The Uncomfortable Truth

[Finestream]

An investment in crypto and especially Bitcoin is treated as an investment and store of value more than being used in daily transactions.
It is true that Bitcoin and crypto currencies have not caught as much wind with the global audience but that does not make it a weak asset. The adoption rate for crypto currencies has not reached its peak yet so the government hired new agencies make impractical claims in order to serve the governments purpose.

That's normal because we are in the early stage, these smart people who are investing now are seeing the potential of bitcoin to become a mainstream currency in the future, so they position themselves early to own bitcoin now as they believe the demand will increase and the value will grow since bitcoin is limited in value.

It's pretty different in fiat as bitcoin is a real example of a "supply and demand",  and one thing, volatility maybe a hindrance to become a mainstream currency, but I know there's a lot of solution to that including the stable coin, and maybe Libra if they will successfully launch.

[Jating]

An investment in crypto and especially Bitcoin is treated as an investment and store of value more than being used in daily transactions.
It is true that Bitcoin and crypto currencies have not caught as much wind with the global audience but that does not make it a weak asset. The adoption rate for crypto currencies has not reached its peak yet so the government hired new agencies make impractical claims in order to serve the governments purpose.

That's normal because we are in the early stage, these smart people who are investing now are seeing the potential of bitcoin to become a mainstream currency in the future, so they position themselves early to own bitcoin now as they believe the demand will increase and the value will grow since bitcoin is limited in value.

I wouldn't consider that we are still in the early stage, bitcoin went for $.1-$1k already, so they have seen what bitcoin can be, a currency and store of value. Those who have been here have evolved as well, from simply experimenting to becoming one of the best asset so far because of its limited supply.

It's pretty different in fiat as bitcoin is a real example of a "supply and demand",  and one thing, volatility maybe a hindrance to become a mainstream currency, but I know there's a lot of solution to that including the stable coin, and maybe Libra if they will successfully launch.

Or LN could be solution if we wanted it to became mainstream currency. Although LN is still very slow as far as adoption is concern.

[Sexaphiliac]

Many are hodling Bitcoin not necessarily using it as a means of settlement. This is because they are speculating significant price appreciation overtime which is very logical. Why should I spend $500 worth of BTC today when it could be worth way more in the nearest future.This further serves to strenghten the fact that Bitcoin is digital gold.

[94K]

The business of cryptocurrency is like gambling. Its unpredictable and unstable. You either lose or gain money. I always say that this business is risky hence you need to be careful especially about the coin you will want to invest. Study the market and know the coins well.

[Ucy]

1. I expect most "use" come from payment processors, not actual merchants. It's a difference. And payment processors can bulk the transactions so you won't see a difference.
2. In the same way you hold waiting for the rise, many others do that. If nobody is spending, why expect better numbers?
3. News papers use big words for useless posts. If you read a bit more around you'll see that reality is never as bad as depicted by news.

Interesting.
Plus payment processors don't know what the bitcoins are used for. The implication of this is that people might be buying and selling amongst themselves in large number without chainalysis even knowing it. It possible that traders contact each other on social media, Telegram, Whatapp, etc to negotiate prices and then send the coins through the payment processors. But the payment processors don't know what the transactions are for.

Well, I guess this is close to the best way to use Bitcoin. But the little problem is that it is done via centralized intermediaries , which are the payment processors, instead of peer-to-peer or with decentralized intermediaries

So, no one actually knows the real number of Marchant transactions. It could be way higher than the figures we are constantly bombarded with.

[BitHodler]

Or LN could be solution if we wanted it to became mainstream currency. Although LN is still very slow as far as adoption is concern.

LN isn't a solution to that. It's just one (currently very dominant) second layer, which we in the future will see compete with other second layers. I don't rule out to see a second layer gain more popularity at one point.

People often look at LN as being Bitcoin's path to scale, but you don't really scale anything aside from the second layer itself. Bitcoin's main-chain is still slow and expensive relatively speaking, that won't change any time soon.

SegWit on the other hand is an actual scaling implementation. It brought a 20-25% transaction throughput increase and some bug fixes. Better something than nothing at all I would say.

[mccorrinall]

LN isn't a solution to that. It's just one (currently very dominant) second layer, which we in the future will see compete with other second layers. I don't rule out to see a second layer gain more popularity at one point.

People often look at LN as being Bitcoin's path to scale, but you don't really scale anything aside from the second layer itself. Bitcoin's main-chain is still slow and expensive relatively speaking, that won't change any time soon.

SegWit on the other hand is an actual scaling implementation. It brought a 20-25% transaction throughput increase and some bug fixes. Better something than nothing at all I would say.

Exactly. Lightning is a very situational scaling solution: It only scales when e.g. two parties are often transferring money to each other. The final settlement is still done on the chain.

Looking forward to Schnorr signatures.

[Onuohakk]

Bitcoin is a digital currency  not a physical currency. People like making use of bitcoin to store up their assets and to make more profit. For now I don't think bitcoin can get up to $20k before the end of this year

[Diirtmaan]

The business of cryptocurrency is like gambling. Its unpredictable and unstable. You either lose or gain money. I always say that this business is risky hence you need to be careful especially about the coin you will want to invest. Study the market and know the coins well.

If you buy Bitcoin at a bargain price during a bear market and hold it will have positive dynamics and profit. You can play carefully and this is the right way to avoid risks.

[lixer]

Bitcoin is a digital currency  not a physical currency. People like making use of bitcoin to store up their assets and to make more profit. For now I don't think bitcoin can get up to $20k before the end of this year

The word currency already sum it all, whether it is digital or physical, it is currency and a currency is meant to be means of making payment for something and not just asset as we are using it to be. It is because we are using it more for asset alone that bitcoin has still not developed more than it has now. For bitcoin system to be more effective, there is need for demand to always occur every minute, but keeping it as asset means the demand will just be like once in a whole when we have spare money to make investment which should never be.

If we are using it to make payment for many things that we are using, it will Ben be creating awareness for the coin and you see more people coming into the space of bitcoin to constantly be using it for their purchases.

[Mandoy]

This is not an uncomfortable truth but rather the truth itself. Bitcoin as of today is always been a subject to tremendous changes in terms of volatility. The reason is that there are big whales running the market and only a few compared to the worlds total population are engaging in bitcoin. If at least 10% of the worlds population are using and holding bitcoin then we will have a more stable price for bitcoin and the volatility will be reduced then we can start seeing bitcoin being used daily in the market as a form of payment. Also there is the issue on the slow transactions on bitcoin transfer and this is one big reason why people and merchant does not use bitcoin for purchases.

[btc78]

Over time, the situation should change and the number of transactions and traders will increase, perhaps the whole system will change. It has to happen.

For our years here in this forum and in cryptocurrency as well,we had already witness the increasingly and demand of this market so no doubt that we’re getting higher and bigger as time passes by

So transaction will increase and traders will progress in their strategies

Yeah it’s sometimes frustrating when we expect growth but fall is what we’ve got since this is part of the healthy market what’s important is we are not withdrawing our support and still continue to trust crypto

[cizatext]

Over time, the situation should change and the number of transactions and traders will increase, perhaps the whole system will change. It has to happen.

For our years here in this forum and in cryptocurrency as well,we had already witness the increasingly and demand of this market so no doubt that we’re getting higher and bigger as time passes by

So transaction will increase and traders will progress in their strategies

Yeah it’s sometimes frustrating when we expect growth but fall is what we’ve got since this is part of the healthy market what’s important is we are not withdrawing our support and still continue to trust crypto

Yeah time is passing by and bitcoin has continue to attract more population and that has always been reflected on the price of bitcoin in the market, and 99% of us here are holding bitcoin for the profit in the future.

[mazdafunsun]

I do not understand how this is a uncomfortable truth , this is more like common knowledge than something surprising. Yes, most of the volume is from speculation but I am not sure about their numbers. They use BitPay as reference but it doe snot mean that only this gateway is the only one ,also other dont use gateway at all. I think that darkweb percent could be close to truth but not the merchant number.

[pundit]

Bitcoin is mostly being used to transact funds abroad, its rarely being used as money Mechants counters. It is an attractive investment option due to its high volatile nature, it will not be surprising a big amount of money comes into Bitcoin and its value shoots beyond $20K. Bitcoin will more be used as an asset instead of regular currency in daily use I believe, people are considering as high return option on their investment.