What is holding Bitcoin back?

[Kapz786]

Bitcoin is not used in the commercial industry. Because many people fear it's unpredictable value, 1 day it might go up, and one day it might drop to less than $100. If more places even banks start to incorporate bitcoin or at least the blockchain technology, bitcoin will have a chance to rise again. Imagine if we can use btc to watch movies, order pizzas and pay our credit card bills. It's still not a proven currency in everyone's mind that's why, it needs to take market acceptance just like actual currencies to achieve that trust in people. People is the most important factor, once you please the people, and they invest, bitcoin will increase in value and decrease the inflation.

[pooya87]

Bitcoin is not used in the commercial industry. Because many people fear it's unpredictable value, 1 day it might go up, and one day it might drop to less than $100. If more places even banks start to incorporate bitcoin or at least the blockchain technology, bitcoin will have a chance to rise again. Imagine if we can use btc to watch movies, order pizzas and pay our credit card bills. It's still not a proven currency in everyone's mind that's why, it needs to take market acceptance just like actual currencies to achieve that trust in people. People is the most important factor, once you please the people, and they invest, bitcoin will increase in value and decrease the inflation.

i totally agree.
this price instability is doing the most harm to bitcoin, as it prevents new people and businesses consider accepting bitcoin. anybody who searches bitcoin price and looks at a price history chart he can see a bad history. falling down from $1200 to $200 is something that is going to make them think twice before using bitcoin.
i guess if we can continue this slow price growth over long time, then it can attract more services to start accepting bitcoin.

[thebenjamincode]

I think one of the biggest thing that is holding back bitcoin is its regulation
because if a website wallet got hack, its very hard to retrieve it

[ajareselde]

Bitcoin is not used in the commercial industry. Because many people fear it's unpredictable value, 1 day it might go up, and one day it might drop to less than $100. If more places even banks start to incorporate bitcoin or at least the blockchain technology, bitcoin will have a chance to rise again. Imagine if we can use btc to watch movies, order pizzas and pay our credit card bills. It's still not a proven currency in everyone's mind that's why, it needs to take market acceptance just like actual currencies to achieve that trust in people. People is the most important factor, once you please the people, and they invest, bitcoin will increase in value and decrease the inflation.

Unpredictable value is a double edge sword, since it makes some people sceptical and lures other into speculation investment.
And why would you want to use bitcoin to pay for CC bills; it would make much more sense to just use bitcoin instead of CC; then you would have people's attention, or atleast from the ones
that can pay their goods straight up, without the need to use credit line to make a purchase..

cheers

[scarsbergholden]

I think most of the rich and wealthy people are holding bitcoin back even some part of the bitcoin users, the facts are if part of the rich and wealthy did fear bitcoin because is making new people rich they feel like oh i dont want to use my money to make others rich, most rich and wealthy are selfish when it comes to richness and if some of the bitcoin users wont be selling at the current price things could be a lot better.

[Scamc0p]

I would say it is the early adopters that are at an advantage and the ones who don't want to know about it is holding it back. Because lets face it, people don't like change because that means learning something new and the human species are inherently lazy when you put those two factors together. Just like when mom woke you up for school(to go to learn something new). "Ah, mum. Do I have too?!" ring a bell? 

[Amph]

Merchant adoption and volatility. There's just no real reason for most people to use bitcoin yet unfortunately. I fear it may always be a niche thing. Hope I'm wrong, though.

volatility can be negated only with adoption, great adoption, so the issue is only one, adoption, and always will be unless 1B(or around that) people start use bitcoin

bitcoin can also work as a niche thing imho, i don't see the problem with that, maybe not forever because miners need an incentive in the future to keep mining with a smaller reward...

Imo. Volatility and adoption are not the current issues of concern.

Security is.

If we try to get wider adoption into the joe average population before we solve the cold/warm wallets etc issues of trying to keep slightly safe then it will end bad once many people loose their Btc that they were supposed to keep safe themselves with their insufficient computer skills. Getting wide adoption too early before the security issues are solves could destroy bitcoin. We have seen other good inventions that dies forever because they were out too early.

Volatility is only really an issue as adoption increases and Btc is used for everyday purposes by everyday people. Then we need more stability. Right now investors and early adopters don't mind some volatility to make money off of it.

So until security issues are solved, adoption and volatility are not really pressing issues.

you rised a good point, security is what is holding back adoption, which is what is holding back bitcoin, from skyrocketing

security however is not only a bitcoin fault, but it's primarely a "average users" fault, if we repeat to them that they cannot store bitcoin online because it is dangerous but they still ignore use, this is only their fault, if they cannot keep they computer clean than it is again their fault

there should be a good guide about this, on the biitcoin.org, that tell newbie how to secure 100% their bitcoin, because apparently they cannot get it

[Stn]

Every currency in the world is being used for illegal things and I've never heard of anyone who turned away from money just because it's being used for illegal transactions.

Alas! Alas! The world is already changed. In Italy for example you can be stopped on the street and your wallet checked. If you get more then allowed amount of cash in there you are in deep shit. This nice feature coming soon to other "free" countries of the EU.

[ransomer]

Merchant adoption and volatility. There's just no real reason for most people to use bitcoin yet unfortunately. I fear it may always be a niche thing. Hope I'm wrong, though.

volatility can be negated only with adoption, great adoption, so the issue is only one, adoption, and always will be unless 1B(or around that) people start use bitcoin

bitcoin can also work as a niche thing imho, i don't see the problem with that, maybe not forever because miners need an incentive in the future to keep mining with a smaller reward...

Imo. Volatility and adoption are not the current issues of concern.

Security is.

If we try to get wider adoption into the joe average population before we solve the cold/warm wallets etc issues of trying to keep slightly safe then it will end bad once many people loose their Btc that they were supposed to keep safe themselves with their insufficient computer skills. Getting wide adoption too early before the security issues are solves could destroy bitcoin. We have seen other good inventions that dies forever because they were out too early.

Volatility is only really an issue as adoption increases and Btc is used for everyday purposes by everyday people. Then we need more stability. Right now investors and early adopters don't mind some volatility to make money off of it.

So until security issues are solved, adoption and volatility are not really pressing issues.

you rised a good point, security is what is holding back adoption, which is what is holding back bitcoin, from skyrocketing

security however is not only a bitcoin fault, but it's primarely a "average users" fault, if we repeat to them that they cannot store bitcoin online because it is dangerous but they still ignore use, this is only their fault, if they cannot keep they computer clean than it is again their fault

there should be a good guide about this, on the biitcoin.org, that tell newbie how to secure 100% their bitcoin, because apparently they cannot get it

Yes, but this 'law of the jungle' will not at all fly if Bitcoin has ambitions of being a real currency and challenging FIAT.

Many people will not be able to keep their bitcoins safe themselves no matter how many newbie guides we make.

Also, while seemingly good advice, "don't put more in bitcoin than you can afford to loose" - tells quite clearly where bitcoin is in its evolution. No real and useful currency would we say this about. Imagine "only have in dollars what you can afford to loose!"... nah...

Not being able to store bitcoin in a netbank/wallet (like we can with dollars, euros etc.) is a huge step backwards in the evolution of money - so this also needs to be fixed. People will not be satisfied with "well, now you have to store your money under you pillow written on paper slips just like you would store coins hundreds of years ago. Maybe in the attic!.. Nah... those solutions belong to ancient times and again tell us how behind bitcoin is in many aspects still.

But - once the security issues are solved.. and even normal people (with an IQ of 80 or 90, or people with zero interest in computers etc etc.) can easily keep their bitcoins safe that will be the day when bitcoin is ready for mass adoption. Right now we are still far far from that (in technology... I hope not in time )

[Bitware]

It's a bullshit question. Bitcoin is not being held back. To the contrary, it's moving along and advancing with constant increases in the number of users, wallets, and transactions. Investment in the space has never been higher both in number of investors and the amount of money invested. Lastly and largely, governments have legitimized Bitcoin.

That said, there could be arguments that Bitcoin adoption is being slowed by legacy financial interests, their bought legislators and talking heads, but Bitcoin is growing.

[Pursuer]

the only reason that I can think of is the fact that it is not yet reached the mass acceptance level. and sometimes the bad news spreads a bad face for bitcoin.

[ransomer]

In my experience only people looking at it from the outside notice that volatility could be an issue.

Imagine the shop owner can easily see that volatility could be an issue for his business.

But people who have tried to actually buy and own bitcoin realize that the currency is so different from $ etc that just having and storing them is a huge issue - and a much more immediate problem than volatility.

[Skinnyman]

the only reason that I can think of is the fact that it is not yet reached the mass acceptance level. and sometimes the bad news spreads a bad face for bitcoin.

It's a mixture of this as in there's not many places to spend it and not many people willing to spend it. For the average citizen bitcoin won't really interest them at the moment which is sad. Maybe it will take some sort of financial crisis for people to realize.

[Denker]

I would say it is the early adopters that are at an advantage and the ones who don't want to know about it is holding it back. Because lets face it, people don't like change because that means learning something new and the human species are inherently lazy when you put those two factors together. Just like when mom woke you up for school(to go to learn something new). "Ah, mum. Do I have too?!" ring a bell?  

Yeah right. This is the reason why almost everyone who owns a computer today is able to write an email, because he was too lazy to learn it.
Even my dad, age 71, not tech savvy, learned that pretty easy years ago. As people learned to send emails and to browse the web they will learn how to use bitcoin. Especially the younger generations get into it pretty fast. The more and better the GUI of future wallets the easier it will be.
And by the way: As dumb as a kid might be, one thing you can not deny.They all know how to use a fucking smartphone.So I'm not afraid they won't be able to use cryptos properly.

[ransomer]

I would say it is the early adopters that are at an advantage and the ones who don't want to know about it is holding it back. Because lets face it, people don't like change because that means learning something new and the human species are inherently lazy when you put those two factors together. Just like when mom woke you up for school(to go to learn something new). "Ah, mum. Do I have too?!" ring a bell?  

Yeah right. This is the reason why almost everyone who owns a computer today is able to write an email, because he was too lazy to learn it.
Even my dad, age 71, not tech savvy, learned that pretty easy years ago. As people learned to send emails and to browse the web they will learn how to use bitcoin. Especially the younger generations get into it pretty fast. The more and better the GUI of future wallets the easier it will be.
And by the way: As dumb as a kid might be, one thing you can not deny.They all know how to use a fucking smartphone.So I'm not afraid they won't be able to use cryptos properly.

The difference is they f%&¤ up regularly, and just reinstall or get the virus off again... and usually they have nothing of value so noone really hears about it. Here we are talking about people's wealth... there tolererance for messing up is obviously much lower. It is a different world, and the bitcoin solutions need to improve a lot from the current state.

We should be happy that adoption is not higher than it is. Because the state of security solutions is far from up to it.. if it was adopted outside of cryptology and tech interested etc circles the losses would be far greater than they have been - and the reputation of blockchain technology might suffer tremendously.

[Denker]

I would say it is the early adopters that are at an advantage and the ones who don't want to know about it is holding it back. Because lets face it, people don't like change because that means learning something new and the human species are inherently lazy when you put those two factors together. Just like when mom woke you up for school(to go to learn something new). "Ah, mum. Do I have too?!" ring a bell?  

Yeah right. This is the reason why almost everyone who owns a computer today is able to write an email, because he was too lazy to learn it.
Even my dad, age 71, not tech savvy, learned that pretty easy years ago. As people learned to send emails and to browse the web they will learn how to use bitcoin. Especially the younger generations get into it pretty fast. The more and better the GUI of future wallets the easier it will be.
And by the way: As dumb as a kid might be, one thing you can not deny.They all know how to use a fucking smartphone.So I'm not afraid they won't be able to use cryptos properly.

The difference is they f%&¤ up regularly, and just reinstall or get the virus off again... and usually they have nothing of value so noone really hears about it. Here we are talking about people's wealth... there tolererance for messing up is obviously much lower. It is a different world, and the bitcoin solutions need to improve a lot from the current state.

We should be happy that adoption is not higher than it is. Because the state of security solutions is far from up to it.. if it was adopted outside of cryptology and tech interested etc circles the losses would be far greater than they have been - and the reputation of blockchain technology might suffer tremendously.

I fully agree. We are still in a pretty early stage and many things have to be solved before real mass adoption can happen.
What I wanted to point out is that people always can learn about new technology and how to use it.
Just look back in history. From horses to cars, from telegram to telephone. From written letter to email and internet. From feature phone to smart phone etc. etc. etc.
People are not lazy or dumb in exploring and using new tech. That is my statement!

[Kprawn]

For me the single biggest problem, and it's even worst in the 3rd world countries ---> Buying Bitcoin

In the 1st world countries like the USA, people have to jump through just as many hoops, as they do with opening a bank account. {AML / KYC regulations} and in the

3rd world countries accessibility to ATM's and Bitcoin Vending machines are nearly non-existent. How can you buy a currency, if it harder to get it, than going to a fiat ATM?

Why would you go through all that trouble, if the fiat system is easier?

[ransomer]

If storing completely safely was much easier than now many many more people would put wealth into bitcoin, and that demand would lead to many more places to buy and sell bitcoin. So when the security is there, the rest follows.

[Herbert2020]

For me the single biggest problem, and it's even worst in the 3rd world countries ---> Buying Bitcoin

In the 1st world countries like the USA, people have to jump through just as many hoops, as they do with opening a bank account. {AML / KYC regulations} and in the

3rd world countries accessibility to ATM's and Bitcoin Vending machines are nearly non-existent. How can you buy a currency, if it harder to get it, than going to a fiat ATM?

Why would you go through all that trouble, if the fiat system is easier?

exactly, i am living in a developing country and i have a lot of problems for selling/buying bitcoin. there are no decent places that you can do this easily with fiat.
but there is still buy/sell person to person with cash which is the best way but it has its own problems.

[gkv9]

Nothing is actually putting Bitcoins back as it has been stable a lot since past few months, and stability is necessary currently in order for various people and industries from various genres to come and adopt Bitcoins, start using it and give a better value to it by getting their names added to it...