How do you define Bitcoin "going mainstream"?

[ProfWigSlipper]

Has Japan "gone mainstream" with BTC this week, or are people simply looking to make fast profits?
(In many countries) Can Bitcoin 'go mainstream' with institutional investors, without the general public caring or barely noticing?

FYI: If you learn from history, then you know the day that 'Uber drivers', food servers, and grandmothers are jumping into Bitcoin investment is the exact time you need to have sold all of yours, since the masses are about to get burned.
How do you define Bitcoin "going mainstream", and are you expecting good results?


ps. [Extra credit at ProfWigSlipper's University] At least one person will say "Bitcoin is so new we are looking at sustainable growth for many years to come". (Question) How well did that mentality/excuse work for people who invested in the Early 2000 dotcom bubble?

[Denker]

Has Japan "gone mainstream" with BTC this week, or are people simply looking to make fast profits?
(In many countries) Can Bitcoin 'go mainstream' with institutional investors, without the general public caring or barely noticing?

FYI: If you learn from history, then you know the day that 'Uber drivers', food servers, and grandmothers are jumping into Bitcoin investment is the exact time you need to have sold all of yours, since the masses are about to get burned.
How do you define Bitcoin "going mainstream", and are you expecting good results?


ps. [Extra credit at ProfWigSlipper's University] At least one person will say "Bitcoin is so new we are looking at sustainable growth for many years to come". (Question) How well did that mentality/excuse work for people who invested in the Early 2000 dotcom bubble?

Japan is definitely on a good way with Bitcoin going mainstream. Huge base of merchants accepting it and this will continue to increase.Bitcoin is accepted and defined by law as legal payment option.
Bitcoin gets positive news over there and not that much crazy FUD like in the west.
People there are aware of it and more and more of them join the crypto space.No country is having more exchanges so far. This is what I understand and define as going mainstream and not just investors and the financial sector in general joining our space.

[Iranus]

Has Japan "gone mainstream" with BTC this week, or are people simply looking to make fast profits?

You can see from Coinmarketcap's markets page that trading volume against JPY is much lower than the volume against dollars or Euros.  So it's something that we've made up.

There has been high South Korean trading volume, but still it hasn't "gone mainstream" or reached a point at which there is crazy enthusiasm in investment.

In my view, BTC has not gone mainstream yet, but there is no guarantee that a bubble actually involves people going mainstream.  None of the other BTC bubbles so far have reached that point.  Compared to the past, we're already deep into the "mania" phase of a bubble and I've seen some unironic "new paradigm" comments in the Wall Observer thread.  It's hard to tell how much further this will go though.

[hatshepsut93]

How do you define Bitcoin "going mainstream", and are you expecting good results?

If you mean "mainstream investment", than it probably will not happen on a large scale, simply because most people are not investors. Ask your friends who have heard about Bitcoin at least 1 year ago, why they didn't invest - they will answer that they didn't want to risk.

In my mind, going mainstream means getting acknowledged by mainstream investors, leading Bitcoin to become as popular as gold.

How do you define Bitcoin "going mainstream", and are you expecting good results?


ps. [Extra credit at ProfWigSlipper's University] At least one person will say "Bitcoin is so new we are looking at sustainable growth for many years to come". (Question) How well did that mentality/excuse work for people who invested in the Early 2000 dotcom bubble?

Worked out pretty well for people who invested in Amazon and eBay. Same with crypto - many alts will die, Bitcoin will recover and keep growing.

[BitcoinHodler]

it is getting there. this is not a process that can happen in 6 months! it needs a couple of years at least and Japan has newly adopted bitcoin. and just FYI when you go into the city and look at the different shops in shop centers in Japan, you can see the bitcoin is accepted here sign. if that is not adoption then i don't know what is!

FYI: If you learn from history, then you know the day that 'Uber drivers', food servers, and grandmothers are jumping into Bitcoin investment is the exact time you need to have sold all of yours, since the masses are about to get burned.

it is quite the opposite!
when you see everyone is on the bitcoin train that means you have been too late and now it is time to start using the wealth that you have gathered (if you were wise enough) because when mass adoption happens, price goes extremely high and becomes dead stable.

[ProfWigSlipper]

Has Japan "gone mainstream" with BTC this week, or are people simply looking to make fast profits?
(In many countries) Can Bitcoin 'go mainstream' with institutional investors, without the general public caring or barely noticing?

FYI: If you learn from history, then you know the day that 'Uber drivers', food servers, and grandmothers are jumping into Bitcoin investment is the exact time you need to have sold all of yours, since the masses are about to get burned.
How do you define Bitcoin "going mainstream", and are you expecting good results?


ps. [Extra credit at ProfWigSlipper's University] At least one person will say "Bitcoin is so new we are looking at sustainable growth for many years to come". (Question) How well did that mentality/excuse work for people who invested in the Early 2000 dotcom bubble?

Japan is definitely on a good way with Bitcoin going mainstream. Huge base of merchants accepting it and this will continue to increase.Bitcoin is accepted and defined by law as legal payment option.
Bitcoin gets positive news over there and not that much crazy FUD like in the west.
People there are aware of it and more and more of them join the crypto space.No country is having more exchanges so far. This is what I understand and define as going mainstream and not just investors and the financial sector in general joining our space.

I would guess their "Huge base of merchants accepting it" has a decent % actually keeping some Bitcoin instead of using a payment processor which goes straight back to fiat.

[craZyLovE0916]

Bitcoin going mainstream means when it surpasses the threshold or critical mass, so-to-speak whereby everyone will begin using (and their mother). See, it is the same for any business. Once they pass critical mass then it starts to take off, but it is very hard work before and requires significant dedication.

[U2]

Bitcoins are still such a ridiculously low piece of the world economy. Them going mainstream would be if at least 1% of the world's wealth was held in bitcoins. Anything more than that would be amazing but at this point utterly unattainable.

[pooya87]

~
I would guess their "Huge base of merchants accepting it" has a decent % actually keeping some Bitcoin instead of using a payment processor which goes straight back to fiat.

it does not matter what merchants do with bitcoin after they received it, what matters is the circulation itself. holding bitcoin is meaningless when we are talking about bitcoin's usage and going mainstream.
when merchants accept bitcoin and people spend their bitcoins in their shops that is more than enough. because it brings in a lot more users who are buying bitcoin and spending it, specially because of the 0 fee policy.

[yndye]

It means being use by ordinary people not just those that are tech savvy or crypto enthusiast. Being a payment option for almost all the businesses wherein people don't need to convert to fiat anymore in order to pay something but direct transaction btc to btc. Having a mass adoption where the government supports the adoption of the coin legalizing it and thus not hinder the people to use it as mode of transaction.

[CryptoBoomers]

To me it means that we are still at the bottom of the S-curve of mass adoption.

Previous paradigm shifting inventions (internet, cars, etc.) took up to 20+ years to get to total mass adoption and the top of the S-curve. This is crypto though, it's fast-tracked and compounded by tech/beautiful minds so it will happen much faster.

Once we are at least in the middle of the S-curve (almost going straight up), is when I think we can say it's gone mainstream.

Once average joe/general population aren't asking questions anymore (meaning basic ones like "what's a digital wallet? How do I get bitcoins? They're how much? Can I spend them? Do I have to report them? I don't get it?...) and we all just 'get it' because the techies will make it stupid proof eventually and the chaotic knowledge will be done on the back end seamlessly (akin to how we use money now but most have no clue how it's made, distributed, accounted for, burned, inflated etc. - end users just want their cash to spend/save - bitcoin will be no different).

[cafucafucafu]

Has Japan "gone mainstream" with BTC this week, or are people simply looking to make fast profits?
(In many countries) Can Bitcoin 'go mainstream' with institutional investors, without the general public caring or barely noticing?

FYI: If you learn from history, then you know the day that 'Uber drivers', food servers, and grandmothers are jumping into Bitcoin investment is the exact time you need to have sold all of yours, since the masses are about to get burned.
How do you define Bitcoin "going mainstream", and are you expecting good results?


ps. [Extra credit at ProfWigSlipper's University] At least one person will say "Bitcoin is so new we are looking at sustainable growth for many years to come". (Question) How well did that mentality/excuse work for people who invested in the Early 2000 dotcom bubble?

I think it is mostly a race for bitcoin to be made mainstream in Australia or Japan. Japan has the technology and also a lot of people are interested in it, since it a a crypto currency and people in Japan love technology. Australia has been teaching bitcoin to primary school kids and is getting a lot of people involved in it.

Once people understand what bitcoin is, which it is a new payment method, not a way to get rich fast, then everyone will then make bitcoin mainstream.

[Dudeperfect]

I would consider

* Mass Adoption - When Bitcoin will get a mass adoption, I would consider it as a mainstream activity. Recently media (both social and mainstream) is playing a key role in awareness about Bitcoin.

* Government Support - Nothing to explain, if the government is legalising Bitcoin then it would help the Bitcoin companies to grow.

* Offline Transactions - When we will see Bitcoin accepted here boards in the offline market, that would highlight the core utility part of it.

I would use these parameters to consider 'going mainstream' growth of Bitcoin.

[ekoice]

Bitcoin going mainstream means that every one is using bitcoins for every purpose,for buying goods,for paying services.We could say that bitcoin is going mainstream in japan since bitcoin is widely used there by all people,traders and even government sectors accepting bitcoin payments since bitcoin is legalized there.South korea is following japan.Soon,in india also,bitcoin would go mainstream as indian government has decided to legalize bitcoin soon.Soon,the situation where bitcoin would go mainstream all over the world would come.

[stepwilli]

Bitcoin going mainstream means that every one is using bitcoins for every purpose,for buying goods,for paying services.We could say that bitcoin is going mainstream in japan since bitcoin is widely used there by all people,traders and even government sectors accepting bitcoin payments since bitcoin is legalized there.South korea is following japan.Soon,in india also,bitcoin would go mainstream as indian government has decided to legalize bitcoin soon.Soon,the situation where bitcoin would go mainstream all over the world would come.

Well explained. If the usage of a particular item by inhabitants is increasing at fast rates then that specific item is going mainstream in that area. However, I have heard that bitcoins has gone mainstream in Japan, Philippines but did not have any idea about its legalization in India. If this is the case, then I am happy for Indians.

[bitbunnny]

To my opinion Bitcoin going mainstream would mean that it would become fully regulated by governments and central banks and incorporated in financial system of the country. To my opinion this is not going to happen yet although some countries are heading towards this, like Japan. Untill that happens everywhere Bitcoin will remain alternative. But the more people will use it, the sooner Bitcoin will become mainstream. Is this what we really want?