We need an incentive to make first world population use Bitcoin

[Holliday]

Bitcoin's barrier to entry is having the appropriate level of understanding to realize that there is a need for a system of value transfer that is outside of the reach of those who would choose to exert control over everything. Most people don't understand this. Quite the opposite, most people favor those controls as long as they are fed the line that it's put in place to fight bogeymen. Anyone who is willing to sacrifice their freedom for alleged temporary security has no reason to use Bitcoin.

Lazy much?

There already is an incentive, it's just that your typical debt slave doesn't care about that incentive in the slightest.

Guess what, that's OK. Every transaction does not need to be censorship-proof as long as the option exists.

Bitcoin's barrier to entry is having the appropriate level of understanding to realize that there is a need for a system of value transfer that is outside of the reach of those who would choose to exert control over everything. Most people don't understand this. Quite the opposite, most people favor those controls as long as they are fed the line that it's put in place to fight bogeymen. Anyone who is willing to sacrifice their freedom for alleged temporary security has no reason to use Bitcoin.

[Pursuer]

the only incentive you are going to get is if you start with yourself and start asking the businesses you deal with to accept bitcoin. this means you should let them know that you are willing to spend bitcoin not fiat on their site and little by little when everyone is sending this kind of requests to services and businesses they eventually are going to add bitcoin payment and it will grow slowly.

[jonahmarieaton101]

Yes maybe we need an incentive to encourage or motivate people to use Bitcoin. But in what ways? Who will provide the incentives?

[clickerz]

I do not know how this incentive systems work but for me a government has na big role to play if we want more people to used bitcoin.  Example, you get a rebates when you pay your taxes,fines via bitcoin and so forth.How can you convince someone to used bitcoin if in the first place it is illegal in your country?

[QuestionAuthority]

I've been saying this for a long time OP.

Bitcoins initial success was based on a business that absolutely required people to learn how to use it. If you wanted to buy drugs on the Silk Road you had to use Bitcoin.

If we could start a mainstream (legal) business or product that everyone wanted which required the use of Bitcoin (like Silk Road did) we could start tons of people learning about and using Bitcoin. The question is, "what do we sell or what kind of business do we run"?

What product cannot be purchased by any other means, is in high demand, and can't be easily duplicated by another company? Unfortunately, the only one I can think of is drugs.

[Hazir]

I was wondering about something. We see many services offers bitcoin debit/credit cards. It is easy way to spend your bitcoin and use it  basically everywhere where card payments are accepted.
But I was under the impression that this way of using bitcoin is actually not good at all for bitcoin adoption. It only helps service owners to earn more money.

So my question is: should we use it or avoid it?

[yayayo]

[...]
This is why we need an incentive, such as cheaper prices. Purse.io is the only reason I know of why I would want to pay with BTC. Other than that, I see no reason and I value my BTC too much to spend on "stuff".

Therefore it is established that we need to incentive people to use it.
[...]

No. A thousand times no. The core idea of Bitcoin was never about being the cheapest way to do transactions or to receive large discounts compared to fiat money. That's only propaganda spread by guys like Andresen, Hearn and Ver. The core idea behind Bitcoin is to establish a sound form of money that is decentralized and independent from toxic interventionist policy of central banks. That alone is a gigantic incentive to use Bitcoin.

Bargain hunters that use any kind of coupon regardless of its privacy implications are certainly not the target group of Bitcoin. We don't need mass acceptance based on such motives, as these people miss the most important aspect of Bitcoin's invention: enabling monetary freedom.

Given time, there will be more than enough opportunity for a lot of people to realize the huge benefit of Bitcoin's decentralized nature as they will exposed to rampant fiat inflation.

ya.ya.yo!

[Dudeperfect]

I can agree with this but we should not get confused with the idea of incentive and idea of building awareness. Free money is not the way we should focus on but we should build awareness with the comparison of features in fiat and bitcoin. People will use bitcoin once they find that it is better than fiat but on the other hand they will convert their bitcoin in fiat if they get it for free.

[RealEstCoin]

A few things that would help spread awareness and expand adoption are:
1) More bitcoin debit and credit cards
2) More bitcoin ATMs
3) More retailers and service providers that accept bitcoin. I know that Tesla accepts bitcoin, but imagine if General Motors or Mercedes accepted it? Both manufacturers have vast, international user bases. I think there are some synergies that could be cross marketed with one of their hybrid or electric vehicles. And even if you could not purchase a new vehicle with bitcoin, a step in the right direction would be to accept car note or lease payments in bitcoin.

[MONKEYJUNK]

A few things that would help spread awareness and expand adoption are:
1) More bitcoin debit and credit cards
2) More bitcoin ATMs
3) More retailers and service providers that accept bitcoin. I know that Tesla accepts bitcoin, but imagine if General Motors or Mercedes accepted it? Both manufacturers have vast, international user bases. I think there are some synergies that could be cross marketed with one of their hybrid or electric vehicles. And even if you could not purchase a new vehicle with bitcoin, a step in the right direction would be to accept car note or lease payments in bitcoin.

I don't know about debit/credit cards, people will have to buy bitcoins to deposit on a card, don't look pratical... They can skip the bitcoin and save money.

ATM for me are a little bit useless right now.

The real point here is make the people accept bitcoin in the commerce, I think we can start by online stores and things like that since the block timer isn't pratical to local stores.

About the cars... Who have 50+ bitcoin to buy a car? I don't see much people buying.

[rajasumi3]

First of all to make it possible u have to make more and more people educated about it then only u can expect that to happen .and there should be more and more bitcoin cards and atm cards and there should be erasion of dark markets .

[dunfida]

A few things that would help spread awareness and expand adoption are:
1) More bitcoin debit and credit cards
2) More bitcoin ATMs
3) More retailers and service providers that accept bitcoin. I know that Tesla accepts bitcoin, but imagine if General Motors or Mercedes accepted it? Both manufacturers have vast, international user bases. I think there are some synergies that could be cross marketed with one of their hybrid or electric vehicles. And even if you could not purchase a new vehicle with bitcoin, a step in the right direction would be to accept car note or lease payments in bitcoin.

I don't know about debit/credit cards, people will have to buy bitcoins to deposit on a card, don't look pratical... They can skip the bitcoin and save money.

ATM for me are a little bit useless right now.

The real point here is make the people accept bitcoin in the commerce, I think we can start by online stores and things like that since the block timer isn't pratical to local stores.

About the cars... Who have 50+ bitcoin to buy a car? I don't see much people buying.

You have a point but the possibilities of being adopted is still there because it would really depend on car owners or company to accept or adopt bitcoin just like what tesla did but i think it would really takes time since people doesnt really know too much about bitcoin and only a small percentage all over the entire population is aware on bitcoin existence.

[alyssa85]

the main objection people have against bitcoin is simple
"what can i do with bitcoin once i have it"

so the obvious solution is to make bitcoin spendable. eg if you can buy toilet paper, car gasoline and baked beans. (travel, food, toiletries) then everyone will see bitcoin is not just speculative but actually real and useful.

The trouble is, if you make something scarce they WON'T spend it. This is why economists fear deflation - because if the currency of an entire country is strengthening, people start hoarding it, and all economic activity stops.

IMO the breakthrough will be made with one of the inflationary alts, say doge or steem. Bitcoin will be used as digital gold.

[Gembul]

First of all to make it possible u have to make more and more people educated about it then only u can expect that to happen .and there should be more and more bitcoin cards and atm cards and there should be erasion of dark markets .

Absolutely right, the right way before that can happen is the way we provide an understanding of what is bitcoin? and what are the advantages of using bitcoin. With that I think we can make it above. Because I believe bitcoin users are still only a few percent of the population of the earth.

[ethereumhunter]

First of all to make it possible u have to make more and more people educated about it then only u can expect that to happen .and there should be more and more bitcoin cards and atm cards and there should be erasion of dark markets .

Absolutely right, the right way before that can happen is the way we provide an understanding of what is bitcoin? and what are the advantages of using bitcoin. With that I think we can make it above. Because I believe bitcoin users are still only a few percent of the population of the earth.

i think there are a long journey for us, bitcoin community to give explaining for people in out side and we need to teach them to know bitcoin and ask them to use bitcoin. as long as we can do this, i am sure that in future bitcoin users will become first world population which use bitcoin. i think the incentive for us is the high price of bitcoin which can we sell into the market.

[thejaytiesto]

Looking back at my post, I think it's clear that we are not going to see a mainstream adoption of the first world until the governments get rid of cash because until then the average person is not going to miss its use. The average person uses cash constantly, so once you take cash away from them we will see what's obvious: they will look for an alternative and here is when bitcoin gill get massively adopted as the substitute for the underground economy.

[RealBitcoin]

Jobs!

The only incentive people need to have is to get paid in Bitcoin for their jobs. Jobs suck, minimal wage laws make people unemployed.

Unemployed people need jobs, therefore Bitcoin should provide jobs to unemployed people ,and get paid in Bitcoin for doing it.

Anywhere from micro-jobs to full time individual contractors, all jobs should be paid in Bitcoin.

[chesatochi]

Looking back at my post, I think it's clear that we are not going to see a mainstream adoption of the first world until the governments get rid of cash because until then the average person is not going to miss its use. The average person uses cash constantly, so once you take cash away from them we will see what's obvious: they will look for an alternative and here is when bitcoin gill get massively adopted as the substitute for the underground economy.

You have a good point there, we have already so many alternatives to paying with the credit card, fiat, and debit card when we are paying for stuff like the groceries and gas. The average joe will not find bitcoin attractive if they cannot spend them on the stores they use frequently.

I saw lately on the forum that Starbucks start accepting bitcoins, this is a good starting point. The more store who will accept it, the more people will are willing to acquire them. As soon the giants will start accepting bitcoins, mass adoption will start

[Shenzou]

If what you are saying is true that the bitcoin is not for going to the shop and paying with it , then what is bitcoin used for ? , i mean all the people that have bitcoin are actually using it to buy things and spend money , why would you even own bitcoin for ? , because you want more money , it is true that you can buy it with fiat but bitcoin gives us so much potential and freedom that is why we use it.

[beerlover]

From the way I see it the initiative that bitcoin needs is more places where you could use it on , bitcoin has not received the attention it deserves that is why some people don’t even know about it and that is why it should be used in more places like amazon or eBay as a payment method so people start using as if it was a credit card.