the usage of Bitcoin now

[spazzdla]

What's the usage of Bitcoin outside the mainstream of the application such as in black market, gambling and pornographic dealing? I think all the applications above can make sure that the hard currency Bitcoin will not die, however, the true value of it should be shown after it stepping into the mainstream of the application.

The true value of Bitcoin is getting rid of the completely corrupt, fundamentally broken, unfair, immoral, inefficient, restrictive, and non-durable money and banking system that we have today. Bitcoin makes banks obsolete. With Bitcoin, we no longer depend on authorities or institutions to create, control, store and transfer our money.

Considering the huge financial crisis we've seen (with way more still to come), I'd say that's quite a significant value.

This, you cannot stop me from sending money to anyone, no matter their location.  This is freedom of speach.

[bitcool]

Interchangeability between bitcoins and gold/silver is a very important factor. As long as they are tradeable, btc can be viewed as a mean of store-of-wealth. 

[johnyj]

From my experience, the exchange infrastructure still needs to be improved before mainstream usage for remittance

Currently I use bitcoin to do all my international transfers to my relatives and purchase in other countries. However, not every country have a good and fast exchange, this makes bitcoin transfer expensive

The best I can do is to set up a purchase order at localbitcoins, a bit less than market price, get coins at some discount, then send it to another country, having another people setting up a sell order at localbitcoins and hopefully he get a better price when selling coins, thus even make some money in the process

However, this require that both of us havíng high trust rating on localbitcoins, otherwise no one is going to take our orders. And if I want to do it fast and with large volume, the only way is to seek a large exchange domestically. Currently there are only a few large exchanges like bitstamp, okcoin, bitfinex, etc... and that limited the transaction in just a few countries

Hopefully in future when volume on localbitcoins are large enough, you can send any amount through it without paying too much fee (localbitcoins take 1% fee) or wait too long, but currently the fee would still be higher than 5% at both end if you take order instead of make your own orders (The other 4% fee can not be eliminated due to order makers must cover bitcoin's high volatility)

[H.W.Z]

for Charity donation some ppl want to stay anonymous. Or for presidential campaign. 

[fox19891989]

I share some usages what I know

1. Buy and sell, merchant use btc as a payment way.
2. investment or speculation btc, earn fiat money.
3. online gambling, since btc is anonymous, so it becomes the best way to gamble now.
4. charity, people can donate money and don't share their names, ages, it's anonymous.
5. international money trasfer, safer and faster than bank.
6. avoid taxes if you make money from btc.
7. remittance service, faster and cheaper than bank too.
8. money laundry, hackers and scammers use btc to wash dirty money.

Any more, you guys can add more usages to my list.

[Erza]

still to small, the only thing comforting is that the number of transactions is increased(i doubt is just because many people are creating their cold storage, splitting their funds ecc...)

black market not illegal is coming(open bazar), it should boost the usage of bitcoin, gambling was always there for bitcoin, and for pornographic, we are waiting for pornhub to accept bitcoin, but many are just watching, without registering on those porn sites, i don't know how much benefit,would bring there, if they would add bitcoin

Bitcoin attracting more big merchants like Mircosoft,Dell and Raukaten, many others ready to accept Bitcoin as payment processor like other normally fiat currency, future about usage of bitcoin extremely bright because of privacy and freedom of use.

Yes if microsoft been attracted to this bitcoin and he start to buying all if this bitcoin and for that time new era is coming, bitcoin must be used of all people around the world

[Lauda]

From my experience, the exchange infrastructure still needs to be improved before mainstream usage for remittance
Currently I use bitcoin to do all my international transfers to my relatives and purchase in other countries. However, not every country have a good and fast exchange, this makes bitcoin transfer expensive

The best I can do is to set up a purchase order at localbitcoins, a bit less than market price, get coins at some discount, then send it to another country, having another people setting up a sell order at localbitcoins and hopefully he get a better price when selling coins, thus even make some money in the process

However, this require that both of us havíng high trust rating on localbitcoins, otherwise no one is going to take our orders. And if I want to do it fast and with large volume, the only way is to seek a large exchange domestically. Currently there are only a few large exchanges like bitstamp, okcoin, bitfinex, etc... and that limited the transaction in just a few countries
Hopefully in future when volume on localbitcoins are large enough, you can send any amount through it without paying too much fee (localbitcoins take 1% fee) or wait too long, but currently the fee would still be higher than 5% at both end if you take order instead of make your own orders (The other 4% fee can not be eliminated due to order makers must cover bitcoin's high volatility)

I have to agree. The current exchange options aren't even safe. From what we've seen in the past exchanges tend to get hacked and people lose their money. That's harming the confidence in Bitcoin.
Localbitcoins is quite good and is improving in time. Just look at how many countries you can trade (240)!

So far I've donated some to charity and have gambled a small sum (for fun only). Aside from that I've bought a few things using Bitcoin online. It's quite useful as I didn't want to involve my CC in such transactions.
Moving/sending money with Bitcoin is so much better than using Banks (slow) or companies such as WU (expensive).

[ObscureBean]

Well I don't know about mainstream but personally I've found all the services I need for now. I've got the best store ever for buying used video games - http://www.jjgames.com/ - super cheap + free shipping  and for all my other needs I've got http://www.overstock.com/   And this is only the beginning 

[Kprawn]

The best use of Bitcoin in my opinion... buying "stuff" online, with more security than traditional payment methods. I would much rather buy my honey and coffee online with Bitcoin, than buying it with a credit card.

Online Tipping for me, has also been growing, and I did not notice this before Bitcoin. {Micro payments}

Let's hope, the remittance market takes off, and Bitcoin vendor's increase, then we would go to the Moon.

[Amph]

The best use of Bitcoin in my opinion... buying "stuff" online, with more security than traditional payment methods. I would much rather buy my honey and coffee online with Bitcoin, than buying it with a credit card.

Online Tipping for me, has also been growing, and I did not notice this before Bitcoin. {Micro payments}

Let's hope, the remittance market takes off, and Bitcoin vendor's increase, then we would go to the Moon.

some are not buying much with bitcoin, because they are waiting for a better price, thus a better buying power when using bitcoin, and i'm in the same boat as those people

i want to buy more stuff with my precious bitcoin, current price is unfair...

[bornil267645]

This uses are very common, but I think one service should really start accepting Bitcoin and that is the Online Dating Sites.

About 40 million Americans use Online dating service

http://www.match.com/magazine/article/4671/

Just a thought...

[BTCevo]

The best use of Bitcoin in my opinion... buying "stuff" online, with more security than traditional payment methods. I would much rather buy my honey and coffee online with Bitcoin, than buying it with a credit card.

Online Tipping for me, has also been growing, and I did not notice this before Bitcoin. {Micro payments}

Let's hope, the remittance market takes off, and Bitcoin vendor's increase, then we would go to the Moon.

some are not buying much with bitcoin, because they are waiting for a better price, thus a better buying power when using bitcoin, and i'm in the same boat as those people

i want to buy more stuff with my precious bitcoin, current price is unfair...

Yes they didnt buying much with bitcoin because they want to earn more so they stack their btc more and more and then the price is good to sell they will sell it to get their money back in their own currency, I think that because the price now is too volatile so they no need to sell their btc first just in case

[uininPeter]

I think there is a smattering of bitcoin uses in nearly every aspect of your life. Just depends on where you live as to how prevalent it is.

[tescomatty]

What's the usage of Bitcoin outside the mainstream of the application such as in black market, gambling and pornographic dealing? I think all the applications above can make sure that the hard currency Bitcoin will not die, however, the true value of it should be shown after it stepping into the mainstream of the application.

It's very hard to estimate what all those transactions means. In fact I think it's impossible, it's a mix between trading, speculation, buying of goods and services... all those transactions that get done in person for cash will never have any meaning unless you are part of one of the 2 parties.
As decentralized exchanges start being operative, it will be even harder to track anything.

How is this the issue of tracking? We dont track individual bank notes to check the usage of fiat. Instead we should analyze the growth of vendors that accept btc.

[minerpumpkin]

The best use of Bitcoin in my opinion... buying "stuff" online, with more security than traditional payment methods. I would much rather buy my honey and coffee online with Bitcoin, than buying it with a credit card.

Online Tipping for me, has also been growing, and I did not notice this before Bitcoin. {Micro payments}

Let's hope, the remittance market takes off, and Bitcoin vendor's increase, then we would go to the Moon.

some are not buying much with bitcoin, because they are waiting for a better price, thus a better buying power when using bitcoin, and i'm in the same boat as those people

i want to buy more stuff with my precious bitcoin, current price is unfair...

The trick, if you want to support BTC, is to go and buy your BTC at the time you actually want to spend them. That way you're not exposed to any price swings and you can profit from the full buying power of your money. By doing this, you can avoid the risk of price swings by still supporting vendors accepting BTC!

[Mr. Burns]

Open bazaar is gay.  Who would buy a twix bar literally worth its weight in gold?  No one, that's who.   

[shulio]

The best use of Bitcoin in my opinion... buying "stuff" online, with more security than traditional payment methods. I would much rather buy my honey and coffee online with Bitcoin, than buying it with a credit card.

Online Tipping for me, has also been growing, and I did not notice this before Bitcoin. {Micro payments}

Let's hope, the remittance market takes off, and Bitcoin vendor's increase, then we would go to the Moon.

In the end, those seller who sold your honey and coffee will convert it back to fiat since they get their goods from fiat seller as well and you cant stop this from happening

some are not buying much with bitcoin, because they are waiting for a better price, thus a better buying power when using bitcoin, and i'm in the same boat as those people

i want to buy more stuff with my precious bitcoin, current price is unfair...

Current price will never be fair since it is a supply and demand market. Holding bitcoin and use it after the value goes higher is consider as an investment but it will be some times before the price can raise as it is getting lower everyday

[Light]

What's the usage of Bitcoin outside the mainstream of the application such as in black market, gambling and pornographic dealing? I think all the applications above can make sure that the hard currency Bitcoin will not die, however, the true value of it should be shown after it stepping into the mainstream of the application.

Bitcoin's usage has definitely spread to other things - for example I use Bitcoin to pay for a majority of my servers and web solutions - but we're still quite a long way away from reaching the point where you can use Bitcoin to buy anything you need (where fiat is currently).

[Troonetpt]

black market, gambling and pornographic dealing

You have list most of the application of bitcoin, and the other application include trade altcoin, all most of altcoin use bitcoin to trade.

[thejaytiesto]

The micropayments market along with the gambling market is going to be huge in the future. It's so easy to implement in any game: Pay high scores in Bitcoin, a true value currency, for free.
Gambling is also easy to set up, and very fun and addicting if rightly executed.