Cons of Bitcoin - why I dislike it.

[CerealKing]

I guess you have to understand that Bitcoin is not actually aiming for all people of this planet to be using it. Bitcoin is here for everybody but not everybody can be for Bitcoin. We have to accept that fact because we are still a free marketplace. And even if you would not want anything to do with Bitcoin, I am sure you are not a big loss with the King of cryptocurrencies because Bitcoin can go on without you.

Bitcoin is never perfect and will never be because it is just also man-made but compared to other innovation this can be far-reaching in scope and application. By the way, maybe 5 years from now, I hope you can be able to go back to this post of yours and make some serious evaluation of your orientation and decision. We all have to make some choices and it is okay...it is all right...if you have already decided not to go with Bitcoin anymore.

My only point of posting is not whether it can go on without me, is that it should not go on with or without me. It's not real money. As I quoted earlier about what Warren Buffett said - "Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically...The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is a joke in my view."
 
I only posted to show all the flaws it has in reality and that it should cease to exist, or at least go back to realistic levels ( under $100 per coin ) right now the bubble is beyond ridiculous and all these crazy people every few days saying it'll be $10,000 by this date and that date. They're only saying that because they own lots of Bitcoins, like that 18 year old bitcoin millionaire that owns 403. Sure he'll say it because he owns it. He cares about his own net worth. I know people that invest in west Dayton and put $5,000 in their house that they bought for $5,000 and claim they could easily sell it for $80,000 now that they did work. They got a "steal" no... you bought in west Dayton, you wasted $5,000 rehabbing it. You're lucky to get more than $7,500 even in this economy. People always like to dream what they invested in is great even if the reality is that it isn't great. "he psychology of bubbles fuels it. You just become more convinced that it's going to work. And the higher the price goes, the more convinced you become that you're right. But it's not going up because it's going to work. It's going up because of speculation." In other words, bitcoin’s upward momentum ­– even the price more than doubling within 90 days ­– may be a kind of self-fulfilling pipe dream."

That basically says it all.

[Kakmakr]

While you are looking for all the excuses in the world, not to participate in this experiment, we are making huge profits. Yes, I agree Bitcoin is not perfect and if you can find a stick, you could hit it from all sides. We have never seen a technology like this before and the innovation it unlocked is absolutely mind boggling. < Just look at all the Alt coins that spawned from it >

I concentrate on the positive aspects of this technology and I invest in that and the potential it has. We have hardly touched on micro payment and the affect that it will have on poor people. < once the fees goes down even more >

[CerealKing]

While you are looking for all the excuses in the world, not to participate in this experiment, we are making huge profits. Yes, I agree Bitcoin is not perfect and if you can find a stick, you could hit it from all sides. We have never seen a technology like this before and the innovation it unlocked is absolutely mind boggling. < Just look at all the Alt coins that spawned from it >

I concentrate on the positive aspects of this technology and I invest in that and the potential it has. We have hardly touched on micro payment and the affect that it will have on poor people. < once the fees goes down even more >

I also make huge profits from real estate and stocks. Albeit Bitcoin has risen a lot more than any of my real estate and stock transactions, but that's because it's in a bubble fueled by dreams of investor's jumping in as mentioned in my last post. The technology isn't as innovative as you think, and it's definitely not going to help poor people. The only thing Bitcoin would help in a scenario where it keeps propelling endlessly, is the people that jump on the bandwagon now ( or when prices were lower ) some poor person that never heard of Bitcoin until 2021 and tries to jump in at say a valuation of $20,000 ( again assuming it keeps propelling out of control ) they are only receiving a portion of bitcoin, this isn't going to change their life. They will spend say, $100 on bitcoin, and if it's widespread at the time, they'll buy $100 in groceries and then they'll be back to where they were in the beginning had they just went to the store and spent $100 USD on groceries. Same outcome. It would have no effect for them other than the fact of the risk. They might buy in at $100 thinking that it'll keep jumping in price like it has done in the past and then it drops to $15,000 overnight because Mark Cuban calls it a bubble again, or there are problems within the bitcoin community, another MtGox? Someone hacks the system? Attacks, etc and now they are left with $75 to buy groceries for their family. Remember this is a poor family, so now they lost $25 that they could've used to buy more food for their family. And Remember with higher prices comes higher volatility, not more stable. BRKA was trading at $247k 3 months ago and today it's $267k and trust me, BRKA is a lot more stable than BTC, yet a $20,000 change is still pretty dramatic.

Sure the scenario is quite silly, but you said poor people, so I used a poor person scenario, I know plenty of poor people that have issues coming up with $25 dollars, no less $100... I see no affect Btc will ever have on poor. It's an investment, not a currency... and an iffy investment at that. If I was Mark Cuban and I said all this, I am sure you'd see prices in the $3,500 or less right now, but I have no say since I'm not a billionaire investor.

I think I have really said all I can say about Bitcoin at this time, I don't see many reasons for me to reply to this thread much anymore. I have said how I feel about it, maybe I am wrong, maybe I'm right. I feel this is a very high risky investment, I wish anyone that invests in it long term luck. I know the average person will not hodl their investment and will cash out. If too many cash out at once too it'll fall. Especially if/when the Winklevoss brothers decide it's time. It's been an investment for a long time and I think that's all people will ever view it as.

I really do hope that people can use my opinions to make wise decisions, I wish no harm on anyone. I wish everyone could become rich and profitable, I wish everyone could have a house, food, and so much money they could buy whatever they wanted. There are going to be losers in bitcoin, and winners. I just hope that my opinions made some people think a bit more about bitcoin as a whole. I never came here to disrespect anyone, but I did come here to educate from the things I've learned over the years. I'm sure many of you know more about Btc than I do, but I also have different a perspective that I think might also be helpful in making decisions in the future before investing in Bitcoin and where it could be heading.

Thank you all for reading and for your responses.

[LoyceV]

eBay? so I decided with this crazy 4k plus valuation I'd buy some and sell it on eBay, I sell on there all the time anyway and never have any issues. So I first started with this great deal someone was trying to sell 1 bitcoin for $3,000 so I bought it but the ad said "do not pay, contact me first" I decided to listen and he told me to buy $3,000 worth of iTune gift cards and give him the codes and he'd give me 1 bitcoin. Of course the man had over 2,000 feedbacks and 100% and I knew he had been hacked immediately, so I reported it. I got a message from eBay confirming it. Then I decided to sell bitcoin on eBay since I saw others doing it, I bought 0.1 Satoshi and decided I'd sell it and make some profit when/if it goes up, and it did. So I listed it and 3 times I had buyers buy from me and all 3 had been eBay members since 2000-2001 and very broken disgusting English. All 3 had been hacked and I had to refund all 3 their money. I was contacted by all 3 and was told "Sorry I was hacked, I didn't order any Bitcoin"

This problem has nothing to do with Bitcoin. On the contrary: Bitcoin is very good at being a payment system without "undo"-option. Unlike Paypal, unlike most bank transfers.
As a seller, it's very safe to accept Bitcoin. Selling Bitcoin for Paypal is very risky, and most likely a violation of their Terms. You can't blame Bitcoin for this.

My mom wouldn't have, my girlfriend... most people still do not know about Bitcoin in 2017 and the majority that DO know about it don't even understand how it works.

That's the beauty of it: you don't have to know how it works to be able to use it. I can order food by scanning a QR-code on my screen with my phone, one click (plus an optional PIN) and it's paid.
Now, take a step back. Do you think you understand the concept of money? Most people don't! They think they do, just like they think banks use savings to give out loans. In reality, banks create money out of thin air. The more you try to understand money, the more you'll realize you don't understand it at all.

6. What if I send to the wrong Bitcoin address by accident? ( it happens btw ) my money where does it go? it's gone. How can something SO GREAT be so flawed?

It's a feature, not a bug! Bitcoin is p2p electronic cash, if you give cash money to the wrong person, it's gone too.

7. Bitcoin isn't as anonymous as you think.

You may think you know what I think, but I think you don't know what I think, because I don't think Bitcoin is as anonymous as you think that I think it is.

I'm not saying all Bitcoin is bad, I'm not against it, but I do see it falling, and falling hard.

It's in the nature of Bitcoin to fall hard many times. I have no doubt it will happen again, but I'm also pretty sure it will recover again eventually. This year alone it has fallen hard 4 times, and recovered to a higher value each time. It can take weeks or years, but I'm pretty sure it will recover again.

All in government backed currency.

Do you even know what this means? Governments (or more accurately: central banks) print (or more accurately: "create") up to trillions per year. You can't exchange your $100 bill for gold when you go to your bank, all they can give you is another $100 bill. Is that "government backed"?

If you take another step back, you'll realize you don't have to trust Bitcoin. You don't have to use it, and you don't have to own it. That is totally fine with me, other users, non-users, governments, and Bitcoin itself. Free choice, isn't that beautiful?
Unlike dollars, euros or whatever your local currency is: even if you hate the fiat system, you absolutely can't go without it for your daily needs and government required payments.

I see no need for Zimbabwean dollars, I don't have them and I don't want them. I know they exist, I know many people use them, but I won't go to a forum to tell users that I don't use it. Why? Because 7 billion people don't use it! Why would any of them feel the need to explain why they don't need it?
And yet... here you are! On Bitcointalk, talking about Bitcoin. That means it means something to you anyway.

I also make huge profits from real estate and stocks.

If you take another step back, you'll get to the point where it's rediculous you as an investor makes more profits than the people producing actual goods. Youtube has several documentaries about inequality, but the main point is that for almost the entire history of mankind, "being wealthy" gets you a larger share of economic growth than "working hard". Eventually that has to end, as the rich get more and more, and the working poor need more and more jobs to pay the bills. It's the basis of capitalism, it's a terrible system, but unfortunately all other systems are even worse, so we're kinda stuck with it.

and it's definitely not going to help poor people

Neither does real estate and stocks.

Sure the scenario is quite silly, but you said poor people, so I used a poor person scenario, I know plenty of poor people that have issues coming up with $25 dollars, no less $100...

It's never been Satoshi's goal to make poor people rich, nor to help them.
Other altcoins are created for helping the poor. Not by making them rich, but by giving them access to electronic payment systems. Stellar offers "Services for the Underbanked": for $0.01 fee you can make hundreds of thousands of micropayments. Millions of people don't have access to a banking system, but many of them nowadays have access to mobile phones. How nice would it be for them to skip the ancient banking system, and use something that doesn't require rich bankers?

[suvo05]

seems You guys found lots of cons of bitcoin. But which I think the most disadvantage of bitcoin is --Amount of bitcoin is limited and if any bitcoin holder dies he also takes away his bitcoin to the haven .

[Streamlink]

Hi, I've been studying Bitcoin for a very long time. The pros and cons, the things I like and dislike about it. The things that make bitcoin what it is today. I'll say that I have been interested by Bitcoin for a very long time. I used to chat heavily in a site called Wireclub. I spent probably way too much time there, I saw someone mention a cool new currency called bitcoin back in 2013. Everyone pretty much ignored what the guy said but me. I'm curious by nature about anything and when he said "new currency" I decided I had to check into this. Given, by 2013 it was already over 4 years old. But the price was at $58 or so I believe. I remember thinking that seems quite high for one coin.

I decided to do a lot of research about it, I told my wife at the time about it, she had no interest and told me I was wasting my time. I read and read for 3 days straight, trying to figure out how it worked and what it was. I thought about buying a mining machine off eBay and starting to mine it, then I decided that probably wouldn't be a good idea because I couldn't get any certain answer to how many coins a machine would mine in a month. I decided in the end that Bitcoin was a fad and it wouldn't last and that the price was ridiculous at $58 a coin... and of course looking back now compared to today, the spike is nowhere near as high as it is now, but if you put a coin at $14 a coin in January and $58 by March, that's a pretty big spike and I thought it was too risky to invest at that price. I researched how you got no dividends from it ( as if you invested in stocks you would receive dividends ) and that basically it was not a stable coin.

After those 3 days I would do periodic checkups on bitcoin and of course I saw when it hit over $1,000 and remembered when it was $58 a coin and kicking myself for not investing, then of course it fell again back down to the $200-400 range again by 2015 and I thought the peak had come and gone and nothing would ever happen, so again I refused to invest at a $200-$400 per coin valuation. I just thought it was beyond ridiculous.

Skip forward to today, I see no potential in Bitcoin's future. I have followed it and read a lot about it over the years from 2013, and I see it more as a fad that will go away in the future. Everyone praises the fact that it's decentralized and that the blockchain technology, my answer to that is "so?" it's kind of ridiculous that anyone would put their money into this long term. There are so many downsides to bitcoin and so many scammers looking to steal your coins. You have bitcoin hackers, you have eBay hackers...

eBay? so I decided with this crazy 4k plus valuation I'd buy some and sell it on eBay, I sell on there all the time anyway and never have any issues. So I first started with this great deal someone was trying to sell 1 bitcoin for $3,000 so I bought it but the ad said "do not pay, contact me first" I decided to listen and he told me to buy $3,000 worth of iTune gift cards and give him the codes and he'd give me 1 bitcoin. Of course the man had over 2,000 feedbacks and 100% and I knew he had been hacked immediately, so I reported it. I got a message from eBay confirming it. Then I decided to sell bitcoin on eBay since I saw others doing it, I bought 0.1 Satoshi and decided I'd sell it and make some profit when/if it goes up, and it did. So I listed it and 3 times I had buyers buy from me and all 3 had been eBay members since 2000-2001 and very broken disgusting English. All 3 had been hacked and I had to refund all 3 their money. I was contacted by all 3 and was told "Sorry I was hacked, I didn't order any Bitcoin" of course I required them to show me an ID before I sent any anyway. Plus does anyone need to be reminded about Silk road?

Okay, before I ramble on anymore about stories of why bitcoin is terrible and my history with bitcoin over the years

1. I think the currency is too volatile to be considered a currency - I've seen it jump $200 in any direction in less than one hour. I can't go to a car dealership and purchase a car for $50,000 and then by the time it comes to transfer the BTC the guy tells me "oh Bitcoin dropped $200 bucks a coin while you're in here, you have to pay more now..." "uh?" If I go in with USD $50,000 I'll never have to worry about my $50,000 USD fluctuating that much.

2. Nothing should be worth 0.001 USD in 2009-2010 and be worth $4,xxx in 2017... no stock has ever performed that great, and with stock you OWN a piece of the company. I can get dividends, I get reports, less volatile. I hate Amazon wholeheartedly. I think the company is ridiculous and overpriced, and do I have an issue with their valuation on stock? yes I do but at least you own a piece of the company when you buy it, you have something that matters. If you own enough stock in the company, you can even make decisions for the company. You will never have a say in Bitcoin no matter how many you own, which is why things like forks in the system happen with the new and improved Bitcoin cash, which is also a fake currency fighting with this fake currency.

3. The only thing people can say about Bitcoin is it's decentralized and the blockchain... that's all you got? Decentralized is a bad thing, it means the moment the government ( which controls you btw ) decides eh... we don't want bitcoin anymore, banned! ( it happened in Bolivia, Bangladesh etc ) and it could happen in the USA or other countries if they started to feel threatened by it. It's not safe to have too much invested in it. What is backing it anyway? gold? and what is a bitcoin worth and what is gold worth? it's only worth what a consumer is willing to pay for it and if people come to realize Bitcoin is worthless ( it'll happen, just when is the question ) it'll come crashing down and the people that paid $4,000-($10x,xxx?) a coin will feel the pain when they lose everything.

4. Who really knows about Bitcoin? If it wasn't for me 90% of my friends would have never heard of it. My mom wouldn't have, my girlfriend... most people still do not know about Bitcoin in 2017 and the majority that DO know about it don't even understand how it works. You're trying to take a mindset of the AVERAGE person and make them understand something that's quite complex and difficult to learn to the average persons mind. Most people I know are tech savvy yet couldn't tell me the first thing on how to buy a bitcoin or even what a bitcoin is. What about the ones with the most money in the world? the baby boomers? Hal Finney was a rare case my friends, the average baby boomer knows nothing about BTC and how to operate a smartphone for that matter. I consider myself a highly intelligent person but I think it'd be difficult to pay for my groceries or restaurant bill with it. Especially since it's not like a credit/debit card. If my food/service is trash and I want a refund? It's not as simple as just pulling my debit card out or even better, handing me cash back. I just don't understand how it would be easier for me to pay with Bitcoin than it would be swiping a debit card.

5. Debit/credit card is always gonna win. I wanted to get a furnace installed in one of my rental properties a year ago, the man told me it'd be $1,500 dollars but he wanted $1,000 upfront. I was very leery about spending that kind of money upfront but he had a trusted company from reviews I read online, so I asked if he took credit, he said yes. I paid and he said he'd have it in within 3 days. 3 days later he's like "hey uh something came up, I need $250 more... can you do cash? I said no I can do $250 on credit though" he goes "okay that works" So now I have $1,250 invested in this guy. He never calls me again, I called many times no answer. I called my credit card company after a week of not hearing from him and they refunded me all $1,250. If he had asked for me to do it in Bitcoin I would be out my money. There is no way to get my money back

6. What if I send to the wrong Bitcoin address by accident? ( it happens btw ) my money where does it go? it's gone. How can something SO GREAT be so flawed? And what if I was really stupid and those 3 people that ordered my 0.01 BTC from me got me and I sent 0.01 to each? Could I call Satoshi Nakamoto and be like "hey, they got me! lol can you refund me since those scammers did that?... oh wait what Satoshi... you're gone? where did you go?!?!" Exactly, no customer support. PayPal was the one that helped my buyers out from the scammers. PayPal had me covered and them covered. If I mess up with Bitcoin it's gone.

7. Bitcoin isn't as anonymous as you think. I read an article earlier this year that stated the main things that attracted people to Bitcoin in general were not even in place anymore... no fees? gone. Not only gone, but as the prices go up, the fees will rise. Anonymous? not as much as it used to be. There were other things that changed as well, I forget now. I'm sure many of you know though

8. People still compare this to real money, because in the end 95% of people invested in bitcoin aren't in it for the long haul, they're in it so the price will jump a few hundred USD and they'll cash out with their profits. Of course that works great if you bought in at $1,000 and bought 20 coins and then it jumped to $2,500 and you cashed out and made $30,000 profit.. but that's the point, you made $30,000 USD profit. You can now use that $30,000 to buy a car or put a down payment on a nice house somewhere. Not with your bitcoin. I am a real estate investor and I mainly focus on buying foreclosures. I have to show my checking account with proof of funds every time I want to buy a property. I can't say "I have $30,000 USD and 15.2 bitcoins, will the bank take that? no.. what? why!!!! this is crazy!" The bank wants to see what I have in USD, hell they'd even accept euro probably. As long as it's a real currency. The majority of people don't accept Bitcoin as real currency, just because YOU do and everyone on this forum does, doesn't mean IT IS. I can call bottle caps real currency, and in Fallout New Vegas, they are... and will they be if a Fallout happens? who knows, but I know right now Walmart won't accept my bottle caps even if I call it currency, but they won't accept my Bitcoin either, go figure.

9. Hackers - people break into people's wallets and steal bitcoins all the time, and of course you have the big names that got robbed like last year Bitfinix, MtGox and many more to come. Of course there are issues anywhere online. Hackers exist either way you look at it. But if I am hacked and someone steals $50,000 from my bank account, I can get that back after I prove it was stolen and it was not me. If someone hacks my Bitcoin wallet and steals 10 coins? well... you're out of luck! Good luck though!

So in reality, most people that use Bitcoin are scammers, of course you have the investors looking to get rich quick, and many did thanks to this boom. I am NOT saying this is a bad short term investment. I did buy 0.1 BTC because I am trying to make a few bucks off this. I buy stock, real estate. I'm an investor by heart and I've watched it go from early this years under $1,000 price to over $4,000 in a HUGE spike that is obviously a bubble if I've ever seen it. I really think the beginnings of Bitcoin were cool, I find it mysterious and cool how Satoshi Nakamoto just disappeared. But that's my natural being, I always like mysterious. I find the beginnings with SmokeTooMuch and his postings, and Laszlo's pizza deal to be interesting. I think it's cool how Theymos sold 15,000 at 0.003 cents each and Gavin's 5 BTC faucet. I'm not saying all Bitcoin is bad, I'm not against it, but I do see it falling, and falling hard. People are only in it now to get rich quick and they want to get rich quick in USD not in bitcoin, the average person only sees their currency grow in USD, no one buys Wal-mart stock to just own it, they buy it because of the potential they can make in USD, the potential dividends ( which bitcoin doesn't have ) the potential profits they can make in general, but all in USD. All in government backed currency.

I am sure I will think of many more reasons why I don't think Bitcoin is investable for long term, but I want to kind of cut this as short as possible.

Thanks for reading!

"There's certainly a lot of bullishness about bitcoin and cryptocurrency, and that's the case with bubbles in general. The psychology of bubbles fuels it. You just become more convinced that it's going to work. And the higher the price goes, the more convinced you become that you're right. But it's not going up because it's going to work. It's going up because of speculation." In other words, bitcoin’s upward momentum ­– even the price more than doubling within 90 days ­– may be a kind of self-fulfilling pipe dream.

Bitcoin is a currency that isn’t begged to be liked or disliked, all its asking for is its presence in your success story. Though everyone dislikes the fact that it is really very volatile but it is this volatility that is making the money for investors

[sindikat]

For me, the biggest downside to using bitcoins is the need to constantly exchange bitcoins for Fiat in order to buy something. It's always extra costs, waste of time and responsibility to once again appear in the field of view of the state.

[Mandoy]

You have some point in there but not all changes in the value of bitcoin is caused by speculation. Speculations somehow affects the decision of the traders to purchase bitcoins and affects the volatility in the market. But you missed this part, the number of bitcoin users are increasing and thus it has also contributed largely to the price of bitcoin.

[Delicat]

good point, but the adoption rates of Bitcoin seems to increase and people actually figuring how to work on it. Only time will tell how it ends as there are too many uncertainty involved.