It's not really true that Bitcoin is underutilized.

I think no, starting now and into the foreseeable future Bitcoin are going to be generally mentioned and mainstream as an elective speculation to defend individuals' cash.

On the off chance that the monetary emergency keeps on plaguing fiat and financial exchange speculators/dealers then a couple of people may begin daring to other better and significant resource, for instance , Bitcoin, Gold or Silver. :) :) :)

It's actually quite opposite from the truth. If you want adoption, let merchants know that once they accept Bitcoin, people will show up

I will not push much blame on adopters of Bitcoin now because mass adoption is yet to be achieved. And once this is achieved, several merchants, businesses, firms, companies etc will accept it as a form of payment where it will have a wide range of usability as it was created to be. For now, most of its investors will continue to see it as a store of value.

Hello everyone. Yes, I read this article. In general, it depends on us that Bitcoin quickly becomes a means of payment around the world and that all the advantages of the cryptocurrency are appreciated. It is from us, from those who first understood what value Bitcoin has, that the fastest implementation of cryptocurrency depends on as payment for all goods and services. I am sure that this will happen unconditionally, sooner or later. As the saying goes, start with yourself and this time will draw near unusually fast.

That's your thoughts but Bitcoin is more than that and it has grown more than that. First, we are humans and as such will have different opinions and approach to things, bringing it down to the crypto space, people will decide what they want to do with their Bitcoin, some will prefer trading it and others will prefer holding it, also some shops might accept it and convert in order to keep their business running when taking into account volatility issues while some will still get it and keep, hence the reason I said, people have different opinions. Also, talking about stablecoins, they can't be the future of cryptocurrencies because they offer no value, the price is fixed and hence whatever you hold is what you get in the future, but in the case of Bitcoin, those who held earlier this year are in massive profit, thus is it appropriate to say Bitcoin is the future of the crypto space. Lastly, businesses are already using Bitcoin because of its peer-to-peer system in order to remove any payment issues and restrictions, hence it is still being utilized properly.

I believe something's worth increments with regards to flow, so as opposed to keeping Bitcoin, it should be more traded or executed at explicit retailer counters. When this happens, an ever-increasing number of individuals will start to utilize Bitcoin, bringing about the appeal, and anything can increment when there is expanded interest esteem. Bitcoin is a decent decision to hold as a resource, yet it actually needs high dissemination.
the diminishing worth is basically ensured in light of the fact that by plan ETH is inflationary since it has a limitless inventory that is being printed at an insane rate!

Nothing can stop you from helping vendor to adopt bitcoin, say for example help them setup an POS system running electrum, show them how to open lightening channel, posting simple QR Code URL link with instruction to show customer how to use android phone with Phoenix or Electrum (AMP enabled) for micro payment, operating one way ATM to dispense tokens (BTC) to there lightening enabled bitcoin wallet.

We have several quick corner stores as well as fruit stands that takes bitcoin as alternative payment.  A simple Bitcoin Accepted here or as an 10cm bitcoin logo is all it takes.  Discrete, convenient, and effective.