I'm with the guys who say security for the average Joe is the biggest obstacle. I work with many business people on a day to day basis and most of them have no clue about even the simplest of security measures and what the consequences are if their data is stolen. With bitcoin, we are talking about securing wealth. People MUST understand it. They would not understand that no one should ever see that private key printed on their paper wallet. No camera of any type should come near your paper wallet. Trojans, man-in-the-middle, etc are all potential threats that could potentially wipe out a life's savings in a heartbeat with no recourse. It is for these reason i have yet to encourage anyone to try it. Let the pros work out the kinks first. I believe a viable solution will come but until then bitcoin is not ready for mainstream.
I agree. Another serious problem is the distribution. Some early adopters may hold a ridiculously large amount of
BTC that may make them some of the richest men in the world. Most people have to buy bitcoin from those who have them which are, early adopters (since half the bitcoins where mined in the first 4 years). These people have got an unfair advantage over others.
The only way to fairly distribute bitcoin would require the mass scale infrastructure of the goverment. And we all know how much goverments would like to see their currencies become useless.
If someone has 1 Million BTC and the price goes to 10k then they will have more monetary power than Bill Gates. This money however hasn't been created in goods and services but has been redistributed almost arbitrarily. I somehow doubt really early adopters will just give away 99% of their wealth. Even if they should.