Welcome to Bitcoin Black Friday

[Alpaca John]

Crypto currencies are still in their infancy. When the tech barrier for entry & use drops to the point where they become easy to use for the average consumer their value will explode.

In order for this to happen, there has to be some kind of regulation and rules. If the average Joe purchases an item with BitCoin and the item that arrives is broken, there is no way to file a claim in any way. The average Joe will want someone to go to in times like this. BitCoin being one way only, is a big problem for the average user, and scares them.

Which is also the reason cash has never worked. /sarcasm

[edd]

Crypto currencies are still in their infancy. When the tech barrier for entry & use drops to the point where they become easy to use for the average consumer their value will explode.

In order for this to happen, there has to be some kind of regulation and rules. If the average Joe purchases an item with BitCoin and the item that arrives is broken, there is no way to file a claim in any way. The average Joe will want someone to go to in times like this. BitCoin being one way only, is a big problem for the average user, and scares them.

Which is also the reason cash has never worked. /sarcasm

I agree with Alpaca John. I don't think most consumers rely on banks or credit card companies to protect them from businesses with shoddy products or poor customer service. They might eventually try to have a charge reversed or declined but many will exhaust other avenues first, especially if the merchant they bought from is a large, well known entity with an historically long record of providing goods or services.

The most unsatisfactory characteristic, IMHO, of the BTC economy is that it's still too new to tell who is reliable and who isn't. Only time will tell.

[MiningUnited]

I agree with Alpaca John. I don't think most consumers rely on banks or credit card companies to protect them from businesses with shoddy products or poor customer service.

I guess you are right. It would depend on the merchant to right any wrongs, but if they don't, I just don't see any other safety net. What if your BitCoin wallet was compromised and someone purchased a lot of random services, or gambled it all away. Would it be up to the BitCoin wallet provider to correct this? The merchant? Or is it a "sorry about your luck!"? This is what I mean by the general population will not be so keen to the idea.

[edd]

I agree with Alpaca John. I don't think most consumers rely on banks or credit card companies to protect them from businesses with shoddy products or poor customer service.

I guess you are right. It would depend on the merchant to right any wrongs, but if they don't, I just don't see any other safety net. What if your BitCoin wallet was compromised and someone purchased a lot of random services, or gambled it all away. Would it be up to the BitCoin wallet provider to correct this? The merchant? Or is it a "sorry about your luck!"? This is what I mean by the general population will not be so keen to the idea.

Again, using cash as an analogy offers solutions (albeit unsatisfactory). If your wallet get stolen out of your pocket, how would you expect to get it back? The fairest course of action would be to find the thief and retrieve it or have him repay you if he's already spent the money. While there may be ways to utilize the blockchain to help identify thieves or trace transactions after someone hat attempted to cover their tracks,  no one should assume it is built into the system.

[Lorren]

The average person understands physical theft though.  They know how to safeguard a wallet and keep valuables locked up into a safe.  There are a lot more people who still don't know not to click on suspicious links and keep their computers free from spyware and viruses.  Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable.  My 10 year old is always clicking on links, despite our repeated warnings not to install any software without asking us.  It seems like every few months or so, we're cleaning out her computer getting rid of junk that she shouldn't have installed.

[coveredbeetle11772]

 We haven't witnessed the real crash, yet.

[Malawi]

We haven't witnessed the real crash, yet.

Nope, but it's comming.

Was quite supprised at how high it rebounded after hitting 80. ATM its a greater fool game.

[edd]

The average person understands physical theft though.  They know how to safeguard a wallet and keep valuables locked up into a safe.  There are a lot more people who still don't know not to click on suspicious links and keep their computers free from spyware and viruses.  Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable.  My 10 year old is always clicking on links, despite our repeated warnings not to install any software without asking us.  It seems like every few months or so, we're cleaning out her computer getting rid of junk that she shouldn't have installed.

It is truly amazing how many adults don't know not to click on strange links, especially those received in an email from a stranger.

Following the June 2011 Mt. Gox "incident", I, along with everyone else who had an email address registered with the exchange, received an email from a "concerned citizen" urging a movement away from Mt. Gox and increased usage of other exchanges and they included a link to the Exchanges category on my site, The Bitcoin List, which I had just launched. I went from getting less than 50 pageviews a day to 2,265 the day that email went out and almost 4,000 more over the next few days.

I was shocked. I thought it was strange and carefully avoided clicking that link and it was my site! I still shake my head when I think about it.

[forevernoob]

About the "fresh money" issue:

All this does is that people will have less fiat money to trade with. That doesn't automatically make the price go down.
There might be a few nervous people selling off, but I wouldn't call it a crash.

I personally think that the BTC price is getting more & more stable everyday.