Bitcoin Forum

So I am sure this has been discussed multiple times before, however as I enter into the rabbit hole of Bitcoin, I am interested what others see as lacking in terms of how to get this to the masses. I run a node and LN Channels, however not being a developer, I wonder what other roles are out there. Would like to hear your thoughts.

Thanks!

To get what to the masses exactly? The knowledge/idea of Bitcoin? If what i am thinking is what you meant, then there is actually nothing much to do, Bitcoin is no longer news amongst the 'masses', and everyone is privy to enough materials to do their research about the network, to learn more about it and either choose to adopt it or not.

As for what is missing, one thing is for sure and that is there is no perfect currency (fiat currencies for example struggle with inflation) nor investments (they would have pros and cons), the Bitcoin network is growing just fine if you ask me, especially when you consider how long it has been since its inception (not too long). It is a currency that offers freedom/control, it is censorship resistant and has actual utility, and if you want to use it as an investment, then it gives good ROI in the long run, the 'masses' should focus on what it is/what it has, rather than what is missing. And then if they don't get it or are still unsure, then the famous words of Satoshi could just be perfect:

firstly. your first mistake..
.. confusing bitcoin with LN

they are two completely different networks offering two different demographs of users, utility and units of measure(value)
LN is not a bitcoin feature. LN is its own network offering a small amount value utility across multiple blockchains. its a bridge for many blockchains and not a unique layer that only skins around bitcoin.

secondly. the whole idea of debasing bitcoins 'digital cash for the unbanked' and replacing it with 'reserve currency for other networks' is where bitcoin is losing utility.

by forcing bitcoin to reduce/hinder/stifle its bitcoin network innovation and growth, just to promote the other side networks and altnet bridges as what users should use instead. is where bitcoin is being used less and less and other networks are getting more popular

with all the silly empty cries about bitcoins blockchain cant cope with the masses due to [insert blockchains current size] just makes people not use bitcoin.
take ethereum, its half of bitcoins age. yet the blockchain is over 1TB and growing yet no one is crying about the blockchain size of etherum even when its 2.5x larger then bitcoin.. so i guess the bitcoin cries are empty.. (i wonder why(sarcasm))

ethereum has become the defacto utility blockchain for multiple things/innovation. people have avoided using bitcoin as the network to peg NFT and contracts to because bitcoin has been stifled and hindered in its BITCOIN scaling. so people went elsewhere

Imho Bitcoin is getthing this slow to the masses is political.
The governments and central banks do protect their fiat. Most commercial banks see bitcoin as a competitor. All of them are bashing Bitcoin as much as possible, spreading false news in order to keep average Joe wary about Bitcoin.
Bitcoin price cannot be easily explained by the economics, even more, nobody guarantees that the price cannot fall big. Bitcoin is still seen as a risky investment.
The fact Bitcoin daily price fluctuations of even 8% are seen as "not unusual", the merchants (who get the raw materials in fiat, pay salaries and taxes in fiat, ...) cannot easily show the prices in bitcoin makes it be avoided by many, hence the use as a currency is limited.

But what Bitcoin actually needs? Probably strong advertising. Probably somebody has to go to the businesses to strike a deal. Probably somebody has to pay for banners in the metro and at the tv. But since Bitcoin is not a business per se and there aren't that many businesses working with Bitcoin, we are pretty early for that. For now I see easier advertising to FTX, Binance and many others, but not that much for Bitcoin. But sooner or later they'll realize they have to do a bit more.

IMO, I believe there are only a few things that need to be fixed in Bitcoin, first is the transaction speed but since the transaction speed problem can be fixed with LN so is not a problem anymore but other than that Bitcoin sending and receiving must be simplified because in the present system those long lines of numbers and letters act as a wallet addresses is a big issue for the novice users that's why it must be simplified just like sending emails, third is the transaction fees, is there any way to get rid of those transaction fees, because I think these transaction fees can also turn off the interest of novice users and it was my personal experience because I have a little store of prime commodities and I try to accept cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin, Eth, and XRP but it's not thriving because they said that the fees applied on crypto transaction makes their pocket to bleed more that's why they stop paying crypto instead they used the digital fiat because it was zero fees. so I think a problem like this is one of the hindrances why crypto will not suitable as a payment option.    

It's already on the mainstream and speaking of masses adoption if that's what you mean, it was already achieved by the Bitcoin.
Though the conflict is the government regulation why it can't spread further and have massive adoption, because they want it to regulate Bitcoin as a related like fiat currency which is a centralized currency.  This might the missing part of Bitcoin that the reason didn't accept by other countries, it loses control because of its decentralized nature, and no one can regulate the monetary policy which could be a threat to the monetary system.

LN is the perfect way to increase the speed of every transaction in Bitcoin.
Since you aren't an expert as a developer, you might read this discussion regarding LN, The Lightning Network FAQ (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5158920.0).

Bitcoin is always good, no other responsive spins like altcoins.  However, the way defi, ntf, metaverse on altcoins is to maintain growth due to increasing demand.  That doesn't mean bitcoin has to be, but if bitcoin actually distributes defi in some way on a sidechain, linked to LN, or an embedded layer 2 protocol, it could be an attractive proposition.  , opens many new utilities.  But can bitcoin be decided to move the way the public wants it to?  I think because bitcoin represents a store of value, which will become invaluable over time but meeting public demand can also be stimulating.

In fact, the Bitcoin system itself is quite ready for distribution to the masses. But the question is different - are the masses prepared for this?

This may look simple but very important. infact, beside the technical aspect I think this is one important part, btc needs to be simplified enough to make an uneducated person to be able to use it. let's face facts, not everyone that make up the masses are educated, if btc is to reach the general masses then a lot of them will have issues to use btc, even if you are not able to read and write you can use fiat for transaction with your local dielect  which is not possible with btc.

Another very important point, for some people the transaction fee may seem okay but for the majority of the masses who are less fortunate this is a big problem, it will be hard for such people to always pay such amount of money anytime they want to buy every little item.

There is also the security and safety part, do you know the number of people that will have their wallet hacked as a result of lack of understanding. There are so many things to be considered to be honest and I don't know how these can be address easily. It is easy for those of us who came in base on our interest, it won't be the same for those who have no interest for it but had to use it either way.

I think an effective exchange that is on the level of Paypal and move funds effectively between users. That could increase speed and minimize fees which are the two major obstacles to wider adoption in my opinion. There may be plenty of exchanges out there which already do this, but none have reached the worldwide level and user base of Paypal. That may never happen because there are many countries out there who take a very unfair stance on anything crypto related and prevent millions, if not billions, from being able to access it. Having this middleman sort of operation might also somewhat defeat the purpose of even transacting in Bitcoin but at least it removes banks from the equation.

A big ecommerce site like Amazon or Alibaba accepting BTC, it would be the one that will push everyone to also accept BTC so far most sellers online will just be skeptical because the news every time about Bitcoin is related to scam still and regular people are not surprise every time a news like that happen.

For a regular person who works 9-5 day job the news about institutions like JPMorgan or well known person in crypto like Cathie Wood are banking on BTC, its just nothing.
But having a news that BTC is now accepted by Amazon, shopping malls will also be interested to accept BTC.

There's this common term often used "fear of missing out" (FOMO) which has been a kind of force unnoticed by many that people out there has this kind of fear that how can i risk out my hard earned income on what is unclear to me to do, they lack the knowledge and understanding to how bitcoin works and thereby develop this fear of uncertainty (doubt) that bitcoin could be this and that, let me not risk it.

 Also since its a digital currency coin and it almost required being online to perform most of the operations they as well believe its may be fraudulent because I've seen many people who only believe in physical business rather than online or proxy one like bitcoin, but i see this stage to be soon overcome as the adoption widens, if in a household a young child can invest on bitcoin then within a little time his influence will impact all other members of that same household to all invest in it through his help because by then, the results could have been evident in clearing all their doubts.

Your problem is a common one.  The information available on Lightning and the discussion surrounding it are nonexistent in most circles.  Even on this Bitcoin website there is no place to discuss issues with other developers or get access to needed development resources.  I get that we're trying to push this BS narrative that Lightning is Bitcoin, but it seems almost nefarious that Lightning is paraded around to big companies as the future and claimed to be doing a lot of activity in places where it's being legalized (even though usage pails in comparison to stable coins) but there are more and more red flags popping up.  Fake demonstrations of Lightning's abilities.  Major bugs being swept under the carpet.  If the LN is the future of Bitcoin, I am concerned (and have been for about 5 years now) as it's development seems to be a small club of people trying to steer Bitcoin's ecosystem towards their patents.

OP:What is truly missing in the Bitcoin ecosystem to get this to the masses
It is only necessary to continue... I do not see any problem in the outcome of what is expected of bitcoin, so reaching the people (masses) is so relative in the result, that only the fact of circulating bitcoin parallel to $ market, it is already a result in that aspect, why are you not satisfied with what exists in the adoption? what really matters is that bitcoin is available to anyone and that already makes it massive, the fact that at the beginning there were only 2 people and now we are millions, already meets the criteria of masses.

I think approach towards an understanding of not just only Bitcoin but also the technology behind it. And these are Blockchain and Cryptography.

As per our system of education, very few percent of people are tech-savvy. So people belonging to other streams are far away from Bitcoin's existence.

Globally very few percentages of people are involved in crypto. And this is just because of lack of awareness.

The approach of the government towards the implementation of these technologies can make much more difference within all environments.

And by this way, the Bitcoin ecosystem can be reached the masses.

There are multiple entry barriers for bitcoin to reach the masses. Let me tell you some of them,

1. Government and organized banking system - They are the main entry barriers for the common mass to enter into bitcoin ecosystem. In majority of the countries, regulations are not available, taxes are high and mandatory KYC is imposed in order to buy some bitcoins. Also frequent mailers and negative advertisings against bitcoin turns down people.

2. Mining is expensive - Bitcoin mining requires specialized hardware and availability of cheap electricity. So an average joe can't enter into mining bitcoin.

3. High number of scams - Majority of the cyber frauds involve bitcoin in some manner. Either it's ransomware, terrorism financing, money laundering etc. That brings down the reputation of bitcoin significantly in the minds of people who has not yet entered into bitcoin.

Unless, there is a favorable regulation available, it is extremely difficult for a common people to enter into bitcoin ecosystem. 

What we really need is some honest reviews from mainstream media and some real understanding of promotions to the people. not some black propaganda from so-called trusted media that are always putting the blame on Bitcoin whenever there are some illegal activities caused by some criminals and they highlighted the bitcoin names to push away the masses from investment. It's not always to put something in the current industry but we also need to subdue the causes of the main problem by this biased mainstream media.

So many great responses here. I was not expecting that much traction from this post.
Yes I agree with you, I find that since this Bitcoin is not a company, there is no CEO to come on CNBC to defend or fight the FUD.


Regulation will come quickly, a Spot ETF will help, however I would be surprised if the regulators kept pushing this. Also when the SEC vs Ripple case closes I expect them to focus their attention on how to regulate Bitcoin and Crypto.

I agree regarding mining, however I feel running a node is simple to do (I do it!) and everyone can help to decentralize the system, eventually I expect the LN to be 'slightly profitable' for those wanting to route payments, hence this could be the next thing the average Joe could do.

For the number of scams, this will continue, however FIAT has just as much scams yet the media like to focus on Crypto scams vs FIAT scams.


This is where I see the potential and where the community can better help vs educate whether through paid advertising etc. As was mentioned by @NeuroticFish if the community came together to get paid advertising instead of relying on exchanges that could also further help adoption along with fighting FUD. Many other projects have VC's or companies behind them, however I do feel the marketing aspect is missing from Bitcoin and certainly an aspect which if a group of Bitcoiners came together we could setup some paid advertising and I am sure others would participate. However as someone as mentioned Bitcoin is doing its thing, so maybe we should not push it neither.....

Is Bitcoin getting into mainstream slower than we would like? Sure, but I don't think that bitcoin is slow at all. Keep in mind that bitcoin is around for a little bit more than a decade which is nothing really for something so innovative and first of its kind.


While banks and governments are certainly not big fans of bitcoin and are a big reason why people are reluctant to start using bitcoin, I don't think that its solely their fault. First of all, we have to ask ourselves do we use bitcoin enough for what is originally intended for. I hear even on this forum people saying that they are saving bitcoin and spending fiat only and if bitcoiners are saying that, how can we expect that others that are way less informed about bitcoin will start using it?

Question is whether average Joe would be interested in bitcoin even without the banks/government FUD? The thing is, majority of people don't like personal responsibility, "be your own bank" thing and will regularly sacrifice freedom for a sense of false security, so for them bitcoin will always be a scary thing to some degree. That also explains why so many people keep their crypto on the exchanges and other centralizes services instead of their own non custodial wallets.


Those business have their own tokens to push so I don't expect from them any help when it comes to making bitcoin more appealing to the masses.

The main barriers are conflict of interest between governments and the crowd. Governments want to control the crowd, earn from the crowd etc. Bitcoin brings freedom of control and financial prosperity to the crowd. By using and owning Bitcoin, the crowd don't have to rely on central banks, avoid or reduce tax pay for governments until more regulations implemented in future.

All of such are not what governments like so they will use law, regulations, social media especially government-backed social media to use misleading terms like virtual currency, etc. as very first barrier to prevent access of the crowd to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

first people need to define how they see 'reaching the masses'

some see it as there being atleast 5 retailers in every town offering products for bitcoin so that people can buy alot of normal lifestyle stuff..

some see it as having custodian institutions hoarding coin and offering it as collateral in share form for the world to then invest in via official wallstreet retirement plans linked to employment (spot ETF)

some see it as locking bitcoin up into multi-signing party contracts so that people can then mess around with value on different networks to then use for multiple lifestyle stuff (sidechains and altnets getting the real adoption, not bitcoin)

some just want to see bitcoin mentioned on TV shows and movies as much as say american shows mention about euros or yuan

Everything will be put in place once the government takes the side of bitcoin. All those trusted media will come to stop those negative news about bitcoin if the government demands it to stop.  I guess what we truly miss is the full acceptance of bitcoin in the government. But as long as they believe that bitcoin will certainly replace fiat in the future, and will never be centralized, everything in the so-called trusted media will always be hard to stop.

If you are asking about what is hindering bitcoin scalability, I have something to say from the layman's view or rather the uneducated.

The uneducated or even the educated but not informed always trust their wealth for people to manage.
First, they have a bank.
Second, they have a bank manager,
Third, they have a financial advisor,
Then, investment advisor
And many more. They cannot take charge on how to manage their wealth themselves.
So, when they hear bitcoin and know they will take responsibility themselves from saving the keys, knowing how to perform transactions, do backups etc. They will not join the bitcoin movement.
So, the technicalities of bitcoin is one of the reasons uneducated don't care about it.

You have a very good point of view from the regular masses' perspective. A lot of people don't want to be responsible with their wealth, they want others to take care of it. So even if banks are offering very little interest, they are just happy that their funds are safe in the bank. But when it comes to saving their own keys and understanding how crypto works, they won't try to educate themselves. But for some, who educate themselves about this market, they will appreciate and feel lucky that they learn this market.

I think what’s still missing when it comes to bitcoin and mass adoption is the lack of cheap and speedy transactions. Right now it simply takes too long and is too expensive (most of the time) when you’re trying to quickly get funds from point A to point B. This is still a very new technology and this will take some time so I am confident we will get to that point, just hopeful it’s sooner than later.

That's one way of looking at it. There must be other ways. For me, it is less political and more technical. In most cases, people are not hindered to use Bitcoin even if their governments are not recognizing it. But why are they not into Bitcoin? It is probably because of the technicalities involved. Keeping Bitcoin is not as easy as keeping fiat. Comparing Bitcoin and fiat, the latter is user-friendly or easy to use and handle.

And, of course, there are the rest of the reasons like the masses don't really feel the need to use Bitcoin, there are a few business establishments that accept it as payment, and others.

I agree with both statements. Bitcoiners indeed tend to have an immense lack of patience.


While I agree that most see Bitcoin as something good only for investing into, I do spend, just unfortunately in most cases I have to get fiat first.
I would gladly pay with Bitcoin if:
* I would not have to overpay hugely for having the benefit of spending Bitcoin
* the grocery stores would accept Bitcoin. I cannot eat TVs, laptops and mobile phones, they hurt my digestion.
And imho one big problem with the rather slow "expansion" of Bitcoin is the lack of acceptance in stores around the world.

Just ask yourself: why would average Joe get into Bitcoin if they don't see it used anywhere and also government officials tell it's not OK? Imho that's why some risk to buy for holding... and that's basically all... (and yes, then we can get more technical).


Of course that they'll advertise mostly their business. But I think/hope that sooner or later they'll advertise Bitcoin too, simply because going mainstream will help their business making more money.
Imho Sportsbet.io did/does it right with the sponsorship of a football team: both their name/logo and Bitcoin are visible on the equipment.


Maybe. But, as I said, if they don't see Bitcoin accepted (and advertised) at the stores they going to and the government and media is pushing the "bitcoin is bad" and "bitcoin is unsafe" rhetoric, most will just stay away.

Or simply, because:

• They're ignorant. They don't know how their money works etc.
• They can't comprehend the benefit of being self-controlled, financial sovereign.
• They've been misinformed.
• They're satisfied with credit/debit cards, online payment systems, banking accounts and don't bother to take it once step further.

Here are a few other reasons to play with.

And spending fiat isn't as easy as spending Bitcoin, unless someone else's keeps it for you, which therefore makes it a political problem. Look, I get your point, I'm just saying that the reason why some may find it difficult technically, is because they don't find it necessary at all.

And more merchants adopt Lightning day by day. It's inevitable to succeed as a currency, given that the people will have understood the utility. What's concerning me is if most merchants will have understood self-custody or will they just embed a BitPay or Coinbase API which will ask for KYC and other such nonsense.

It's not just having global adoption or not, but broader than that.

Yeah of course, we still didn't reach that point where we can easily  buy everyday stuff like food and groceries using bitcoin (as a mater of fact, in Croatia we can even do that as the biggest supermarket chain accepts bitcoin through payment processor for online purchases) but I was more aiming at those that are avoiding to spend bitcoin even when they can for simple things.


That's true, but first step imho is them accepting bitcoin via payment processors and when they see that they have plenty of traffic, we can maybe see direct payments.

From my experience talking with people that are not interested/reluctant to buy bitcoin, their main concerns when it comes to using bitcoin for payments are volatility and the fact that they are responsible for safety of their bitcoin and not the bank. As I said, majority of people are ready to trade freedom for the sense of lack security and I don't expect that to change ever. If anything, its only getting worse.


Difference between sportsbet and exchanges is that sportsbet doesn't have (afaik) their own cryptocurrency/blockchain like many of the exchanges do. I would like for exchanges to focus more on bitcoin, but honestly I don't see it happening.


Majority of them will simply opt for some payment processor first and I can understand that choice looking from their point of view as even if they get crypto directly, they still have to pay their suppliers, taxes etc and all that is done in fiat. So then they have to sell bitcoin to pay all of that, and we know that fees are not negligible. But who knows, after enough people buy their stuff that way, maybe they decide to accept bitcoin directly.

Lucky you!


There may be more people spending bitcoin than you'd think. Or maybe my logic is flawed. However, if one has a lot of money, he will just invest. But from those in this forum, I cannot expect them all just HODL (because if they would be so rich they would probably spend more time travelling around the world than sitting online). I expect a majority of those in here do spend, especially if the price is right (yes, I know that this is the weak point and it can depends from person to person).

Somehow, since Bitcoin is not accepted so much, Bitcoin-as-investment might be a selling point for Bitcoin. Maybe. I don't know... But that's not really something I can call "getting mainstream".


For now the payment processors in my country were very few and overly expensive. I had overly high hopes toward them.. years ago. I'm now disappointed.
But you're right, it may be one good course of action...


I agree about volatility. I don't agree about the part with safety of their coins, since I see that a second (or third!) step, when they did find out this or that about Bitcoin.
Most don't get there. Most see the official warnings, see the price wild fluctuations and stay away, not getting as deep as wallet security and "trading their freedom" (where you're right, of course)


One can hope, OK? ;D Never say never ;D

I agree with all the other points but high number of scams is not something bitcoin related. In fiat world we keep seeing people getting screwed by scammers as well, if we can't handle that in the fiat world then there is no way that we could handle it in the crypto world neither. It is just the nature of humanity, we keep scamming each other, we scammed people 5000 years ago and we are doing that today as well.

It will never change, destroy all evidence of bitcoin ever existed and there will be people getting scammed anyway using fiat or any other currency. If people think that bitcoin is a bad thing because of scams, they should never use fiat, there are 1000x more scams going on in fiat.

please note this topic is about BITCOIN, but silly people seem to take it as a opportunity to advertise their altnet as the solution..

^^ starts making some value points.. but of course,... you can guess what happens next .. he goes and contradicts himself when advertising his altnet


BITCOIN. i must emphasise this BITCOIN. is easy. you copy a QR code/address.. and you pay the destination.. job done, end of story

but blackhatcoiner then goes and advertises a different network (emphasis a completely different payment scheme) where people need to pre-arrange their spending habits for the next few months by deciding what value to put into what channels to lock value up for months ahead. and hope that when using LN the partners will be available and online and liquid to allow payments. and all the other crappy stuff that makes LN worse then bitcoin and credit/debit cards.

yes with a debit card you just 'tap and pay' you dont need to have set up 5 cards with certain balance just to increase the possibility of hope of successful cheap payments. you can just use one card and tap and pay and your done.
people choose to have more then one card.. but in LN its near on essential to have more then 1 channel, just to ensure you can make payments. which means locking up multiples of funds
say you want to spend $500 next month. because routes are not guaranteed people would need on average to have locked up $2000 in 4 channels of $500 so that they can have a near 100% experience of successfully spending $500 a month


in LN you need to do alot more prep works before during and after making LN payments EG before making a payment organising the channels and looking for the best channel to create linking to the best routes you might want to use later.
during the payment you have to see which channels are free and able to offer the route and have the cheapest one.
after payment, you then have to watch your payments closely and ensure your partner doesnt try to mess with you by broadcasting the wrong attempt/event

LN is so bad that they are now trying to invent watchtowers to be bank managers watching over penalty settlements. they are also inventing hub factories(custodial banks) so that funds go inwards to high liquidity central services to avoid the route/hop problems of needing multiple channels

oh and there is always a spending limit on LN, far far worse then bitcoin/debit card limits

bitcoin/fiat debit cards are simpler. just pay and not have to think about it again.

oh and LN after 5 years.. is no where even close to the bitcoin adoption rate of 2014(5 years after bitcoins invention) so dont kid yourself that LN is utopia

This is exactly what they've been doing with bank accounts. They deposit money, so they can spend them later.

But, with Lightning there's no trusted third party.

Correct. This is how routing works.

Well, it depends on where you spend them. If it's the same individual, just open a channel directly with them. The more the channels, the more the chances of having your transaction successfully accomplished.

And Bitcoin also had centralized exchanges two years after it got invented. Did that make it bad? If you don't want trust, you can settle this without trust. If you don't care about trust, you can use a hub.

Far far trustless than debit cards.

Fiat is also simpler than Bitcoin.

Most people are already aware of Bitcoin but don't have the technical knowledge of entering the space. Not that much technical knowledge would be needed, but most people are in line with traditional notions of fiat currencies and it takes years to disrupt the beliefs. Bitcoin will end up working its way to the masses not by choice if major currencies begin to fail with hyperinflation so you might wait for that market to open, it's just going to take time.

All interesting points, I am not worried about the concerns regarding people won't spent Bitcoin, we have to remember in developed countries we are using this mainly as an investment (would love to see the stats), vs in developing countries or countries with high inflation who are using it to pay actually pay for products and services (ex. Africa), however since some of these are via LN does this mean that Bitcoin is not actually being spent, can we say LN does not add to the liquidity of Bitcoin since it only impact the network on opening/closing of a channel?

In terms of concerns regarding LN and having to open up multiple channels I tend to disagree, the avg Joe will just get Blue Wallet and exchange the on-chain balance to the LN balance for a fee, other wallets allow this too. 

I scrolled from the 1st page before wanting to say this until I found yours. lol
And I think like you, I think bitcoin just needs a bigger technical community (at least actually using bitcoin in its network). Everywhere people say about " Just Holding, I'm Hodling!!!", but it's sad to see them doing it in a centralized service. Although I don't know how many bitcoin nodes there are currently individually, but I believe they are mostly run only by early adopters or companies that have centralized services. Bitcoin will be in concern if there is no preservation/regeneration of technical users especially from newcomers who continue the efforts of the old people to keep bitcoin "decentralized".

I hear you about decentralization and running nodes, but I do it and it is super simple to setup and I am far from being the most technical pleb out there. I even run a couple of small channels for fun. However with the shortage of Raspberry Pi's I see how the number of nodes won't expand quickly. I see there are around 13k nodes right now.   

Hah yeah, we are lucky that people behind our main payment processors Paycek (https://paycek.io/) are very active and so far managed to get hundreds of businesses on board: from bars and restaurants to car dealerships, hotels, supermarkets and even couple of cities so there you can even pay utility bills using bitcoin.


Maybe, but I was just surprised to see some  people here advocating for not spending bitcoin, at least not yet and I always thought of bitcointalk as a place that gathers people who want to spend bitcoin and use for what was it initially intended for. Well, at least more than in some other places.


I used to operate that way, waiting for bitcoin to reach certain price and then spend, but now honestly I don't care and I stopped checking the price. I would of course time it if I am buying something expensive like a house or car, but for stuff like PC hardware or something in that price range I don't care anymore. Just month ago I bought new monitor and keyboard using bitcoin and didn't care that price is like 40% down from ATH.


True that. After all, crazier things have happened when it comes to crypto :D

Missing? Maybe it was the recognition of the government. There must be something on bitcoin on why governments cant easily legalized it, it could be that bitcoin isn't backed by anything or doesn't have a central authority? And then it's also decentralized. Government recognition is the key to the mass adoption.

This is where it starts. You are not a developer but you are doing some things that a developer usually do. I am not a developer and I don't deal on those things because I don't know how they work but I know I am not alone with that. Most people are already contented on investing and trading btc. For the other roles, mining can be one if it.

The reason why governments doesn't want to legalize Bitcoin yet is because they're worried Bitcoin would overtake their centralized CBDC. Bitcoin doesn't really need to legalized or legal tender like the previous country have done e.g. El Salvador, but at least make Bitcoin can be used and not banned. When a currency got backed by something or any stuff, that's mean it's centralized. Bitcoin doesn't need any backed asset, it's backed by freedom.

I think the truly missing on Bitcoin ecosystem is less usage of decentralized exchanges, most people still sticking to centralized exchanges which is against of decentralization.

Reminds me of some years ago (or maybe not so long ago, it's all a blur now) when I thought mainstream adoption would mean seeing BTC/fiat on any regular moneychanger you'd see on tourist streets. Not sure what would be needed to get there.

Think even if Bitcoin were easily spendable as a currency (arguably, it's not), people in general still see it as something to hold and stack, so I don't think spending apps and retailers really do much, unless paired with deep discounts and other incentives (like bitrefill, lolli, etc.).

Two things are missing in the BTC ecosystem.User convenience and price stability(although Bitcoin became very user friendly in the last few years).
The problem is that a stable Bitcoin price means that Bitcoin will decrease it's value as fast as fiat money.
The Bitcoin Core blockchain basically has it all-security,trust,great development.
Price volatility is the main reason why most of the people are scared of joining the Bitcoin world.The big amount of crypto scams can also be mentioned as a reason that scares many people away,but most of scams nowadays are shitcoins/NFTs.
What kinds of roles are you asking about?There are Bitcoin developers,miners and regular users(traders).
I don't know about any other roles.

How the information regarding Bitcoin is being spread to everyone. The information regarding Bitcoin is being spread only in social media platforms and some other news channels in television. Not all people have access to social media platforms and not all have access to smartphones as well. At the same time, not all people have accessibility to televisions and if they have their news channel isn't featuring Bitcoin or anything related to crypto that is why people still don't know what Bitcoin is or they still don't know that there is something called Bitcoin that is existing.

Price volatility. This maybe for me is another reason. Maybe there are some people who knows about it but since the price is very volatile, some are just opting out and not investing into it because they think that they will lose money because of price volatility. This kind of thinking is happening because of lack of financial literacy.

Complexity of Bitcoin. Bitcoin is too complex for some investors that they are also opting out to not touch it thus, it isn't for the masses but for only those who can understand the technicalities of it.

I think we just need more practical use cases which are no complicated and as easy as pie. People need to start small with things they already know. After they have gotten in the Bitcoin game that way, they might be interested in learning the more complicated ways of the Bitcoin world. At some point I definitely believe that they will be interested in learning more. Bitcoin itself is very fascinating when you see your Bitcoin money gaining on FIAT money but it becomes much more fascinating when you find out blockchain can do much much more than that.

Bitcoin has already reached millions of people and that everyone is already aware about it. But using it as a currency is not yet realized which is its very own first goal. The government may have underestimate bitcoin and i think that is one thing that lacks, acceptance from the government. Because once the government starts to accept bitcoin and use it as an alternative to fiat, then bitcoin will be accessible to all and will be widely used globally.

Maybe, not everyone, but a large percentage of global population already heard about bitcoin or any other crypto-related words. For a lot of them, it is a new technology and they are hesitant to touch this market because mostly they are not very well-informed on how things are being done on this market. I believe it is more on education as the key factor to engage more population into this crypto technology. The more they know, they will appreciate more of its existence.

Its preferable but not necessarily because if someone do really got curious about on things then researching up wont really be that too hard to be done by someone and considering that internet is almost

everywhere or you do have connection then its impossible for someone on not to make out some simple search about bitcoin.Adoption and recognition is on the move even though its not on full-scale

but at least we are really seeing some progress about it which does indicate that community or people do really consider out its existence.

This is probably the crux of it all if once the government accepts bitcoin, all doubts about it will be removed, people will start using bitcoin the same way they use fiat now. The government does not underestimate bitcoin but they fear the consequences if accepting bitcoin without finding a solution to thoroughly control bitcoin, their power will be threatened.

Governments are getting more and more friendly with crypto and I am happy about that, but at the same time I have to say that it is not really going to be something simple neither, it is a bit of a difficulty because it gives us decentralized freedom.

This means that governments are cornered, if they do not allow it then people will still keep on using it illegally and they won't be paying any taxes, if they make it legal then they are allowing people to use something that is giving them decentralized power over government and hide their money or at least put it somewhere government can't reach, but they could at least tax it and make some income from it. It is a double edged sword for sure.

True adoption is when you’re able to make use of your bitcoin for transactions easily and everywhere you go to. It’s not by having Bitcoin being mentioned on the TV and having banner being posted in front of one local store. And like you have said, that’s what a lot of people do see as an adoption, they think that they should be seeing the logo wherever they go to, but it doesn’t work that way. Adoption is having higher liquidity and easy to be used or spent wherever you are.

The Bitcoin ecosystem is not missing anything. In fact, it has everything more than most people can make use of. For example, technology. There is a huge percentage of people across the globe who have no idea what bitcoin is because they can’t make use of technological advancements.

You are right on all points. They are all of them, ignorant about the benefits of crypto, can't understand the power it gives them, can't see how much fiat world sucks. I have been in crypto for many years now and never been in it for the money.

I am working full-time in crypto world but if I really wanted to I could have gone and get the same job somewhere else, probably would have made a lot less, like 70% of this, but I would have still survived and had a decent job, why in crypto then? Not only because of the money, but because I believe that crypto gives me a freedom that nothing else could and that's the most important thing that I was looking for.

I think the most important thing to do is how to mine Bitcoin and other coins without burning so much fossil fuels. Climate change is real, if there are no solutions to this then lets just be ready to be annihilated by it's after effect. The earth is getting warmer and few years from now on we will be able to experience more problems in our ecosystem. Adoption of bitcoin is good but, we won't be able to use those coins if there is no earth to live in.

Just because it's easy to do something doesn't make it something people want to use or adopt. It's really easy to connect a wallet app now to any number of dapps online, but even with all the hype around 'defi', for example, it's still the plaything of several tens of thousands of people.

That's a far cry from the millions of Bitcoin owners (I stop at saying users), and as this thread title suggests, we're still missing "mass adoption".

I believe the major thing that's missing in the Bitcoin ecosystem which hindered it from getting to the masses is
1) Scalability
2) Ignorant about the true potential, concept, and the purpose of Bitcoin, especially among the government and the central bank around the world which sees Bitcoin as a threat when there's nothing like that.

One thing we all have to understand that no other asset or currency can be adopted more than the legal tender. Other currencies available are always going to be seen as an alternatives.

But, so far we have already gotten much adoption in the cryptocurrency market. You can use Bitcoin for a lot of things these days, it can be used for transactions in so many ways, there are now stores where you can buy whatever you need and make payment with bitcoin. I am not really expecting any much adoptions aides the level we have gotten to so far.

While the op is probably right that it's a popular topic, it doesn't mean it's not relevant and worthy of another revisit. I think that Bitcoin ecosystem is currently sufficient for global adoption. What's missing, usually, is user-friendly interface and simple options that could allow people to pay in Bitcoin, and it's not likely merchants make an option of paying with BTC widely available. What's also lacking is the need to adopt. If people are fairly okay with banks and fiat, and they can widely use them, they can feel like there's no need to try something new, since what they have is already working and is more widely usable than Bitcoin (because bank cards are accepted much more often).