How can we make BTC mainstream?

[astrowilliam]

In your opinion, how can we all bring BTC to the public? I've spoken with a lot of people about the future of the currency and they all pretty much laugh at me and tell me to keep dreaming. I believe that knowledge is power and we need to educate the public about what BTC actually is and why it's better than normal currency.  I remember when PayPal was just a baby and no one would trust them with their fiat. The same goes with BTC at this moment. Not a lot of people want to invest compared to normal fiat currency exchanges. What do you think will bring a wider acceptance?

[pozmu]

1. Perspective of big profit

2. Stable price

Please note that these two points contradicts each other  

I remember when PayPal was just a baby and no one would trust them with their fiat.

Today many people use paypal because it's convienent, not because it's trustworthy.

[TTM]

Send emails or make a phone call to every big online shop asking when will you accept Bitcoin. Of course they will answer they do not have that option, tell you to use another method. However if many of customers demand it, they will consider to add bitcoin. A nice, shinny logo of Bitcoin beside CC/Paypal at bottom of their online store will boost reputation of cryptocurrency and make other users think again.

[IrishFutbol]

In your opinion, how can we all bring BTC to the public? I've spoken with a lot of people about the future of the currency and they all pretty much laugh at me and tell me to keep dreaming. I believe that knowledge is power and we need to educate the public about what BTC actually is and why it's better than normal currency.  I remember when PayPal was just a baby and no one would trust them with their fiat. The same goes with BTC at this moment. Not a lot of people want to invest compared to normal fiat currency exchanges. What do you think will bring a wider acceptance?

These to statements also currently contradict each other.

[IrishFutbol]

The answer to making BTC mainstream is to make it better than currency.  Which means:

What can be done in the short term to improve it's viability:

1. You need to involve the banks.  They have the infrastructure to make it work, and you will always need banks to lend out money.  Get them to lead the push, and a crypto-currency may happen.

2. Make it convenient.  Cold-storage, flash drives, paper wallets...completely inefficient.  If you want people to use BTC, they need to at least be indifferent between the difficulty of paying in BTC vs. using a credit card.

What needs to be done, but cannot be done for a very long time:

1. Eliminate the need for paper bills and metal coins.  Even in the US, there is a huge need for non-electronic money.  When you get out of the US and other 1st world countries, this becomes even more apparent.  There would need to be major investments in technology to move the entire population into an electronic currency.  There's also an issue of what happens in a power outage?

2. Educate the population on crypto-currency.  Even most tech savvy people have no clue how BTC works.  It will take a while for people to understand what it is.  Not to mention how many people still get viruses on a regular basis.

But the one component that would be completely damning for BTC ever becoming the main crypto-currency:

1. The public cannot be the one's mining new coins and collecting the fees.  This would have to be controlled by the government.  If a crypto-currency was made an official currency, and the public could mine, then we would rapidly approach the equilibrium between cost of mining = value of coin/transaction fees.  Now compare the cost of electricity in the US and Europe to China.  No government would ever give that much income/power away to a foreign country.

[cryptoanarchist]

Bitcoin will make itself mainstream because it is a superior currency. It doesn't need any marketing campaign.

[MrPiggles]

Most peoples first foray into bitcoin ends with them getting ripped off by other bitcoiners.

Current bitcoin users are the main obstacle to adoption.

[amspir]

In your opinion, how can we all bring BTC to the public? I've spoken with a lot of people about the future of the currency and they all pretty much laugh at me and tell me to keep dreaming. I believe that knowledge is power and we need to educate the public about what BTC actually is and why it's better than normal currency.  I remember when PayPal was just a baby and no one would trust them with their fiat. The same goes with BTC at this moment. Not a lot of people want to invest compared to normal fiat currency exchanges. What do you think will bring a wider acceptance?

For one, wallets need to be more secure and less subject to hacking.   Once people can keep their bitcoin safe and secure without having to worry that some malware has installed a keylogger and transmitted a copy of their wallet file to a thief from a general purpose computing device, then the masses may adopt in masses.  

I think bitcoin as a currency will take off with the under-banked first.   Banks don't like to open accounts for people with bad credit.  Since they don't want these customers, and using a debit card with greendot involves a 1% load fee at the very minimum (more typically 5% or more if you can't load $500 at a time), plus monthly charges; there's going to be a lot of room for a cheaper system.  Think ubiquitous cash-BTC ATM machines and bills/rent that can be paid with bitcoin, just by scanning the QR code on your bill with your low-cost hardware wallet.   Eventually employers might have an option to have wages paid in bitcoin, but the price needs to be much more stable for that.

Merchants will start to love bitcoin transactions, since the time it takes to clear a bitcoin transaction (an hour) is much less than the time it takes to clear a credit card transaction or a check (weeks).

[dissident]

Too unstable... it needs to be more stable and not subject to pump and dumping... plus the now 200 altcoins don't help things. I've lost complete interest in trading altcoins or holding bitcoin because there are so many altcoins... they are ALL WORTHLESS.  The devs in most of them don't have any loyalty toward them.. they make one, pump it up, then start pumping another. Dogecoin was the same way... people pump up doge, then suddenly everyone was supposed to buy worldcoin after one big holder decides to buy a bunch and then pump it on the forums... cryptos are commodity vehicles no better than pink sheet penny stocks, with perhaps the exception of bitcoin, and even bitcoin, I won't invest in any until it's under 200 and the top holders distribute some of their coins out.. concentrated wealth makes it no different than fiat.

I'm patiently waiting for sub 200 per bitcoin.   At $600 I'd rather invest in something like a CZ 75B or a couple of Ruger LCPs, or a Winchester Defender, or some physical palladium... and actually, AMMO... which seems to hold it's value better than the firearms themselves and is easily tradable around here.

[Beliathon]

Step 1: Wait three to five years
Step 2:
Step 3: Profit.

[vnvizow]

Just by using Bitcoin and believing in it Bitcoin is gaining popularity daily...Or, alternatively we just wait for the next spike to reach ~$10,000 and the world would probably freak out 

[amspir]

...Or, alternatively we just wait for the next spike to reach ~$10,000 and the world would probably freak out 

That would make bitcoin look like more of a ponzi scheme, because very few would be able to cash out at $10,000.   The thing to look for is a slowly increasing price matching the rate of adoption and a consistent rise in trading volume.   The pump and dump games of the get-rich-quick speculators would slowly fade away.

[jbrnt]

Bitcoin is well publicised now. It just need time to stablise in value and we will need more reliable and accessible exchanges, so people can get in and out of bitcoins easily. Then they will not be afraid to buy and sell goods for bitcoins.

[profall]

Easy to buy BTC with fiat or sell BTC for fiat. Bank transfers are slow in today's world.

More Bitcoin ATMs?
I've seen other financial institutions have other businesses like UPS stores, Gas stations, etc... accept cash for deposit on accounts. Maybe an exchange can set something like this up?

[ebliever]

1. You need to involve the banks.  They have the infrastructure to make it work, and you will always need banks to lend out money.  Get them to lead the push, and a crypto-currency may happen.

I'm dubious on this point. I see four main groups with respect to cryptocurrency:

1. Consumers - naturally pro-crypto (if they've thought it through) due to the more efficient transactions, anonymity, faster transfers, etc.
2. Merchants - naturally pro-crypto due to faster transfers, no clawbacks, no credit card fees, counterfeiting, bounced checks, etc.
3. Banks/Financial Services - anti-crypto because crypto cuts out the middleman - and they ARE the middleman. Asking them to help with crypto is like asking the postal service to help get more people using email.
4. Government - anti-crypto (apart from those rare politicians who actually are for the people) - it will be a challenge to tax and/or control people's crypto, and ultimately a crypto takeover would make it impossible for them to pursue deficit spending through inflating the money supply.

The key is to sell to the first 2 groups, while doing our best to placate/befuddle/defeat the latter two. Especially go after the youth, getting them on board is the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to bringing crypto-currency mainstream.

[Ruthful]

As someone who is part of the mainstream, I would say that Bitcoin is highly unattractive to me right now.It currently offer absolutely nothing that I can't do with standard currency and payment option nor does any of its purported benefits  entice me at all.That's not even getting into the highly speculative environment  it resides in.I still see Bitcoin something truly landmark, just not something I would adopt anytime soon.

[KenJackson]

It currently offer absolutely nothing that I can't do with standard currency and payment option nor does any of its purported benefits entice me at all.

One thing that bitcoin can do that the dollar definitely cannot is to provide a hedge against the loss of value of the dollar.

That's also an answer to this thread.  Bitcoin seems to be gaining in general acceptance, slowly but gaining.  As it does, it will be natural to see it as a hedge or an alternative to keeping all of your savings in dollars.

If our government keeps printing quantitative easy money as the Weimar Republic printed physical currency, the result will be the same and the dollar will fall.  But the bitcoin probably will not be affected nearly as much.  So it's a hedge against the inevitable.

[DubFX]

Add it to TV spots 

[Nathonas]

I tried to get my friends into bitcoin. One of them kept repeating that its a ponzi scheme and the other said he wasn't interested because "nobody accepts it". 

[devphp]

Don't worry, more Cyprus-like bail-in events coming to a bank near you in the next few months/years will ensure Bitcoin will become more expensive and hence will gain in popularity.