What's stopping people from using bitcoin?

[dothebeats]

Personal opinion: overwhelming technical terms and people who make bitcoin look hard to use by spitting out deep words technical to bitcoin. Seriously, people can go by without knowing how to mine or the algorithm behind it; simple knowledge about receiving/sending coins is enough to get you on the go. The problem is even bitcoiners find it hard to explain how it works in simple words.

[zircon]

I think the barrier to entry is too high.

When we look at something like Facebook, the barrier to entry as to create an account by verifying through email - that was pretty much it.

That being said we are dealing with money, probably the touchiest subject around in the world. People don't like wasting money so that precludes anyone from getting involved, because who wants to waste even 1 dollar and time?If joining FB cost one dollar probably a free version would have come along and smashed them soon enough.

That being said, the barrier for entry for merchants is fairly low. Either use a Bitcoin wallet (has its problems) or use a service provider like Bitpay. Save bucks in the process. Not too bad.

So accepting Bitcoin is not a big problem. Finding people who have Bitcoin and who are willing to spend it is a problem.

I am busy working on a partial solution to it - using an app to introduce people to Bitcoin simply and with fairly low risk - hopefully it will be out by Xmas - and I will post it here as we drive it forward.

[Mickeyb]

I am busy working on a partial solution to it - using an app to introduce people to Bitcoin simply and with fairly low risk - hopefully it will be out by Xmas - and I will post it here as we drive it forward.

Do you mind sharing a bit more about this application? This sound interesting!

What do you guys have I mind? Giving low amounts away for free or just for running an application maybe?

[Hugroll]

I think the barrier to entry is too high.

When we look at something like Facebook, the barrier to entry as to create an account by verifying through email - that was pretty much it.

That being said we are dealing with money, probably the touchiest subject around in the world. People don't like wasting money so that precludes anyone from getting involved, because who wants to waste even 1 dollar and time?If joining FB cost one dollar probably a free version would have come along and smashed them soon enough.

That being said, the barrier for entry for merchants is fairly low. Either use a Bitcoin wallet (has its problems) or use a service provider like Bitpay. Save bucks in the process. Not too bad.

So accepting Bitcoin is not a big problem. Finding people who have Bitcoin and who are willing to spend it is a problem.

I am busy working on a partial solution to it - using an app to introduce people to Bitcoin simply and with fairly low risk - hopefully it will be out by Xmas - and I will post it here as we drive it forward.

i totally agree, when i heard about bitcoin almost a year ago i thought it was cool but i coudnt get into it because to buy some bitcoin it was a heavy process.

[sana9821]

i believe that a lot of people are afraid of massive fluctuations that happen to bitcoin price and that its price might drop in the future

[cjmoles]

The problem with finding reputable bitcoin sites is that there are more non-reputable sites than reputable ones.  If I use a bank card, I wouldn't even have to worry about it.  For example:  If I ordered some t-shirts from a website with bitcoin but never received the t-shirts I purchased, I have no way of getting my money back; however,  if I use my credit card, or debit card, to purchase the t-shirts, all I have to do is file a complaint with my bank and my money is returned to me.  And, I don't have to do any kind of deep web research to figure out how reputable the vendors are when I use my bank card. 

What is the cost for that? No monetary sovereignty. Yeah, I'd rather stick to Bitcoin and use common sense. I've been around for 3 years and was never scammed by anyone or any merchant. Also, you do not order from random websites using your CC. That would be a very stupid move.

I was directing my responses to the context of the thread question: "What's stopping people from using bitcoin?"  I agree with you that there's a lot of digital goods and services that can be purchased with bitcoin; however, if it's going to be more widely adopted, it will have to address the points I enumerated above. 

Understood.

Exactly, bitcoin isn't being adopted by more consumers because it's not the scammers getting scammed, as they recognize a good scam when they see it; it's the honest folk getting scammed because they have a trustworthy mindset.  My point is, as long as bitcoin is viewed as a blackmarket tool by the general public, and as long as it attracts the type of people whom naturally think in terms of scams, bitcoin will be shunned by the average honest wage earner.  I mean, if my mother asked me if she should invest in or use bitcoin, I would say, "Hell no," unless she had some secret thing she wanted to do with her money.  Why should she use bitcoin, when she could use her card and be protected by a federally insured dollar?

I love bitcoin and I have made some risky investments....but, I knew they were risky and could afford the risk.  I can recognize scams, avoid keyloggers, understand escrow, and know how to recognize those things....the average joe doesn't.  For bitcoins adoption rate to increase, it needs to be safer and easier to understand by the general public.  Otherwise, its use will be populated by a less attractive group of people whom understand scams and how to profit off of them.

[jeffthebaker]

I think a big thing that's stopping people from giving Bitcoin a shot is the public's perception of the community that backs it. The average joe either doesn't know what Bitcoin is, or sees it as internet money used to buy drugs and weapons. The rest of the internet sees Bitcoiners as a cult and generally regarded as the laughing stock of the internet.

[johnyj]

There will be a tipping point

Take fiat money as example, although it is backed by government bonds, which is a promise of paying back with fiat money itself in future, thus have no real value, but as long as everyone believe the value of it, it will automatically maintain its value without any external help, people even desperately seek for it when they don't have it

Similar thing will happen on bitcoin, once a large group of people accept the value of it, it will automatically maintain its value without any help, and a stable value will get more people on board

[Hellacopter]

i believe that a lot of people are afraid of massive fluctuations that happen to bitcoin price and that its price might drop in the future

The stability of Bitcoin's price need some time to happen, but i think the price will increase to some level and then it will be stopped to some stable price in the near future

[jeffthebaker]

i believe that a lot of people are afraid of massive fluctuations that happen to bitcoin price and that its price might drop in the future

The stability of Bitcoin's price need some time to happen, but i think the price will increase to some level and then it will be stopped to some stable price in the near future

The price has actually been relatively stable (as in more stable than mainstream currencies and economies) lately. Of course, price increases are fundamentally a symptom of volatility, but I think the recent charts have painted Bitcoin as stable enough for usage. I feel like the bigger problem is the psychological perception of Bitcoin from a lot of the rest of the world, which is undeniably piss poor.

[designerusa]

Complexity, people's trust needs so much time, bitcoin's price's unstability.
Also there is no other local bank to adjust bitcoin price.
Also we so much need banking system to support bitcoin. Banking gives trust.

[RKing]

i believe that a lot of people are afraid of massive fluctuations that happen to bitcoin price and that its price might drop in the future

The stability of Bitcoin's price need some time to happen, but i think the price will increase to some level and then it will be stopped to some stable price in the near future

When the bitcoin is in every day use, the market capitalization will increase. The volatility will decrease as a result. So more people will use it.

[MisterMoney]

The government.

[--Encrypted--]

I think the people that are not using bitcoin are either don't know about btc or are too comfortable with current payment method to change. that's why bitcoin needs more adoption and media attention.

[dothebeats]

The government.

I also think that somehow, governments will try to do everything so as to regulate bitcoin and stop it from becoming the standard currency that we *would* be using if in case the dollar falls so hard. But is it enough to stop bitcoiners in continuing this coin? No, I think not. It would require more than the governments to stop this revolution in an instant.

[Amph]

The government.

uhm, that's what actually incite me to use bitcoin, because i want to get rids of their lazy ass-printed-inflated money

it has more to do with the fear of using an unregulated thing

[pooya87]

FEAR.

on one hand there is the unstable price (especially looking at the history) going from <$1 to $1200 and then fall down to $200 in a couple of years and all the market manipulation.

on the other hand the media is terrorizing bitcoin by associating it with criminal activities and articles like master card saying it is not secure.

on top of all that, there is not enough use cases for bitcoin .

[Arcteryx]

For the tech savvy there are plenty of uses for it and it's use is easy.
There are a lot of companies accepting it and even the ones not using it, there are ways around for it's use.
I think there will always be fear associated with something new and being uninformed about.
It will take time for the other 95% of people to see it as another way of paying for goods and services and not a rival as the other companies see it now.

[Mickeyb]

The government.

I don't believe that governments are doing anything at the moment to stop people using bitcoins. Even the most strict governments as China and Russia still haven't done anything major that would cripple this technology.

Yes, everybody has issued warnings, etc, but this is nothing compared to what they can really do if they want to, the governments.

[Arcteryx]

The government.

I don't believe that governments are doing anything at the moment to stop people using bitcoins. Even the most strict governments as China and Russia still haven't done anything major that would cripple this technology.

Yes, everybody has issued warnings, etc, but this is nothing compared to what they can really do if they want to, the governments.

I don't think the government has any problems with bitcoin. They don't see it as a threat to what they are doing, that being running their our countries.
The problem lies with the people that use it and what they are using it for. If it is against their laws then of course they will come down on those individuals just not by the means on which they came to possess such things.