Let's crack this chicken/egg problem

[killer2021]

Personally this is what I think will get the ball rolling:

is make some sort of debit card where you can open up an account at an online bitcoin bank. This debit card has btc stored on it and putting more btc or removing btc from the card is very easy. When you go to use the card your btc gets sold for cash and that cash is what is sent to the merchant. If the merchant accepts btc then the btc is simply transferred to their account with no fee. That would allow people to completely dump the USD and instead save in btc. The USD is only used as an intermediary currency. If btc goes mainstream then most of the usd would not be used since most merchants would accept btc. If it doesn't go mainstream then the btc user can still use btc without much problem to them.

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[nipsy]

What I hope to see which could really help adoption are more online games doing microtransactions start accepting Bitcoins.  I know I saw at least one poker site on the current list.  But it would be a huge boost I think if one of these free to play MMORPG's started accepting Bitcoins and also started acting as an exchange.  There are plenty of these types of games out there already.  It's just a matter of convincing the owners to take the plunge.

Even one of the Facebook minigames would be sufficient to get the ball rolling.

[adamstgBit]

Also if the exchanges could be made to trade using all other currencies, like CAD$

this would would make it easy for business to accept bit coin and be able to cash out with out the 20% bank USD$ to CAD$ fee

[Trader Steve]

I don't see the advantages of Bitcoin in its current form for consumers of hard goods (that aren't illicit).  What are they?

I'm trying to do my part: offering gold & silver bullion in trade for bitcoin. Honestly, I think this goes along way to closing the loop. Gold and silver are arguably the hardest currency/good around. When you can get gold and bullion for bitcoin everything else will fall in line (of course I can't supply all the gold and silver by myself).

Food and Gas are what need to be offered next. One can start by offering something like Safeway pre-paid cards - which do not cost anything (no $5 fee like the visa gift cards) and are good for gas and food at all of their different chain stores. These cards can be purchased up to $500. When merchants see that bitcoin is as "good as gold" - and that they can buy the necessities of life with it - the rest will follow. As others have said, the "ease of use" problem is the next great hurdle. I believe we are not far off.

[BradZimdack]

I'm currently working on a startup that plans to solve the egg.

This is excellent news.  Please keep us informed of your progress.

I've been working with the owners of a simple online game site that sells monthly subscriptions via credit card/paypal.  Once a viable system is in place for new bitcoin users to create and fund a wallet, I will be able to get this site to offer single game purchases for bitcoin micropayments as an alternative to monthly subscriptions.

[KeyserSoze]

Average Joe will not use BTC without some security. Even "regular" ecommerce needed big security changes to take off. SSL encryption. Credit card companies had to start covering you when defrauded online. The "evil" PayPal came along and offered disputes. This makes buyers comfortable with risk.

It's obvious the Bitcoin crowd doesn't need to feel as warm and fuzzy about transactions, but average joe will need to feel protected. I just had to dispute a PayPal purchase this week. I sent $50 for product that never arrived, I emailed seller, I called, no response. Thankfully PayPal allows me to dispute it and I should get my money back. What if I had paid in Bitcoins?

Maybe Bitcoin won't need the same protection eventually. Perhaps there will be a web site or something that lists anybody who got ripped off so we'd know publicly who not to purchase from. But then I guess that'd be full of people who just want to ruin someone's business whether it was a bad business or not.

Of course I'm generalizing, but the Bitcoin crowd doesn't want controls. They find PayPal evil. Yet they want Bitcoin to grow into the average joe's world where controls are wanted.

I think Bitcoin could end up with wider acceptance. Maybe some place like Amazon.com where people don't have any problem trusting they'll get their product (at least when it comes from Amazon). But everyday web sites that you don't really know anything about? Most people wouldn't take a chance sending BTC off into oblivion without recourse.

[bitcon]

seems like the early adopters have tons of bitcoins accumulated. if they cared about the future of bitcoin, maybe they'd invest some of thier nest egg in infrastructure, security and maybe a little advertising

[billyjoeallen]

seems like the early adopters have tons of bitcoins accumulated. if they cared about the future of bitcoin, maybe they'd invest some of thier nest egg in infrastructure, security and maybe a little advertising

Did it ever occur to you that they may be doing exactly that? You can't build infrastructure with BTC; you have to use legal tender. To get legal tender, you have to sell your bitcoin. Maybe that's why the price is going down on the exchanges. Early adopters could be selling in order to raise funds to build infrastructure.

[bitcon]

seems like the early adopters have tons of bitcoins accumulated. if they cared about the future of bitcoin, maybe they'd invest some of thier nest egg in infrastructure, security and maybe a little advertising

Did it ever occur to you that they may be doing exactly that? You can't build infrastructure with BTC; you have to use legal tender. To get legal tender, you have to sell your bitcoin. Maybe that's why the price is going down on the exchanges. Early adopters could be selling in order to raise funds to build infrastructure.

that or they're just trying to cash out completely before total a crash leaving late adopters high and dry.

[billyjoeallen]

seems like the early adopters have tons of bitcoins accumulated. if they cared about the future of bitcoin, maybe they'd invest some of thier nest egg in infrastructure, security and maybe a little advertising

Did it ever occur to you that they may be doing exactly that? You can't build infrastructure with BTC; you have to use legal tender. To get legal tender, you have to sell your bitcoin. Maybe that's why the price is going down on the exchanges. Early adopters could be selling in order to raise funds to build infrastructure.

that or they're just trying to cash out completely before total a crash leaving late adopters high and dry.

That's a possibility, but unlikely. Besides, Bitcoin would recover anyway. It would just take a long time. Another chance for us to get in cheap.