Mainstream Adoption

[Denker]

Yes, the banking industry is a major reason why Bitcoin hasn't been widely adopted, but I go back to what I think is the bigger reason: most people don't know about BTC, and therefore the demand can't exist.

If the masses (not to mention the small-mid business world, even large businesses) knew about BTC and what it could do for them, there would be a demand for it. When there is a demand, it will happen. But demand can't exist for something that is virtually unknown.

Bitcoin needs marketing.

When the demand is present, especially in a market economy, innovation will (and has) overshadowed the will of big businesses and even governments.

Demand is the door, and the key is marketing.

We have several issues why Bitcoin hasn't become mainstream yet. One is it's past with several frauds who give the system a pretty bad image and of course the banks and media where pushing it.
But to be honest right now the system can not handle a new big wave of users joining the network. For that we need more capacities.Meaning bigger blocks for instance. But bigger blocks will also result in less nodes the bigger the blocks get. That will mean the system will become more centralized. That's why we are having this endless debate of how to scale and increase the system right. It's all about more time and other solutions as increasing blocksize only. Give it a few more years and let's hope that the devs can come down from their ego trips soon so that we can continue moving forward.

[Aggressor66]

Nobody knows what's next when it comes to bitcoins, that’s the joy of it. The way it works is quite weird, although fundamentally it's digital cash it could be accepted as the de facto online payment system for the internet, or it could fade away into an obscure chapter of digital history. But it'll be fun to watch in either case.

[Hopalong]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

[Mickeyb]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What do you mean that people offers no benefits to the users.

Having the control over their money so that bank cannot seize their funds is a quite big benefit if you are asking me. Sending money for the minimal fee and nearly instant to the other part of the world is another major benefit. The list goes on and on..

The problem with Bitcoin at the moment are the users. There are not enough enough users to use these features. And that's called an adoption. Another problem is Bitcoin itself. We are really not ready for a mainstream adoption. Just imagine if we would have 2 million users over the night that would join us. The network would be paralyzed. The blocks are too small.

All of the above is called progress, so time is needed and things will line itself up.
But the big potential use cases on the massive scale are present in Bitcoin, we just need to come to that level, both users, and the Bitcoin itself.

[uxgpf]

But bigger blocks will also result in less nodes the bigger the blocks get.

Possibility to prune the blockchain somewhat helps in this as one doesn't need lot of storage space. IIRC current minimum is 512 MB. Network bandwidth could become a real problem though, limiting nodes only to people with very good internet connections.

[botany]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

No chargebacks mean that sellers have to work towards building trust.
It is not necessarily a bad thing, the bad apples will get weeded out eventually.

Bitcoin does offer benefits, but the discounts that could be possible using bitcoin haven't materialized yet.

[Hopalong]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

No chargebacks mean that sellers have to work towards building trust.
It is not necessarily a bad thing, the bad apples will get weeded out eventually.

Bitcoin does offer benefits, but the discounts that could be possible using bitcoin haven't materialized yet.

So only those merchants who have built up trust with fiat trading would be trusted with bitcoin trading?

If those merchants offering bitcoin trading would offer discounts then they should pop up when i search for the best offers but they dont. Those discount must also be very high since my credit card gives up to 20% discount in a lot of the places i do my shoping.

[gentlemand]

No chargebacks mean that sellers have to work towards building trust.
It is not necessarily a bad thing, the bad apples will get weeded out eventually.

Bitcoin does offer benefits, but the discounts that could be possible using bitcoin haven't materialized yet.

Your average customer doesn't give a shit about the historical trustworthiness of who they're dealing with. All they care about is price or convenience.

People mindlessly feed their details into all kinds of crappy sites and expect to have their hand held if it goes wrong. Some type of escrow might temper that but you're stuck with third parties again unless it can be somehow automated.

[roadbits]

Acceptance is low because people still have never heard what Bitcoin is and those that did (that are not geeks) have a vague idea of it and don't see any real use for it unfortunately. Lets hope the future will make people see its place.

[Rimmer]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What is a credit card? It's a payment processor for fiat transactions. Well then there will be payment processors for bitcoin transactions much like bitpay that can offer protection against this.

[Hopalong]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What is a credit card? It's a payment processor for fiat transactions. Well then there will be payment processors for bitcoin transactions much like bitpay that can offer protection against this.

You are right. A credit card is just a payment processor and the underlaying currency is not very interesting. I dont care what the underlying currency is called. I only care about how i can use it and if it is accepted wherever i need to spend my funds.

At the moment there is nothing with bitcoin that makes it better than my current payment processor and therefore is will not get used.

[Denker]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What is a credit card? It's a payment processor for fiat transactions. Well then there will be payment processors for bitcoin transactions much like bitpay that can offer protection against this.

You are right. A credit card is just a payment processor and the underlaying currency is not very interesting. I dont care what the underlying currency is called. I only care about how i can use it and if it is accepted wherever i need to spend my funds.

At the moment there is nothing with bitcoin that makes it better than my current payment processor and therefore is will not get used.

What about identity theft? Everytime you pay with your credit card the merchant has to secure all the information you have to give.There is a reason why brands like Target, Sony, Home Depot, Asley Madison attract hackers like flies.
Credit cards are working as a pull mechanism. With all that data hackers can empty your account very easy or sell your in deepweb and other criminals use your datas to do some other bs.
Bitcoin is working as push mechanism. No one can withdraw from your wallet without the private keys from your public adress.
If that is not a big advantage I would ask myself what else.

[Hopalong]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What is a credit card? It's a payment processor for fiat transactions. Well then there will be payment processors for bitcoin transactions much like bitpay that can offer protection against this.

You are right. A credit card is just a payment processor and the underlaying currency is not very interesting. I dont care what the underlying currency is called. I only care about how i can use it and if it is accepted wherever i need to spend my funds.

At the moment there is nothing with bitcoin that makes it better than my current payment processor and therefore is will not get used.

What about identity theft? Everytime you pay with your credit card the merchant has to secure all the information you have to give.There is a reason why brands like Target, Sony, Home Depot, Asley Madison attract hackers like flies.
Credit cards are working as a pull mechanism. With all that data hackers can empty your account very easy or sell your in deepweb and other criminals use your datas to do some other bs.
Bitcoin is working as push mechanism. No one can withdraw from your wallet without the private keys from your public adress.
If that is not a big advantage I would ask myself what else.

First: Is the targets of this mainstream adoption very conserned with those questions?

Second: If someone hacked a site and got my credit card info i just reported it and i would get my money back. Also for bitcoin to be usefull for most people you have to use online wallets. Then you get the same problem with hacking, but no chargeback to save your ass.

[Denker]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What is a credit card? It's a payment processor for fiat transactions. Well then there will be payment processors for bitcoin transactions much like bitpay that can offer protection against this.

You are right. A credit card is just a payment processor and the underlaying currency is not very interesting. I dont care what the underlying currency is called. I only care about how i can use it and if it is accepted wherever i need to spend my funds.

At the moment there is nothing with bitcoin that makes it better than my current payment processor and therefore is will not get used.

What about identity theft? Everytime you pay with your credit card the merchant has to secure all the information you have to give.There is a reason why brands like Target, Sony, Home Depot, Asley Madison attract hackers like flies.
Credit cards are working as a pull mechanism. With all that data hackers can empty your account very easy or sell your in deepweb and other criminals use your datas to do some other bs.
Bitcoin is working as push mechanism. No one can withdraw from your wallet without the private keys from your public adress.
If that is not a big advantage I would ask myself what else.

First: Is the targets of this mainstream adoption very conserned with those questions?

Second: If someone hacked a site and got my credit card info i just reported it and i would get my money back. Also for bitcoin to be usefull for most people you have to use online wallets. Then you get the same problem with hacking, but no chargeback to save your ass.

Regarding your second point and wallets. Did you ever heard of MyCelium? No personal information is needed. So here you go.Hacking of websites still possible but without stealing personal and financial data.

[isvicre]

The price is not volatile for a very long time. That's clearly not the issue.
Lack of knowledge, fake news about misusing, no big advertisement, no marketing could be real reasons.
I'm sure more people will use it after they learn. We just need to educate people in our circle.

[Hopalong]

With no charge-backs it has less of a cost to accept bitcoin than credit cards so places could offer a slight discount for it to entice consumers to use bitcoin.

No chargeback is a bad thing for consumers who loose the safety credit cards offer. If consumers prefer the safety of credit cards then the merchants will ignore bitcoin.

Bitcoin must offer something that benefit people before they want to use it. No such benefit exist today and therefore there is no interest in bitcoin.

What is a credit card? It's a payment processor for fiat transactions. Well then there will be payment processors for bitcoin transactions much like bitpay that can offer protection against this.

You are right. A credit card is just a payment processor and the underlaying currency is not very interesting. I dont care what the underlying currency is called. I only care about how i can use it and if it is accepted wherever i need to spend my funds.

At the moment there is nothing with bitcoin that makes it better than my current payment processor and therefore is will not get used.

What about identity theft? Everytime you pay with your credit card the merchant has to secure all the information you have to give.There is a reason why brands like Target, Sony, Home Depot, Asley Madison attract hackers like flies.
Credit cards are working as a pull mechanism. With all that data hackers can empty your account very easy or sell your in deepweb and other criminals use your datas to do some other bs.
Bitcoin is working as push mechanism. No one can withdraw from your wallet without the private keys from your public adress.
If that is not a big advantage I would ask myself what else.

First: Is the targets of this mainstream adoption very conserned with those questions?

Second: If someone hacked a site and got my credit card info i just reported it and i would get my money back. Also for bitcoin to be usefull for most people you have to use online wallets. Then you get the same problem with hacking, but no chargeback to save your ass.

Regarding your second point and wallets. Did you ever heard of MyCelium? No personal information is needed. So here you go.Hacking of websites still possible but without stealing personal and financial data.

I have MyCelium on my Android and MultiBit HD on my computer. None of those can handle the exchange rate you need for mainstream use. There is no way around using online wallets and a 3rd party to handle the transaction volume. Just imagine several millions of transactions every hour on the blockchain...

[centauribit]

Adoption won't boom until you get people paid in bitcoin. Until then, all you'll see is merchants rarely accept bitcoin and instantly transfer it to fiat.

[Coinut_Options]

mainstream adoption is taking place all around us. Being in the industry bitcoin is being used very creatively everywhere. Its being used in remittances and the users do not even know its happening. I think bitcoin is just fine. If your waiting for the next bubble, then I would say that will come with the next economic crisis.

[klf]

You can't force these things. A lot of things need to happen for non-tech-geeks to get involved. All of these happen in the course of Bitcoin becoming more developed in general. There's no shortcut.

[neurotypical]

Adoption won't boom until you get people paid in bitcoin. Until then, all you'll see is merchants rarely accept bitcoin and instantly transfer it to fiat.

This, and unfortunately some of the business end up not accepting Bitcoin, or at least go from Bitcoin exclusive to accepting fiat again, for example amagimetals.com was bitcoin only but backpedaled as it seems not enough people was using it. We need more time.