Is Mass Adoption even possible..

[European Central Bank]

mass adoption in what form?

as a currency? nope. i don't think that'll ever be possible. it's too expensive to transact now on a modest basis and people won't accept the volatility.

the most likely possibility is as a gold alternative. but it doesn't really need mass adoption for that either. how mass adopted is gold? i don't know anyone who has any.

[jakelyson]

Cryptos are almost like stocks and most people have no interest in learning stocks even though the stock exchange is trusted platform.

Thoughts?

Almost like stocks but not totally stocks. Crypto are currencies which can be used to purchase items. Though it can be used as a store of value, its main purpose is as a method of payment. There is always resistance to change, and people will resist that cryptocurrency is the future. Give it time, mass adoption will come.

[harizen]

Cryptos are almost like stocks and most people have no interest in learning stocks even though the stock exchange is trusted platform.

Thoughts?

Stocks are stocks and the only to get profit from it is to learned it obviously. The ways of it, how system works etc. No other way e.g just sit back and relax. So for others, it's really a boring one.

Unlike in crypto, people have an option to just hold their coins and wait for the trend.

Back in the thread title, mass adoption is possible but not globally since bitcoin are prohibited in some of the countries resulting for neighbor countries to think the same.

[ImHash]

What do you care? be grateful that you are involved in the future technology, did you know smart phones existed 30 yeas ago? but now we only have access to them since 10 years. however I think Satoshi wanted to make a joke by saying microtransactions is needed but same time made the small space for blocks. every car has it's limits when comes to speed, are we really going to limit ourselves to 3 tx per second? if yes then we are asking for a better version with better engine yet keeping the old car?

[NUFCrichard]

Cryptos are almost like stocks and most people have no interest in learning stocks even though the stock exchange is trusted platform.

Thoughts?

It depends on what you class as mass adoption.
I would say that Fiat is fully adopted, Gold and silver are not really fully adopted anymore I mean people buy them but I reckon real stackers are a low percentage of the population.

Stocks and shares are kind of adopted, I mean people have pensions! Property is pretty widely adopted too.

I think Bitcoin can fit in near Gold and Silver, in that plenty of people have very small amounts, but real holders are quite rare. I don't see it reaching the level of any of the others that I mentioned.

[lionheart78]

Cryptos are almost like stocks and most people have no interest in learning stocks even though the stock exchange is trusted platform.

Thoughts?

Isn't masses started adopting bitcoin?  Well that is because I consider us as part of that masses you  are talking about.  With that I can say, i disagree with you, people are interested but most just don't have a way to get into holding a stocks or get into that stock exchange platform.  But Bitcoin make it easy aside from that,

bitcoin is different than stocks, you can't spend stocks or a portion of a stock (paying for coffee with $1 worth of stock) but you can do that with bitcoin.

and that is a big difference already in my opinion.

[Arvydas77]

As a transactional currency, it has no chance unless we can reach consensus on a scaling path.  3 transactions per second is a joke.

As an investment, all we need is for the SEC to get out of the way and allow ETFs and options on those ETFs.  That will give bitcoin the liquidity it needs to be taken seriously by the people who have enough capital to take us to the next order of magnitude.  It will also make bitcoin available as an investment vehicle to anyone with a brokerage account or self directed IRA.

That is exactly my point of view. Until scaling issue is unresolved Bitcoin denomination as a world currency sounds like a joke. However, we all understand that any mistake determined by rush could destroy a whole ecosystem. So, I expect changes in the future but very measured. Bitcoin developers are flagmans of all crypto community. They know what they do and understand their responsability. Debates on development are normal issues and I think it will contribute to the best of it.

As about investment, I agree that ETFs will give liquidity and serious treatment from the investors side.

[Carmen_Sandiego]

I think it is, but if Bitcoin achieved mass adoption under current circumstances, probably the network would be congested, more users would complain about confirmation time problems, and many merchants would hesitate to adopt the currency. I think the scaling issue is something serious, and must be solved for Bitcoin to achieve mass adoption.

[chaser15]

Cryptos are almost like stocks and most people have no interest in learning stocks even though the stock exchange is trusted platform.

Thoughts?

If cryptos are only meant the same way stocks are handled, I think most of the people will not entered this kind of thing in the web. First of all, most of people care for profits without going too much on learning technical analysis and more mathematics. Economical price thing isn't one of the subject that most profit earners want, at least those average ones.

People can earn profit from cryptos even just using the basic rule of buy and sell or even idle it and wait for price increase. Really different compare on studying the stock exchange.

[d5000]

I'm a bit more optimistic than most people here. What @r0ach is writing is basically true - Bitcoin does not make sense as a simple object of "value" storage. And as Bitcoin is not a "scarce" thing like gold (its software can be replicated) its intrinsic value is totally dependent on the network of users and services around it.

But Bitcoin can reach a certain level of "mass adoption" if it improves its usability for its main target audience: people who move money between different countries and currencies - tourists, immigrants and emigrants, business travellers and multinational companies of all sizes. With off-chain transaction methods available for micropayments and the possibility to interoperate with other blockchains (atomic cross-chain swaps) an interesting payment network could emerge.

How large would be that audience? I guess in the hundreds of millions (about 100-500 times more than now).

[alyssa85]

As a transactional currency, it has no chance unless we can reach consensus on a scaling path.  3 transactions per second is a joke.

As an investment, all we need is for the SEC to get out of the way and allow ETFs and options on those ETFs.  That will give bitcoin the liquidity it needs to be taken seriously by the people who have enough capital to take us to the next order of magnitude.  It will also make bitcoin available as an investment vehicle to anyone with a brokerage account or self directed IRA.

Well we shall get a decision on the Winklevoss ETF on March 11th:

http://www.etf.com/sections/features-and-news/decision-bitcoin-etf-coming-march-11

Lets hope it is favourable.

[romero121]

I think it is, but if Bitcoin achieved mass adoption under current circumstances, probably the network would be congested, more users would complain about confirmation time problems, and many merchants would hesitate to adopt the currency. I think the scaling issue is something serious, and must be solved for Bitcoin to achieve mass adoption.

Such issues will be there, but the system as well the developer team has solution to make it better and support the mass adoption and overcome those related issues. As now too on every update the scaling problems have been getting solved slowly.

[Tanic]

Bitcoin's technology really may seemed hard for understanding for many people. But bitcoin as money awakes lot of interest as from ordinary people as from investors. Bitcoin adoption is pretty possible to happen, but maybe not all countries will accept it as payment on their territory.

[Skjöld]

You are assuming that people will come to Bitcoin to become rich. This period is over now. They will maybe get a return of 3 or 4 if they invest now and are patient, but this is ridiculous compared to the 100x some people have made and will make in the future. The axis where Bitcoin promotion need to be made is on why this is good for them : faster and cheaper transfers.

[error08]

Cryptos are almost like stocks and most people have no interest in learning stocks even though the stock exchange is trusted platform.

Thoughts?

Cryptocurrencies are different compare to stocks, bitcoin created as digital currency in the first place.
And now we've seen bitcoin used as medium of exchange in some parts of payment transaction.
Mass adoption won't ever happen if the transaction number per second is limited by block size.
We know that exchange/wallet platforms vote for increase block size limit and hopefully we will see the implementation soon.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_size_limit_controversy

[Slark]

Cryptos are almost like stocks and most people have no interest in learning stocks even though the stock exchange is trusted platform.

Thoughts?

Cryptocurrency is not like stocks - it is people are using bitcoin as speculative investment method similar to stock market because of its volatile nature.
When we will reach higher adoption status price will go up and price will stabilize, so BTC become less of speculation game and more like currency system.

[Riddikulo]

Is not possible, not with the current blockchain and mining system. We need to descentralize all the system, no more chineses masive mining farms and exchanges.

[Kakmakr]

Well Bitcoin is defined as a commodity and commodities are usually traded on stock exchanges. The average person on the street might find it difficult to comprehend the fact that Bitcoin can be traded like a stock and used as a currency. We have a new technology here, that are not clearly defined yet.

People are lazy, and will over think this without spending the time to experiment first, and this will cause problems with future adoption. 

[Sundark]

Well Bitcoin is defined as a commodity and commodities are usually traded on stock exchanges. The average person on the street might find it difficult to comprehend the fact that Bitcoin can be traded like a stock and used as a currency. We have a new technology here, that are not clearly defined yet.

People are lazy, and will over think this without spending the time to experiment first, and this will cause problems with future adoption. 

Bitcoin is not defined as commodity unanimously. There is more that one definition of bitcoin and every country has its own interpretation.
So far I heard that BTC is: digital currency, commodity, asset or something undefined.
Countries which defined BTC as commodity and not currency did that because they want to milk bitcoin with more taxes.

[BitFinnese]

I think it is, but if Bitcoin achieved mass adoption under current circumstances, probably the network would be congested, more users would complain about confirmation time problems, and many merchants would hesitate to adopt the currency. I think the scaling issue is something serious, and must be solved for Bitcoin to achieve mass adoption.

I think developer can see this clearly that is why there are lots of solution each team of developer is suggesting to the point they argue about it.  I still believe that mass adoption is very possible with bitcoin. Lots of promotion, advertisement and company especially those that are using network marketing scheme that are keep on pushing bitcoin and introduce it to different people.