Bitcoin Massadoption - Is it ready?

[?QuestionMark?]

I recently thought about what would happen if the majority of the world population want's to use bitcoin or is starting to using it.

With a high price there would be also a high delay with transactions.

Besides the technical problems I have more concerns. The people. The reason that bitcoin is very complex and for most people not very easy to use and to understand.

I tried to explain it to several friends, also with a bit very easy technical parts. They understood the advantages in bitcoin but not more. As said it's not an easy topic.

In almost everything, especially technical stuff the masses don't only know how it works they don't even want to. They just want that it works!

Most people will be able to install an bitcoin app but they won't know how to use it. Many will be scared by this long random characters string which they know can receive money.

Many have an solicited opinion when you ask them about bitcoin. It's foreign for most so they reject it. It would take a long process to show a normal person what bitcoin is and that it works.  

But let's assume that bitcoin is popular and everyone want's to use it.

Personal responsibility is for most people something they don't care about. I think many will be scared by looking after their bitcoins by themselves. Setting up an hardware wallet and writing down the seed is for most people way to too circumstantial and difficult.

And with this fear they will run to mainstream applications like PayPal (which already promoted this fear in their paypal bitcoin faq). Which hold and control there funds and money. Like the traditional banks...If there isn't a big change the cycle will start again. Of course you shouldn't keep bitcoins worth millions of dollars just on a recovery phrase sheet somewhere in your drawer but I think you know what I mean.

But of course you could thinks also the other way and people will get so interested that they will research by their own or educate in several ways about it or get educated. And everyone will one day be their own bank.

I'm interested in your thoughts about it.

[Tytanowy Janusz]

Bitcoin as a whole world currency was 2017 bubble paradigm. Its 2020. Now we all know that its not gonna happend. Most likely not in next 10-50 years. For sure not now..

Most issues that you bring here will be solved in naxt 10-50 years (easy to use apps, easy to use priv-keys) so after this time bitcoin will be ready for mass adoption but ... majority does not give a f. about bitcoin. Not because they don't understand bitcoin ... its because they don't understand Fiats. All they know is that they have to earn it and spend it. 9 out of 10 people asked on street what inflation is won't be able to answer this question. I saw one such street poll in which a woman replied "I'm not interested in something that does not affect me".

[?QuestionMark?]

I also thought about that. That user friendly apps are needed for this. And with user friendly I mean really user friendly. Similar to apps we use today. And that about fiat is a good point. Worth of fiat halves every year and as you said nobody cares. People think that goods the buy are more expensive than some years ago because it just all gets expensive. But it doesn't get more expensive, its just the currency which loses value. The will care more about when all there money is worth nothing. Something like that already happened in Venezuela. 

I'm still of the opinion that most people don't understand bitcoin and not only just don't care about at the moment. Back to the user friendly apps. You need apps which they don't have to care about how it works. It has just to be very very easy to use.

But I'm not sure if companies like PayPal or square doesn't play a big role in the beginning. But after more thinking I'm very confident that one day most people will be their own bank.

We'll see.

[death69]

Many third parties have developed decentralized wallet which is faster and easier to interact with. This makes using bitcoin a piece of cake. However, the lack of funds and resources avoid their invention to go mainstream.

Moreover, I dont think mass adoption can happen in this decade or even the next decade. People right now are not responsible enough to control their money by themselves. They tend to trust a third party which stay at the middle and manipulate their current life. As long as we are controlled by these elements, bitcoin can not become a prime currency of our world

[Asuspawer09]

The growth of adaptation of bitcoin really increase in the past years and we can't deny that bitcoin is a lot of popularity today compared to the past years.

But people are just starting to know digital transactions because of the pandemic and not all countries are able to implement digital transactions because of the technology that is not introduced or they don't have in their country.

Probably after 5-10 years, bitcoin will be adapted in a lot more countries, and companies will be interested or consider cryptocurrency to be an asset because of the increasing market price.

For in my country people are just introduced to a digital transaction more like a Paypal, Mastercard thing. And hopefully will introduce cryptocurrency as digital money not just for investment.

[?QuestionMark?]

Probably after 5-10 years, bitcoin will be adapted in a lot more countries, and companies will be interested or consider cryptocurrency to be an asset because of the increasing market price.

There are some interesting interviews on youtube with Michael Saylor from Microstrategy in which he talks exactly about that. It will be an treasury for companies and also peoples. Because their money they want to save loses every year value.

Examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb48Q5e4WVg and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6J0hPCyN4Q

But don't forget that he has extremely self interests. 

[AniviaBtc]

The growth of adaptation of bitcoin really increase in the past years and we can't deny that bitcoin is a lot of popularity today compared to the past years.

But people are just starting to know digital transactions because of the pandemic and not all countries are able to implement digital transactions because of the technology that is not introduced or they don't have in their country.

Probably after 5-10 years, bitcoin will be adapted in a lot more countries, and companies will be interested or consider cryptocurrency to be an asset because of the increasing market price.

For in my country people are just introduced to a digital transaction more like a Paypal, Mastercard thing. And hopefully will introduce cryptocurrency as digital money not just for investment.

We just really need to wait because technological development will really approach from time to time.

Also in my country, many people are already using those digital apps or platforms to make transaction, to store their money, and to buy things using it. It is not impossible for our community to engage in cryptocurrency as there are a lot of countries who already did it.

[dothebeats]

Even though bitcoin posted lots of gains and surpassed 2017 ATH this year, we all know that bitcoin is ready, though not even utilized to its fullest potential and most only use it as an investment. Companies ‘bought’ bitcoin but not accept it as a means of payment on what they offer to the public, and those are two completely different things. The structure is there, but the players? Busy playing with their other toys.

[mk4]

I’d say it’s simply not ready yet.

In terms of mempool congestion, we already have great lightning wallets such as Phoenix and Breez(that people refuse to try). We just need exchanges and other services to start accepting LN payments.

As for the current UX of Bitcoin in general, yea it’s quite tough. The technologically literate people are obviously going to adopt pretty quickly, while the less technologically literate people would get it significantly longer(with hopefully some techie friends teaching them), while the older folks, well, probably stick with Grayscale’s BTC trust or CashApp?

With that said, I’d like to take the optimistic approach and look into the future; hopefully with Bitcoin far easier to use and secure compared to today. Rome wasn’t built in a day, they say.

[Coyster]

Mind you that it's not possible for Bitcoin to pique the interest of the entire globe and for everyone to all at once to adopt the technology, this will prolly never happen, and even if it will, it'll take so many years to achieve that, and as the years roll on, so will the network keep on developing and if even a time comes when Bitcoin is to be globally used, the network will be sufficient at the time; for now the network is serving it's users without too much of a hassle, as for the future, we'll have to wait and see what it holds for the network and it's then community of users.

Personal responsibility is for most people something they don't care about. I think many will be scared by looking after their bitcoins by themselves. Setting up an hardware wallet and writing down the seed is for most people way to too circumstantial and difficult.

The thing is, anyone who's scared of being their own bank ought not to be in the Bitcoin network or else there's a high probability of losing funds, such users are usually careless with seed phrases and private keys as well as end up using web wallets; this has been repeated time and again, if one must be in this Bitcoin community, you ought to come to the realization that responsibility rests on you and the best part of what comes with that responsibility is CONTROL (of your funds, no manipulations, no nothing).

[ethereumhunter]

The bitcoin mass adoption already starts a few years back, and it is still going on until now. But to see bitcoin become global, we need to wait for a while because we still have another problem, which is Covid-19, that is happening in many countries. We can hope that in the next year, we will see the mass adoption will grow more than today, and even we still have Covid-19 around us, it does not stop bitcoin from becoming popular. So until that time, we can try to have more bitcoin in many ways.

[XavierLaurent]

I don't think mass adoption is ready yet. Most people heard about crypto, but don't know how it operates and don't trust it either. Plus there isn't much infrastructure to use it in daily life like ATMs or crypto termi9nals in stores etc.

[Latviand]

This pandemic maybe the key to that, people are now engaging more in the digital platforms compared before.

Bitcoin adoption is not impossible to become fulfilled around the world because advancement of technology is really approaching us everyday.

I'm thankful that I've already seen some impact or advantages of digital transactions to our lives.

Bitcoin can be also used to that so that's the reason why people are engaging on it besides as a source of profit.

[DooMAD]

Ask it in reverse.  The real question is, "Are the masses ready for Bitcoin?"

They're really not.  Most people can't recognise the importance of securing their own wealth and maintaining financial sovereignty.  And even if they could, most of them would probably do a half-arsed job of it.  Or would entrust their funds to a third party custodian, missing the point completely.

This is probably the last thing you would expect a Bitcoin user to say, but until people can change their mindset, mass adoption is a terrible idea.  We shouldn't be encouraging it.

[Darker45]

There is a huge responsibility which is attached to Bitcoin adoption. Unfortunately, majority of the people are really not in the disposition to properly handle such responsibility. And I don't blame them. We all grew up not minding much about monetary safekeeping. We are used to only carrying a relatively small amount in our wallets, keeping a little amount as well in our homes, and the rest is in the banks. So we're only protecting small amounts. Those which are in the banks we don't worry about.

There are a lot of premature entries to Bitcoin so to speak. This is primarily the reason why there's a considerable number of victims to Bitcoin scams, phishing, and other Bitcoin-related crimes.

What I worry about Bitcoin mass adoption is that everybody is a walking bank or a walking vault. If criminals are risking life and limb in robbing an armored van or a bank which are well-guarded, it would be a lot easier for them to operate with ordinary people functioning as banks.

[plvbob0070]

For me, it becomes more complex because that's part of innovation. During the old days, when the technology is just starting, it's also complicated for other people but they eventually learned and adopted it so I think it's kinda similar. For now, not everyone is ready for bitcoin adoption due to several circumstances but I believe it only needs time for people to adopt because if people are interested, they will learn.

[Walterhank]

For bitcoin to reach a massive adoption scale, it might take three to four years if we are lucky enough else it could take a decade or two at least to reach that point mainly due to the reasons you have highlighted earlier. Besides the issues, you have mentioned the major hurdle are the govs who don't want to give away their authority to others.

[buwaytress]

For me, it becomes more complex because that's part of innovation. During the old days, when the technology is just starting, it's also complicated for other people but they eventually learned and adopted it so I think it's kinda similar. For now, not everyone is ready for bitcoin adoption due to several circumstances but I believe it only needs time for people to adopt because if people are interested, they will learn.

That's the thing isn't it? People will learn when it becomes interesting. And then people will be fed that knowledge in schools when the tech becomes necessary to live in the adult world. I didn't learn internet or word processors in school, but I know it's taught as part of basic education now.

Bitcoin's already in some curriculums in lower/higher schools. It's really just a matter of time when it becomes "interesting enough" to be just part of regular life.

[dansus021]

~SNIP~

In my opinion it made Bitcoin even stronger. More people bought it during that time. Especially financial institutions.

i do agree with this after paypal news and another elon musk news bitcoin going crazy  if you look ripple if im not wrong that put validator on big universty that study cryptocurrency

[Smartprofit]

I recently thought about what would happen if the majority of the world population want's to use bitcoin or is starting to using it.

With a high price there would be also a high delay with transactions.

Besides the technical problems I have more concerns. The people. The reason that bitcoin is very complex and for most people not very easy to use and to understand.

I tried to explain it to several friends, also with a bit very easy technical parts. They understood the advantages in bitcoin but not more. As said it's not an easy topic.

In almost everything, especially technical stuff the masses don't only know how it works they don't even want to. They just want that it works!

Most people will be able to install an bitcoin app but they won't know how to use it. Many will be scared by this long random characters string which they know can receive money.

Many have an solicited opinion when you ask them about bitcoin. It's foreign for most so they reject it. It would take a long process to show a normal person what bitcoin is and that it works.  

But let's assume that bitcoin is popular and everyone want's to use it.

Personal responsibility is for most people something they don't care about. I think many will be scared by looking after their bitcoins by themselves. Setting up an hardware wallet and writing down the seed is for most people way to too circumstantial and difficult.

And with this fear they will run to mainstream applications like PayPal (which already promoted this fear in their paypal bitcoin faq). Which hold and control there funds and money. Like the traditional banks...If there isn't a big change the cycle will start again. Of course you shouldn't keep bitcoins worth millions of dollars just on a recovery phrase sheet somewhere in your drawer but I think you know what I mean.

But of course you could thinks also the other way and people will get so interested that they will research by their own or educate in several ways about it or get educated. And everyone will one day be their own bank.

I'm interested in your thoughts about it.

I think that in the future, Bitcoin will not be used by people, but by large corporations and states.  People will be using CBDC.  There are many reasons for this.

Bitcoin has 350,000 possible transactions per day.  This is very small for mass use.  There are several billion people on planet Earth. 

All the disadvantages of Bitcoin are advantages, if we assume that it will serve as the world's reserve currency and become part of the gold and foreign exchange reserves of states. 

Bitcoin is digital gold, however, gold is not currently an official and widespread means of payment.