my issues with Bitcoin, despite loving it.

[d_seaman]

I did a couple videos on my YouTube channel that have been popular w/ the Bitcoin community, now even appearing in the first page of results when people search for Bitcoin on YouTube.

Despite loving my experience so far, and the helpful/passionate community that BTC has exposed me to, some lingering issues:

1) Constant talk of being in a bubble is annoying. People should stop treating this as an investment, and treat it as a community/passion/idea.
2) Related: the psychological mosquito of knowing I've paid hundreds of dollars for a digital currency I was interested in a year ago, and should have bought then.
3) Takes, in my opinion, too long for transactions to settle. It has been a couple hours now, and I still have an unconfirmed transaction in the ether (will that eventually go into my account?) and the vast majority of my balance is not yet available to spend... quite unnerving. At least with PayPal, despite the fees, there is no ambiguity or possibility of a payment slipping into 'unconfirmed' never never land.

Don't get me wrong, I think Bitcoin will eventually eat up PayPal's $145 billion payment volume, before eventually wiping out PayPal and the credit card processing model altogether. But if other users have to experience these anxieties on a daily basis, I'm not sure if it will ever go as mainstream as I'd like it to.

Your thoughts?

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[vm1990]

the transaction is probably taking so long because it has no transaction fees, if you include transaction fee the transaction clears withing 30mins or so the higher the fees you pay the higher protrity it gets abd the quicker its rushed through the network

also the only reason people say its a bubble is because of the way bitcoin has shot up so much in the last week or 2 but i truly believe bitcoin wont come back down not any time soon anyway

and as for number 2 theres lots od things in life like that i remember selling 1000 bitcoins for $90 so yes its painful but its life and thats how it works

[winnate]

Bitcoin verification should rise with the new introduction of ASIC systems, which will increase the rate that payments are confirmed.  I could be wrong, but thats my reasonable thought, unless difficulty increase also affects the rate at which you can confirm transactions.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Bitcoin verification should rise with the new introduction of ASIC systems, which will increase the rate that payments are confirmed.  I could be wrong, but thats my reasonable thought, unless difficulty increase also affects the rate at which you can confirm transactions.

Not true.  The network compensates to increased hashing power by raising difficulty and keeping block interval at roughly 10 minutes.  If you want faster confirmations you can pay a small fee and go to front of the line.

[btmstr]

one of the biggest issues preventing it from going "mainstream" is the technological gap in the average persons understanding. My mom refuses to use a computer or get a smartphone, im forced to send her a paper letter snail mail, cause she dont have an email address, so she will never use bitcoins, im sure she is not alone in that respect.
there is also about 2 billion people in this world who do not have electricity, cell towers, or internet, yet these people do have/use money, (of some sort) granted not much.
i can deal with payments not confirming right away, i got to wait 3 days for one to clear using the governments funny money.

[DannyHamilton]

- snip -
My mom refuses to use a computer or get a smartphone, im forced to send her a paper letter snail mail, cause she dont have an email address, so she will never use bitcoins, im sure she is not alone in that respect.
- snip -

Bitcoin is still in it's infancy.

It is my assumption that eventually there will be "bitcoin banks" that will come in to existence to support people like that.  They will charge a very small fee to keep your bitcoins secure for you and provide you with a 3 ⅜ × 2 ⅛ in (85.60 × 53.98 mm) plastic card to access the account.  When she goes to a merchant, she'll pull her "bitcoin card" out of her purse and swipe it at the terminal at the point of sale.  This will identify her purchase to the "bitcoin bank", and the appropriate amount of bitcoins will be transferred to the merchant.  Depending on the risk the merchant is willing to take and/or the contract they have with the bank, she may be required to provide a signature on a receipt or a PIN on the terminal.

[winnate]

Bitcoin verification should rise with the new introduction of ASIC systems, which will increase the rate that payments are confirmed.  I could be wrong, but thats my reasonable thought, unless difficulty increase also affects the rate at which you can confirm transactions.

Not true.  The network compensates to increased hashing power by raising difficulty and keeping block interval at roughly 10 minutes.  If you want faster confirmations you can pay a small fee and go to front of the line.

Thanks for the clarification, I always understood the transaction fee placing you further ahead but never fully understood whether or not the transaction confirmations and mining difficulty correction correlated but after thinking about a little deeper it makes sense.