What stage of adoption is Crypto currently at?

[LuanX3]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

Hard to say, from what I've seen over the news around the world and within my country, there is really no much adoption yet. People are afraid to use it due to the great volatility of cryptocurrencies and this scares a lot of people. There is a chance that you have a million today and half that in the next days. Adoption is indeed the problem with new technologies.

I would say that once things stabilize and volatility minimizes I think the world will accept it as is. But right now, I think we'll have to stick with it for now and adoption will come.

[Sadlife]

I can say we're getting there as local businesses starting to accept bitcoin as payment. Merchants starting to trade their commudity for bitcoin and more services such as hotel and restaurant's are accepting bitcoin. Little by little countries are starting to recognize and planning some regulations into it. And lately the increase of price shows the increase of demand in bitcoin, i can say bitcoin is slowly growing as a mainstream currency.

[andrei56]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

Not that early anymore, I've talked to some of my friends who are also good in economics and invested to other investments such as stocks and real estate. They know the risk of getting in to crypto now to be specific with bitcoin. They don't look at any other altcoin, they are monitoring it's movement and they don't want to take the risk anymore and one word they said, "it's too late." for them. I guess we're in the era now of where Friendster is becoming popular, the start of social media's.

Tell them there are other coins, if you want to make a fortune with a small amount of money then there is no doubt that it is too late to invest in bitcoin but there are good coins out there and if they are willing to take risks then they could invest in icos, tell them that if they do not do it now the market can become more regulated in the future and they will need to offer their information for KYC just to have the possibility to invest.

[KingdomHearts]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

Not that early anymore, I've talked to some of my friends who are also good in economics and invested to other investments such as stocks and real estate. They know the risk of getting in to crypto now to be specific with bitcoin. They don't look at any other altcoin, they are monitoring it's movement and they don't want to take the risk anymore and one word they said, "it's too late." for them. I guess we're in the era now of where Friendster is becoming popular, the start of social media's.

Tell them there are other coins, if you want to make a fortune with a small amount of money then there is no doubt that it is too late to invest in bitcoin but there are good coins out there and if they are willing to take risks then they could invest in icos, tell them that if they do not do it now the market can become more regulated in the future and they will need to offer their information for KYC just to have the possibility to invest.

Yes, bitcoin investment is not possible with a very low initial investment amount so the new investors can invest in the newly coming crypto coins as they will give them a huge profit.  This new coins are in their initial stage and will grow very high in the future.

Many people can earn huge incomes form this project by just selecting the best project to invest in. I think this has to increase the crypto earnings of the people.

[kryptqnick]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

I guess we're in the era now of where Friendster is becoming popular, the start of social media's.

Good point. Apart from exchanges and serious investors there are already some ATMs in European countries. In Budapest, for example, there are 2 ATMs where one can exchange btc/ltc/dash and some other coins for huf (or euro, not sure). This means that coins are becoming more and more real, closer to being considered real money. I've never heard of Friendster and so lots of people have no idea cryptocurrencies exist. And yet they will learn it one day. The difference is that social networks can change, whereas bitcoin is likely to live and be #1 forever, even though some other coins might become very popular. I think bitcoin is facebook and always will be it.

[yvesp110]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

Not that early anymore, I've talked to some of my friends who are also good in economics and invested to other investments such as stocks and real estate. They know the risk of getting in to crypto now to be specific with bitcoin. They don't look at any other altcoin, they are monitoring it's movement and they don't want to take the risk anymore and one word they said, "it's too late." for them. I guess we're in the era now of where Friendster is becoming popular, the start of social media's.

Tell them there are other coins, if you want to make a fortune with a small amount of money then there is no doubt that it is too late to invest in bitcoin but there are good coins out there and if they are willing to take risks then they could invest in icos, tell them that if they do not do it now the market can become more regulated in the future and they will need to offer their information for KYC just to have the possibility to invest.

Yes, bitcoin investment is not possible with a very low initial investment amount so the new investors can invest in the newly coming crypto coins as they will give them a huge profit.  This new coins are in their initial stage and will grow very high in the future.

Many people can earn huge incomes form this project by just selecting the best project to invest in. I think this has to increase the crypto earnings of the people.

Knowledge plays a very vital role in the world of crypto and this is the only thing which will decide your future. If you managed to learn all the necessary things which you do need to learn, then there is nothing to be worried about and you will be able to have some good revenue in return. Moreover, you also need to make the right decision at the right time based on your skillset and experience.

[milewilda]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

Definitely not. Most people already know what cryptocurrency is. Even my friends at uni are already talking about and have a chat group for it LOL. This is unheard of in 2013. Take a look at this picture



I think we're already at stage 4 — maturity. People who joined recently are considered late majority. One thing, I really hope we don't have to see the decline of cryptocurrency in our lifetime. There are still a lot of things to be developed in crypto, a lot of innovation could be made, so that cycle of adoption could always be renewed/revised.

When we do talk about bitcoin existence awareness including altcoins in the market then we are on stage on where it is already becoming the trend and i do believe we are still on the middle where theres still people which doesnt even know cryptocurrency exist. We are not on early adoption stage since bitcoin is already 8 years but one thing is rest assured this thing will really go further. Choosing on the visual i can say we are on stage 3.

Innovation of new altcoins is the result of cryptos' adaption. We are in the second stage of earlier stage. Econony started experiencing new cryto flavour. In return, every crypto user adapting new lifestyle. Blockchain technology as well is adapted in major sectors to protect their assets documents and other imortant sources. Our next generation is going to live a real crypto life in the following decades.

In my opinion we are at third stage, "Growth". There isn't a consistent/mature majority yet, but from the middle of 2017 on things became more interesting, resulting in huge bumps in BTC price and network's overloading (I believe that was the right moment we passed to third stage). Indeed new AltCoins are appearing in quantity, but I think the Early Adopters' age is now in the past, those coming to invest at this moment are coming by the hands of the Early Adopters, who turned the AltCoins niche into what we see today.

As long we would able to make money then having altcoins would really be the answer and yes we do have the same views that we are on the 3rd stage which we do eventually see on crypto market. We are growing even more because of new projects/alts being launched which do offer unique service or ideas which would really contribute into something.Adoption will continue until to stage 4 but it will surely takes time for us to go there.

[Scripture]

I come to think of this that bitcoin made about years ago but not that popular so we didnt have that much growth. I believe that this is just the stage where people, companies and most of the governments started to adopt bitcoin. This Is just the growth stage. There are more things that will happen in the future.

[v0rtecxz]

I think we are no longer in the early stages, of course the early stages have gone by since long, now maybe we are in the middle stage because already many people know and use bitcoin, and at this stage may be the stage of growth and development of bitcoin still exist the opportunity to join and invest but the results in the can not be as big as in the previous stage, because the current price is quite high

[Nhor1011]

     I think we are at the middle stage of adoption which is the growth of bitcoin is still soaring even sometimes there is a dumps. And accompanied of the growth of bitcoin we are at the adoption and acceptance for a blockchain technology.

[JayDub]

In the US, places that are "cash only" are pretty rare - so many places take credit or debit.

Right now, crypto is like "cash only" so pretty early.   And BTC has been so wild both in price and transaction fee that IMHO, it's not dependable.

When we can use crypto at like half the places I'd say that would be pretty good.

The US may not be the best example because Asia has had cellphone-based payment for years and it is just starting here in the US.

[hamlet1975]

This article has some useful info on the Global Markets & where Crypto is.  It is a few months old, but it gives you an idea of where we are at.   

http://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-money-markets-one-visualization-2017/

[supermine]

Were are just at the first step of a big ladder we still need to go a long way.Bitcoin was found to be used a currency but I don't think people using it a currency yet because it is not accepted as a means of payment in normal day to day usage.So it needs some more years to adopt fully to the crypto currency system.But crypto currency is spreading all around the world rapidly due to price fluctuations of bitcoin.But many people afraid to accept it as a currency due to volatility in its price.So we will use the crypto currency as a currency when the prices are sabilized at some point.

[pinkflower]

Supermine said it right. We are in the early days of cryptocurrencies as a whole. Try going out of your house and see if you can find a BTC accepting store near you. You found none? Of course you did. Thats because theres less than 5% of the world's population use or own cryptocurrencies.

[tee-rex]

We're definitely getting there and exchanges (Binance, Poloniex, etc.) closing registration because they can no longer handle more users is a proof of that. I say we give bitcoin one more year, after that, almost every service will be in the process of adding it as a payment method (assuming that we will have LN stable and working by then).

They were closing registrations because there was an influx of spam accounts. Bitfinex reported something like 100,000 accounts opened in just a few days. Anyway, new account at an exchange has little if anything to do with real adoption. Speculation is not what Bitcoin now desperately needs. It needs real life adoption and there it sucks massively, sorry for that. And I don't think that LN is likely going to mend matters here because it won't affect volatility. It is volatility due to Bitcoin's speculative nature that prevents it from being used as a payment method.

[poptok1]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

Definitely not. Most people already know what cryptocurrency is. Even my friends at uni are already talking about and have a chat group for it LOL. This is unheard of in 2013. Take a look at this picture



I think we're already at stage 4 — maturity. People who joined recently are considered late majority. One thing, I really hope we don't have to see the decline of cryptocurrency in our lifetime. There are still a lot of things to be developed in crypto, a lot of innovation could be made, so that cycle of adoption could always be renewed/revised.

This infographic is worth little next to zero without at least one real scale reference.
Let's take time factor and add current 10 years as a scale of reference.
We quickly realise that its pointless, this would mean that cryptos are already over, we know this is not true.
Besides two years per stage seem like to small sample ergo bad science.
This is very advanced tech we are talking about here, we have to treat it, just like the computer industry.
Look how many years where needed to achieve 1computer per household (we are not there yet - but close) and correlate this to blockchain in fintech...Now, lets use 100 years scale, this would lead us to 10-20years per phase and now, now its starts look more real, more connected with our reality. We are still in the phase1. or at least that's my opinion.

[Barbut]

Just wanted to know where you guys think we are. Are we still in the early adoption stage?

At what stage of the dot com era would you put us at? Dial up lol?

Definitely not. Most people already know what cryptocurrency is. Even my friends at uni are already talking about and have a chat group for it LOL. This is unheard of in 2013. Take a look at this picture



I think we're already at stage 4 — maturity. People who joined recently are considered late majority. One thing, I really hope we don't have to see the decline of cryptocurrency in our lifetime. There are still a lot of things to be developed in crypto, a lot of innovation could be made, so that cycle of adoption could always be renewed/revised.

This infographic is worth little next to zero without at least one real scale reference.
Let's take time factor and add current 10 years as a scale of reference.
We quickly realise that its pointless, this would mean that cryptos are already over, we know this is not true.
Besides two years per stage seem like to small sample ergo bad science.
This is very advanced tech we are talking about here, we have to treat it, just like the computer industry.
Look how many years where needed to achieve 1computer per household (we are not there yet - but close) and correlate this to blockchain in fintech...Now, lets use 100 years scale, this would lead us to 10-20years per phase and now, now its starts look more real, more connected with our reality. We are still in the phase1. or at least that's my opinion.

Between stage 1 and stage 2, early developing, researching and introduction. We are not far from that, bitcoin is maybe one stage faster then the others but they are all still here, do you see how bitcoin is dropping and others are following.
With 100 years scale we are at the beginning, and all people here are early adopters, its how I see this situation and global adoption. Maybe many people heard about it, but many more will have to join. And look at the bitcoin, last year after so many people joined we had network breakdown, transaction fees to the moon, networks couldn't handle all this new people, there is so much work to be done more, we are at the start of it.

[1Referee]

Speculation is not what Bitcoin now desperately needs. It needs real life adoption and there it sucks massively, sorry for that.

Speculation is an aspect of any market, so whether we like it or not, it will always play an important role. I however agree that we need more adoption in form of actual usage, but the thing is that Bitcoin at this point doesn't really stimulate that as you (in a less subtile form) also pointed out. No need to say sorry, it's just your way of expressing.

And I don't think that LN is likely going to mend matters here because it won't affect volatility. It is volatility due to Bitcoin's speculative nature that prevents it from being used as a payment method.

It will matter, and in a significant manner as well. It actually surprises me that you don't see that. Currently the next few aspects are what bothers people, and at the same time prevents Bitcoin from becoming a mainstream phenomenon that it deserves to be.

1) high transaction fees.
2) slow confirmation times.
3) low number of transactions that it can process per second.

LN tackles all above annoyances that people 'suffer' from in today's market, and will stimulate people to transact with each other far more than we can imagine right now. In other words, LN is a major adotion booster, that's a fact. Regarding using it as payment to purchase goods and whatnot, I more or less agree that it won't change very much in that aspect. It has partly to do with the volatility, but the main point is that people don't want to spend something that can jump up significantly in value the next day. That's something we have been dealing with for years now.

[Samarkand]

...
LN tackles all above annoyances that people 'suffer' from in today's market, and will stimulate people to transact with each other far more than we can imagine right now. In other words, LN is a major adotion booster, that's a fact. Regarding using it as payment to purchase goods and whatnot, I more or less agree that it won't change very much in that aspect. It has partly to do with the volatility, but the main point is that people don't want to spend something that can jump up significantly in value the next day. That's something we have been dealing with for years now.

Couldn´t it be a good thing if people are reluctant to spend Bitcoins, because they are worth
more in the future? Several economists argue that assets like Bitcoin actually change people´s time
preferences from a high-time preference to a short-time preference. With a short-time preference
people actually think more of the long-term and increase their savings.

One could argue that this would be beneficial for the individual, because having savings protects from
sudden loss of income and also beneficial for society, because it would decrease the ubiquitous overconsumption.

[tee-rex]

And I don't think that LN is likely going to mend matters here because it won't affect volatility. It is volatility due to Bitcoin's speculative nature that prevents it from being used as a payment method.

It will matter, and in a significant manner as well. It actually surprises me that you don't see that. Currently the next few aspects are what bothers people, and at the same time prevents Bitcoin from becoming a mainstream phenomenon that it deserves to be.

1) high transaction fees.
2) slow confirmation times.
3) low number of transactions that it can process per second.

LN tackles all above annoyances that people 'suffer' from in today's market, and will stimulate people to transact with each other far more than we can imagine right now. In other words, LN is a major adotion booster, that's a fact. Regarding using it as payment to purchase goods and whatnot, I more or less agree that it won't change very much in that aspect. It has partly to do with the volatility, but the main point is that people don't want to spend something that can jump up significantly in value the next day. That's something we have been dealing with for years now.

You didn't come up with anything new that I haven't heard already. The points you list are not what affects volatility as an obstacle to wider adoption. Besides, the way you claim it as an established fact clearly reveals that you don't quite understand what's going on with Bitcoin on a larger scale. LN can make people transact more but it is not an adoption booster. I mean adoption as in real economy, not for speculation purposes. But it is doubtful even for speculation because there are a bunch of top altcoins which don't have these issues and did it boost adoption? In other words, it will mostly be the same people that will transact more, if at all.