what do we need to bring bitcoin to mainstream?

[luqash3]

nimrodlehavi wow you I feel great for you that you are going to face such an important day of your life. Best of Luck with your lesson. Actually I cannot think of any good one yet but if I get one later then surely I will share with you. Prepare well upon bitcoins to give lesson confidently in front of people

[Kungfucheez]

hi
i'm giving a lecture to investors, regulators, gvmt officials and such next week
wanted to title my lecture "from here to mainstream" and wanted to check the hive mind on what do YOU think are the greatest barriers make bitcoin truly mainstream 

thanks in advance

I guess everyone's definition of mainstream is different. But I'll go off the assumption that you mean something like a normal day to day thing people do/engage in. Debit/Credit cards are mainstream for example.

To answer your question I would argue some of the biggest road blocks in no particular order a are volatility, ease of use, safety, and adoption.  When I talk to people who don't have bitcoin and have no interest in it, it's usually one of these things they bring up.  They will point out its too much of a hassle for them (too difficult) , they dont want their money stolen (not safe enough for them), they dont want money that goes down or up constnatly (volatailty) , and there is no were currently that takes bitcoin  (adoption).


Once these roadblocks start getting overcome bitcoin will continue to go mainstream. It's my opinion that all of these roadblocks are solvable and are already steadily being worked on by various start ups and individuals. The only one that people can't really fix through innovation would the volataility issue but I would think/hope that starts to become less of an issue as the market expands.

Have fun with your lecture,  may I ask why you are giving a speech on bitcoin ?

Excellent points, a currency must be at least somewhat stable, but also easy to use. For instance, you go to work, get a paycheck, have it auto deposited to your account, or bring it to the bank, and you can then use a card to make all purchases you need very quickly and easily in most places, or use physical money. It's easy, simple, and for the most part, safe.

If you want to make something like this mainstream, you must first reject the whole "anarchist" "unregulated" notion, because despite what you might feel, the general population will never adopt something like that. Why would they? 

[Cryddit]

Ease of use should be as simple as having the cash register print a QR code, scanning it with your phone, and entering a PIN number (preferably on your phone rather than on the cash register PIN pad, but either works I guess).  I dunno if we can get there, but it would be worth talking to some of the people who provide software for cash registers.

Of course before they'll devote dev time to it they have to have customers who ask them for it too. 

[Cryddit]

As for volatility;  that may be a long-term problem.

Bitcoin, as a limited commodity, will never be less volatile than gold.   And gold goes up and down sometimes more than a hundred percent in a year. 

Bitcoin is lots more volatile than gold now, but into the future, I think the volatility will come down when it starts being valued for use rather than as a speculative instrument.  I just don't think it will ever be less volatile than gold.

In this area fiat currencies have a definite advantage; there are people watching the money supply and regulating it to minimize volatility.  Sometimes those people fail spectacularly, but more often they just inflate the currency a few percent a year.  Bitcoin has no such oversight.  In refusing the ability of central bankers to make spectacular failures or inflate the currency, we also refuse such help as they can give in minimizing volatility.   A cycle of boom and bust under a strictly limited currency supply characterized finance through much of the era of precious metals as currency.  Gold reserve notes, and fractional reserve banking, were among other things a way to try to get out of that cycle.  But with faith in that system trashed, we may be getting right back onto it with Bitcoin -- in a belief that the "natural" cycles of boom and bust will be shorter and less painful than those created by a failing central bank.

[Jcw188]

The masses think BTC is some crazy illegal thing.  My spouse asked the other day "Bitcoin is a real thing?"  They need to see companies like Overstock saying, "ok yes you can use BTC to pay for this."  and then I think there need to be easier ways to gets BTC for the common Joe.

[Nagle]

Scalability.

If Bitcoin becomes any more mainstream than it is now, then mainstream investors will attempt to use it.

I mean, USE it, in its capacity as a financial network rather than as a speculative vehicle.

If this were to happen today, it would be disastrous.  Bitcoin is at this time nearly useless as a financial network, because it is still limited to less than a thousand transactions per second.

A thousand?  More like seven TPS. That's all. The last few times there was a heavy trading day, the block chain backed up.

There are ways to fix this, but the major mining pools have to agree to use them. It's not in the financial interest of the pools to do that. Not with the current transaction fees, anyway. Expect a big rise in transaction fees.

[yatsey87]

I think there need to be easier ways to gets BTC for the common Joe.

There will be eventually. I'm sure Bitcoin will be as easy as using PP in the near future.