It's still really hard to use bitcoin as a regular currency

[emezh10]

Yes, it is really hard when btc is just a virtual currency so when dealing with internet access it is really difficult to use btc for everyday services such as: Eating, traveling ... and when doing btc transactions regularly , the fee is not small.

Precisely, the bitcoin now is over populated because of the many users of it transaction delay has been increase so that the fee is getting up and I think that is the main problem of bitcoin, using it in small transaction is will be cause of lose of lot of money because of the fee so it's not necessary to use bitcoin in lot of small transactions.

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[TastyChillySauce00]

Yes, it is really hard when btc is just a virtual currency so when dealing with internet access it is really difficult to use btc for everyday services such as: Eating, traveling ... and when doing btc transactions regularly , the fee is not small.

Precisely, the bitcoin now is over populated because of the many users of it transaction delay has been increase so that the fee is getting up and I think that is the main problem of bitcoin, using it in small transaction is will be cause of lose of lot of money because of the fee so it's not necessary to use bitcoin in lot of small transactions.

That's the disadvantage of using blockchain system, this case also happen to other altcoins which use blockchain as well, and for example is ethereum, since the market cap of this coin has been increasing significantly a number of transactions also increase alongside with the fee, even if Vitalik himself says that bitcoin's fee is absurdly too high, the same will be happening to the ethereum, just see and wait, let the time decide.

[secdark]

Yes, it is really hard when btc is just a virtual currency so when dealing with internet access it is really difficult to use btc for everyday services such as: Eating, traveling ... and when doing btc transactions regularly , the fee is not small.

Well regardless with that things it is very difficult because not all of the stores accepts bitcoins as payment there are only few and that is really the  first problem how do you spend your bitcoin if no one is accepting it as a means of payment. Now a days it is really hard if we are talking about physical like buying foods there are new few but in online not all but you can find a website that accepts bitcoin as payment

[Xester]

Yes, it is really hard when btc is just a virtual currency so when dealing with internet access it is really difficult to use btc for everyday services such as: Eating, traveling ... and when doing btc transactions regularly , the fee is not small.

Well regardless with that things it is very difficult because not all of the stores accepts bitcoins as payment there are only few and that is really the  first problem how do you spend your bitcoin if no one is accepting it as a means of payment. Now a days it is really hard if we are talking about physical like buying foods there are new few but in online not all but you can find a website that accepts bitcoin as payment

Yes correct because bitcoin is just new and very few establishments accept it.  Here in our country I think there is no establishment that really acepts it if you want to dine in.  But we could topup our phone using it, pay bills but it is automatically converted into our currency.

[jaberwock]

Bitcoin has not been designated as a regular currency. It was designed to mimic gold, that is, more a store of value and for big transactions. Usage as regular currency is an accident. Also Bitcoin is too precious to be used as a currency, it is like using gold to pay stuff.

But if you want, there are credit cards that accept Bitcoin, if you want to use it as a currency.

[EXtremeAEX]

Bitcoin has not been designated as a regular currency. It was designed to mimic gold, that is, more a store of value and for big transactions. Usage as regular currency is an accident. Also Bitcoin is too precious to be used as a currency, it is like using gold to pay stuff.

But if you want, there are credit cards that accept Bitcoin, if you want to use it as a currency.

Exactly, we must treat Bitcoin like an investment instead of wanting it to be a currency we can use digitally. Maybe in the future we can use altcoins with fast transactions and low fees as a currency instead, but seeing how Bitcoin is right now, high fees, slow transactions, I don't think Bitcoin can be a used regularly.

Even I rarely touch my BTC because of the hideous fees.

[Dudeperfect]

Yes, considering the fees are the rate of growth in it I think it will be a tough to use bitcoins for offline transactions. Even as of today in many countries the commodities like milk, bread are available at the price of bitcoin fees so why someone would go with bitcoin if he can get it technically for free (as compared to that of bitcoin transaction). Today, I find bitcoin is still a cost friendly medium for online transaction and we need to keep control on the increasing fees to maintain it.

[cafucafucafu]

Unfortunately thats how things are atm. I remember being able to actually buy pizza with bitcoin, that was one of the first bitcoin transactions that ever happened, and one of the first bitcoin experience for me as well. Pizzaforcoins.com used to feature in the well known journal about bitcoin by Kashmir Hill back in the days, but now it's pretty much defunct. You can't really order anything and the whole site has no publicity whatsoever, i don't even think that its payment system is working atm because many items are priced at 0 BTC.

Bitcoin isn't useful for goods and services irl really. Its main function for now is to facilitate overseas transactions, and connect people from different countries together. That is a pretty good thing to achieve as well, so no need to get too worried. Bitcoin fees are high, but not that high. Sending $10,000 via bitcoin compared to banks or paypal will still save you a ton on currency exchange fees.

[ufaiz50]

Bitcoin has not been designated as a regular currency. It was designed to mimic gold, that is, more a store of value and for big transactions. Usage as regular currency is an accident. Also Bitcoin is too precious to be used as a currency, it is like using gold to pay stuff.

But if you want, there are credit cards that accept Bitcoin, if you want to use it as a currency.

Exactly, we must treat Bitcoin like an investment instead of wanting it to be a currency we can use digitally. Maybe in the future we can use altcoins with fast transactions and low fees as a currency instead, but seeing how Bitcoin is right now, high fees, slow transactions, I don't think Bitcoin can be a used regularly.

Even I rarely touch my BTC because of the hideous fees.

of the articles I read bitcoin created because the bank system is too profitable to their side and seems closed. and it's now like an investment because every year bitcoin continues to grow make users will think twice about using it that's difficult to use as a regular currency and how bitcoin transactions are now a problem.

[AngelSky]

Yes, considering the fees are the rate of growth in it I think it will be a tough to use bitcoins for offline transactions. Even as of today in many countries the commodities like milk, bread are available at the price of bitcoin fees so why someone would go with bitcoin if he can get it technically for free (as compared to that of bitcoin transaction). Today, I find bitcoin is still a cost friendly medium for online transaction and we need to keep control on the increasing fees to maintain it.

I have some bitcoins using my coinbase wallet yesterday, fees seems revised. Fees for the transaction has been turned down to 0.0008 btc for transacion. I hope all the others wallet providers are not giving this low amount as minimum amount for transaction. It will be mine via 6 blocks there for it will get transaction in 40 minutes maximum.

[Yuuto]

I really do think that having more merchants and having a large community base for bitcoin is more important than bitcoin ever hitting $1 million per coin or not.

The problem is extremely real, if you walk on the streets you cannot expect to find any sort of bitcoin accepting merchant. I actually tried to ask people to accept bitcoin once, but after asking 3 store owners that i frequented i just didn't see the point of bothering them anymore. All of them had the look on their face of confusion, like what the hell is going on, get me out of here.

But i think that spreads for p2p trading regarding bitcoin has improved significantly. You can trade with less than 5% spread on localbitcoins, which means that if you want to buy something you can sell your coins for a pretty good rate first and then buy the thing you want. But of course, this will never be the same as buying the actual item with BTC direct.

[Juggy777]

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/14/despite-its-record-setting-surge-this-year-its-still-really-hard-use-bitcoin-as-a-regular-currency.html

With all the hysteria around bitcoin surging to records and possibly being the currency of the future, CNBC decided to put it to the test. Can one person live off of bitcoin for a week?

New York City may have thousands of restaurants and bars, but only a handful accept bitcoin. We made a lot of calls and reached out to several vendors to see if they accept the digital currency. We also leveraged "bitcoin maps" online which were not entirely accurate.

However, we did find a few eateries in the city who accept the currency directly - two of which are French restaurants in lower Manhattan – Le Village and La Serine.

Another option was using Gyft.com, a site which allows you to purchase gift cards to Whole Foods, Starbucks, CVS, etc with bitcoin. This ended up being tremendously helpful, but also highlighted the reliance one must have on third parties to get by just on bitcoin.

Another big takeaway? Using bitcoin can be costly. Checking out at vendors that accept bitcoin is relatively easy, but I ended up spending on average 40 percent more versus paying with dollars or credit card because of unfavorable conversion rates and additional transaction fees. For example, my ice cream sandwich at Melt sold for $5, but with bitcoin I ended up spending the equivalent of more than $9. The gift cards also come with additional fees.

Transportation is also a challenge. As a reporter, I am constantly on the go, traveling around the city to meet sources, attend conferences and coming on air from different studios. The subway is typically how I get around town. Unfortunately subways do not accept bitcoin. Same story for yellow taxis.

The third option (besides walking) was ride-sharing apps. I was able to buy an Uber gift card via Gyft.com. I ended up spending more time and money taking this roundabout way, but at least I could travel from downtown to the upper west side without walking.

After a couple days, I started reaching out to folks in the NYC bitcoin community. I found a bitcoin investor online who was wiling to sell me a subway card in exchange for bitcoin. I met him at Penn Station the following day and he gladly helped me out. This interaction proved to me that the bitcoin network is very supportive of one another.

Well it's growing Japan had adopted it, and so are many other countries following suit. There are many online sites which accept bitcoins and name any service you will find it in the service section out here and you shall get it. I believe Bitcoin can be used for anything and everything all that is required is to find the right way to use it.

[oavin]

if you consider the fact that adoption is still in primary phases, I don't find it hard to believe you can't live with BTC in the form of BTC. There is still just a minor figure of regular shops taking BTC and the owners are mostly driving that because of their own preference to BTC, not because it's the regular.
On the other hand, if you exchange BTC or buy GC's with BTC, that barrier will be broken, but it still won't be BTC in the end.

[noictib]

I really do think that having more merchants and having a large community base for bitcoin is more important than bitcoin ever hitting $1 million per coin or not.

The problem is extremely real, if you walk on the streets you cannot expect to find any sort of bitcoin accepting merchant. I actually tried to ask people to accept bitcoin once, but after asking 3 store owners that i frequented i just didn't see the point of bothering them anymore. All of them had the look on their face of confusion, like what the hell is going on, get me out of here.

But i think that spreads for p2p trading regarding bitcoin has improved significantly. You can trade with less than 5% spread on localbitcoins, which means that if you want to buy something you can sell your coins for a pretty good rate first and then buy the thing you want. But of course, this will never be the same as buying the actual item with BTC direct.

This is the reality and happened with me , here you asked the store owner to accept Bitcoin but in my country I asked about 100 of the storekeeper to accept bank payment ( during the time of demonetization in India ) but still 0 out of 100 accepted the bank money or. Online payment , so that was totally impossible for them to understand Bitcoin system .
And here not only the factor of understanding and trust with it but beside of this Bitcoin we need to face a lot of charge ( 0.001btc minimum for transaction ) , so we have to pay 1-2$ more for the single buy sell a  thing .
So I think we are living in that world where , there is no lack of stupid people and genius people .,so I think this will take long time to see where the people are doing payments in Bitcoin and everyone​ are accepting it also  without any problem  .

[ladydark]

Bitcoin is no more economical for smaller amount transactions.It could be only used for higher amounts.New merchants are not coming forward to accept bitcoin payment due to late transactions.People too prefer to use bitcoin as an investment rather than as a currency.Higher transaction fees are also indirectly promoting people to use bitcoin as an investment only.

[favila]

Bitcoin is no more economical for smaller amount transactions.It could be only used for higher amounts.New merchants are not coming forward to accept bitcoin payment due to late transactions.People too prefer to use bitcoin as an investment rather than as a currency.Higher transaction fees are also indirectly promoting people to use bitcoin as an investment only.

As far as transactions go it is still useful for all but low priced online transactions and very easy for merchants to accept using services to convert to fiat. For physical stores its a granted that the current situation makes it unreliable.

[Amph]

well who buy bitcoin know thta bitcoin is in an unfinished state, some thing are needed to fix the current issue, so who is willing to buy, should not care much about fee

the majority also buy for speculation and not for usage, i guess bitcoin now work well for purchasing expensive item, so you can't feel the weight of the fee

also work well online on purse io because with the discount you can save a lot and it would be like avoiding the fee

[Fraxinus]

Bitcoin will be more used as a storage of wealth and value more than a currency.That's how I view the things,at the moment the fees are increasing and the time for the confirmation is quite high so it's a better option to use BTC as a storage.Now if changes will be made and BTC becomes faster and with low transactions then we can talk about it becoming used as a currency but for now this is how I see it

[DoublerHunter]

I don't think that it is hard to use bitcoin as a regular currency because it doesn't that complicated to use and it is easy to send and receive bitcoin as a regular currency or money. If you want to use bitcoin for your daily basis then it is not applicable as of now because of the lacking acceptance of stores and also the common places where we usually buy something.

[hajimasan]

Yes it's hard to use bitcoin as regular currency. It wad quite easy during last year because at that time transaction fees was much lye. I mean to say, previously when we paid less fees in comparison to current fees used to get confirmed within few minutes but  now we have to pay such a high amount of transaction fees that we have to think twice before making a transaction. Note even we can't transact for smaller amount because we have to more fees in comparison to bulk amount so transaction if bulk amount is more prefered and so using bitcoin for day to day life is quite tough now as small small transaction put more burdem on our financial status.