what hinders bitcoin to become a mainstream currency?

[iram3130]

Lack of awareness In the people about Bitcoin.
Lack of partnerships with some huge companies like Amazon and eBay.
Anonymous transactions feature because government's want to know all of your transactions.
Decentralization, because government's hate what they can't control.
I think all of these related to Bitcoin will hinder Bitcoin to become a mainstem currency.
And recently the delay in the confirmations of transactions.

[easynote]

People like to use Bitcoin for weird things, I am sure that Bitcoin is not a mainstream currency because of that fact -it's because people complain on the speed of the confirmations.

[olarsson]

Banks and the people with real power dont like it because they live of centralization of moneyhandling.

Core team is determined to make bitcoin to shit, so that solutions that are controlled by the establishment can replace it.

[xSkylarx]

Security? Crime? Inflation?
Bitcoin is money and thus serves the same functions that any money does: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.But can it prominently satisfy all these functions?

I think it's because, sometimes, people like to see and feel things. Bitcoin exist only online, so people still have some doubts about it. All the fiat currencies in the world can be seen and felt, but it's not so with bitcoin and other crptocurrencies, and people are used to such system of money.

I'm not so sure that when they would "see and feel" their bitcoin, that is, sleazy Chinese stealing electricity to feed their mining hallways, they would feel better about it 

It is due to the fact that Bitcoin is mysterious that is people without enough knowledge what really it is. They see it as dangerous, full of risks, which results from the infamous scenes in connection with the cyberworld that is online scammers particularly.

[Xester]

People like to use Bitcoin for weird things, I am sure that Bitcoin is not a mainstream currency because of that fact -it's because people complain on the speed of the confirmations.

Slow confirmations is one of the reasons why bitcoin has been slow to reach the mainstream. But I have thought of things that will make bitcoin impossible to be included in the mainstream currency and one of it was the number of bitcoin in circulation and the second is that the countries are treating bitcoin as a commodity with a value rather than a currency. With this given fact it will be impossible for bitcoin to be included in the mainstream currency but the positive side is it will be accepted as a mode of payment for goods and services.

[Juggy777]

Security? Crime? Inflation?
Bitcoin is money and thus serves the same functions that any money does: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.But can it prominently satisfy all these functions?

First of all Bitcoin is sadly limited not unlimited biggest fault. Secondly government can't charge any tax on it so they won't allow it. One can never know the real identity of a person in Bitcoin transactions, so if you are scammed you can't do any thing about it. Then the biggest nightmare is the speed of the transactions sometimes it takes days and weeks. Oh and I forgot to add you need to pay fees. So government accepting all this is difficult, but then recently Japan gas accepted it, so this could be a game changer.

[frogger_]

You can't really blame banks or government, because bitcoin by design is supposed to decrease the power they have over a person's wealth. Of course they will be opposed to it. Bitcoin however is supposed to be disruptive and succeed regardless of what banks and government want to do. How will the government stop you from sending out 500-bytes of transaction data into the internet? Shut down the entire internet? There's not much they can do.

People need an incentive. Average people don't immediately see the incentive for using Bitcoin over more established and common payment methods. There's just no benefit to pay for coffee using BTC instead if your Visa.

The way I see it, there is only one benefit for using bitcoin. And that's untethering yourself from the institutions that have designed systems that make it easy for them to take cuts of your wealth away from you or regulate the kinds of businesses you can run. Mainly through various taxes or "fees" that you cannot escape from. There is no other reason to use it. Ultimately, the benefits of avoiding these costs have to be realized and taken advantage of by merchants, and the savings have to trickle down to the customers which will function as an incentive for them to move at least parts of their wealth over to digital currency.

For instance, an online business that offers a 25% discount to users who pay with Bitcoin over traditional payment methods. That will make sense for everyone.

[jorneyflair]

Security? Crime? Inflation?
Bitcoin is money and thus serves the same functions that any money does: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.But can it prominently satisfy all these functions?

Indeed, if we would like to see every single country switching its previous currency on bitcoin , that would have been a big problem.
It is not really fast right now, because of the blockchain issues, and the fees are way too high.
Imagine that you have to pay for a every single thing with bitcoin, if you would like to buy matchsticks, the transaction commision would cost evem more that the product bought!

But after all, it is very secure store of value, still more better than a regular fiats: but we need changes to develop it ultimately.

[Baby Dragon]

I thinks is luck of partnership bitcoin needs a lot of partnership in many company in order to become the mainstream currency if no store is accepting bitcoin no one will gonna use bitcoin in some cases but still bitcoin have anonymous transaction.

[stripykitteh]

Lack of awareness In the people about Bitcoin.
Lack of partnerships with some huge companies like Amazon and eBay.
Anonymous transactions feature because government's want to know all of your transactions.
Decentralization, because government's hate what they can't control.
I think all of these related to Bitcoin will hinder Bitcoin to become a mainstem currency.
And recently the delay in the confirmations of transactions.

Bitcoin being accepted by the mainstream would be pretty nice. That would mean that the price of Bitcoin will be pretty high because there would be more people are using it to make payments and that such.
If Bitcoin does get to the point where it's worth a bunch of money then I kind of have a feeling that Bitcoin's Blockchain will slow down because there won't be as much people wanting to spend to coins online or offline for fiat.

[jovs]

The government is the main obstacle that hinders bitcoin. The crimes are not caused by bitcoin, it is caused by people and they use bitcoin to make that crime, even fiat is not to be blamed so why blame it on bitcoin. Inflation is not a new thing. It has always been there since fiat exist and since bitcoin is like fiat in a way, then inflation will be there also. As for the security, bitcoin's security is strong enough to withstand attacks, wallets and exchanges are the one who are prone to attacks.

Going back to the government (in some countries), they impede bitcoin's progress and growth because of its anonymity and decentralization. We cannot blame bitcoin for being like that because bitcoin is bitcoin and that's that, the government just have to compromise and deal with bitcoin just the way it is.

Indeed the government is the main reason why bitcoin does not become a mainstream currency. Because the legality is the issue in some country where the government tend to block bitcoin on transaction because they know that there is a higher chance to develop bitcoin resulting  for choosing bitcoin instead of fiat or paper money where they can manage and control. We all know that bitcoin is not legal in terms that the government cannot manage people transaction. So in other they cannot have a part of money out of bitcoin or in other term corruption. So for me bitcoin being a mainstream currency is not so need by bitcoin for now because bitcoin is good as of now to its transaction and price changes. And for me its the best way to attract people on using it as it develop more to become a true mainstream currency.

[dinofelis]

Bitcoin being accepted by the mainstream would be pretty nice. That would mean that the price of Bitcoin will be pretty high because there would be more people are using it to make payments and that such.
If Bitcoin does get to the point where it's worth a bunch of money then I kind of have a feeling that Bitcoin's Blockchain will slow down because there won't be as much people wanting to spend to coins online or offline for fiat.

I think you've illustrated perfectly what "hinders bitcoin to become mainstream": there's no need for it.  Bitcoin doesn't offer to the mainstream, any marvellous possibility that they don't already have: be able to pay for things on the internet.  Most people buying stuff on the internet, have credit cards that allow them to.  Most people that could use bitcoin, have bank accounts (fiat bank accounts) that they use for receiving payments and sending payments.  Even though it costs some money to do so, this works very well for most people, and bitcoin doesn't solve a problem for them.
The fantastic possibility that bitcoin offers: "paying people on the internet", has already a widely used solution for most people, a solution they know, works well, and they are comfortable with: their bank and their credit card.  So why would they use bitcoin ?

The very fact that you say that this will make bitcoins very expensive, means that you are essentially (like most people) into it for "gains".  But what are gains in bitcoin ? They are: buying bitcoins cheap (and hence, early) to sell them expensively (and hence, late) to the last layer of adopters: a greater fool game.  Greater fool games come down when one runs out of greater fools.

Of course, there is the possibility of a global financial crisis that brings down the entire fiat system.  THEN, of course, people will not trust their banks and their credit cards any more.   Then bitcoin or other crypto will offer them something they can use, and that solves a problem for them.

But as it is now, there's not much in normal usage that can create a demand for bitcoin by most people.  If you tell them that they can stop using their bank, but now they have to go to an exchange on the internet, do a registration with AML/KYC rules, send their fiat money there, to get bitcoin, do finally their payment in bitcoin on the internet, what's the difference between a bank that is strictly under legal scrutiny, and an exchange that is somewhat more risky ? You have to use your bank, an exchange, and bitcoin, and pay fees on all of them, instead of just using your bank.  What good is that ?

There ARE applications of crypto: where fiat cannot go.  But most people don't go there either.

And yes, the greater fool game of "buying bitcoin now, when there is still low adoption, and sell it later, when there's full adoption" can still go on a long time.  But if you see that almost everybody already adopted bitcoin, why would you join ?  And who will pay for it then ?

[dinofelis]

People need an incentive. Average people don't immediately see the incentive for using Bitcoin over more established and common payment methods. There's just no benefit to pay for coffee using BTC instead if your Visa.

The way I see it, there is only one benefit for using bitcoin. And that's untethering yourself from the institutions that have designed systems that make it easy for them to take cuts of your wealth away from you or regulate the kinds of businesses you can run. Mainly through various taxes or "fees" that you cannot escape from. There is no other reason to use it.

But you realize that in doing so, you create another problem.  There are a few whales out there that, if bitcoin were the world's money, would possess essentially several percent of the whole world economy, for the sole feat of being early adopters, the ultimate winners of the greater-fool game, when the whole world bought into it.  The Bill Gates of this world would be small players against some Roger Ver, MPex, and those twins, and, who knows, the owners of the original Satoshi keys if that was a group or if he was an employee.  You'd have the ultimate kings of finance there, like no banker's family ever dreamed of in its wildest wet dreams, and nothing to say about it.
On the other hand, whatever entity would be "mining" / "signing" or whatever making the block chain, would be the ultimate financial control institution.  Right now it is a few Chinese guys.  What will it be then ?  That's far worse than the current fiat system as matters of control, permission, seigniorage and wealth.

[Raven91]

Security? Crime? Inflation?
Bitcoin is money and thus serves the same functions that any money does: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.But can it prominently satisfy all these functions?

The main reason is the inflation since volatility is the cause why some traders are affraid to trade bitcoin. Crime doesn't belong since any for of money can he used negatively. Regarding the security, bitcoin is proven to secure its holders.

[SoulBargain]

Security? Crime? Inflation?
Bitcoin is money and thus serves the same functions that any money does: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.But can it prominently satisfy all these functions?

I think it's because, sometimes, people like to see and feel things. Bitcoin exist only online, so people still have some doubts about it. All the fiat currencies in the world can be seen and felt, but it's not so with bitcoin and other crptocurrencies, and people are used to such system of money.

I'm not so sure that when they would "see and feel" their bitcoin, that is, sleazy Chinese stealing electricity to feed their mining hallways, they would feel better about it 

It is due to the fact that Bitcoin is mysterious that is people without enough knowledge what really it is. They see it as dangerous, full of risks, which results from the infamous scenes in connection with the cyberworld that is online scammers particularly.

Let's turn it more in the right path. As people know that money is something that has a physical form that is, ofcourse, used as a medium of transactions or exchange. Bitcoin on the other hand has no concrete form that only exist in the cyberworld hence judge it without a proper knowledge aside from what they know and in connection with this is the infamous news about online scams which weakens the credebility of the things goin on in the online world.

Ignorance might be one of those major reasons together with its complexity at first glance which drive the older people (those who work especially in government offices) to stay away with this for they can't really underastand it without trying to.

Awareness together with proper knowledge and having a wise decision in regards with the risk it shoulders like the fiat money that we have today but only with a touch of a new and more modern way.

[dinofelis]

Let's turn it more in the right path. As people know that money is something that has a physical form that is, ofcourse, used as a medium of transactions or exchange. Bitcoin on the other hand has no concrete form that only exist in the cyberworld hence judge it without a proper knowledge aside from what they know and in connection with this is the infamous news about online scams which weakens the credebility of the things goin on in the online world.

I would think that the money on my bank account doesn't exist in any other physical form than as a number in a bank computer (and hopefully, its backup).  I think that most people, since they use bank cards and credit cards, are used to "plastic money".
I simply think that for most people, bitcoin doesn't solve any problem that they can't already solve, in any more practical way, on the contrary.

I essentially only use bitcoin to buy services on the internet (like VPN and VPS) when I don't want it to be too easily traced to me (I have no illusions about the safety of that towards 3-letter offices, but I don't think I'm a problem for them).  But buying stuff on Amazon is easier with a credit card, and less stressful about making a mistake.

[no0dlepunk]

these coins do not have physical form that's why they cannot be used as mainstream currency. there are people who do not have access to the internet, these people certainly cannot use bitcoins. if bitcoins are accessible by the poor then there could be a chance of it becoming a mainstream money.

[Etanllah]

I personally think a lot of it the news it gets. Outside of Bitcoin related media outlets the only news that hits the mainstream is negative news. You will see articles about someone getting scammed through the use of bitcoin. Or you will hear about a healthcare company getting hit with Crypto locker and they have to spend X amount of Bitcoins to get their data back.

Stuff like this happens anyways, its just unfortunate that it gets tied to Bitcoin then ignorant people assume that people are doing this BECAUSE of Bitcoin.

It would be great for positive news to hit the mainstream news and get some traction.

[Mumbeeptind1963]

Security? Crime? Inflation?
Bitcoin is money and thus serves the same functions that any money does: a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value.But can it prominently satisfy all these functions?

the transaction issues, it maybe one of those reason, many people are being disappointed in the transaction of every payment that we are waiting, it takes hours or day , and in our online wallet, as time passes by, the transaction fee are getting big too.

[speem28]

Goverment and people awareness of bitcoin is the main obstacle for bitcoin to become a currency. Goverment want to have their own currency which they can control, Goverment also has the right to create some regulation for bitcoin. No proper regulation = no merchant dare to risk their own business to accept bitcoin.

Yes, but I doubt that the government will make a proper regulation that will benefit both people and the government. Instead, they will implement a law or policy that will surely let them control people using bitcoin and it will only benefit them.