What’s Stopping Crypto Markets from Entering the Mainstream

[wheelz1200]

Things may not be quite as ostentatious as they were in 2017, but cryptocurrencies are having an outstanding year. Not only has their collective market cap quadrupled since the start of the year, but they are enjoying bullish sentiment on many fronts. ( In macro look)

Whether it’s the unmistakable entrance of institutional investors into the crypto space or the fact that you can buy a latte with Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies are undoubtedly trending higher. Even Facebook, the world’s most popular social media platform, is entering the fray, introducing its cryptocurrency, Libra to its 2.5 billion users.

Consider these growth metrics for the crypto sector:

84% of respondents to a PwC executive survey are dabbling in crypto’s underlying technology, the blockchain
89% of the U.S. population has heard of Bitcoin, a 12% increase since 2017
11% of the U.S. population has invested in a cryptocurrency
34,660,975 people have created a blockchain wallet, a number that has risen every quarter since 2016.

More info and source here

Taken together, it’s clear that crypto is making significant inroads at many levels of financial and technological space. And yet, obstacles remain to crypto investment markets becoming normative and broadly accepted. Even though cryptos are outperforming every other major investment vehicle in 2019, including stocks, bonds, gold, and oil, they remain a fringe industry.


What do you think is the real reason Crypto is not becoming Mainstream?

Usability.  The internet was around for a long time but "normal" people didnt use it until everything became a picture button.  People are still afraid to lose or get hacked for their money with no way to recoup it.  So once usability becomes a lot more user friendly and security becomes a lot more tight.  That's when the sharp curve up will start.

[error08]

What do you think is the real reason Crypto is not becoming Mainstream?

Usability.  The internet was around for a long time but "normal" people didnt use it until everything became a picture button.  People are still afraid to lose or get hacked for their money with no way to recoup it.  So once usability becomes a lot more user friendly and security becomes a lot more tight.  That's when the sharp curve up will start.

Bitcoin usability is the main reason for bitcoin to become a mainstream digital currency, in fact, many companies and countries such as France, China and Facebook creating their own digital currency.
The main reason probably because bitcoin volatility, the price can spike up and tumbled within hours, who wants to invest $10K today but tomorrow the value of bitcoin loss $3K?
Another reason is Government regulation, it's a good thing if a country acknowledges bitcoin as an asset like gold or bonds which everyone is free to trade it, without tax is even better. If a country declares bitcoin is free to use by the citizens anytime anywhere, then it's going to be mainstream.

[BitcoinsGreat]

While cryptocurrency is still new to others since more people  still don't know what cryptocurrency and bitcoin is. And still too many naive people on this industry being scammed by some random fella in social media sites. And the fact that most government are against crypto, bitcoin and/or cryptocurrency will still be the same without the approval and regulations of most government.

Yeah some other parts of the world still doesn't know about bitcoins existence that's why it needs more adoption so that we can see a good spread but actually it's hard to implement since  the market is pretty much not attractive for the new comers since for sure many newbie attempt to enter on year 2018-2019 lose their capital for long streak bear market happen today and for sure this is the huge barricade since many people would not agree that bitcoins and cryptocurrency is a good choice of investment.

There is lack of crypto currency knowledge among the people. I myself have seen those who have bitcoin with themselves but their friends or near or dear ones do not know about crypto. People usually do not tell if they are holding the crypto or the benefits of it. Maybe crypto status is unclear in most part of the world and people hesitant to declare that they hold any amount of bitcoins.

[wheelz1200]

While cryptocurrency is still new to others since more people  still don't know what cryptocurrency and bitcoin is. And still too many naive people on this industry being scammed by some random fella in social media sites. And the fact that most government are against crypto, bitcoin and/or cryptocurrency will still be the same without the approval and regulations of most government.

Yeah some other parts of the world still doesn't know about bitcoins existence that's why it needs more adoption so that we can see a good spread but actually it's hard to implement since  the market is pretty much not attractive for the new comers since for sure many newbie attempt to enter on year 2018-2019 lose their capital for long streak bear market happen today and for sure this is the huge barricade since many people would not agree that bitcoins and cryptocurrency is a good choice of investment.

There is lack of crypto currency knowledge among the people. I myself have seen those who have bitcoin with themselves but their friends or near or dear ones do not know about crypto. People usually do not tell if they are holding the crypto or the benefits of it. Maybe crypto status is unclear in most part of the world and people hesitant to declare that they hold any amount of bitcoins.

That's a good point people are still "afraid" to say they dabble in crypto for whatever reason.  It is difficult to describe and understand at first which is a turnoff for some, and others just like to think fiat is the only form of "money" and refuse to think that crypto can have a place as a monetary unit of value.  Multie things holding crypto back, it will take a generational change over where kids grow up with crypto for it to be mainstream.

[Taskford]

While cryptocurrency is still new to others since more people  still don't know what cryptocurrency and bitcoin is. And still too many naive people on this industry being scammed by some random fella in social media sites. And the fact that most government are against crypto, bitcoin and/or cryptocurrency will still be the same without the approval and regulations of most government.

Yeah some other parts of the world still doesn't know about bitcoins existence that's why it needs more adoption so that we can see a good spread but actually it's hard to implement since  the market is pretty much not attractive for the new comers since for sure many newbie attempt to enter on year 2018-2019 lose their capital for long streak bear market happen today and for sure this is the huge barricade since many people would not agree that bitcoins and cryptocurrency is a good choice of investment.

There is lack of crypto currency knowledge among the people. I myself have seen those who have bitcoin with themselves but their friends or near or dear ones do not know about crypto. People usually do not tell if they are holding the crypto or the benefits of it. Maybe crypto status is unclear in most part of the world and people hesitant to declare that they hold any amount of bitcoins.

I also think that the huge contribution for cryptocurrency not to be known is also the MLM scammers since in my country there are so many of them uses crypto as payment option and this schemes add band tint on the image of crypto that's why if they heard about it they will just ignore and think negative, I remember before that their is an article on forex trading about bitcoins and people tag it as scam since they though it's a ponzi scheme and for this we really need a clear picture on the real status of cryptocurrency so that it can help out spread and maybe by proper education we can see the word cryptocurrency on mainstream media.

[leea-1334]

I also think that the huge contribution for cryptocurrency not to be known is also the MLM scammers since in my country there are so many of them uses crypto as payment option and this schemes add band tint on the image of crypto that's why if they heard about it they will just ignore and think negative, I remember before that their is an article on forex trading about bitcoins and people tag it as scam since they though it's a ponzi scheme and for this we really need a clear picture on the real status of cryptocurrency so that it can help out spread and maybe by proper education we can see the word cryptocurrency on mainstream media.

Same here, which country are you from? I think the first time I remember seeing Bitcoin was in 2015 or maybe even earlier before I moved. I used to live in a big student area with a lot of noticeboards and everyone was promoting get rich schemes every year. Usually it was to do with gold or something networking MLM thing. Then Bitcoin began to appear as the mode of payment. So initially like all Ponzis it ran well, then when the owners ran off, everyone thought Bitcoin was a scammer currency.

[avatar_kiyoshi]

I also think that the huge contribution for cryptocurrency not to be known is also the MLM scammers since in my country there are so many of them uses crypto as payment option and this schemes add band tint on the image of crypto that's why if they heard about it they will just ignore and think negative, I remember before that their is an article on forex trading about bitcoins and people tag it as scam since they though it's a ponzi scheme and for this we really need a clear picture on the real status of cryptocurrency so that it can help out spread and maybe by proper education we can see the word cryptocurrency on mainstream media.

Same here, which country are you from? I think the first time I remember seeing Bitcoin was in 2015 or maybe even earlier before I moved. I used to live in a big student area with a lot of noticeboards and everyone was promoting get rich schemes every year. Usually it was to do with gold or something networking MLM thing. Then Bitcoin began to appear as the mode of payment. So initially like all Ponzis it ran well, then when the owners ran off, everyone thought Bitcoin was a scammer currency.

In short, trust issue is the main problem. Public sentiment still full of nonsense scared against Bitcoin, most of them think Bitcoin is crime-currency because it's anonymous, but in fact Bitcoin is pseudonym. And the media exaggerates it by bringing up negative things about Bitcoin.
Educating the public about Bitcoin is very important.

[Mulann2]

Maybe mainly because of the many negative news surrounding crypto in general, every now and then there is the case of scam, exit scam and hacks and what have you, and unfortunately, this are the kind of headlines that make  the news the most, and not to mention the market is so vulnerable, there is very little security to protect investors, and many people don't find it safe enough.

[Swordsoffreedom]

The biggest hurdle is price volatility. Few hours back bitcoin was 6800$ and now it’s 7200$. You think it’s good idea to buy something that was 7000$ when you think about buying it, 7200$ when you bought and 7500$ when you enter home after buying it.
Bring stability if we want to see Bitcoin as main payment method.

[Taskford]

I also think that the huge contribution for cryptocurrency not to be known is also the MLM scammers since in my country there are so many of them uses crypto as payment option and this schemes add band tint on the image of crypto that's why if they heard about it they will just ignore and think negative, I remember before that their is an article on forex trading about bitcoins and people tag it as scam since they though it's a ponzi scheme and for this we really need a clear picture on the real status of cryptocurrency so that it can help out spread and maybe by proper education we can see the word cryptocurrency on mainstream media.

Same here, which country are you from? I think the first time I remember seeing Bitcoin was in 2015 or maybe even earlier before I moved. I used to live in a big student area with a lot of noticeboards and everyone was promoting get rich schemes every year. Usually it was to do with gold or something networking MLM thing. Then Bitcoin began to appear as the mode of payment. So initially like all Ponzis it ran well, then when the owners ran off, everyone thought Bitcoin was a scammer currency.

I'm from Philippines and there's so many MLM scammers promoting their scam platform using the bitcoins payment option and history of it, and it's so sick to see those one since they are not really helping the bitcoins and cryptocurrency since they are the one who create a chaos for it's growth that's why it's really hard to find here a person who is knowledgeable about the real score of cryptocurrency and it's kinda funny since my friend still didn't believe that bitcoin is worthy and they always tells me that is scam.

[dodgrad]

I think that a good example of what makes cryptocurrency difficult to enter the mainstream is LIBRA. It would seem that Mark Zuckerberg with his powerful Facebook should not have any problem to launch his coin on the financial market. Unfortunately, but it turns out that it will not be so easy. Countries such as Germany, Switzerland and England have spoken very critically about this project, and the French finance minister simply said that:

"Libra could not be allowed to become a sovereign currency."

It seems that it is not technology, banks or anything else, but governments are the biggest problem for cryptocurrency development.

We have to look closely at what will happen with the Libra project, because it can also happen to Bitcoin.

[alexkamillakroy]

I think it's uncertainty (and fear of uncertainty) primarily. Then, there must be some popular bias about crypto in general (that you are required to be "geek", "tech expert", you have to be "rich" to enter, that it's "less serious" than traditional methods, that it's predominantly filled with "frauds" and "criminals" and is "not trustworthy"). Speaking of the latter... there are plenty of interested players who'd argument you why such prejudice/fears are completely rational & factual 100% just so you won't enter any competitor sphere.

Besides, you can see governments taking part in contributing to crypto's semi-legal indefinite status as well, by either delegitimizing it or seeking to control it.

And, as someone above correctly put it, crypto projects developed by big corporations (re: Libra) don't exactly add up some "trustworthy" image to crypto, being seen as marketing tool of the richest & further power establishing mean by them (while being simultaneously trashed by centralized govts seeking financial hegemony... how ironic).

[South Park]

While cryptocurrency is still new to others since more people  still don't know what cryptocurrency and bitcoin is. And still too many naive people on this industry being scammed by some random fella in social media sites. And the fact that most government are against crypto, bitcoin and/or cryptocurrency will still be the same without the approval and regulations of most government.

Yeah some other parts of the world still doesn't know about bitcoins existence that's why it needs more adoption so that we can see a good spread but actually it's hard to implement since  the market is pretty much not attractive for the new comers since for sure many newbie attempt to enter on year 2018-2019 lose their capital for long streak bear market happen today and for sure this is the huge barricade since many people would not agree that bitcoins and cryptocurrency is a good choice of investment.

In my opinion the biggest obstacle for this market to become mainstream has to do with the ignorance of the people about how the economy really works, they have no idea that under the current system they have no freedom and if things continue in the current direction then governments are going to take complete control over their lives, not only that the system is completely unfair, the government has a huge advantage over every other institution because they can create money at will, if anyone other than the government does that then they go to jail, but somehow this is accepted as something good when it is obviously a really bad thing.

[longyenthanh]

Bitcoin has scalability issue that needs to be dealt on emergency basis if we want to bring bitcoin to mainstream. Settlement time for bitcoin transaction is still not in acceptable range for merchants. If this issue continues to exist then we won’t see bitcoin in mainstream.

[ultrloa]

While cryptocurrency is still new to others since more people  still don't know what cryptocurrency and bitcoin is. And still too many naive people on this industry being scammed by some random fella in social media sites. And the fact that most government are against crypto, bitcoin and/or cryptocurrency will still be the same without the approval and regulations of most government.

Yeah some other parts of the world still doesn't know about bitcoins existence that's why it needs more adoption so that we can see a good spread but actually it's hard to implement since  the market is pretty much not attractive for the new comers since for sure many newbie attempt to enter on year 2018-2019 lose their capital for long streak bear market happen today and for sure this is the huge barricade since many people would not agree that bitcoins and cryptocurrency is a good choice of investment.

In my opinion the biggest obstacle for this market to become mainstream has to do with the ignorance of the people about how the economy really works, they have no idea that under the current system they have no freedom and if things continue in the current direction then governments are going to take complete control over their lives, not only that the system is completely unfair, the government has a huge advantage over every other institution because they can create money at will, if anyone other than the government does that then they go to jail, but somehow this is accepted as something good when it is obviously a really bad thing.

In short people need education for this and it will start with the government since if they want their people to become innovative and upgrade their lives in terms of new technology they should support and introduce the blockchain in the mainstream but guess the government is lacking with support maybe they are been fud by the market condition and animosity of bitcoins together with crypto's that's why we cannot get a huge support and spread easily like a wild fire.

[TheUltraElite]

In short people need education for this and it will start with the government since if they want their people to become innovative and upgrade their lives in terms of new technology they should support and introduce the blockchain in the mainstream

There are problems with introducing a new technology. Although blockchain has been in the news but I doubt many of the older population to accept bitcoin to be used. Gradually we have moved from physical to digital cash payments and we might move to cryptocurrency soon as time progresses. Blockchain tech has moved on and is being used by many IT companies to develop new projects or modify older ones.

but guess the government is lacking with support maybe they are been fud by the market condition and animosity of bitcoins together with crypto's that's why we cannot get a huge support and spread easily like a wild fire.

Institutional banks dont want cryptocurrencies to become widespread. They have tried to keep it under some false concepts to avoid people into going towards it. They are doing their part and its justified from their stand.

[buwaytress]

I also think that the huge contribution for cryptocurrency not to be known is also the MLM scammers since in my country there are so many of them uses crypto as payment option and this schemes add band tint on the image of crypto that's why if they heard about it they will just ignore and think negative, I remember before that their is an article on forex trading about bitcoins and people tag it as scam since they though it's a ponzi scheme and for this we really need a clear picture on the real status of cryptocurrency so that it can help out spread and maybe by proper education we can see the word cryptocurrency on mainstream media.

Same here, which country are you from? I think the first time I remember seeing Bitcoin was in 2015 or maybe even earlier before I moved. I used to live in a big student area with a lot of noticeboards and everyone was promoting get rich schemes every year. Usually it was to do with gold or something networking MLM thing. Then Bitcoin began to appear as the mode of payment. So initially like all Ponzis it ran well, then when the owners ran off, everyone thought Bitcoin was a scammer currency.

I'm from Philippines and there's so many MLM scammers promoting their scam platform using the bitcoins payment option and history of it, and it's so sick to see those one since they are not really helping the bitcoins and cryptocurrency since they are the one who create a chaos for it's growth that's why it's really hard to find here a person who is knowledgeable about the real score of cryptocurrency and it's kinda funny since my friend still didn't believe that bitcoin is worthy and they always tells me that is scam.

I think it's a blight that's all over Southeast Asia, I'm extremely familiar with that scene, and I've been around since the late 1990s, so I remember how it used to look like in student campuses and nearby urban and commercial areas. Notice boards abound. People looking for work.

A lot of converging circumstances. Thousands of students yet to graduate, needing income and money to pay for fees, rent and books. Internet was just emerging then, and for thousands of new students fresh out of the village and into the city for the first time, MLMs and magic internet money and even the promise of $50 a week is a small fortune in their life...

And then the mainstream media, google, facebook all promoting bitcoin millionaires. Bitcoin.com rather than bitcoin.org still the first stop for most people learning about bitcoin (and bitcointalk is even not on page 1 of google)... It's tough to get real mainstream adoption when most people's first impression and knowledge of Bitcoin is fraudulent, false and misleading.

[milewilda]

 Institutional banks dont want cryptocurrencies to become widespread. They have tried to keep it under some false concepts to avoid people into going towards it. They are doing their part and its justified from their stand.

As always, this is one of the main reason why crypto wont go mainstream due to this reason.Government doesnt really like crypto generally.
Yes they can accept or consider blockchain tech but this would be applied on other matter but for Crypto/BTC?Its out of the list for sure but
somehow we can see some progress when it comes to adoption.It might not be coming to a point to become mainstream but at least
we are seeing it as an option when it comes to payment system.

[btccashacc]

As an investment tool, some people still believe that it's a bubble. Another reason is lack of education, people still don't understand what crypto is, they've just heard from media about people use crypto for doing such a bad thing like hacking and stuff, it's confusing for them, that's why they're not getting into it. Bitcoin also is too volatile, I don't know if it's pros or cons since people can get/loss a lot of money in a short period, well some people like it some people don't.

[Butwhytho]

We need to understand that irrespective the exploits and grounds that bitcoin have covered in its life if existence, it's still an emerging and every factors that could be responsible for not allowing it go mainstream are just part of the challenges that needs to be faced its when that level of maturity has been achieved without any significant penetration, we can then be discussing about the factors responsible for holding of it back and not now.

Thank you. Finally, someone put it out there nicely.