What is the biggest problem for crypto.

[wattson]

What do you guys consider as the biggest problem for cryptocurrencies? Nowadays many new projects presenting scalability, transaction fee, miner's fee etc as the fundamental problems and coming up with their own solution. But I think the biggest problem still is adoption. Please let me know what you think about this topic. If you have more than one problem please mention all with a little bit of explanation.

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[aleksej996]

I think that governments and bankers that fund them will pose the biggest problem for crypto in future.
All of the technical problems that we see are solvable and adoption will come naturally, as cryptocurenncies are really the best way to store and transact money.

[OriginTrain]

I think that governments and bankers that fund them will pose the biggest problem for crypto in future.
All of the technical problems that we see are solvable and adoption will come naturally, as cryptocurenncies are really the best way to store and transact money.

Well said. I think in essence they cannot control crypto since it's decentralized, however with all the FUD from governments and banks doing their best to counteract this boom, investors who aren't familiar with what crypto really is nevertheless panic. The panic will be long-term until the majority of the population finally understands what decentralization actually means.

[gentlemand]

People.

Crypto was started by the weirdo outliers. As more regular people pour in the same old rot will begin.

Normal people want their hand held. They want someone to turn to when it turns to shit. They don't want to think very much.

The people higher up want power, both in crypto and regular finance. Look at all the shit Bitmain have been pulling.

This leaves an absolutely tiny faction who are trying to hold crypto to fulfilling its initial promise against an avalanche of mindlessness above and below them.

[ABCbits]

1. Cryptocurrency with good scaling solution, most coins don't handle it well, especially new coins which offer lots of features into their blockchain.
2. The community, especially the one who blindly trust coins they HODL, share FUD about other coins & want to take control over the development/community (try to remember drama before BCH fork).
3. Actual cryptocurrency usage, especially only major coins can be used as payment method.
4. Government, bankers or people who refuse cryptocurrency even though they know the advantage.

[Jet Cash]

What are the biggest problems -

Ponzi schemes, air drops, and other get rich schemes.
People seeing the simple purchase of crypto currencies as a primary income source, and getting into debt as a result.

We could do something to discourage this on Bitcoin Talk, but instead we reward the perpetrators.

[Dullmartini]

The biggest problem is lack of trust in crypto by people who are not in it. This creates ignorant panic (eg bitcoin is a bubble and will be worth nothing) and it also results in governments and big companies like banks and credit cards from facilitating crypto transactions.

I think the lack of trust stems from:
1 not understanding the importance of the technology
2 lack of regulation and kyc
3 all the scams and hacks over the last x number of years

[Zandar]

The biggest problems are the transactions, it takes too long and it keeps on getting higher and higher. BTC gets stuck due to too many transactions it can't handle and trottles it. So you wait and wait, sometimes for days. By the time it gets there most of the times it has become less in value as well.
Also all the ICOs, most of them turn out to be nothing but scams. They need to be regulated so the governments can do something when they scam people, otherwise it will remain as the wild west it is now, scam after scam. Tons of people have gone into debt going into crypto and got scammed.

[Trofo]

What do you guys consider as the biggest problem for cryptocurrencies? Nowadays many new projects presenting scalability, transaction fee, miner's fee etc as the fundamental problems and coming up with their own solution. But I think the biggest problem still is adoption. Please let me know what you think about this topic. If you have more than one problem please mention all with a little bit of explanation.

IMHO the problem with existing cryptocurrencies is always the same(at least one of the below if not all three):
1. Scalability which further develops into few problems like transactions per second (can't wait for lighting network implementation) and network bandwidth. Some people put also storage into this category but I believe that is more of a future problem and can be addressed at later time when blockchains growth demands it. IOTA tangle has some advantages here and Raiblocks lattice comes to mind as well.

2. Interoperability - we have lots of different cryptocurrencies out there and they aren't able to work with each other. Cardano project has some ideas how to handle this but we will see if they will be able to implement something like it.

3. Sustainability - this especially goes for all new projects, and double for ICOs. They raise some money for initial development but after it disappears they find themselves in problems.

I see problems with mass adoption more as consequence of above problems then a problem itself. We will have a gradual mass adoption as we tackle above mentioned obstacles and more and more casual users are able to get into crypto world. After last year we probably have enough media exposure to reach lots of people. Now we need to provide solutions to made cryptocurrencies usable by people who are not tech savvy.

[lavajumper]

One issue that I think is a serious challenge for crypto, as far as wide spread adaptation is concerned, is some type of error-correction. Not necessarily an error in the system, but human-error.

Its one of the things that conventional systems have in place that bitcoin really lacks. I've only been using bitcoin since 2013, and to be honest I still get a bit of a panicky feeling every time I send coins out. "What if I used the wrong address? What if I'm being ripped off? What if the transaction gets stuck? What if there's a new zero-day exploit which drains my cold addresses (yes... I even worry about my cold addresses [ https://lbc.cryptoguru.org/trophies ])?"

People make mistakes. I am fully aware, and really support the 'non-reversibility' of bitcoin, but this issue has been in the back of my mind for quite some time.

I've sent coins to an incorrect address. I think those of us that use bitcoin willingly accept these risks because we understand the alternatives, but I don't think I could live with it if it was inherent in every financial transaction I made. I would hate to worry about my whether my utility payment was successful every month. Or my car payment, or mortgage. The concept of mis-sending, coupled with irreversablity is really quite unnerving.

I have lost coins in exchange melt-downs, and have also come to expect a certain amount of successful theft in crypto. If something is wrong with a product I've purchased, I am left to the judgement and honesty of the vendor. The concept of purchasing with bitcoin but having no way to recover coins if I have been a victim of fraud is also quite unnerving.

Over the years I have noticed this problem attempting to be addressed, but what I'm seeing is yet another form of banking. Escrow providers were one of the earliest that I saw. We are already experiencing the horrors of mining power becoming concentrated. What would the landscape look like if escrow became big business? What if "bitcoin insurance" came into being (sort of an FDIC for bitcoin)? Coinbase wallets are very popular, with many users of it unaware that they don't control the coins in that wallet.

I've spent a good deal of brain-power ( of what little I have ) thinking about this issue, and every scenario I think of involves some entity wielding huge amounts of power and trust, which rarely continues with both surviving. I am sure this can be addressed in some fashion, but I really am concerned about what that solution would look like. I have a fear that the solutions that actually get adopted (by a huge number of people missing the whole point of bitcoin) could kill the very strengths of bitcoin as a system.

Can the system be safe for people that are non-tech, non-crypto savvy?

[Jet Cash]

I gather NameJet is not considering Bitcoin as a payment option because of the fees, the price volatility and the long confirmation times. This may be as a result of adverse publicity and lack of education causing sellers to reject Bitcoin as an option.

[cjmoles]

People.

Crypto was started by the weirdo outliers. As more regular people pour in the same old rot will begin.

Normal people want their hand held. They want someone to turn to when it turns to shit. They don't want to think very much.

The people higher up want power, both in crypto and regular finance. Look at all the shit Bitmain have been pulling.

This leaves an absolutely tiny faction who are trying to hold crypto to fulfilling its initial promise against an avalanche of mindlessness above and below them.

People!

I think that the original intentions of the cryptocurrency economy has been taken off course by people's baser motives.  Much of the original vision of the p2p platforms has been discarded in the transition from the maniac fringe to mass adoption.  People are begging for regulation now instead of  "self regulating" and the "trustless" vision has been veering toward an increasingly predatory system spurned on by greed which has decreased the technologies utility.  There was a day when using bitcoin as a medium of exchange was more economically sound then using a credit card....greed has taken over and bitcoin is now a purely speculative asset that serves no other function. In fact, it cannot even be considered a secure source to be utilized as a means to store value because of its extreme volatility precipitated by speculation bubbles.

[junoreactor]

People.

Crypto was started by the weirdo outliers. As more regular people pour in the same old rot will begin.

Normal people want their hand held. They want someone to turn to when it turns to shit. They don't want to think very much.

The people higher up want power, both in crypto and regular finance. Look at all the shit Bitmain have been pulling.

This leaves an absolutely tiny faction who are trying to hold crypto to fulfilling its initial promise against an avalanche of mindlessness above and below them.

People!

I think that the original intentions of the cryptocurrency economy has been taken off course by people's baser motives.  Much of the original vision of the p2p platforms has been discarded in the transition from the maniac fringe to mass adoption.  People are begging for regulation now instead of  "self regulating" and the "trustless" vision has been veering toward an increasingly predatory system spurned on by greed which has decreased the technologies utility.  There was a day when using bitcoin as a medium of exchange was more economically sound then using a credit card....greed has taken over and bitcoin is now a purely speculative asset that serves no other function. In fact, it cannot even be considered a secure source to be utilized as a means to store value because of it's potential volatility precipitated by speculation bubbles diminishes that capacity.

The issue with a currency gaining so much value in a few months/years is that a very limited number of people will be willing to spend it. Why spend a currency that will see its value double in a few months (sometimes a few weeks)? This prevents bitcoin (and other digital currencies) from becoming a currency in the real meaning of the term. Deflation (limited quantity) seems to be the issue and leads to speculation.

[Jet Cash]

@lavajumper

There seems to be a new scam creeping in. Some people are selling Bitcoin Cash as the true Bitcoin. This is not only confusing, but can lead people into overpaying for an alt coin.

[lavajumper]

@lavajumper

There seems to be a new scam creeping in. Some people are selling Bitcoin Cash as the true Bitcoin. This is not only confusing, but can lead people into overpaying for an alt coin.

This was actually one of my big concerns from the BCH fork. I wasn't as much worried about the value as the effect that the confusion of working with the addresses from a merchant's point of view. It has been difficult enough to see merchants adapting because of the technical hurdles and volitility, but if you add into the mix that a merchant can easily be on the wrong chain... I can easily see merchants, who have a lot more on their mind than dealing with a payment nightmare, could decide to bag the whole thing and say.... "not worth the headache, not touching it till you stupid nerds get your shit together." I try to remain dispassionate about the holy wars, but from a big picture, the fork sucked..... right or wrong.

[Stunna]

1. Scalability - Anyone willing to spend a large amount of money can spam the network to the point of $20+ fees. The cheapest transaction fee right now is 30 sat/byte, for a good chunk of time it seems likely that bad actors were spamming out high fee transactions. Truthfully if someone wants to burn a few million they can pretty much ruin bitcoin as far as currency uses go for a solid period of time. Also, it's concerning how wasteful POW coins like Bitcoin are as far as environmental impact. Also as a side point it's concerning how as far as decision making goes we are often at the mercy of the mining cartel, Bitcoin is decentralized though right?

2. Manipulation - Exchanges like bitfinex can entirely manipulate the price of coins up and down and profit billions doing so. The amount of suspicious behavior going on with some major exchanges is scary (tether, wash trading, spoofing. Have we really learned from the mistakes of Mtgox? It makes me nervous that coins have gone up so rapidly while the surrounding infrastructure is lagging behind so greatly. Current volatility is so great that it makes it difficult to use crypto as a currency, a selloff resulting from the bitfinex subpoena going public cut crypto prices in half or lower.  

3. Uses - Crypto in 90% of cases is just being used for speculation right now. There's a lot of big problems that can be solved by crypto but the fact that something like crypto kitties can bring the Ethereum blockchain to a stand-still is laughable. The vast majority of ICO's and coins are total bullshit & operated like ponzi schemes. We're still very much in the Alpha stages of things but I'm always anxiously optimistic.

4. Theft - Not just digital theft, but real life kidnappings & robberies

[Cryptotina]

Too many big problems in crypto. I for one, hate the up and down, rise and fall. The merit earn stuff, scamers, high gas fee and most especially plans the government has to destroy the whole thing ☹️ poor US and China

[charlie137]

lack of well-known EDU material to get the userbase on minimum level. "im running mn on root, i don't care" and stuff like that should not be normal thing.

[Vannie12]

I think MISCONCEPTION. The fact that cryptocurrencies are made with different features, I think new investors and adapters are confused of what its real use. Though we know its for quick transactions and less fees, some are just into earning and makes it more vulnerable to crime involvement. As greediness conquer, more problem arises such as scalability, FUDs, and other things that would cause instability of trust and could drag the whole market.
Without a proper introduction to cryptos, people will just wander around and would try to earn. If they failed, they will say its a joke.

[Ginzink]

I think MISCONCEPTION. The fact that cryptocurrencies are made with different features, I think new investors and adapters are confused of what its real use. Though we know its for quick transactions and less fees, some are just into earning and makes it more vulnerable to crime involvement. As greediness conquer, more problem arises such as scalability, FUDs, and other things that would cause instability of trust and could drag the whole market.
Without a proper introduction to cryptos, people will just wander around and would try to earn. If they failed, they will say its a joke.

That last sentence is currently one of the biggest problems! Crypto needs adoption, but alot of the "sheep" went in at prices much higher than they are now, and are currently looking at crypto as a joke / money grab. All the scam / crap ico doesn't help either..

I would actualy prefer some regulation, but with rules as similar as possible in different parts of the world.