Bitcoin Forum

An interesting view of a person who is involved in Bitcoin for a long time.
Bitcoin and blockchain was created to eliminate banks as a medium of exchange. But people go to banks to withdraw their money. Which is a total contradiction.

Are people really in the industry for the money? Is this the reason why adoption takes such a long time?

Do you share his view?


https://crypto-potential.com/post/hard-to-swallow-pills-about-blockchaincrypto (https://crypto-potential.com/post/hard-to-swallow-pills-about-blockchaincrypto)

Providing there are enough people who understand the technology, it doesn't really matter how many profit seekers come and go.  For all the false claims people try to make, Bitcoin still adheres to the founding principles of open source, permissionless freedom and finite supply.  I don't foresee that changing any time soon.  We don't lose anything of value when the people who don't appreciate those principles fall by the wayside.

It's also likely that many of the people who originally came seeking profit decided to stick around once they learned more about the technology. 

Sounds like a lot of bitching to me.

Author must have sold his BTC at $18k and is now salty

I don't use a bank with my bitcoins because I don't want the government to know how much I'm holding, selling and what I'm spending my money on. I exchange face to face for cash and have a legit fiat income to my bank account that I use to pay bills. I know that many people choose to withdraw to their bank accounts, but traders who often switch between currencies and pay for their cryptocurrencies with bank transfer don't have much choice. Many people want to run a licensed business and pay taxes, so don't blame them for cashing out via a bank.

If you had a decentralized and private way of earning money and you had to choose between that and  someone guiding you all the way from beginning to end, providing you full support for any kind of issues you encounter and so on... Would you choose the hard or the easy way? My gut feeling says the larger percentage would take the easy way because you feel "safer" being guided.

You get the same feeling of safety when you come here as a newbie and are guided around. But how many people who are into crypto get the support they need? We don't have customer service and forking Bitcoin Core off GitHub to read the docs isn't the same as entering a bank and being met by someone who wants to help you.

Therefore, a lot of people really are in the game for the money. Where large sums are being made, there will always be an increase in the percentage of people who don't care about anything but profit.

Lots of people are selling Bitcoin through banks, but it's not a requirement. Peer-to-peer remains an option you can still pick as a Bitcoin holder.. so adoption is in my opinion not slowed down or anything, it's just that it takes a long while before people start realizing "hey, we are finally getting it and we certainly are needing it!". That's when BTC clicks as a need for the average human, because privacy and freedom are two of our basic rights. We need it and it's evolving faster and better than ever before.

This is a view some might be having, but the fact is bitcoin is not created to eliminate banks, how you think everyone is going to purchase bitcoin, if the theory was true you need to invest in mining hardware and start mining so that you do not need to use your bank account to purchase the coin, if not any purchase you make you need a bank account to transfer the money unless you plan to risk yourself and meet a complete stranger to purchase bitcoin with cash.

With the market which is having too much emphasis on speculation rather than using it as a currency, what do you think, majority is looking to make the profit.

The author is one of those people who likes to point fingers, but never come up with a solution. So let's compare the Banking system as an example...

How many people know how Central Banks work and how the Banks interact with them and how transfers between Banks work and things like "Automated Clearing Houses" and "RTGS system" .....but they still use Banks.  ::)

So why is Bitcoin any different? Why should everyone want to know how the Blockchain work ...if they just need to be able to use it. Some people want to know and some people just want to use it.... it is as simple as that.  ;)

When people keep their money in BTC, they can truly own the money, unlike with bank accounts where banks can do lots of things with it. Apart from that, keeping money in BTC means having a currency that does not depend on any particular country's economic decisions and is not under any country's control.
As for selling BTC for fiat to actually use it, that's the sad reality. I'd like to do it differently and actually use Bitcoin directly, but unfortunately there aren't many places that accept it as payment, so I can't.

I guess people in this industry are not primarily into money, but also to the benefits. But I would agree if it is the reason why many people stayed. Bitcoin, a digital currency in its nature, is now considered by many as a profitable investment. Currency as an investment? This is already enough to explain my point. Its volatility makes it different to other currencies both in digital and physical world. No matter how we view its benefit such as being free of tax, faster transaction and such, being profitable will still be on top. So I guess, this somewhat is making sense. Not in the aspect of adoption because that is another story concerning government policies.

definitely yes a lot of people are using crypto coins because they want receive FIAT money.
I have seen a lot of times people asking information about a "digital" fiat currency, that is far away miles from crypto currency idea and ideals!

I think that most people are in the crypto industry because of the money. You cannot make 10%-100% with banks nowadays, but it's reasonable with crypto.

Adoption is slow because crypto is not user friendly at all. From the concept, to wallets, to transactions, to custody, to ...

Since the arrest of owners of sites like The Silk Road , I don't know of anyone thinking of buying any thing with BTC .
With huge gains over night twice in less than 3 years ,how can we blame them ??
 
I'd consider selling my boring bank stock with it's 4.5% stable, but equally boring dividend for the chance at a 400% gain in one month.

For that kind of gain ,I'd take the risk .
   
As for using the BTC It's to much hassle to try to do A P2P ,and exchanges are charging way to much ,so I'll wait for what I think may be the bottom, and buy more to hold onto for the next spike . Maybe 1000% next time !

My perception of Bitcoin is that it will become the world's reserve currency aka a standard of value - YES, in my opinion it will overtake Gold's market cap in a couple of years. - and it will also become the mainstream currency. Globalization is a real thing and country borders get thinner year-by-year. Why should we complicate with a bunch of currencies when we have an evolved one right in front of our eyes?

In another scenario Bitcoin could simply remain a proof-of-value while countries around the world will use a digital/crypto version of their fiat currencies.

As much as we like it, it isn't goijg to be easy to topple a system that worked and had made thousands of generations comfortable over a fairly new piece of technology. It will take time of course, but we'll get there eventually. If anything, this way of people earning money through bitcoin and the blockchain is but one of the few more steps we will take towards global acceptance. Patience is the key here guys.

That is not accurate, bitcoin was created to give those that want it an option to use a permissionless form of money that gives them freedom, make no mistake banks are always going to exist in some way or form and the same is true for fiat currencies, those in positions of power derive a great deal of it from the control they have of the economy and no matter what happens this is not going to change.

Also bitcoin as an asset that is completely free was bound to attract speculators, after all if people can speculate with fiat why are they not going to speculate with bitcoin? And if they want to go to a bank and withdraw their money then that is their call, as long as bitcoin itself adheres to its core principles then everything is fine.

greed makes the world go 'round.

you've got it backwards---greed drives adoption. it may not be exactly the kind of adoption you hoped to see. i acknowledge there is much more speculative usage than p2p usage today. however, i am confident that as bitcoin's network effect grows and as users move on from their "get rich quick newbie" stage, that will change for the better.

i only arrived on the scene in 2013 because i thought bitcoin was going to the moon and i wanted to get rich. now i'm an avid user. it's a very important part of my life, my finances, my businesses, my social life. it's been a really liberating experience. i'm so excited that i have friends and family interested in bitcoin now---including some who will really benefit from its p2p economy.

people who expected bitcoin to be totally altruistic and non-speculative were always being unrealistic. everyone needs to just accept bitcoin for what it is. it isn't what you idealize. it simply is. it's something different to everybody, whether that means p2p electronic cash or digital gold, or something else, or everything in between.

People won't easily understand the value of technology. The initial move towards an innovation takes place as a result of the profitability. Later only people will tend to know more about the true need of technology that eliminates the usage of intermediary (Banks). Out of ten people who are into bitcoin will have the knowledge about bitcoin and uses it accordingly, rest of the users could've known and started using it for the money it provides.

Let's have a common thought process, if the innovation hasn't got any form of money associated with it. What'll be the situation by now. Maybe for the efficiency this technology would've been used on large scale firms, but this could've never been this popular as now.

In my opinion, as long as there are few people who understand the technology and possibly many people who come for profit decide to stay after they learn more about the technology.

It isn't that odd or anything, People would naturally go towards the path that most take. A path that can easily make their lives a LOT easier and Bitcoin doesn't do that. From the time to learn how it works to manage your funds, to learning how exchanges work, or tl;dr, just issues that make you PERSONALLY do everything, people wouldn't really want to do it UNLESS they really need to. And since there's an alternative that can better improve their QoL, they'd go there. This is why my idea was always a coexistence between the two since people wouldn't really want something automated, something easy to use, to just disappear.

I also doubt that such issues would remain as an issue in the future anyway, Bitcoin has continued to stay true to its purpose and hasn't really strayed from that. Just the fact that it remained true to itself is a testament that it could go a long way, as long as people support it that is.

And you begin to see that contradiction and how to resolve it here? I believe that after defi many people will talk more about this, I think that decentralization and mainstream finance will need to come together to create something right. That means it's not meant to be a replacement, but to help it do better.

When your throat is too narrow and teeth too dull to digest progress, technologies like the blockchain will choke you easily. It's called technology because it's putting science to GOOD use. Whether or not you will benefit from it is up to you. It seems like the author just made some bad choices.

When blockchain and bitcoin pioneers started all this, they didn't think of decentralization as something that's achievable in a few decades. Considering that money and other forms of trade have been around for thousands of years, we can have a good idea of how long it will take to dismantle and replace the existing financial system. In fact, blockchain technology and bitcoin have already made huge progress in their first decade. We're on the right track. But of course, like the price action, you can't expect things to go smoothly all the time.

If we were to put it this way, bitcoin helps people get money from the banks without the problem of borrowing money from the bank, wouldn't it be better that we are taking money from the bank? We have been in a society that relies on earning money to survive in a daily basis, nothing wrong with people that are taking profits from it.

If Bitcoin is the future of money and you are a true supporter then embrace and adopt Bitcoin, stop using fiat money and banks.
That is the real message here

Stop using fiat money and banks is not what I understand when I read the content. The author seems angry on how people view bitcoin and introduce it to other people without any knowledge about blockchain. This kind of sentiment is common in crypto because most of crypto users are just attracted because of short term profit you can get on crypto volatility.

Bitcoin and blockchain is not hereby created to eliminate banks. It have been originated into the idealization of having another mode of payment through digital currency and to make traditional way of transaction to get even faster. There must not be a competition or comparison in between those two for they are playing their roles depending on the needs and wants of the people availing for the service and benefits they can provide. Indeed it is a fact that people works on Bitcoin and gets into bank to withdraw money for they see Bitcoin as an alternative way to source out possible income that can be converted to fiat. People do have their own reasons on why they get into using and purchasing Bitcoin which might be for the sake of money, investment or even trading but that all falls for the idea of having something you can use for payment and transactions.

That is just the way things are, the moment a creation leaves its creators hands then it belongs to the public to do whatever they want with it, bitcoin is money and as such greed is going to be a huge part if not the main component that drives adoption, it is not pretty but it is really effective.

And as you say once people get over their dreams of becoming rich with bitcoin and they actually begin to see its utility and the community around it they will stay and become part of the bitcoin economy which as time passes is becoming bigger and bigger.