Bitcoin Forum

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewcave/2015/01/20/a-failure-of-leadership-or-design-why-google-glass-flopped/

Although the article is about Google Glass, it really is about why revolutionary new products are always commercial failures on their initial release.
If you read it and replace "Google Glass" by "Bitcoin", 98% of what is being said is relevant and explains why Bitcoin isn't really gaining traction 6 years after it was released. It's an interesting mental experiment because, for once, you know that the author doesn't have a bias against Bitcoin.

Like what it says every new innovation takes time to get it right. In other words undergoes the fine-tuning stage to become useful. And finally to be accepted. As in the case if bitcoin even though you could say its already 6 years, I'm sure we are somewhere at certain level, there are still things to be done to improve it, whether in terms of speed and such and later become widely accepted.

Bitcoin isn't gaining traction? You must be living in a different world than me. Okay it's not mainstream yet but you can't expect that to happen in 5-6 years. I never would have thought things would have moved this fast after I first got into Bitcoin.

still finding the idea that bitcoin has flopped hilarious.
It's not about the coin , it's about the blockchain - stop looking at the "currency" and think about the technology

The Internet itself needed years to get mainstream as well.

OP:


https://nathanlumbatis.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/debbie-downer.png

are you sure bitcoin flopped? Is it a flop going from weird internet money for kids and nerds buying drugs online, exchanged mainly on an exchange that used to be for Magic trading cards, to institutionally and socially recognized currency, regulated in many states and backed by "big" investors, spendable in many places directly, and pretty much everywhere with third party credit cards and such? Were you expecting bitcoin to take over the world in a bunch of years?

These years were useful for becoming socially accepted and gain the interest and money of investors, money which right now is funding projects that in the next 1-2-3 years will make bitcoin accessible for the general public (aka people who want to use a technology without having to know how it works, 99.5% of the world population), and at that point the big boom will occur.

That's exactly the point of the article.
Google Glass was a flop, but head-up displays will have a great future when the world is ready and the technology is mature enough.
Bitcoin is outdated, but blockchain technology will have a great future when the world is ready and the technology is mature enough.

Two words:

Network Effect


</QED>

Very good analogy.
The Internet is a late iteration of the technology called "packet switching".
Before the Internet as we know it, there was X25 and FrameRelay, pretty much extinct nowadays.
Even the actual first implementation of TCP/IP isn't the one we have today. Back then it called DarpaNet and has long been unplugged.

... is typically what didn't happen with Bitcoin.

ftfy

If you look at the technology, you realize that bitcoin is replaceable by a newer cryptocurrency with better technology.

Hence, why the price is slumping - the technology is great, but people can't justify a large market cap for a payment instrument itself that is infinitely replaceable.

We are reaching the point where it is easier to list the things you cannot buy with bitcoins than things you can buy with bitcoins.

It is a currency, it works as advertised.

</QED>

Exactly.  Infinitely replaceable and almost infinitely volatile.

The infrastructure and social capital behind it is not infinitely replaceable. Why do you think Bitcoin has such a large percentage of the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies? People tend to flock towards one of them, which is often the first mover that has withstood the test of time and has the attention of the most talented developers and the biggest infrastructure surrounding it. It's very hard to replace that, you'd need to make a large part of the Bitcoin community move over to another crypto which is unlikely to happen unless there is a really good reason and incentive to do so.

Lets roll out Bitcoin first ok?

Uhm, this guy needs to reinvent the wheel of crypto again, i dont see that happening in the comming 10 years minimum.

Bitcoin+Blockchain goes hand in hand, a updated Blockchain= improved (crypto) Bitcoin.

You want a new coin due of a price drop?  LOL

flopped? still alive and  kicking, this is just the real bitcoin value, many can't accept it because they lose money, they was thinking that 1k was the price(lol), 250 is a good price if you compare it to the past, and not just at that damn 1200 peak....

Why the long face? Maidsafe is older than Bitcoin and will be an insane game changer.

My guess...
Google glass is a silly idea and no one want to wear a silly idea on their face. Bitcoin is the most significant development in payments since at least the credit card. Silly ideas that have some utility need marketing and hand holding. Brilliant ideas that offer utility and require nothing in return can't be stopped. I am shocked at how fast bitcoin is being adopted. A few years ago I thought it would take 10 years before any major company would take them.

Sending money around the world in large amounts with little to no fees (and that's only the beginning) is quite different than cyborg glasses which the vast majority find intrusive and cumbersome.

Yet another "Bitcoin is terrible" thread...

by someone who just so happens to be pushing Alt coins.


Mwa mwaaa

It's actually not a bad thread as it allows people to remind others what Bitcoin really has going for it and to differentiate it from what a flash in the pan Google glass is. My guess is the OP posted this just so it could get shot down. Bullish

Bitcoinistas still post like thinking they are some sort of libertarian superheroes. Bearish.


I propose a new insult:
Like Glasshole describes Google Glass user and being a smug asshole about it.
Bithole, describes a Bitcoin user and being a smug asshole about it.

Plus, actually the similarities don't end here.
Like Glassholes, Bitholes don't have any real use for their object of intrigue.

For instance the hipster sitting at starbucks with their gadget, glassing it out doesn't really have a point of wearing it, yet the minimum wage worker making their coffee does.
Google Glass would actually be a pretty good appliance for workers who do repetitive task which require immediate costumer feedback, supermarkets, fast food chains, etc.. not an entertainment product.
All the same are cryptocurrencies not any real use for people to "invest" in the prototype nor any use as a commodity. It's a pretty good replacement for vouchers which do not have any immediate cash value and are tied to a specific use case though.

For a lousy idea, it has come far (and is still going). Love to reread this thread over 10 years.

A good product used in the wrong way makes for a lousy idea, even if when used the right way would be a good idea.

Why, it's not even worth reading now. LOL

Then why haven't we moved completely to IPv6, which has been around for 15 years now.  It's far superior to IPv4, but people still use IPV4 primarily.  Why do people still use the outdated technology?

+1. Still could be much faster if supported by governments, but we should never expect that. Real question is can it become mainstream without their support?

6 years is considered a flop?  ??? ??? ???

I mean if a 6 year old child doesn't know long division, can't name all 51 US states, and can't bicycle yet without training wheels, do we call him/her a failure?

It's surprising the amount of ignorance in here.  Like if the Internet was deemed a failure in the AOL 5.0 days because we had to hog up the phone lines with our modem, imagine where'd we be now.  Like if the first automobile was just laughed off to the crazy looneybin, and people stopped working and innovating, would we still be on horses and buggies today?

Until we hit $0 or there's not a single person using Bitcoin anymore, I'd say it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to early to say Bitcoin flopped.

Google Glass is revolutionary.. why exactly? I can do everything it can with my smartphone, and not look like a jerk with sci fi goggles on everywhere I go. Google Glass "solved" a problem that nobody had of wearing a computer on their faces at all times.

Likewise, bitcoin doesn't solve any problems for people, and actually opens the door to many new problems and vulnerabilities. That's why it failed! Six years after its creation and it still has less users than the frequent flyer club of Kuwaiti Airlines.

Accepted by tens of thousands of businesses worldwide. Running on the largest computer network in history. Rising from pennies a few years ago to hundreds of dollars a piece... What a flop.  ::)

Bitcoin is a great piece of technology, but the way things are now, any country would ban it (i mean bank accounts related to it) if it gets to another even bigger bubble.
Bitcoin has many flaws, and all of its surrounding businesses are badly made. Anonnimity in trades must and will be eliminated, thats for sure, there are just too many people abusing it for things to remain the way they are. Exchanges "hacked" every damn month.. it cant continue like this anymore. And only then, when bitcoin gets fierce regulations, can we say bitcoin didn't flopped

It's really not even a great technology, but more of a novelty than anything. It's wasteful and if it were to ever become mainstream, the blockchain would quickly become so bloated that it could only be maintained in enormous data centers that would put Google to shame. Hence, defeating the original goal of decentralization.

Okay time to call the trolls out. Explain yourself.

You may be speaking for yourself, but not for me. Bitcoin is the cheapest, fastest, and most secure way to move money. I use it for all my online purchases and will never go back. I have gone through three shitty bank cards in the last year. They are not safe enough for me to use anymore. I have never lost a penny of BTC. I don't really care who else uses it, I use it because it has solved my problems with buying online and in foreign countries.

I don't know where you got your info about the Kuwait frequent fliers. But Tony at BitPay has like 40k in business customers and Coinbase has about the same. There must be a few hundred thousand individual users also.

Just go ahead and read bitcoin related news in the press, and ull see that most of them are bitcoin thefts and exchanges robbing themselves,clients loosing money from exchanges etc..
It all points out that security isnt high enough, from bitcoin wallets to exchanges that any dumbo can start, and only when u fix that can u go forward, because until then ull have every form of authority trying to shut/slow u down.

I pay with my credit card and actually get cash back (up to 6%). So yes, maybe for you bitcoin is the cheapest method to move money, but only because you have no idea what you're doing.

I used bitcoin once for a purchase on newegg and saw first hand how bad it is. First, you only get 15 minutes to make the payment or the price could flucuate and you need to request another order. Then, you're given no warranty from a CC company or similar institution and in the case of a refund, all you would get is store credit. Nobody in their right mind would see that as an improvement over the current system.

Anything can be stolen, especially when security relies on people. The technical security is greater than anything we have ever had previously when done right. Not a bitcoin problem.

Try again.

Except that when "security relies on people" there is consumer protection and you can get your money back. If somebody steals your coins, you're done for.

Anything can be stolen correct, but in conventional trading you get your stolen goods back, and thats not even remotely the case with bitcoin.
What arguments do people that are against the bitcoin have? Counter them and u will have double the amount of bitcoin supporters.

Then why do I hear about exchanges being hacked and people losing money almost every day? It's not very secure if it can be stolen and sent off somewhere without any form of recall.

There is no practical problem with insuring bitcoin related trades. Just political ones.

Try again.

google glass is expensive and its use might arise privacy concerns.

I disagree that google glass and BTC are similar

Has to be the number of scams happening that make people leave it.

A government agency such as the FDIC will never insure bitcoins or any financial instrument that can be sent off without any recall method. Anything can be insured, even Rihanna's legs or Keith Richards' hands. So why do you think most bitcoin exchanges do not have any? Because the policy for insuring an untraceable financial instrument with no recall feature is outrageously expensive.

Anyone can open an exchange and then arrange a friend to "hack" them before disappearing to a tropical island. That's why is happens nearly every day! Insurance companies aren't dumb.

It's funny Ibian, every week I visit this place for a good laugh, and I see you along with the same circle of bitcoin-tards defending it and plugging your ears to all the critique (try again try again try again). A revolutionary technology that's supposedly changing the world, yet the same people hanging around defending it, as price continues to slide down.

There's no use trying to talk sense to the anti-Bitcoin trolls.

They don't want to listen.

Edit: I post this and then immediately try to talk sense to Warren Trollfert.

***gives self slap***

 ;D

Almost every day? What, almost 365 exchanges hacked in the last year? LOL

A few exchanges get hacked and all of a sudden the Bitcoin protocol is insecure? LOL

You trolls are hilarious.

 :) ;) :D ;D 8)

So we got a troll quoting a troll (who is on ignore). Glorious.

The real problem with bitcoin may be the people using it.

 ??? Sorry for quoting him but his foolishness needed refuting.

Do you think I'm a troll? I only troll trolls.

If you're here in an obvious beartroll thread with a bullish attitude, I guess you're trolling too.

 :-\

I don't care if the private/public key encryption can be hacked or not, it's a moot point. It's like a wealthy baron storing all his gems and cash in an ultra secure safe, made of steel and armed with laser beams and guard dogs and under 24 hour surveillance. You would think it's completely safe, and nobody can get their hands on it, right?

But once a day, he likes to open the safe and take everything out to count it. And sometimes while he does that, he needs to take a leak and leaves it unguarded while he does his business.

Under those circumstances, you can't really say it's secure anymore. That's bitcoin! At least with cash, it generally needs to be stolen in person by force. With bitcoin, there's so many ways to steal it. And once it's gone, it's gone!

What you guys don't understand is, in order for bitcoin to go mainstream, it needs to improve the current financial system. Nobody wants something that's harder to use and less secure!

very easy: scale of adoption of IPv4 and availability of patches like VPN makes it still better candidate than a "better" IPv6, because IPv4 was already there and has proven to work. The same analogy is between IEEE802.11 standard and (I wonder if anybody in here even knows now) HiperLan for WLAN networks.
The latter was also much better at that time, but was second and has anybody heard of it since?

Out of all of the altcoins only two are game changers.

1) Monero (XMR) - Completely private. No other coin has achieved its level of anonymity.

2) Bursctcoin (BURST) - Firstly, it is the one and only POC coin, thus making it rather 'green' in that it is minimal energy consumption. But more importantly it is the only coin to successfully implement Automated Transactions and Smart Contracts within the blockchain. Ethereum has tried and so far has not been able to do it.

Both of these coins offer innovation that no other coin can.

Well Bytecoin is as anonymous as XMR afaik, but its a premined scam.

Bytecoin with its 2 years of fake data to hide a premine? XMR Devs improved on the Bytecoin.

and why it didn't.  aren't some crappy bytes worth tons of fiat money now?

It is not about crappy or not bytes, it is about the confidence you put in the underlying system.
Thinking in the way you posted, one would ask why on Earth a crappy piece of paper with number 100 printed on it is worth $100, which can buy me ... (put whatever you like here that is worth $100). But somehow you don't question that, do you?

i have lots of confidence.  nothing has flopped.

Exactly. With Monero, we now have cool stuff like a web wallet (https://mymonero.com/), and the ability to use Monero to pay for anything being sold for bitcoins (https://xmr.to/).

Bitcoin can't really "succeed" in real terms until it starts being a similar or better store of value than what already exists, government kosher reserve notes.  As soon as the fiat notes start to implode, BTC will probably become a historically important life raft in finance at the very least, as well as obviously being much higher in price.  It all comes down to when do you think the USD or other large global currencies will blow up.

I also don't think they're related.
Plus, personally I never would think about buying a Google Glass simply because I've never actually SEEN one.
Just a matter of marketing/distribution.