Like Visa, Mastercard, Amex, etc Bitcoin will not stand alone

[Realist247]

After reading this forum for long enough I get the impression from most posting here that they believe that Bitcoin will be the ONLY coin accepted by merchants/vendors or otherwise used by the mainstream.  I don't think I've ever read anyone put forth a point of view like I am about to write here and it is this:  Over time, most vendors will accept several cryptos just like they do with multiple credit cards or debit cards.  In the case of cryptos vendors will probably accept more cryptos than they do credit cards.

I posted something earlier questioning the reasons why so many are loyal to Bitcoin vs. other cryptos.  I pointed out that Bitcoin is facing many problems scaling and therefore has high fees and long transaction times for typical purchases.  Those that respond miss the point when they say that "sooner or later other cryptos will see the same problems".  The point is that these alt-coins currently do not have the same problems and they may have already solved or plan to solve any potential scaling problems.  We all will have to wait and see what happens.  While all of this is sorting itself out I believe that vendors will expand the range of coins that they accept.  The less volatile the better.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, etc are accepted by most mainstream merchants.  Now swap out these credit cards for the top cryptos...you can do it in your head but if you want to write it out here that's up to you.  I believe that this is a vision of the crypto future...and the coins worth buying if one is so inclined.

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?  Why or why not?

[Lumen111]

The question is not just about volatility.
Previously, the investor (for saving and accumulation) invested his money in gold, stocks, real estate. When he had to buy goods, he first sold the investment resource, the post made payment.
When using Bitcoin, everything happens faster and at a lower cost.

[stripykitteh]

After reading this forum for long enough I get the impression from most posting here that they believe that Bitcoin will be the ONLY coin accepted by merchants/vendors or otherwise used by the mainstream.  I don't think I've ever read anyone put forth a point of view like I am about to write here and it is this:  Over time, most vendors will accept several cryptos just like they do with multiple credit cards or debit cards.  In the case of cryptos vendors will probably accept more cryptos than they do credit cards.

I posted something earlier questioning the reasons why so many are loyal to Bitcoin vs. other cryptos.  I pointed out that Bitcoin is facing many problems scaling and therefore has high fees and long transaction times for typical purchases.  Those that respond miss the point when they say that "sooner or later other cryptos will see the same problems".  The point is that these alt-coins currently do not have the same problems and they may have already solved or plan to solve any potential scaling problems.  We all will have to wait and see what happens.  While all of this is sorting itself out I believe that vendors will expand the range of coins that they accept.  The less volatile the better.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, etc are accepted by most mainstream merchants.  Now swap out these credit cards for the top cryptos...you can do it in your head but if you want to write it out here that's up to you.  I believe that this is a vision of the crypto future...and the coins worth buying if one is so inclined.

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?  Why or why not?

I don't fully agree with you. Not everyone in this forum thinks that Bitcoin is the only coin that will be accepted by the mainstream shops. If you look around this forum you'd notice that there is a lot of posters that want their coin and the coin that their in accepted in the shops that are near them. Some coins are working towards that goal.

As for Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, etc being swapped so people can purchase things with Bitcoin -it wouldn't make sense. The Government would have to spend more money on tax regulations. The Government does not need to spend on taxing Bitcoin because they can just have their friends at the large banks change the way those credit card companies operate. That would mean that they are likely to just adopt Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Even if the credit card companies and cryptocurrency work together so that people can spend one or the other in shops -they still have to comply with tax.

[ladydark]

I don't think that any other coin would ever get accepted in any shops.The main reason is that bitcoin has faced many critical situations and challenges from governments and bankers and has carried out huge volume of transactions.But other coins have never faced such issues and they have never proved themselves that they would withstand such problems.Also,i think that they would never gain universal trust as what bitcoin has got.No coin could replace bitcoin by having just a single feature of low transaction fee.

[Pursuer]

I completely agree.

but also it may just be me but when I want to look for an alternative to bitcoin I wouldn't just choose a copy of it which is doing the exact same thing with a little difference (eg. using PoW and same structure but a different block size and/or time). for me that is like liking a real brand (like Adidas for example) but choose a Chinese poor copy of it called something similar and stealing the brand.

I think it was your topic in which I mentioned altcoins using DAG and I said it improves upon the technology and has a better scaling. then I did some research about them and saw this may not be 100% true. for example most of them have a limit of ~20 transaction per second! and that is just theoretical never put to a proper test.

[fattyforhire]

After reading this forum for long enough I get the impression from most posting here that they believe that Bitcoin will be the ONLY coin accepted by merchants/vendors or otherwise used by the mainstream.  I don't think I've ever read anyone put forth a point of view like I am about to write here and it is this:  Over time, most vendors will accept several cryptos just like they do with multiple credit cards or debit cards.  In the case of cryptos vendors will probably accept more cryptos than they do credit cards.

I posted something earlier questioning the reasons why so many are loyal to Bitcoin vs. other cryptos.  I pointed out that Bitcoin is facing many problems scaling and therefore has high fees and long transaction times for typical purchases.  Those that respond miss the point when they say that "sooner or later other cryptos will see the same problems".  The point is that these alt-coins currently do not have the same problems and they may have already solved or plan to solve any potential scaling problems.  We all will have to wait and see what happens.  While all of this is sorting itself out I believe that vendors will expand the range of coins that they accept.  The less volatile the better.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, etc are accepted by most mainstream merchants.  Now swap out these credit cards for the top cryptos...you can do it in your head but if you want to write it out here that's up to you.  I believe that this is a vision of the crypto future...and the coins worth buying if one is so inclined.

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?  Why or why not?

To begin with, you need to understand the technical features of crypto-currency and bitcoin technologies. Have you thought about where new crypto-currencies, altcoyins, come from, how are they created? Bitcon is the foundation for new currencies, for new shares of companies, for new tokens and altcoyins.

[WhichIsGood]

After reading this forum for long enough I get the impression from most posting here that they believe that Bitcoin will be the ONLY coin accepted by merchants/vendors or otherwise used by the mainstream.  I don't think I've ever read anyone put forth a point of view like I am about to write here and it is this:  Over time, most vendors will accept several cryptos just like they do with multiple credit cards or debit cards.  In the case of cryptos vendors will probably accept more cryptos than they do credit cards.

I posted something earlier questioning the reasons why so many are loyal to Bitcoin vs. other cryptos.  I pointed out that Bitcoin is facing many problems scaling and therefore has high fees and long transaction times for typical purchases.  Those that respond miss the point when they say that "sooner or later other cryptos will see the same problems".  The point is that these alt-coins currently do not have the same problems and they may have already solved or plan to solve any potential scaling problems.  We all will have to wait and see what happens.  While all of this is sorting itself out I believe that vendors will expand the range of coins that they accept.  The less volatile the better.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, etc are accepted by most mainstream merchants.  Now swap out these credit cards for the top cryptos...you can do it in your head but if you want to write it out here that's up to you.  I believe that this is a vision of the crypto future...and the coins worth buying if one is so inclined.

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?  Why or why not?

I kinda agree with what your pointing out in here. With all the problems with regards to the usage of Bitcoin(high fees, slow transactions, etc...), merchants will perhaps diversify themselves in accepting payments with other crypto. Much like your analogy on visa, mastercard, and etc...   

[Iranus]

The difference is that since cryptocurrencies' security is based on PoW, the more cryptocurrencies that are accepted by large numbers of merchants, the less secure each one is against attack.

Also, Mastercard and Visa are both spending the same currency.  If you have multiple cryptocurrencies, the exchange rates would fluctuate with each other and it would be very inconvenient for the user.

There may be alternatives but just one is definitely preferable.

[talkbitcoin]

yes, if a real decentralized and trustless cryptocurrency pops up out there that is better than bitcoin, then it can come up and grow to bitcoin's size and have real adoption.

but so far all i see is premined altcoins and lots of projects that only give promises so they can get a much bigger ICO fundraising. and as soon as the devs get paid or cash out their free money, they stop doing anything else.
and the projects are all broken and useless these days. and the bigger coins are heavily centralized which makes me wonder why would anyone choose them over something like Visa! because the centralized altcoins are  competing with centralized world which has Visa...

[Realist247]

After reading this forum for long enough I get the impression from most posting here that they believe that Bitcoin will be the ONLY coin accepted by merchants/vendors or otherwise used by the mainstream.  I don't think I've ever read anyone put forth a point of view like I am about to write here and it is this:  Over time, most vendors will accept several cryptos just like they do with multiple credit cards or debit cards.  In the case of cryptos vendors will probably accept more cryptos than they do credit cards.

I posted something earlier questioning the reasons why so many are loyal to Bitcoin vs. other cryptos.  I pointed out that Bitcoin is facing many problems scaling and therefore has high fees and long transaction times for typical purchases.  Those that respond miss the point when they say that "sooner or later other cryptos will see the same problems".  The point is that these alt-coins currently do not have the same problems and they may have already solved or plan to solve any potential scaling problems.  We all will have to wait and see what happens.  While all of this is sorting itself out I believe that vendors will expand the range of coins that they accept.  The less volatile the better.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, etc are accepted by most mainstream merchants.  Now swap out these credit cards for the top cryptos...you can do it in your head but if you want to write it out here that's up to you.  I believe that this is a vision of the crypto future...and the coins worth buying if one is so inclined.

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?  Why or why not?

I don't fully agree with you. Not everyone in this forum thinks that Bitcoin is the only coin that will be accepted by the mainstream shops. If you look around this forum you'd notice that there is a lot of posters that want their coin and the coin that their in accepted in the shops that are near them. Some coins are working towards that goal.

As for Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, etc being swapped so people can purchase things with Bitcoin -it wouldn't make sense. The Government would have to spend more money on tax regulations. The Government does not need to spend on taxing Bitcoin because they can just have their friends at the large banks change the way those credit card companies operate. That would mean that they are likely to just adopt Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Even if the credit card companies and cryptocurrency work together so that people can spend one or the other in shops -they still have to comply with tax.

I didn't say everyone....I said MOST people posting here speak as if there can only be one.  I also didn't say that merchants would DROP credit cards.  I said that they'd take a range of coins like they take a range of credit cards.  As far as taxes go, that's for the vendor to assess to the sale price.

[Realist247]

I don't think that any other coin would ever get accepted in any shops.The main reason is that bitcoin has faced many critical situations and challenges from governments and bankers and has carried out huge volume of transactions.But other coins have never faced such issues and they have never proved themselves that they would withstand such problems.Also,i think that they would never gain universal trust as what bitcoin has got.No coin could replace bitcoin by having just a single feature of low transaction fee.

I think that 99% of the challenges have still yet to be faced from governments and banks.  99% of the public is only now learning about cryptos in general, let alone Bitcoin so I think the picture that you are describing has not yet been seen and probably won't be seen for many years until all is said and done.

[Realist247]

To begin with, you need to understand the technical features of crypto-currency and bitcoin technologies. Have you thought about where new crypto-currencies, altcoyins, come from, how are they created? Bitcon is the foundation for new currencies, for new shares of companies, for new tokens and altcoyins.

What does this have to do with the OP?  I don't see a point anywhere in here...

[Realist247]

Also, Mastercard and Visa are both spending the same currency.  If you have multiple cryptocurrencies, the exchange rates would fluctuate with each other and it would be very inconvenient for the user.

It's not really that much different than a website that accepts multiple global currencies now...like Dollars vs. Euros vs. Pounds vs. Yen, etc.  They could opt to base their sale price on the most stable crypto and make conversions on the fly like exchanges do now when they show the price of one crypto based on the units of another crypto.  Most points of sale could be programmed to do this in the future without too much trouble.

[Vitolife]

The question is not just about volatility.
Previously, the investor (for saving and accumulation) invested his money in gold, stocks, real estate. When he had to buy goods, he first sold the investment resource, the post made payment.
When using Bitcoin, everything happens faster and at a lower cost.

The other advantage is, you can move your bitcoin anywhere with you, you cannot do this easily with physical gold or real estates.

[icanscript]

Undoubtedly, this is a new highly liquid investment direction.
Using the Internet, as a platform for functioning and dissemination.

[Dapper]

From an institutional investor's point of view as well, no one with serious capital likes all of their funds in one basket.   That's why I have always taken a % of my bitcoin gains and put them into other cryptos as well.   

[dothebeats]

Well some merchants have already started accepting ETH and LTC among other alts, so the assumption that bitcoin wouldn't be alone in the future is more or less correct. There would be competition, and other people would soon find good use of other alts in cryptopayments and/or creating smart contracts and the likes. Bitcoin isn't suitable of that as of yet, so the potential for these cryptos to excel at micropayments is at an all-time high right now.

[LeGaulois]

The first reason to see companies accepting bitcoin is only if there is a demand, otherwise, they have no use. Like, for example, is an e-commerce notice there are a lot of people looking to use PayPal the site will look closely to add it because it can increase their sales.

Now if you look at bitcoin the demand is not so big and most bitcoiners don't really want to pay $18 for the network fees. (The majority of people is just holding their bitcoins). This is where comes the altcoins which have more chances to be used

[tee-rex]

After reading this forum for long enough I get the impression from most posting here that they believe that Bitcoin will be the ONLY coin accepted by merchants/vendors or otherwise used by the mainstream.  I don't think I've ever read anyone put forth a point of view like I am about to write here and it is this:  Over time, most vendors will accept several cryptos just like they do with multiple credit cards or debit cards.  In the case of cryptos vendors will probably accept more cryptos than they do credit cards.

I posted something earlier questioning the reasons why so many are loyal to Bitcoin vs. other cryptos.  I pointed out that Bitcoin is facing many problems scaling and therefore has high fees and long transaction times for typical purchases.  Those that respond miss the point when they say that "sooner or later other cryptos will see the same problems".  The point is that these alt-coins currently do not have the same problems and they may have already solved or plan to solve any potential scaling problems.  We all will have to wait and see what happens.  While all of this is sorting itself out I believe that vendors will expand the range of coins that they accept.  The less volatile the better.

Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, Discover, etc are accepted by most mainstream merchants.  Now swap out these credit cards for the top cryptos...you can do it in your head but if you want to write it out here that's up to you.  I believe that this is a vision of the crypto future...and the coins worth buying if one is so inclined.

Do you agree or disagree with this assessment?  Why or why not?

I can't quite agree with your view. And the essence of my disagreement lies in the fact that Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc are not coins. They are just payment systems for transferring fiat, as in dollars or whatever. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and altcoins are, on the other hand, currencies in their own right. This is a totally different matter. For a merchant, using different payment systems still boils down to accepting the same fiat money. Apparently, this is no longer the case with crypto, so your comparison doesn't make much sense.

[bitart]

The difference is that since cryptocurrencies' security is based on PoW, the more cryptocurrencies that are accepted by large numbers of merchants, the less secure each one is against attack.

Also, Mastercard and Visa are both spending the same currency.  If you have multiple cryptocurrencies, the exchange rates would fluctuate with each other and it would be very inconvenient for the user.

There may be alternatives but just one is definitely preferable.

Mastercard uses EUR as a clearing currency and VISA uses USD, but the technology is more or less the same. Also, the debit and credit cards are not the money itself, they just link together the payment's initiator with the payment's recevier and they handle the communication between them.
The cards act like the mobile phone when you start a bitcoin transaction from a mobile wallet. They are the technical part of the system.
According to OP's example, it's like merchants will accept bitcoin, but they will use stickers on the shop's door to show what kind of mobile wallets (or bitcoin payment processors) they're accepting when it's about paying with bitcoin.