What is needed in the Bitcoin economy?

[CryptoFreak33]

For most people, Bitcoin is seen as an investment. They buy a few (or a lot) of them, store them away, and hope to sell them at a profit one day. It's an exciting game for people who like to speculate. But, I think this kind of thinking actually slows Bitcoin adoption because, if everyone is focusing on investing, fewer people are thinking of Bitcoin is a currency.

Look at currencies like the Dollar, Yen, or Euro. While some people do buy and sell the actual currency, most average people 1) try to get more of it to buy and pay for things or 2) try to provide services and products that people are willing to pay for. It's money, not really an 'investment'.

IMHO, the investment mentality is one of the things holding back Bitcoin adoption.  Almost all of the scam headlines (which is mostly what most people see) has to do with scammy investments where people were taken for hundreds or thousands of Bitcoins. That's scary to the average person.

The real value in Bitcoin is trade. Bitcoint for product/service. No fiat exchange, no conversion, whatever. But we're not there yet, right? So here's my question (after a totally fucking long winded journey):

Simply: what services and infrastructure do we need to have to enable greater pure Bitcoin commerce? I get the usual like groceries and stuff but what else?

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[Benson Samuel]

While some of the sites that deal with Bitcoin securities ask the users to provide ID.

Whats ID are they providing their users?

[CryptoFreak33]

While some of the sites that deal with Bitcoin securities ask the users to provide ID.

Whats ID are they providing their users?

That's why I believe we need standards, just like the banks have. We'd never deal with banks that were as fly by night as many of the sites in the Bitcoin community seem to be. We need some sort of community agreed on standards that we force businesses to adhere to if they want our business.

[teamhugs]

Simply: what services and infrastructure do we need to have to enable greater pure Bitcoin commerce? I get the usual like groceries and stuff but what else?

Trust.



Without trust in merchants and customers, there will be no growth in the economy or usage of bitcoins. Any one product or service is irrelevant at this point. If I can't trust the other party in a transaction, I'm not going to do the transaction. Figuring out a reputation system/score by some identifier could go a long way towards building trust in trustworthy individuals and services. Here's a TED Talk as an overview of the issue, http://www.ted.com/talks/rachel_botsman_the_currency_of_the_new_economy_is_trust.html . There is a bunch of research into this area as well, https://duckduckgo.com/?q=journal+of+reputation+and+trust+research. Ebay, paypal, amazon, and others have had to figure this out. We will too.

[Benson Samuel]

What we need is a limit to the amount that can be spent anonymously on securities.

That amount should be paid by the Securities firm to an Escrow.

That way, we keep it Anonymous.

We see it being done in the most successful Bitcoin marketplace, But very few are trying to replicate it in the legitimate world.

Going down the path of the banks once again centralizes the power of Bitcoin.

While some of the sites that deal with Bitcoin securities ask the users to provide ID.

Whats ID are they providing their users?

That's why I believe we need standards, just like the banks have. We'd never deal with banks that were as fly by night as many of the sites in the Bitcoin community seem to be. We need some sort of community agreed on standards that we force businesses to adhere to if they want our business.

[MPOE-PR]

So you want to be part of the Bitcoin Marketplace, do you?

[Benson Samuel]

nope.. Just a Writer, trying my bit to popularize Bitcoin.

[ChillZon3]

.

[benjamindees]

We need an island.

[fluxist]

More commerce!

One of the benefits of bitcoins is that it can eliminate fraud in e-commerce. That means online stores don't have to charge a 1-2% markup to cover fraud losses. The savings can be passed on to the customer. Not to mention it will facilitate international commerce, as the rate of fraud from international sales is 2 to 3 times higher than domestic.

Imagine if Amazon.com said all prices in BTC will be 2% lower than USD? Think that would help bitcoin take off?

Once there's a strong enough economic ecosystem around bitcoin, the currency exchange losses can be avoided too. There will be no need to exchange BTC for USD.

All in all, speculation and investment vehicles may be the most popular avenues for bitcoin on this forum, but they'll be more and more a drop in the bucket as the market penetration increases.

[Coinabul]

More promotion of BitcoinFriday

[TheDarKnight]

How about Bitcoins for access to gaming sites 
Giving out vouchers to go to BTC-accepting restaurants in competitions on the web?
What it really needs is one big idea where BTC are the only major currency...until someone comes along with it, we'll have to wait! Wait on though, isn't $10-$12 already a high value??
Now don't tell me the only thing that BTCs were good for is making a few clever entrepreneurs rich and scammers fat-walleted.