Bitcoin Adoption - Climate Change - Internet Access

[roadrunnerjaiv2025]

If you think about it, full bitcoin adoption has some similarities with the global campaign against climate change. To slow down climate change, we need to significantly cut down on our use of fossil fuel and start relying on safe and renewable resources. To fix the flaws and imbalance created by the centralized financial system, we need to start adopting a decentralized currency--Bitcoin. We need to deal with our dependence on fiat currency to improve our financial system just as we need to deal with our dependence on oil to fix our climate problems.  

Just as educating people about climate change isn't enough to save the planet, it's apparent that educating people about bitcoin isn't enough to push for full adoption. No matter how knowledgeable people become of Bitcoin, full adoption won’t be possible if we can’t figure out an efficient way to access and use bitcoin outside the Internet. Only 57% of the world’s population has internet access, and a large portion of those with internet access suffer from a poor connection. That part has to be fixed first.

Some suggested creating a system that allows sending Bitcoin through the use of a third party SMS wallet provider or broadcasting Blockchain data over DVB-T, but how sure are we that those can promote unlimited access to digital currency? And how about those who don't have access to digital devices? I'm guessing we won't be able to completely get rid of fiat currency even if crypto supersedes it. I'm patient and hopeful though. Please let me know if there are new technologies made to address this issue. I'd love to learn about them so I can include them in the information I'm sharing others about Bitcoin. ;-)  

[Yogee]

Internet usage is 59% according to Statista's data as of July 2020. Even if that figure becomes 100% one day, I doubt that will guarantee bitcoin adoption. It is hard to achieve when we look at how wired people are to centralized services and the convenience they provide. Even if we try to educate people about decentralization, only a small percentage will be interested. Let's take a look at how many people are into bitcoin. How many of them are using custodial wallets like Coinbase and how many of them are trading on centralized exchanges? When you see how new users today are looking at btc as an investment rather than a decentralized currency, where they can transfer anywhere without restrictions, how will adoption happen?

[davis196]

Climate change is inevitable.It's too late to take any actions that would reverse the process of global warming.
Integrating third party solutions,which are centralized,just for the sake of boosting global Bitcoin adoption will change the concept of Bitcoin and turn it into a crypto version of the centralized currencies.
Crypto mining kinda help for pollution and global warming,because miners in China are using electricity produced by burning coal,which means that crypto mining is still part of the problem,not part of the solution.

[20kevin20]

To slow down climate change, we need to significantly cut down on our use of fossil fuel and start relying on safe and renewable resources. To fix the flaws and imbalance created by the centralized financial system, we need to start adopting a decentralized currency--Bitcoin. (..) full adoption won’t be possible if we can’t figure out an efficient way to access and use bitcoin outside the Internet.

Except one is a problem of the nature while the other is a problem of human greed. With or without the Internet access, Bitcoin full adoption will just never be a reality. At least not for this generation. We cannot fully adopt a decentralized currency in a centralized economy and governance.

Some suggested creating a system that allows sending Bitcoin through the use of a third party SMS wallet provider

Third parties were exactly what Bitcoin was supposed to eliminate. Third party SMS wallet providers are really just unnecessary - if we're about to go the third-party way, we don't need Bitcoin anymore then I guess.

I'm guessing we won't be able to completely get rid of fiat currency even if crypto supersedes it.

I do not think Bitcoin will ever be a good candidate for fiat replacement. It will either become a store of value or some rebel's currency - although I believe the rebel one will be XMR. The most important thing is that we now have a currency that does not have any central power, is transparent, is theoretically foolproof and functions just flawlessly. Until we figure out how or if we can transfer all of this from the digital world to the real one as well, Bitcoin fulfills its purpose right here through its existence.

[ChrisPop]

Civilizations need time to adapt. Older generations especially in third-world countries are more on the conservative side so it is very though to change how they do trivial things like making payments.
But as generations pass and we push the idea of having a decentralized financial system, one day hopefully we'll have full adoption, but until then I am satisfied with lower percentages as well

[joniboini]

Civilizations need time to adapt. Older generations especially in third-world countries are more on the conservative side so it is very though to change how they do trivial things like making payments.

I think the majority are afraid to use new things, since they need to learn it and who knows which one will scam them later on. I can understand why they're not that open to change, since not all of us are. If anything, I think that's fine though, since in 10 years or so those who shoulder the economy will change to the younger generation, who can adopt changes and learn new things quickly.

[Haunebu]

Expecting cryptocurrencies to supersede FIAT adoption is a fool's gambit in my opinion. As you mentioned, people will never stop relying on oil or FIAT, but the dependency percentage can definitely change though.

We need to logically prove how crypto is a great alternative solution to FIAT currencies. Volatility factor needs to go down along with the TX fees and time.

Most people would not be willing to use a currency that has higher fees, TX times etc when compared to FIAT which is why this should be the priority.

[Wexnident]

Many would disagree with replacing fiat ngl. Yes, Crypto fills in the disadvantages of the current fiat system, but at the same time, it also provides its own disadvantages. Speed and Tx fees are one, but imo, it's only a matter of time before those are resolved, especially speed with the currently developing of the lightning network. The other would be the decentralized system. The decentralized system forces people to actually take proper responsibility for their funds, not anyone else. Yes, some may actually see this as an advantage, but for those who naturally want everything to be done by others? The centralized system is much more attractive to them, not to mention that we live in a centralized government.

[dothebeats]

Most changes in ways involve ditching or moving away from one technology towards a new one, or one habit towards a new one that's why you are seeing such similarities. The difference I see between climate change and bitcoin is that the former is a cyclical change that happens every so often, while the latter is an emerging tech looking to change the ways of payments and money as we know it. Climate change is already a given occurrence stated by science (though somewhat exacerbated by human activities for the last 150+ years) while bitcoin is like a new discovery.

While bitcoin's novelty in the financial world is lauded and criticized at the same time, I still don't think that it will completely stomp fiat even in the next few decades. Perhaps cryptocurrencies can, but bitcoin won't. No matter how open the public is in accepting this new fad, it still lacks the flexibility and the 'control' button for regulators to make or break the economy, which is very important considering that the whole financial system is based on control and manipulation of whoever runs the seat, and you can't do that on bitcoin that easily.

[ultrloa]

Civilizations need time to adapt. Older generations especially in third-world countries are more on the conservative side so it is very though to change how they do trivial things like making payments.

I think the majority are afraid to use new things, since they need to learn it and who knows which one will scam them later on. I can understand why they're not that open to change, since not all of us are. If anything, I think that's fine though, since in 10 years or so those who shoulder the economy will change to the younger generation, who can adopt changes and learn new things quickly.

Because scam has been highlighted to much on mainstream media that's why it creates fear to the people who doesn't know on what bitcoin really is. But for sure young generation will create a impact on this new technology and once all is been doing great in this industry for sure those people who doubts about things will surely adopt bitcoins and what it can offer to them, although this will take time but slow growth still counts.

[Nhor1011]

Large part of population needs more time to adopt bitcoin and cryptocurrency especially those in remote area  without internet connection and doesn't even know what and how to use gadget or modern technology. Another thing is that many people doesn't want to replace fiat with bitcoin.

[hatshepsut93]

It's not a problem that the people without Internet access aren't adopting Bitcoin, the problem is that almost everyone who do have access aren't adopting Bitcoin either. If only 0.01% of people with the Internet adopts Bitcoin, than even if you somehow manage to get those 43% without the Internet access to adopt Bitcoin, it probably will be the same percentage or even less. Bitcoin needs exponential growth to achieve mass adoption, and so far it's not working - people are choosing to stay with banks and fiat currency, even if it fails them.

[Ucy]

It doesn't have to be completely virtual currency. It should be both virtual  and physical currency. I sometimes find the idea of eliminating physical currency really strange. If you prefer virtual/digital, then go for it, rather than imposing it on people who prefer something different.
I think you could create a small Local "internet" Network in a community and bitcoins/cryptos could be used and printed in the community like you would use physical currencies. You'll need to build the applications and equipments for this though. And I believe it will be cheap to build.

[tomahawk9]

We need to deal with our dependence on fiat currency to improve our financial system just as we need to deal with our dependence on oil to fix our climate problems.  

too bad the ones callings the shots, the ones at the top of the 1% along side banks and govt, will do whatever is in their power to keep the current system going. So why don't we accept the fact the fiat money dependency will never go away, at least not in our lifetime, and just forget about the "bitcoin adoption to improve the worldwide financial system" and move on?

Some suggested creating a system that allows sending Bitcoin through the use of a third party SMS wallet provider or broadcasting Blockchain data over DVB-T <...>

how about sending BTC through radio waves? some people gave it a go  https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoin-sent-ham-radio

[claire_lovely]

There are already a lot of mobile wallets actually, though not sure if they have the direct sending by SMS option yet. I think adoption will keep increasing as many see the benefits of unreversible and uncensorable transactions. I've now been a part of many communities that mainly trade in BTC and the P2P volume is only increasing.

Also as far as creating a future with less emissions, BTC will play a large role in this by being more energy efficient than the traditional banking sector, possible upgrades to Proof of Stake could also drastically cut energy cost.

[tsaroz]

We need a global network to validate the occurrence of transaction between nodes of bitcoin. There is no other networks as comparable to internet. If we in future has a much more decentralized and free form of data transmission, like a free global radio frequency, bitcoin can with collective decision move to it. Unless that happens, internet is a solid tool for verifying the transactions.
Things like SMS transaction are being done but that completely relies on third party holding your coins, which itself is not a great idea.
The only way of moving coins offline is exchanging private keys without keeping a copy, which is practically impossible.

[plvbob0070]

Is there really a need to get rid of fiat? No. We all know that that would be hard and bitcoin adoption does not really mean to replace fiat with bitcoin. Crypto is an alternative to find solutions to problems in the current financial system but it also has its weaknesses that fiat can provide that's why instead of thinking of full adoption or totally replacing fiat, they can just work together. And just like how hard we campaign against climate change, we will still continue to use/overuse natural resources because that's an effect of continuously developing things for an easier lifestyle of humans.

[Viscore]

Is there really a need to get rid of fiat? No. We all know that that would be hard and bitcoin adoption does not really mean to replace fiat with bitcoin. Crypto is an alternative to find solutions to problems in the current financial system but it also has its weaknesses that fiat can provide that's why instead of thinking of full adoption or totally replacing fiat, they can just work together. And just like how hard we campaign against climate change, we will still continue to use/overuse natural resources because that's an effect of continuously developing things for an easier lifestyle of humans.

Well said,
Anything that will happen in the future is because of us. We have this new technology and we have this climate change as well. It can be negative or positive but have given no choice because that is the result of our doing. We wanted an easy life and this is it. I may blame myself for this but it was late to realize, we've done already and that is why we have to accept what happens next. If the existence of Bitcoin a reason to eliminate fiat money (which is less possible) we have nothing to with that because that's their wants and might worse as the years coming by.

[carter34]

We need to deal with our dependence on fiat currency to improve our financial system just as we need to deal with our dependence on oil to fix our climate problems.  

These are two major revolution that is taking over the globe especially fiat and cryptocurrency debate.
The oil burn through various means no doubt affects the climate pattern because it is depleting the ozone. These are two serious concern you have mentioned here.

[Chrystora123]

I understand what you want to say here..  to support so that Bitcoin can be adopted en masse, of course, internet access must be easily reached because it is very impossible to transact Bitcoin without internet access.  for now, the internet is not evenly distributed and it will take decades to increase the number of users reached by the internet..  This is the reason why we don't need to rush to want Bitcoin to be mass adopted, it's better to let it run naturally.  with the development of technology, surely Bitcoin and Altcoins will be massively adopted..