Bitcoin Forum

The following comment makes a bunch of what seem like fair points about what's keeping crypto from being more widely adopted.
How would you address this criticism or how are developers planning to address these?


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http://www.coindesk.com/bill-gates-bitcoin-alone-wont-solve-global-payments-challenges/#comment-1812123320

"What advantages does Bitcoin (or any other crypto-currency) bring to consumers? I can use a credit card online / offline much easier and cheaper then I can BTC. With Bitcoin you have to go through the hassle of acquiring it (not to mention fees), then a couple cents to send it to the merchant (miner fee). The best part is waiting for the confirmations... My most recent BTC transaction took over an hour to receive a single confirmation. Say someone manages to steal my Bitcoins, or I accidentally send them to the wrong address. Oops, they are gone forever. So now I also have to worry about and spend the time to secure my funds. With a credit card I get paid to use it (through rewards points, not carrying a balance), if a thief manages to steal money from me I can dispute the charges and get my cash back. Transactions are instant and painless, no need to go through multiple steps. I have been with Bitcoin for nearly three years now, I actually understand how it works. Its not an efficient system. Look up Ripple if you want to see a system that could actually work in our society and not some fantasy land"

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They have their own advantages in their aspects! Bitcoin's transaction is anonymous and decentralized different from the central bank controlled credit card. If u look at the international wire transfer, u will know how quick and cheap of the bitcoin transaction?

The two front issues are price volatility and difficulty to be understood by masses which are the biggest obstacles!

The people use what's most convenient for them. They don't care about the underlying technology or the problems that it brings with it (environmental, privacy...).
If it's convenient - "it just works" - and cheap to use then that's what they'll use.
"Normal" people don't care about decentralization. They don't care about the "idealistic" advantages of cryptos like taking the power over the money supply away from corrupt entities and.
And of course is also the crazy price fluctuation and constant bad press with indivudials sabotaging the crypto movement by robbing people.

In their current state there is imho no way in hell cryptos will be adopted.

The main advantages of cryptocurrencies:
- there is no single point of failure (like the business who operates the credit card / payment provider) and the protocol is in the hands of the users
- transmission fees with cryptocurrencies are much lower than with credit cards and traditional online payment providers. That empowers the merchant to lower prices.
- cryptocurrencies can be used around the world, not only in countries where payment providers are established. Even in space and Antarctica ;)

The obstacles Gates is citing are important - but they are not impossible to solve. The "wrong address" problem could be resolved with better software solutions, and the rest with centralized crypto payment systems. Credit card companies are never hacked ... not! ;D

King Willie has a few good points here, especially the simple question of ytf someone would go to the trouble of acquiring BTC, only to spend it 10 minutes later.
The most important thing we can do now to push crypto adoption is to allow/enable people to get some/all of their salaries paid out in BTC or another crypto.

Confirmation times don't help either, in Bitcoins case. I can see BTC being usable (in its current form) as a means of transfer for larger amounts of money, but as a retail solution BTC is pretty much unusable, unless you use a (centralised  ::) ) 3rd party payment processor, which kind of defeats the point.

"Normal" people want their society administered by professionals...
Not random, anarchist C coders with a God Complex... and socks that don't match.