Bitcoin Forum

I'm a student doing some research on Bitcoin... learning slowly! And I'm trying to draw some conclusions. I'm just wondering what the Bitcoin community thinks is Bitcoin's biggest problem. What single thing would make Bitcoin more mainstream? Is it a reputational issue? Is the tech still too complex for the "average" person? Or is it simply that there is no compelling reason for the majority of consumers to get involved? Thoughts appreciated! Thanks

Too hard to use for average person.

There are lots of people who still don't use credit/debit cards nor ATMs, mobile phone has to be the simplest one on the market and then they only use it to make and receive calls, SMS is too complicated, using bitcoin would be impossible...

I think if businesses started selling things mainstream for Bitcoins, at a cheaper price (because if you pay with credit cards the store gets charged more), people might look into it more.

I also think people just haven't heard of it, or they have heard of it, but they don't know what it is. If they think they know, they think scam a lot. That's probably the main thing. lol

From Feb, 2015 - http://coincenter.org/2015/02/steady-sentiment-problem-scams/
"...The survey, now six-months-running, measures American attitudes toward Bitcoin using a statistically sound sampling technique, the first of its kind.

As in previous months, about 65% of Americans responded that they are “Not familiar at all” with Bitcoin. Taken at face value this is a promising sign for the digital currency. It means that 35% of Americans have heard of Bitcoin, and nearly 5% have used it. That’s surprising momentum for a technology that is still in the early days of development..."

"...We asked respondents to describe the first thought or image that comes to mind when they think of Bitcoin. Every month the same response has been at the top of the results: “fraud / rip off / scam.” Roughly 9-10% of those who have heard of Bitcoin associate it primarily with scams. We also asked respondents what makes them distrust Bitcoin. Around 30% are wary because they feel that Bitcoin is ‘used by unscrupulous people..."

Also, many many many many, (throwing a guesstimate, 85%) of sites: gambling sites, online wallets and even faucets (ponzis are acting like they're faucets) about Bitcoin ARE scams.

I see three major problems,

1) Perception of whether Bitcoin is a currency or an asset class (the latter of which implies potential for ongoing appreciation). A lot of people buy and hold, which is fine but doesn't spread the use of Bitcoin to the masses. Other people use it as currency, which spreads the use but requires that the value remain stable.

2) General adoption by the public. When explaining Bitcoin to someone who's never used it a lot of people say "it's just like using cash" to which to non-user can reply..."then why wouldn't I use cash?" Bitcoin is not yet easier to use than cash to most users. And ANY barrier to entry will keep the adoption low. We need to educate the masses that Bitcoin is a better then cash for A, B, C, etc reasons.

3) If governments fail our access to the internet could also fail, which leaves Bitcoin worthless. Without electricity Bitcoin is just a memory, a dream, a figment of one's imagination...this is probably the MOST scary. (Of course all of our bank accounts may come to a similar fate but that depends on the bank's ability to keep records off the network.)

Universal trust in national fiat scrip. However this problem is fading by the day, along with the legitimacy of the state.

Time.

No.

Yes, but it's a patience issue above all else.

Learning curve.
A lot of people don't want to learn something new if it takes patience and research. If it's like learning a new cell phone game where it takes a minute or two then it's fine for mass adoption. I bet a lot of people click away as soon as they get to the first word they don't understand.

Perception, lack of understanding, no incentive to use it.

The services we have now are light years ahead of a couple of years ago, but to buy something with it still involves jumping through hoops to obtain it, learning how to guard it and it would probably cost more unless there were serious discounts.

If and when the whole process is made mindless, that's when it might start going places. Look at Abra. That's a new remittance service with no mention of bitcoin on its site. All people using it will know is that it's quick, cheap and works.

Ding Ding Ding!

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/048/783/a_winner_is_you20110724-22047-1nd3wif.jpg


Got to get past that "Nerd money" stigma...

IMO, public perception.  Totally agree with gentleman.  Two parts for me: (1) bad rep (nefarious uses and scams/exchange hacks); and (2) no real use case for Joe Public in most developed countries.

(1) will take time to defeat, and will likely depend on how (2) is addressed.

(2) maybe Bitcoin discounts, remittance and gaming/p0rn will help but, frankly, it's a tough sell.  Joe public doesn't know how the existing financial system works (i.e. what the problems are).  What he does know is that fraud protection and reversible transactions are generally a good thing, so he doesn't see the point of Bitcoin.

51%, problem related to taxes, and adoption

also minor problems like the size of blockchain and other little technical things, i don't remember now

i don't think there is problem  about the difficulty to use bitcoin, just the average joe aren't accustomed to it yet

The unique problem for me is the "knowledge" of the bitcoin itself, if the people start to learn what is , and how to use bitcoin I'm sure they will use if for (example) transfer the money to their relatives/family in other country due the lowest fee. Or for example another use it is the buy/selling for item face to face because the buyer will not be able to make the chargeback (but with a credit card he will be able to "recover" the payment).

The fraudulence and scams occurring within the bitcoin economy is too high for the average Joe's to perceive. It scares them a lot, and scares them to stay away from it. You might also want to consider the complexity and the difficulty of using the bitcoin to first time users. There are different jargon springing around here and there, and that makes it even more harder for first-time users to comprehend.

Agreed. I remember one time, a friend of mine asked why do I use bitcoin as a form of payment. I explained everything to him and replied that data doesn't have value in anyway and thus cannot be used as a currency. He also told me that why should I use bitcoins if there were already credit and debit cards available? I explained to him the low fees and anonymous transactions. Still he hadn't got the point of using bitcoins because he thought it was just a not-so-valuable form of data valued by many.

Average people doesn't realize that anonymous transactions and irreversible transactions are indeed good things. They are accustomed to banks that charged them with insanely high fees and let those banks take care of their money. It will take time for the average Joes to realize that using bitcoin is one step towards innovation and freedom.

IMHO, what we need to do is to "hide" what Bitcoin is to the greater public.  We need to have Bitcoin so far in the background and behind the scenes, hidden behind a front end, that will allow the general user that doesn't care what a millibit, satoshi, blockchain, or wallet address is.

Think Venmo, ApplePay, and Paypal of the now.  We're nowhere need that stage yet, where you can transmit that easily and knowingly trust that transaction will go where it needs to be headed.  Bitcoin for non dust amounts, you'll probably continually check and check Blockchain.info until 6 confirmations went through to make sure there's no double spends.

Right now Bitcoin is in that Internet in the 1990's phase.  We're at that AOL 5.0 Trial 1000 hours free CD phase.  That Compuserve, Prodigy, Netzero phase.

http://retro80skid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/medium_aol-cd1.jpeg?w=296

Where at the phase where you need that super fast 56K modem, need a separate phone line so your MeeMa can call you without interrupting your current jack off session, need to be able to distinguish baud rate, need to have a cheat sheet of your favorite URLs, so you can remember to Bookmark them on Internet Explorer 5 or Netscape Navigator.  Google wasn't born yet, so you have to crawl through a trillion search browsers to get the perfect porn page like Yahoo, Excite, Altavista, Lycos, etc..

This is where Bitcoin is at.  We need Bitcoin to get to that Google search, IE 11, Chrome, Firefox, HTML5 optimized, NFC mobile paying level that any Grandma or kindergarten kid can use it.

I guess your friend has never signed up for a "free trial" before? Man gotta love those, FREE TRIAL but we'll make it nearly impossible to cancel and continually PULL money from your account. You can't stop our PULL requests, muwahaha!

Bitcoin is PUSH only, no one can take your money. Doesn't matter who it is, gov't bank, netflix, your mother, etc. One-way street where only the owner of the funds can authorize a transaction. A huge winning aspect of the bitcoin protocol.

I am telling you that it is hard to explain to a close-minded person. I did explain to him the benefits of using bitcoin but in the end, he seemed to be dumbfounded and never understood even a single-bit of my every explanation.  :(

You should insist and maybe give him some real life example and demonstrate him some transaction (maybe tell him to open a wallet with a mobile application). I'm sure he will change his mind and start to use bitcoin.

The next that I'm planning to do is to give him some coins and ask him to buy a gift card from gyft and at the same time ask him to buy the same gift card in the same site but this time using his credit card. I'll ask him how much does each transaction costed him and how fast and easy it is with each other. Maybe on that time I'll convince him.

Bitcoin's biggest problem is that people still trust the current financial, currency and banking system.

I think that bitcoins biggest problem's are the following:
1. People just don't understand btc. The average person doesn't understand the whole concept of what bitcoins actually are.
2. No charge backs while this is one of the biggest advantages it is also a downfall for those who fall victim to scammers.
3. The price is always changing therefore people may be weary of actually investing in btc when they can potentially loose money.

my problem on bitcoin was to build a decentralized exchange by it... To exchange differently coins was not safe enough and website how mtgox can not trust... . Multisignature transaction rpc commands was a good thing but its was very difficult to create raw transactions by the commands... To build a solution of the problem i build a coin with a high level easy decentralized exchange api....
A developer the have the same problem please look here

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=966861.0


and a guide to create easily a transaction please look here


http://bitcrystal.de/bitcrystal_conf_update/multisig_guide.pdf

Bitcoin is not yet known to average person, and those who heard of it and know it, they mosty got familiar with it through some bad news about it (like bitcoin thefts,mt.gox .etc..)
So bitcoins main problem is that prople dont know about it, and i would say the ireversibility of transactions from thefts and scams.
Fix those two, and you will have merchant adoption on a whole another level , and many new users that will use bitcoin to store value.

cheers

If Bitcoin were somewhat mainstream tomorrow, there will still be a large group of people who want charge backs, because they want protection, and I agree with picolo that people trust the current system to hold their hands and protect them.

They will argue that there are too many scam sites, exchanges can't be trusted with cryptocurrency (whether they've been hacked or inside jobs they're not very trustworthy as a whole right now), computers and online wallets are too easy to be hacked, and there are plenty phishing sites and emails.

While many of those can be said about fiat also, fiat is insured and chargebacks make people feel safe.

now,maybe transactions time, but the really biggest is the people, and how to extend it to them

I think bitcoin's biggest problem, more so down the road, is single people or small groups of people having crazy amounts of coin in their personal control.

Marketing is the current biggest problem.
Scalability is very close behind.

Yes, similar to how reason's biggest problem is that people still choose to believe things without compelling evidence. Both problems are temporary side-effects of the infant state of our species.

It's the classic "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" problem.

While the marketing does need to grow it cannot grow to fast or else people will quickly loose intrest. You can buy lots of things with btc's now. Including anything on amazon with an amazon gift card. You can buy anything on newegg, and also coffee at local places.


I agree about the problems with taxes also. Many people are uncertain about what the government will do with bitcoins, and many people do not want to risk getting in trouble with the IRS when it can be easily avoided at this time.

And people just don't understand regular money either. Shockingly few have ever actually bothered to spend a few minutes reading about the nature of the whole thing.

I wonder whether BTC will reach a stage where knowing anything about it is as unnecessary as fiat, or whether it'll inspire people to look deeper.

What's the difference with our current world economy where the rich hold nearly all the wealth. There is no difference.

This is not likely going to change. At some point Bitcoin will be in the hands of rich corporations, banks, etc if it happens to go mainstream.

In a nutshell : Not a problem at all.

This is actually a good thing, and more noticable to other holders as the max. coin limit of 21 million cant be passed.
Because if you have alot of fiat, lets say USD, someone holding alot of it should make your money more valuable, but only by a tiny fraction, but in btc, it will definetly be more noticable since there will only be 21 million, and it will be (actually allready is) mostly the case in early stages (about first 10 years of bitcoin), where the spread of coins didnt happen yet.
So i wouldnt take this as a problem, but rather as a good thing, especially at start.

cheers