I don't think you can compare bitcoin to the internet in 1995.

I am well aware of these companies however I have never bought no intend to buy at any point in the future from these companies.
When the likes of Spar, Coop, Wallmart, Asda, Tesco, McDonalds, Subway, Argos accept then I will say it's mainstream. I don't just mean a giftcard either, I mean a QR code at checkout.

6 Years is a long time in technology and business.

I love Bitcoin I really do but I just can't see businesses adopting it like I wish they would.
Bitcoin is a 'thing' of the moment like the Harlem Shake.

I hold over 4 bitcoin and spend weekly although it's only about £12 worth. I usually buy from takeaway from takeaway.com although I also bought from bitstickers this week.

I would love to know I can spend bitcoin anywhere, supermarkets, taxis, buses, local shops but I just can't see it happening.

I was scammed twice on PayPal with Bitcoin and would never use them to sell.
I would even hate to sell bitcoin using paper or other method.

If the buyer complains you will lose your bitcoins.

This is interesting to know, thanks.

I wish people would stop keep suggesting localbitcoins at a way to transfer btc to cash in somewhere like Namibia.

I just took a look and there is one seller for the whole of Namibia and he is actually based in London and he only accepts Western Union!

As some of you guessed I didn't really send £1000 worth of bitcoin to Namibia but what I wanted to do was discuss and highlight the difficulties of using the currency in places where it would be most beneficial.
I am married into a Namibian family. My wife likes to send funds to her parents in Namibia every couple of months. She has been doing this for the last 9 years.

Currently they use one of her bankcards and she has given them her PIN. She uses a UK bank account specifically for the purpose.
So, when she decides she wants to send money she transfers money from regular account to the account her parents have a card for and just does a regular bank transfer. This works fine however she probably shouldn't have given her card and PIN to someone else.

Most people are not in a position to do this.

Prior to doing it this way or if their are some issues with the account she would use Western Union.

I showed her how simple is is to send btc if you have Mycelium installed on your phone. But we were discussing what you would do with it.

At this point LocalBitcoins is proberbly out of the question, The nearest big town is a two hour drive away. Travel to Cape Town involves a flight.
PayPal.. I don't know. I had a bad experience with it related to bitcoin previously.

I guess bitcoin just isn't ready for these communities yet.

I don't think many people there have heard of bitcoin,  it's like they are 20 years behind.

I thought bitcoin was supposed to be great for countries like this?

And he will be able to get one of these credit cards will he.
He doesn't have a proper address,  just a Po box.
Also, he doesn't, Have a Pc, just a phone so can't scan documents unless he goes to an Internet Cafe.
I doubt he even has a passport.

OK, So I just sent £1000 of Bitcoin to a friend who is in Northern Namibia (just above South Africa).

He received the funds via an app on his phone - Mycelium..

The problem is we have no idea what to do now. Ideally he needs to transfer the btc to his local currency (NAD) or spend the bitcoin locally but noone there accepts bitcoin. How can we convert this money to something he can actually spend?

Thanks in advance.

You are not the only one.
I had it the other day when I was trying to buy from Takeaway.com.

I needed to transfer funds to the Mycelium wallet on my phone and it took over 10 minutes. I wasn't that bothered because I just did something else while I waited but by the time the funds had arrived the QR code on takeaway had expired and I had to generate a new invoice.

Mycelium but I wasted 100's of hours on Bitcoin Billionaire and all for what

Yes, I already hold 4.2btc

It would buy me about 4.5btc

Thanks

P.s, I have other savings as well. I bought the premium bonds last year expect to win something. Even a little something.. but so far I didn't win anything.

I would sell today, no problem. I would buy back tomorrow though.

Cumbria University has a course that involves Bitcoin http://www.cumbria.ac.uk/Courses/Subjects/BusinessComputing/Short/SustainableExchange.aspx

I downloaded the testnet wallet but I couldn't find any option to send or recieve funds by nfc.

I didn't know that.  Cool.

Mycelium should integrate a service like bump that allows you to transfer funds between 2 phones simply by touching them together.

Thanks.

Can I just clarify for those reading this and thinking that to use Bitcoin they need to download bitcoin core and wait for hours to download the whole blockchain. This isn't the case at all.
If you want to get started using bitcoin download a light wallet like multibit and leave downloading the blockchain to the miners.

Also, if you are already using core but you don't like it or it's taking up too much space or it's too slow or it's downloading transactions everytime you load it up. It's easy to move your coins to a light wallet and you can just delete the blockchain and uninstall core.