Why Is Mass Bitcoin Adoption Still Not Happening?

[evenlydistributingfuture]

At least for consumers in the industrialized world, I think there are two things really holding back mainstreaming:

1) price volatility--people don't want to continually reevaluate what their money is worth. People are used to values being relatively constant without their having to spend any mental effort thinking about it. For example, law firms that take BTC use an exchange to get their payment in the local fiat currency every 24 hours. I've read several example of this for German and American law firms with clients wishing to pay in Bitcoin.

2) Consumer protection--people want to know that they have some recourse in terms of recovering lost money, whether that's because their credit card got stolen and they can cancel any charges due to that, or because they forgot the necessary private key or password to access their funds. People want some level of centralization in finance, for peace of mind, if nothing else, but also because they have never lived used a currency that was not issued or managed by centralized authorities.

 I think it really scares most Western consumers to know that the burden of keeping up with their money is on them, and that there's no bank to keep an eye on it for them.

Most people don't want to think about money; they just want to operate in a safe system that allows them to spend the most minimal amount of time possible thinking about personal finance. Thinking about money scares people; it reminds them of how badly they are doing in terms of saving for retirement or meeting their monthly budget(if they have one).

[GingerAle]

indeed.

Which is why, for point 1, cryptocurrencies (as a currency - a means of payment) really need to have a use case where there is a specific need to pay in cryptocurrency, such that exchange rate drifts are minimized, hence my statement above that adoption is lacking because there is nothing unique in this world (yet) that can only be bought with cryptocurrencies, or at least leverages their advantages.

for point 2, I imagine, at some point, real brick and mortar cryptocurrency banks will pop into existence - this is counter to an ethos present in the current bitcoin community, but this ethos is not one created by bitcoin itself.

[mrhelpful]

At least for consumers in the industrialized world, I think there are two things really holding back mainstreaming:

1) price volatility--people don't want to continually reevaluate what their money is worth. People are used to values being relatively constant without their having to spend any mental effort thinking about it. For example, law firms that take BTC use an exchange to get their payment in the local fiat currency every 24 hours. I've read several example of this for German and American law firms with clients wishing to pay in Bitcoin.

2) Consumer protection--people want to know that they have some recourse in terms of recovering lost money, whether that's because their credit card got stolen and they can cancel any charges due to that, or because they forgot the necessary private key or password to access their funds. People want some level of centralization in finance, for peace of mind, if nothing else, but also because they have never lived used a currency that was not issued or managed by centralized authorities.

 I think it really scares most Western consumers to know that the burden of keeping up with their money is on them, and that there's no bank to keep an eye on it for them.

Most people don't want to think about money; they just want to operate in a safe system that allows them to spend the most minimal amount of time possible thinking about personal finance. Thinking about money scares people; it reminds them of how badly they are doing in terms of saving for retirement or meeting their monthly budget(if they have one).

Well these 2 points, will correct itself, if there was a mass of new amount of buyers coming into the market at a constant pace.

Events that need to happen are the traditional passes with the ETF or something else thats in a traditional form, without knowing too much about how to go buy btc.

[Cluster2k]

Why is mass adoption of bitcoin not happening?  Well, name some goods or services that are easier and/or cheaper for the end consumer to buy using bitcoin than an RFID enabled credit card or cash.  

Now remove drugs, weapons, gambling and porn from the list.  That list now has zero items.  That's the problem with mass adoption of bitcoin.  We can get excited about Wall Street interest, ETFs, exchanges in China, etc.  But if the common man or woman buying their groceries or ordering a pizza cannot really see the benefit of bitcoin then mass adoption is still quite a long way away.

Bitcoin isn't even taking off as a popular concept in countries experiencing high inflation and regular banking crisis, such as Argentina and Venezuela.  Yes some people use it there, but they're still the tiny minority of the population.

[GingerAle]

Why is mass adoption of bitcoin not happening?  Well, name some goods or services that are easier and/or cheaper for the end consumer to buy using bitcoin than an RFID enabled credit card or cash.  

Now remove drugs, weapons, gambling and porn from the list.  That list now has zero items.  That's the problem with mass adoption of bitcoin.  We can get excited about Wall Street interest, ETFs, exchanges in China, etc.  But if the common man or woman buying their groceries or ordering a pizza cannot really see the benefit of bitcoin then mass adoption is still quite a long way away.

Bitcoin isn't even taking off as a popular concept in countries experiencing high inflation and regular banking crisis, such as Argentina and Venezuela.  Yes some people use it there, but they're still the tiny minority of the population.

that one in particular is interesting - I'd imagine the hurdle there is usability.

[SuperHakka]

I be thinking about ways to make adoption happen, been racking me brains and only scenario I can think of that can make mass adoption happen is if major high street banks offer "bitcoin accounts" to average joe. Then average joe will feel confident to start using it. Of course, banks is unlikely to do this but anything is possible. Without this happening, the financial offering by the banks will always be seen as greater than what some nerdy goofy technology like bitcoin can offer. One thing is that banks have much more marketing power and high street presence and in today's culture, that means everything to average joe.

[SuperHakka]

Also I be thinking that we there is more likeliness of pushing through banking reform(e.g. u know the spiel, debt-free money issuance by government etc.etc.) than it is pushing than seeing mass adoption of btc.

Today I see in news, UK Chancellor trying to create new law that will legally force future UK governments to have a budget surplus if the economy is growing. I never thought that this type of law is coming to pass. Also, the power of banks in UK rapidly diminish, HSBC in process of getting booted out. So if money is reformed, then really we do not need something like btw, except for peeps on here who just in it to make the quick speculation buck innit?

[TinEye]

this is always the same argument, it has to do with average people not being or feeling secure to use bitcoin yet, because they still trust more bank or because of the too much hackers sorround the bitcoin ecosystem
it is just a matter of some authority telling them that bitcoin are secure, average joe are like a group of sheep that they will follow their pastor, with a blindly mentality, those same people are seeing bitcoin only as a quick buck and nothing else, you see it's the mentality behind this that it is wrong, it cannot be chnaged so easily
i do agree with someone that said that bank are the only option to speed up the adoption, they are the only one ironically, that could encourage those people to accept bitcoin, by offering security like they do with various fiat

[techgeek]

its more like a sprinkler on a lawn.

eventually the lawn will get flooded, but during that time it took 2 hrs for us it feels the same way.

[Pecunia non olet]

@OP
Crypto massadoption is happening right in front of your nose. Just not Bitcoin. Altcoins have better wealthdistribution and offer bigger possible reward. Their tech is more advanced. Altcoins show greater network effect than Bitcoin does.

[Jon Connor]

@OP
Crypto massadoption is happening right in front of your nose. Just not Bitcoin. Altcoins have better wealthdistribution and offer bigger possible reward. Their tech is more advanced. Altcoins show greater network effect than Bitcoin does.

It is the year 2021 and bitcoin is $50k. You've made an extremely incorrect economic calculation. Your statements could not have been more incorrect. I hope you were smart enough to ditch your altcoins and buy bitcoin. Im glad I didnt listen to your nonsense and kept my bitcoin.

[arufox]

I think we never see mass adoption of Bitcoin, Bitcoin just will be no1 Investment assets, The reason like Ethereum now, The gas fee is not suitable to use as mass adoption, The alternative coin which have less gas fee will be the answers. King of coin Fail, king of altcoin Fail, Maybe the king of Defi will

[LUCKMCFLY]

I´m a little more optimistic, I believe that money will be digitized in the near future, and Bitcoin will be one of the most important treasures that people who are going to look for, the traditional economy is totally inflationary, is based on debt, the alternative economy that It presents Bitcoin is another thing, it is deflationary, there is no debt here.

The countries that I think should have more adoption of Bitcoin are those who are very economically wrong, this is the case of Venezuela, has one of the incalculable inflation rates and handles one of the highest volumes of Bitcoin negotiations according to Localbitcoins. com (although there is a lot of ignorance in most citizens about Bitcoin.)

  Only a small percentage of people knows about Bitcoin. Argentina is another country that is Pro Bitcoin. Just by increasing a percentage of knowledge in these countries, the price would increase even more.

[electronicash]

I´m a little more optimistic, I believe that money will be digitized in the near future, and Bitcoin will be one of the most important treasures that people who are going to look for, the traditional economy is totally inflationary, is based on debt, the alternative economy that It presents Bitcoin is another thing, it is deflationary, there is no debt here.

The countries that I think should have more adoption of Bitcoin are those who are very economically wrong, this is the case of Venezuela, has one of the incalculable inflation rates and handles one of the highest volumes of Bitcoin negotiations according to Localbitcoins. com (although there is a lot of ignorance in most citizens about Bitcoin.)

  Only a small percentage of people knows about Bitcoin. Argentina is another country that is Pro Bitcoin. Just by increasing a percentage of knowledge in these countries, the price would increase even more.

the adoption is happening gradually not just in the countries that have a depressed economy but the ones with political instability. with the rise of PayPal that has BTC and ETH integration soon more people are going to be open to accepting cryptocurrency.

the only problem that is going to come is the central banks. what goes on in Nigeria today is likely going to happen in several countries as well that are starting to adopt BTC.

[thecodebear]

Adoption is of course happening all the time. But it is gradual, and in spurts.

The main barrier to adoption as a payment network has been not onboarding services and third party payment options - yes using payment companies and banks to indirectly pay with bitcoin will be very important because of Bitcoin's limited tx throughput.

Of course Bitcoin's main function of mass adoption is much more likely going to be as a store of value rather than an everyday payment network. The main barrier to mass adoption of this is not enough markets for people who don't want to or can't store their own bitcoin, not enough liquidity for institutions wanting to put billions into it, and of course just the fact that most people have wildly inaccurate and negative view of Bitcoin. The first thing, markets, is close to not being a problem anymore. I'd say, at least in the US, an ETF is the final barrier to get rid of this problem. The second thing, not enough liquidity, is now largely solved with Bitcoin around a trillion dollars and obviously we've seen institutions make 9 and 10 figure buys the past few months.

So the main barrier to mass adoption of Bitcoin at least as a store of value now is simply the general public's still wildly negative view of Bitcoin. Gradually people open their eyes to Bitcoin, but the unnatural hate of Bitcoin/crypto is strong because it is a brand new thing in this world. Even now with the first wave of institutions coming on board most people still think it "always crashes and everyone loses money", "it's too late to get in now", "it's only for criminals", "it's just uses lots of dirty power and should be banned", "it isn't real", "it's a ponzi/fraud/etc". Those types of things. Once people have made up their mind it takes a lot for them to change, and that is the biggest hurdle to Bitcoin's mass adoption now. Basically humans and dumb, fearful animals. We may see mass institutional adoption over the next five years but I think mass adoption by the population will continue to be a slow game of gradually convincing people they were wrong, and this will happen over many many years.