What do you think might be holding back Bitcoin's success?

[zivone]

I think lack of advertisements around the world is holding back the full potential of bitcoin. We need it to be more known but that's kinda hard to do when the media keeps shading bitcoin with only negative comments.
Saying that it's illegal or only criminals are using it, is not helping out either.

Exactly my thought, there are no advertisements to show the potential of bitcoins and if there are media exposures, it's more of negative and discouraging people to engage in it. People nowadays  are more vigilant using the internet when it comes to their money because of the recent scams circulating on the web.

[Denker]

What OP describes is indeed the typical behaviour out there regarding Bitcoin.It's image is pretty negative thanks to all media reports pushing this.
The view at the internet hadn't been much different back in the time, during the 90s.
When you're smart you take advantage of that because this image will not stay forever like that.
So now you have the possibilty to buy pieces of THE technology that will change so many things in the future.
And right these pieces are cheap to get.
The ones who laugh at you now will be the ones who will cry in ten years!Trust me!

[Daniel91]

Well, if I will go out to streets and ask average 100 people about bitcoin what do you think will happen?
Probably 98-99 people will say that they have no idea what is bitcoin and 1 may know but will say that he/she don't trust bitcoin.
So, we really have to think how to introduce bitcoin to the public, change mostly negative public opinion about it and try to find a way to create interest among merchants for bitcoin.
There is no other way.

[helloeverybody]

Well, if I will go out to streets and ask average 100 people about bitcoin what do you think will happen?
Probably 98-99 people will say that they have no idea what is bitcoin and 1 may know but will say that he/she don't trust bitcoin.
So, we really have to think how to introduce bitcoin to the public, change mostly negative public opinion about it and try to find a way to create interest among merchants for bitcoin.
There is no other way.

This, half the people i speak to have no idea what bitcoin is or what its used for. Maybe with recent press good or bad  more people will hear about it.

[Minecache]

We need a killer app. Most likely one that allows you to transfer money anywhere in the world at the tap of a touchscreen.

[richardsNY]

I don't think anything is holding Bitcoin back at the moment. We are experiencing a slow adoption mainly due to the average Joe's who are believing the nonsense from the media. If they really see what Bitcoin can do, then they are very stupid to not use it. It costs time.

[LiteCoinGuy]

Time.

[neochiny]

Lack of advertisement on of tv,instability of it,negative reports online.
because of this people are having doubt of bitcoin is a good investment,
if the price of bitcoin stabilize, bitcoin will attract more investors becasue
they will not worry about bitcoin price suddenly going up and down.

[Slark]

I personally feel Bitcoin is slowly being defeated. -snip-

No. On the contrary. Bitcoin is slowly being regarded more a more, but the key word here is SLOWLY. Bitcoin progress might be not good for many of us, Op included.
I like to use Internet as a main example here. It was far superior invention yet people didn't accept it as medium in a year or two. Bitcoin acceptance will take time.

[Yakamoto]

We need a killer app. Most likely one that allows you to transfer money anywhere in the world at the tap of a touchscreen.

Well one idea I've had is that we need sort of like a standardized bank/program that would operate as a transferring agency, never giving out loans and operating on small donations or similar funds.

It would be a "wallet" online which would avoid transfer fees by just moving Bitcoin from wallet to wallet, and allowing for withdrawals at any point. It would never use any Bitcoin, and only operate with what was put into it.

That's a fairly simplified version of my idea, and it's probably been mentioned before, but if there are any other ideas to add they'd be appreciated.

[TheGr33k]

It depends on what you believe "success" means. I think we've come a long way from where we started this year. The value of bitcoin has grown this year a lot.
For next year, I hope that more and more people will start to adapt to bitcoin or at least get to know about it.

We really need to adjust the image first.

[TheGr33k]

I think lack of advertisements around the world is holding back the full potential of bitcoin. We need it to be more known but that's kinda hard to do when the media keeps shading bitcoin with only negative comments.
Saying that it's illegal or only criminals are using it, is not helping out either.

I have a business partner that's working on that, but I don't know how long it'll be, honestly.

[Decoded]

The main thing is the fear of something like the Mt Gox scam happening again. No one wants that, especially us. We just have to make the non-bitcoiners start to trust bitcoin again.

[oblivi]

It's still too obscure and looks strange to most people outside the bitcoin circles, but we only need time and let things get better and the average user will see it with a different perspective, for now i wouldn't worry about it.

[TheGr33k]

The main thing is the fear of something like the Mt Gox scam happening again. No one wants that, especially us. We just have to make the non-bitcoiners start to trust bitcoin again.

Is there proof it is a scam? I haven't really looked into that.

[Moneyburner]

I think part of it has to do with lack of recognition. I told two people I know about it and they never even heard of bitcoin 

[BitNerd]

Waaay too hard to be used by beginners.

[TheGr33k]

It's still too obscure and looks strange to most people outside the bitcoin circles, but we only need time and let things get better and the average user will see it with a different perspective, for now i wouldn't worry about it.

Actually, I believe it's something you should worry about, because there's really not much hope left if people as yourself will feel a requirement to stay passive to our struggles.

[TheGr33k]

Waaay too hard to be used by beginners.

it's slightly simple to use in my honest belief

[harrymmmm]

I personally feel Bitcoin is slowly being defeated. From all the allegations made about how bitcoins were used to purchase weapons in aid of the Paris attacks, to money laundering reports. It is slowly becoming some sort of epidemic to me. I am not all that certain how long it'll last to deal with this type of negative impact and overall reputation but I am somewhat holding onto hope.

You probably don't remember how the internet was just for porn? It kinda survived.

p2p file sharing was just for pirate music and movies. It survived...

Don't worry what people say. Negative sentiment affects the speed of adoption, but doesn't stop it.