What do you think are the biggest disadvantages of Bitcoin?

[chaser15]

Considering recent market events: first huge pump and later Chinese's investors panic caused by their central bank attempt to curb bitcoin trading.
I have to say that the biggest bitcoin disadvantage is not some inherent bitcoin property or feature, these can be updated and upgraded, but rather lack of proper acceptance, laws and regulations.

It is not good when people start to panic at first sign of government interference.

I don't see a panic for most Chinese big investors but rather they just take some profits or maybe starting a trigger agenda to make room for cheap price before doing again an attempt to push up the price. There is maybe a story behind it and the news was only the one who only we have known. Big investors or hoarders doesn't have a panic attitude since they are already in this kind of profession for a long period of time. They will not put big money here if they have weak hands.

The one who gets panic are the average investors. A big pull from the big hoarders can start a trigger of price decrease so there are weak hands getting dragged away.

[agamasrori]

The biggest advantage of Bitcoin is it can be risky as once the money is gone you can't do anything to get it back even if u got scammed
It is attracting investment from people and became best performing assets.
Another problem is adding to a business as many people don't even know what it is so i guess it needs lots of awareness

It is depend how do you manage your bitcoin, if you just send your bitcoin into investment site that you never know or observe before, you will get a big chance to lose your bitcoin. The users of bitcoin is increasing everyday, what we only need is wait until all people in the world know about bitcoin. I think bitcoin didn't have many disadvantage.

[RealBitcoin]

Here is my list, by order of importance:

• Scalability issue, either a technical problem, of a problem with the community consensus
• Miners being centralized in 1 geo-political sector
• Nodes are not incentivized, and
• Lack of Privacy of the coins and Fungilibily (meaning that criminals can incriminate/frame innocent people by sending them dirty coins, so the trace will lead to the innocent instead of the criminal)
• Quantum Computer vulnerability
• Slow network propagation time

I think these are the main issues, everything else is just a side effect of these.

[n691309]

I think bitcoin is decentralized cryptocurrency which can accessed via internet only. This is very important factor we have to consider as disadvantage of bitcoin.

Many developed countries are using high speed internet but what about poor or lower tier level countries. Peoples from such countries could be still far away from bitcoin.

Bitcoin have its own protocol which is called as qt. And it need only internet to access your own BTC wallet from any device.

Internet access is going to be spread mostly everywhere and many giant companies are trying to offer free Wi-Fi to people in order to access the internet (and probably spy/know what people are doing on the internet). Sometimes there is no need for a high speed internet because there are many wallets which do not require to download the whole blockchain but you make a transaction with a very small bandwidth.

[mastica]

Besides the internet issue about speed, there is just one big disadvantage at bitcoin that is not be mainstream, this affects bitcoin, it damage it, since peopel consider it a dark currencie. If we reach mainstream we will be able to spend our bitcoins anywhere, anytime, something we cant do, atleast not directly. The confirmation time its another small issue that should have some improvement over the next years to make bitcoin more atractive as payment option.

[Mr. Big]

Besides the internet issue about speed, there is just one big disadvantage at bitcoin that is not be mainstream, this affects bitcoin, it damage it, since peopel consider it a dark currencie. If we reach mainstream we will be able to spend our bitcoins anywhere, anytime, something we cant do, atleast not directly. The confirmation time its another small issue that should have some improvement over the next years to make bitcoin more atractive as payment option.

Actually that is what the OP is looking for in his question, OP wants to know what is preventing bitcoin to be mainstream... So I think all your statement will be a part of OP's... Don't worry too much about confirmation, as long as it is already sent to you and you receive it, I think it's fine for a while... It will be a problem/disadvantage if it keeps on happening... I do think that's the only disadvantage I encounter lately... 

[abel1337]

For me bitcoin greatest disadvantage is when you sent your bitcoin to a wrong address no chance that it would be recovered by you. You can't track the address you sent the bitcoins. That's the greatest disadvantage I see in bitcoin.

[CoinFoxs]

The main disadvantage to bitcoin is that there are many countries where bitcoin is not accepted and there is no single store where bitcoin is accepted as a payment method. So people face problemn while spending bitcoins or they don't use bitcoins  to buy things of their daily use due to no store available to accept btc. If coins accepted in offline stores then it is more easy and helpful for bitcoin users.

[20kevin20]

The main disadvantage to bitcoin is that there are many countries where bitcoin is not accepted and there is no single store where bitcoin is accepted as a payment method. So people face problemn while spending bitcoins or they don't use bitcoins  to buy things of their daily use due to no store available to accept btc. If coins accepted in offline stores then it is more easy and helpful for bitcoin users.

The main problem is that the stores accepting Bitcoin are not the popular ones, and even if they are, they are not advertising that payment method as they should. I always see big "PayPal Accepted Here" stickers, I noticed them many times and then I looked to see what PayPal was. We need advertisement if we want to get more Bitcoin users and a higher demand. There will be more countries banning Bitcoin soon, it has to happen. But that won't stop many from using it, especially if we know how to hide our identity and stuff.

[Chikito]

The main disadvantage to bitcoin is that there are many countries where bitcoin is not accepted and there is no single store where bitcoin is accepted as a payment method. So people face problemn while spending bitcoins or they don't use bitcoins  to buy things of their daily use due to no store available to accept btc. If coins accepted in offline stores then it is more easy and helpful for bitcoin users.

The main problem is that the stores accepting Bitcoin are not the popular ones, and even if they are, they are not advertising that payment method as they should. I always see big "PayPal Accepted Here" stickers, I noticed them many times and then I looked to see what PayPal was. We need advertisement if we want to get more Bitcoin users and a higher demand. There will be more countries banning Bitcoin soon, it has to happen. But that won't stop many from using it, especially if we know how to hide our identity and stuff.

you probably a lot of truth, if only all countries ban the bitcoin transaction will not eliminate the essence of currency bitcoin. fixed and there are still many people who will be using bitcoin

[1Referee]

The main problem is that the stores accepting Bitcoin are not the popular ones, and even if they are, they are not advertising that payment method as they should. I always see big "PayPal Accepted Here" stickers, I noticed them many times and then I looked to see what PayPal was. We need advertisement if we want to get more Bitcoin users and a higher demand. There will be more countries banning Bitcoin soon, it has to happen. But that won't stop many from using it, especially if we know how to hide our identity and stuff.

Advertising that Bitcoin is accepted in your store is nice of course, but in the end it will not have any impact of importance. It's the mentality that has to change. People are either buying themselves into Bitcoin because they are looking for an investment, or they just buy Bitcoin for trading purposes. Either way, in both cases the coins end up being converted to fiat to fully benefit from the profits. It's a very small minority that actually treats Bitcoin as a currency tool for purchasing all kinds of goods. As long as that doesn't change, then there won't be much interest coming from people looking to use Bitcoin as currency. That's of course when it comes to using Bitcoin as currency in physical stores. When it comes to transferring money from one place to another, then Bitcoin is really showing its true potential of making fiat services obsolete.

[Akash1243]

It is not legalise in many countries

[ReLieD]

I personally believe the disadvantages i am going to state will probably be an advantage in the near future :-
First of all there are only a few countries that accept bitcoin
Even only a few famous companies accept bitcoin.
Secondly , very few people prefer to trade in Bitcoin.
Moreover , only few people (by few i mean 5% of the total population) know about bitcoin.
So these are the disadvantages of bitcoin which they have to overcome.

[megynacuna]

I personally believe the disadvantages i am going to state will probably be an advantage in the near future :-
First of all there are only a few countries that accept bitcoin
Even only a few famous companies accept bitcoin.
Secondly , very few people prefer to trade in Bitcoin.
Moreover , only few people (by few i mean 5% of the total population) know about bitcoin.
So these are the disadvantages of bitcoin which they have to overcome.

I beg to differ my brother, even though Bitcoin isn't known to many people worldwide as we'd appreciate but the population of people involved in bitcoins would topple all countries around the world individually except China, India and a few. The real disadvantage of bitcoin in my opinion is rather its lack of proper security systems to check its negative usage(ie. Money laundering, drugs,, etc.) by "bad" people and organizations that's hindering its full-time implementation by governments around the globe.

[Xester]

I personally believe the disadvantages i am going to state will probably be an advantage in the near future :-
First of all there are only a few countries that accept bitcoin
Even only a few famous companies accept bitcoin.
Secondly , very few people prefer to trade in Bitcoin.
Moreover , only few people (by few i mean 5% of the total population) know about bitcoin.
So these are the disadvantages of bitcoin which they have to overcome.

I beg to differ my brother, even though Bitcoin isn't known to many people worldwide as we'd appreciate but the population of people involved in bitcoins would topple all countries around the world individually except China, India and a few. The real disadvantage of bitcoin in my opinion is rather its lack of proper security systems to check its negative usage(ie. Money laundering, drugs,, etc.) by "bad" people and organizations that's hindering its full-time implementation by governments around the globe.

In my opinion the items that you mentioned can really bring huge disadvantages to bitcoin. If Money Laundering, tax evasion, drugs, selling of weapons and other illicit activities will continue to rise the government will possibly ban bitcoin to stop this illegal activities. But aside from that the slow transactions also is the big problem and existence of scammer and hackers is the main disadvantage in bitcoin that must be resolve fast.

[MicroGuy]

What's preventing Bitcoins from being accepted as mainstream payment forms? I'm working on a new blockchain and would like to learn what drawbacks of Bitcoin urgently need to be improved

It's going to take a little time. Cryptocurrency has obsoleted fiat, the world just doesn't know it yet.

[Xenophoto]

I personally believe the disadvantages i am going to state will probably be an advantage in the near future :-
First of all there are only a few countries that accept bitcoin
Even only a few famous companies accept bitcoin.
Secondly , very few people prefer to trade in Bitcoin.
Moreover , only few people (by few i mean 5% of the total population) know about bitcoin.
So these are the disadvantages of bitcoin which they have to overcome.

I beg to differ my brother, even though Bitcoin isn't known to many people worldwide as we'd appreciate but the population of people involved in bitcoins would topple all countries around the world individually except China, India and a few. The real disadvantage of bitcoin in my opinion is rather its lack of proper security systems to check its negative usage(ie. Money laundering, drugs,, etc.) by "bad" people and organizations that's hindering its full-time implementation by governments around the globe.

In my opinion, no one actually cares about those stuffs. Even when we successfully create a security that checks this and that, then what? No one cares about that. That very same set of actions will be done by people anyway. Eventually they will find a way to avoid or bypass the system check that you've made.

I don't agree with the first guy that bitcoin is being accepted by "few famous companies". If so, then give us an example of a famous company that accepts bitcoins, or maybe even just a fairly or relatively famous company. I can't think of one, honestly.

[Bitcotalk]

I personally believe the disadvantages i am going to state will probably be an advantage in the near future :-
First of all there are only a few countries that accept bitcoin
Even only a few famous companies accept bitcoin.
Secondly , very few people prefer to trade in Bitcoin.
Moreover , only few people (by few i mean 5% of the total population) know about bitcoin.
So these are the disadvantages of bitcoin which they have to overcome.

I beg to differ my brother, even though Bitcoin isn't known to many people worldwide as we'd appreciate but the population of people involved in bitcoins would topple all countries around the world individually except China, India and a few. The real disadvantage of bitcoin in my opinion is rather its lack of proper security systems to check its negative usage(ie. Money laundering, drugs,, etc.) by "bad" people and organizations that's hindering its full-time implementation by governments around the globe.

But that things which you mentioned is done with bitcoin is now increasingly reduced. The exchanges and wallets are now using the mean of verification of identity and bitcoin bought through these exchanges cannot be used easily for any illegal things. For that acts we cannot blame bitcoin but for redusing illegal activities we need to work on the mentality of our society.

[ethereumhunter]

I personally believe the disadvantages i am going to state will probably be an advantage in the near future :-
First of all there are only a few countries that accept bitcoin
Even only a few famous companies accept bitcoin.
Secondly , very few people prefer to trade in Bitcoin.
Moreover , only few people (by few i mean 5% of the total population) know about bitcoin.
So these are the disadvantages of bitcoin which they have to overcome.

I beg to differ my brother, even though Bitcoin isn't known to many people worldwide as we'd appreciate but the population of people involved in bitcoins would topple all countries around the world individually except China, India and a few. The real disadvantage of bitcoin in my opinion is rather its lack of proper security systems to check its negative usage(ie. Money laundering, drugs,, etc.) by "bad" people and organizations that's hindering its full-time implementation by governments around the globe.

In my opinion the items that you mentioned can really bring huge disadvantages to bitcoin. If Money Laundering, tax evasion, drugs, selling of weapons and other illicit activities will continue to rise the government will possibly ban bitcoin to stop this illegal activities. But aside from that the slow transactions also is the big problem and existence of scammer and hackers is the main disadvantage in bitcoin that must be resolve fast.

with the biggest disadvantages of bitcoin, then i think that team behind of bitcoin will fixing the problems and make it work properly. beside that, i think bitcoin community itself will prevent for illegal activity that being used by bad people, because i am sure that bitcoin user is a solid community that want bitcoin to be mass adoption in every where.

[freemanjackal]

there are a lot people that does not know anything about bitcoin yet, you can not buy whatever you want with bitcoins
and in my case, it is hard for me exchange it for fiat currency, most people use bitcoins as an investment, rigth now i am no doing it that way