Bitcoin Forum

The protocol seems solid, no bugs, and more features are under development.

The network has been functional for several years, no outages whatsoever.

Many exchanges up and running.

Several good-looking merchant solutions exist, all fully functional.

Several mobile clients are available, along with online wallets and full local clients.

What is the next big hurdle? Advocacy and other work to address some of the legal uncertainties? Simply spreading the word? Teaching by example?

- Propagation (by e.g. social movements --> occupy, arab spring public movements, wikileaks and alike,..)

- Development of niche markets, as "proof of concept" for in business terms, like VPN providers, file hosters, sex toys, gambling,..
  everything where anonymity is preferred

- Development of bitcoin as a money transmitter, in opposition to moneygram et al

- Implementation of a distributed escrow system in the protocol, that would be a real advantage to tackle the risks argument associated with bitcoin

USB wallets that work!

Mobile phones and tablets application development cross platforms

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

This. And, finding a solution that allows Bitcoin to scale to 1000s of transactions a minute. Once we have achieved this -> Finding a solution that allows Bitcoin to scale to 1000s of transactions a second.

This.

The foundation for bitcoin is solid. Now the economy has to grow first by providing  access to plenty of (not just illegal) goods. Huge opportunity for someone to be a (temporary) monopoly in this. We have OTC and peer-to-peer marketplaces, but we don't have the benefits of lower prices because of bulk purchases like Wal-Mart and Amazon.

Make it easier so Gavin's grandma can use it.

We haven't solved that last major hurdles.

The client isn't for general consumer use (so what do they use instead).  Bitcoins are hard to secure (no multisignature, and even when it exists, it might not be consumer-grade.)

And I really fear the possibility that a couple lines of code placed in an upcoming "critical update" from Microsoft, placed by a rogue contractor or something like that, will be the largest wallet-stealing event ever.  (or an update that has the same end result occurring on Android, etc.).

Your avatar and post, coupled together, is scaring me. Are you saying that all that's needed is a couple lines of code to stop one from receiving any type of information on the net that's not an accredited source, e.g., peer-to-peer transmissions?

~Bruno~

The rise of Bitcoin businesses that we have not even thought of. Just like the internet has brought Facebook, twitter, web 1.0 and web 2.0 when Bitcoin is adopted by the masses new forms of economic activity will be created. Some of them we can't even imagine and may only be possible because of Bitcoin. I believe what is next is amazing.

Heh.  That avatar is just a rock formation on Mars.


There are a huge security vulnerabilities that have not been employed to-date, but Windows automatic updates is probably the largest.  There technically could already be code running on your computers, installed during the last Windows update cycle, just waiting for the right time when it will copy wallet.dat if one exists up to systems under the hacker's  control.   Is that likely?  I would think Microsoft would have better controls on what goes into updates and this won't happen.  But that's the key.  It isn't under your control, it is under Microsoft's control.

And I'm not picking on Microsoft, ... Apple has access to this vector, as does Ubuntu (which isn't 100% open source, and even open source doesn't mean there's no rogue participant), and even Samsung and Google as well (for when they send out new releases of Andoid).

If the wallet.dat is encrypted, that makes such an attack much harder (would also require keylogging or other approach that would be discovered well before significant losses occurred, I'ld bet.)

But my point is that I don't know that Bitcoin is ready for a "mission accomplished" banner just yet.

I understand the developer-types are highly focused on technical improvements, and I hope they stay that way. From a non-developer point of view, here's how I see the next steps (occurring over the next year or so):

1) Easier/faster ways to pay in and pay out from Bitcoin in many countries. BitInstant has a pretty good solution thus far (cash deposits) but it is not ideal, and only available in a few countries. The expansion of these pay in and pay out options is essential (and BitInstant has some exciting developments in the pipeline).

2) As #1 occurs, the ability for Bitcoin to fill several niche markets becomes realistic. Gaming/gambling/adult industry/etc. These are massive markets in and of themselves but are restrained from growth by limitations of #1 above.

3) As the niche uses are demonstrated in #2, "the world" will start understanding Bitcoin's value proposition. Then things start getting very interesting very quickly. Once Bitcoin has proven a significant base of usage, a world of entrepreneurs will start finding new uses for it everywhere.

There's lots in store.

This ^, ease for Grandma, the swarm client for bandwidth concerns, ultimate blockchain compression for disk/cpu concerns, Casascius' super-simple mixing for anonymity concerns, initially slow, inexorable climb in value, then snowballing  adoption as the Euro and dollar diminish. Eventually, Mike Hearn's blockchain-based bonds, or what have you. It's a bright, bright future.

We're incredibly lucky to be here to witness these early days. We're surrounded by bright people with diverse talents. There is room for growth in so many dimensions.

And let's not forget that we're about to pass through the First Great Halving. One day you can tell your Grand kids how you remember when a bitcoin block was rewarded with 50,000,000 microbits, and you were there the day it dropped to 25,000,000.

Lots in store. Enjoy the ride.

A popular game using it as in-game currency wouldn't hurt either.

Less of the Shady "Give me your bitcoins and I will give you back more" and penny gambling sites and mentality.

More professional "men in business suites" with proper accounting and accountability.

I am rather new to bitcoins, but I have been in business and finance since I left school back in the 80's and while I love the idea of bitcoins and very much want them to succeed I am rather shocked by the abondance of get rich quick schemes, gambling, badly secured amaturish exchanges and what appear to be Ponzi schemes.

If bitcoins want to be taken serious a place as a reliable, non gimmick currency we need serious and non gimmicky uses, people and businesses.

Just my opinion.

If VALVe picked up Bitcoin...

This is an important problem. At the moment, a rise in popularity might cripple the network. This is already becoming a bottleneck; it sucks to have to wait like 12-72 hours before you can use Bitcoin for the first time if you want an optimally secure client (because the blockchain is so large).




Bitcoin would be great for something like the TF2 Hat market, and VALVe already takes paypal for easy payment. Bitcoin would not be too difficult, I think. Maybe I will email Gaben.

That will come in time. Professionalism follows money, and money doesn't arrive in Bitcoinland until it's been vetted a while by the amateurs. An amateur will risk $500 on an amateur site far sooner than a professional will risk $50,000 on a professional site.

But let's look how fast it's already moving. A year ago, we had MyBitcoin as the best ewallet (a crappy site run by an anonymous scumbag which then disappeared and stole everyone's money). Now we have Blockchain.info, Paytunia, and CoinBase... all beautiful sites run by professionals who do not hide their identities.

 

Could you provide realistic examples - niche markets/applications that come to mind? Do you think that gambling, gaming, and adult industries do not provide a reliable stepping stone or even a testing ground? Or do you think that Bitcoin simply needs a PR effort to diminish negative perception by business people (Ponzi schemes and such)? It's hard for me to believe that a serious businessman would be turned off by how some people misuse a technology, instead of focusing on how he can use it.

Volatility is also a very hard pill for newcomers to swallow, even when taking into account paysius and bitpay. That will even out in time through growth and adoption, though, when it becomes more difficult to single-handedly manipulate the price.

All good questions, and it is ones that I have been pondering myself.

To start I would like to comment that you don't need to look for niche markets as of yet, all bitcoin seems to have is niche markets.  In fact the niche’s are getting so full that I wrote them off a while ago as a potential area of development that I would be interested in. 

For the volume of trade we seem to have enough Exchanges, Lotteries, Instant Payout, Term Investment (“Ponzi”) & Porn sites.  (Sorry if I missed your favorite bitcoin activity)

What I see a great lack of is the more mundane stuff, good and services that I use every day.  Just opening my eyes and looking at my desk I see a few things, my mouse, my iPod and a bottle of coke, you probably see similar things.

These markets are not niche markets, they are day to day markets that we use constantly and they are wide open.  Next time I need a new mouse I will go online to some store like newegg and in the next few days I will have one, same goes for a new MP3 (or whatever your format of choice is) except it will be instant.  We need to make it so that it would be just as easy to do these things with bitcoins as it is with your credit card.

Bitcoins will have truly turned a corner when I go to the vending machine and perform some sort of key exchange (by some method unknown to me at the moment) and boom, I have a bottle of coke.

I think those are the type of opportunities we should be looking at, bugger the “new fandangle” type approach for now, let’s just stick with things that we know work because we use them every day.

As for an example, I think the first guy that has the balls to write a simple script on a simple website that allows me to buy an iTunes Gift Card with my bitcoins would have my business.  That person would have to have the balls (and $ and BTC) to put themselves and their company out there in a transparent manner though, get Cyber Insurance, put their address on their website and stand behind their service and not act like the proverbial Snake Oil Merchant, in short, do it in a professional manor (and pay my a 1% of net royalty fee :P ).

Once again, just my opinion though.

Like this?
https://www.spendbitcoins.com/convert/apple-physical-gift-card/ (https://www.spendbitcoins.com/convert/apple-physical-gift-card/)

Somewhat that, now go off a do a whois query for that domain, check their SSL cetificate, hell even check their website and tell me who those guys are and where they are located.

https://www.spendbitcoins.com/support/
First question from the FAQ:
You are as lazy as it gets...

Yep, my name is Peter Parker you believe that too?

I am not saying that the guy is not Jeremy West, and I am in no way trying to infer that he is not (Sorry Jeremy if you read this), but hell, he could have said he is Batman.

And I gave you the benefit of doubt, and thought you where just too lazy to use search/google/whois.

Thanks :p , and I am getting off point, the point was we need more places like Jeremy's that offer goods & services that we need with names and phone numbers and less like http://save-trust.com/ (for example).

Without picking on them too much directly but wow, give us your bitcoins and we will give you more back, but we will make sure you don't know who we are.  There is just too many of them.

That would be old-style buisness. This whole "trustworthy business people" approach inevitebly leads to more and more centralised entities, more regulation and more red tape. And it favours the larger companies, which can spend money on public relations.

I don't think this should be the main route to go.
Rather, we need more escrowy-type services.
Services, I can use without needing to rely on the "repuation", at least to a lesser degree.

After solving the scalability problems, the focus should be on business processes, which can be directly interwoven or attached to the blockchain, and thus be enforced sort-of mechanically, not by authority or reputation. This is where the potential of Bitcoin lies.

Make it better so Gavin invests everything he has in it.

What bitcoin needs is fiat money collapse.

Not to say people should stop working on clients, products, usability, adoption,... we will desperately need those things soon enough. Today, however, saving 2.x% on payment processing isn't gonna justify cumbersome installing, getting acquainted with and putting up with price volatility and risk of bitcoin for most people/businesses.

Do you think a paypal competitor that offered really low rates (say 0.1%) would stand a chance against the establishment? I doubt it.

Do you think a gold-hard highly divisible and transferrable free market commodity money stands a chance against the constantly devaluing colored pieces of paper issued by a group of arrogant assholes and their paranoid minions? Well, absolutely!

When pizza delivery places accept a bitcoin escrow that covers expenses and then instant payment on prompt delivery, they will have something to base a new model of business on.

When promoting Bitcoin to friends I consistently find problems regarding (lack of) good, secure noob software. Let's face it: A huge number of people are Apple fanboys. More than 50% of my friends have iphones and ipads and I have nothing to recommend them (ah - the good times before blockchain.info was pulled by Apple).

And what about desktop clients? A friend of mine wanted me to point him to a good, lightweight (forget Amory), local key storage (kinda rules out blockchain.info) wallet which supports wallet encryption (forget multibit).
Electrum I hear you say? Well, but installing that is not as easy as downloading an exe making the barrier for entry higher.

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The software isn't quite there yet. (Multibit - please support wallet encryption soon).

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That aside, I hope that the next niche market for Bitcoin will be tipping.
Every blog (also non-bitcoin blogs) should have a bitcoin address and QR, so that readers can donate, if they like what they read. Not a try-before-you-buy. More like a tip. Pay the blogger 0.1 BTC if you were entertained/educated/thrilled/surpised/whatever.


Every youtube video should also have a QR appended in the first or final part of the video. Give a small tip, if you like the Video!

Non bitcoin blogs and vidoes would expose bitcoins to a gigantic crowd of people in a non-pushy way. Some of them will think "What is this bitcoin-thing anyway" and before you know it, they start posting here!

-
Please send your favorite bloggers a PM suggesting that they put a bitcoin donation jar up there on their site. Help them set it up!
I do this all the time.

Re: MultiBit encryption - it is coming.
I have been working on it solidly for the last couple of weeks - there is probably the same again to get it to a release candidate. I want to get it out just as much as anybody.

Fantastic Jim!
Bitcoin in a nutshell - with such a group of skilled and dedicated people "backing" it - how can you not be optimistic about bitcoin's future? :D

I'd suggest a Bitcoin<->Flattr bridge. As far as I know, the Flattr API allows for this and "all" that's needed is an implementation.

This is what one of the Flattr employees said last year:


http://forum.flattr.net/showthread.php?tid=550&page=4

Which is a solved problem this year.

good list.  I will say there are a handful of people who keep telling me "come back when the legal status has been clarified"

The rest just think it's a fad, or don't see the benefits yet.