What's preventing bitcoin from worldwide adoption?

[Kasabus]

Government policies and awareness IMO are the greatest challenges as to why we are not there yet.

Of course, governments would like something that they can control and easily monitor, so they will certainly stick with fiat and banks, and try to limit the usage of cryptocurrencies by imposing lots of regulations that does not benefit the user.

On awareness, not everyone has access to such information albeit the current technology that we have. Poverty still lingers on a huge percentage of the world, and with it comes poor education which hinders people's ability to grasp information more easily. Sure, they may have heard about bitcoin and all, but what do they do with the limited information that they have if they can't put two and two together in the end?

If the government will continue to see bitcoin as anti-fiat, then its adoption will be totally hard. There is no way that we can do without the government's approval, except from trading bitcoin as some of the governments are already supporting it. And with poor people who continue to have no good education and don't have access on internet, they will never know facts about bitcoin and this will be another factor why bitcoin won't be adopted easily worldwide.

[Sebas.tian]

I believe the first two of Government Policies and fraudulent practices are major contributors that discourage many users around the world from getting to use bitcoin. We have too many dishonest players that prey on other people's lack of knowledge on genuine cryptocurrencies that they scam them with fake bitcoins and investment scamms promising to pay extra. But with time world adoption will be possible once this knowledge is out there.

Exactly, many users are afraid of the government policies because government impose the policies to discourage many users from decentralized currency than to have more interest on centralized currency. Many countries has tested bitcoin,  both long term and short term investment that made them to believe on bitcoin, that very soon the world will adopt bitcoin to eliminate errors and reduce unemployment from the world.

Now that the reality of bitcoin has exposed fraudulent practices from the world, show that people will easily identify scammers and avoid them from the country. Bitcoin is well safe and secured which is the main reason the world will soon make it legalized to the world, to eliminate the hardship and delay in the  transaction system.

[AicecreaME]

Bitcoin remains to be adopted by every country in the world for various reasons. Here are my thoughts on why..

1. Government policies: Most government and financial institutions round the world seem not to want bitcoin cause of the financial freedom it gives to its users. They would want to control and tax the flow of finances of individuals and they probably fear the anonymous nature of its transactions. Some policies even go as far as criminalizing its use.

2. Scammers and fraudulent practices: Scammers have found bitcoin as a safe haven cause of its transactions being anonymous. Also, terrorist groups among other sources get funded by bitcoin also cause of its anonymous nature. Fraudulent practices and transactions are made with ease wth the use of bitcoin.

3. Fluctuating value: The value of bitcoin isn't steady as it rises and falls. The uncertainty in the price and value greatly hinders the general adoption worldwide.

4. Awareness: Nearly not enough effort on creating and spreading positive awareness on it as some government and individuals alike is hell bent on spreading negativity around and poisoning the minds of prospective users. People need to be aware and understand what bitcoin is really about and be awake to its uses.

5. Information hoarding: You could get lots of information about anything on the internet including bitcoin. But the internet can be misleading to newbies cause you could get right and wrong and also misleading information on the internet. It puzzles me that people with an in depth knowledge of bitcoin would purposefully hoard and keep information to themselves. You may think people don't hoard information but in reality, people do. It irksome just thinking about it. If people could share information, newbies won't readily fall prey to scammers.

These are my thoughts on what's preventing bitcoin from being adapted worldwide.

Great list you got there.

I agree with everything that you have listed most especially the first one. The government keeps on interfering with the mass adoption of bitcoin because bitcoin gives financial freedom to most, if not all, of their users. Bitcoin paves way to offer great opportunities such as it being an income generator, store of value, and mode of payment. Because it is decentralized, the transactions made inside the blockchain is totally out of reach of the government. They have no power over it, unlike those of that occur inside the centralized platforms.

I consider bitcoin as an eye-opener because most people have been enlightened by what the government and central organizations are doing on their funds, thanks to crypto. Personally, I know so many people that didn't really realize what their money can do for them because they trust the banks so much. Fortunately, crypto awareness has becoming a thing which is why most people are now knowledgeable about what banks do with their money, and about how little they make in storing their assets for long period of time in it.

In addition, crypto has given people opportunity to grow out of their comfort zone and to save for their future without worrying. That's why it's so saddening because the worldwide adoption is still far from happening due to the aforementioned reasons. Hopefully, in the near future, there will be more openness regarding this topic and the transition would be smoothly done.

[Nerdy doctor]

Bitcoin remains to be adopted by every country in the world for various reasons. Here are my thoughts on why..

1. Government policies: Most government and financial institutions round the world seem not to want bitcoin cause of the financial freedom it gives to its users. They would want to control and tax the flow of finances of individuals and they probably fear the anonymous nature of its transactions. Some policies even go as far as criminalizing its use.

2. Scammers and fraudulent practices: Scammers have found bitcoin as a safe haven cause of its transactions being anonymous. Also, terrorist groups among other sources get funded by bitcoin also cause of its anonymous nature. Fraudulent practices and transactions are made with ease wth the use of bitcoin.

3. Fluctuating value: The value of bitcoin isn't steady as it rises and falls. The uncertainty in the price and value greatly hinders the general adoption worldwide.

4. Awareness: Nearly not enough effort on creating and spreading positive awareness on it as some government and individuals alike is hell bent on spreading negativity around and poisoning the minds of prospective users. People need to be aware and understand what bitcoin is really about and be awake to its uses.

5. Information hoarding: You could get lots of information about anything on the internet including bitcoin. But the internet can be misleading to newbies cause you could get right and wrong and also misleading information on the internet. It puzzles me that people with an in depth knowledge of bitcoin would purposefully hoard and keep information to themselves. You may think people don't hoard information but in reality, people do. It irksome just thinking about it. If people could share information, newbies won't readily fall prey to scammers.

These are my thoughts on what's preventing bitcoin from being adapted worldwide.

Great list you got there.

I agree with everything that you have listed most especially the first one. The government keeps on interfering with the mass adoption of bitcoin because bitcoin gives financial freedom to most, if not all, of their users. Bitcoin paves way to offer great opportunities such as it being an income generator, store of value, and mode of payment. Because it is decentralized, the transactions made inside the blockchain is totally out of reach of the government. They have no power over it, unlike those of that occur inside the centralized platforms.

I consider bitcoin as an eye-opener because most people have been enlightened by what the government and central organizations are doing on their funds, thanks to crypto. Personally, I know so many people that didn't really realize what their money can do for them because they trust the banks so much. Fortunately, crypto awareness has becoming a thing which is why most people are now knowledgeable about what banks do with their money, and about how little they make in storing their assets for long period of time in it.

In addition, crypto has given people opportunity to grow out of their comfort zone and to save for their future without worrying. That's why it's so saddening because the worldwide adoption is still far from happening due to the aforementioned reasons. Hopefully, in the near future, there will be more openness regarding this topic and the transition would be smoothly done.

It would be amazing if adopted worldwide. Financial freedom with a wide range of opportunities. Cryptocurrency is the future and we should all start leaning towards it

[Ryu_Ar1]

Bitcoin remains to be adopted by every country in the world for various reasons. Here are my thoughts on why..

1. Government policies: Most government and financial institutions round the world seem not to want bitcoin cause of the financial freedom it gives to its users. They would want to control and tax the flow of finances of individuals and they probably fear the anonymous nature of its transactions. Some policies even go as far as criminalizing its use.

There are some rules that are different in each country. every government has the same goal basically they want to advance all forms of their prominence but must comply with the norms and rules that they make so as not to make them lose in the end.
Bitcoin is one thing that is independent and its existence will certainly be very disliked considering Bitcoin is something that is very difficult to control.
When they address it, there are actually 2 possibilities, the first is to make peace and go with the flow there as El-Savador and several other small countries are adopting now or are insisting on holding on to this like some big countries.
I think this is quite reasonable considering they want stability for their country with their own ways and rules but for bitcoin the rules will definitely be different because they will not get the authority there because of the decentralized nature of bitcoin

[Ale88]

3. Fluctuating value: The value of bitcoin isn't steady as it rises and falls. The uncertainty in the price and value greatly hinders the general adoption worldwide.

4. Awareness: Nearly not enough effort on creating and spreading positive awareness on it as some government and individuals alike is hell bent on spreading negativity around and poisoning the minds of prospective users. People need to be aware and understand what bitcoin is really about and be awake to its uses.

Those two points are a major cause in my opinion. I would also add that buying a bitcoin is not exactly a straight forwarding thing to do since usually you have to open an account on an exchange, send the documents, wait to be verified, transfer the money and then decide where to store them. Many times when you explain to people all these steps, a lot of them immediately think it's too much effort. 

[DooMAD]

I would also add that buying a bitcoin is not exactly a straight forwarding thing to do since usually you have to open an account on an exchange, send the documents, wait to be verified, transfer the money and then decide where to store them. Many times when you explain to people all these steps, a lot of them immediately think it's too much effort. 

Then try providing them with the other methods of purchasing bitcoins.  You don't have to use exchanges.  If you're giving people the impression exchanges were the only option, then you're not explaining it correctly.

[darkv0rt3x]

I am one of those who believes the reason is political. People in our governments aren't stupid as most of us call them (or most of maxis and toxic maxis). We live in a predominant capitalist/socialist world and society where greed overwhelm most of our principles. A side from that, our governments, as socialist and capitalist driven, then know that a currency like Bitcoin will take away their power of controlling society and countries.

I don't believe this is more a conspiracy theory. When we think a bit about it, it's in fact the big enterprises/groups that control our politicians. Our politicians will act on what these companies needs, economically and financially speaking. Not the other way around.

When some banks or big companies are close to bankruptcy, what do our states do? Inject people's money on the allegation that if they don't do it, the country economy may collapse (real case in my country happened in the last 2 years with 2 companies, a bank and a air plane company called TAP).

Electricity companies and Oil companies will always be backed my politics, because they can easily disrupt a country's economy. Many times, CEOs and the big fish are close friends to politicians.

So, we and they know that, if Bitcoin would become mainstream and massively adopted, they would probably lose big part of this power.
For me, this is one of the main reasons. And the actual arguments used are all arguments that actually also occur with the current economic and financial models, so I think most of those arguments are not usable! Still they use them, such like scams, corruption, crime, risk, etc.

[Oasisman]

3. Fluctuating value: The value of bitcoin isn't steady as it rises and falls. The uncertainty in the price and value greatly hinders the general adoption worldwide.

4. Awareness: Nearly not enough effort on creating and spreading positive awareness on it as some government and individuals alike is hell bent on spreading negativity around and poisoning the minds of prospective users. People need to be aware and understand what bitcoin is really about and be awake to its uses.

Those two points are a major cause in my opinion. I would also add that buying a bitcoin is not exactly a straight forwarding thing to do since usually you have to open an account on an exchange, send the documents, wait to be verified, transfer the money and then decide where to store them. Many times when you explain to people all these steps, a lot of them immediately think it's too much effort. 

That could be one on the many reasons, because people are usually kept their hands off to complex things such as creating a custodial wallet or exchange wallet as new crypto investors would always resort to such options as they see a lot of advertisement all over the social media.
But there is actually a few steps to purchase your own Bitcoin without using those services.
But then again, people will always have the first impression of purchasing Bitcoin to an exchange.

[BlackHatCoiner]

When we think a bit about it, it's in fact the big enterprises/groups that control our politicians. Our politicians will act on what these companies needs, economically and financially speaking.

And these groups' choices are made usually based on the people's interest. If the people start using Bitcoin then they have to adapt to it unless the "elite" are completely authoritarian. We see how China is constantly fighting it; it can't shut it down, so it tries to "shut down" every citizen's right to it.

In the west, things are less excruciating humanitarian-wise. The governments want to portray themselves as freedom seekers; at least in the economy. People have their right to speech and if they all started treating cryptocurrencies as money by tomorrow morning, I believe the government wouldn't have a choice other than to adjust.

The main problem is that this won't ever happen, because they perpetually brainwash you to feel you need them. There are other problems too, such as people don't understand money or don't care about it at all. Then, there's the internet propaganda that misleads the public, the fact that Bitcoin is a hard term to grasp etc.

Those are what's really preventing worldwide adoption, not the block size.

[kryptqnick]

Bitcoin remains to be adopted by every country in the world for various reasons. Here are my thoughts on why..

1. Government policies: Most government and financial institutions round the world seem not to want bitcoin cause of the financial freedom it gives to its users. They would want to control and tax the flow of finances of individuals and they probably fear the anonymous nature of its transactions. Some policies even go as far as criminalizing its use.

2. Scammers and fraudulent practices: Scammers have found bitcoin as a safe haven cause of its transactions being anonymous. Also, terrorist groups among other sources get funded by bitcoin also cause of its anonymous nature. Fraudulent practices and transactions are made with ease wth the use of bitcoin.

3. Fluctuating value: The value of bitcoin isn't steady as it rises and falls. The uncertainty in the price and value greatly hinders the general adoption worldwide.

4. Awareness: Nearly not enough effort on creating and spreading positive awareness on it as some government and individuals alike is hell bent on spreading negativity around and poisoning the minds of prospective users. People need to be aware and understand what bitcoin is really about and be awake to its uses.

5. Information hoarding: You could get lots of information about anything on the internet including bitcoin. But the internet can be misleading to newbies cause you could get right and wrong and also misleading information on the internet. It puzzles me that people with an in depth knowledge of bitcoin would purposefully hoard and keep information to themselves. You may think people don't hoard information but in reality, people do. It irksome just thinking about it. If people could share information, newbies won't readily fall prey to scammers.

These are my thoughts on what's preventing bitcoin from being adapted worldwide.

Op's thoughts on the reasons make some sense to me, but I don't fully agree. It's true that governments usually want to at least somewhat control the usage of cryptos when they start regulating cryptos, and imposing taxes is very common. However, I don't see it as an obstacle to BTC adoption, as long as the regulations are reasonable. As for #2, it's very common to focus on financial crimes when talking about cryptos, but the traditional market and currencies are still way more common when it comes to financial crimes, so it's framed as an obstacle to BTC adoption, while not really being so. Fluctuating value, misleading information and FUD are all legit and can put some people off.
I think that the scaling issue of Bitcoin also deserves to be on the list, and so does a global financial infrastructure which is resisting significant change and anything that can put its existence and operation in question.

[DooMAD]

We live in a predominant capitalist/socialist world and society where greed overwhelm most of our principles. A side from that, our governments, as socialist and capitalist driven, then know that a currency like Bitcoin will take away their power of controlling society and countries.

Either the words 'Capitalist' and 'Socialist' have had their meanings changed, or we've strayed from that path to a place where those concepts are no longer recognisable in our present governance.  I tend to see most Western governments as 'Crony Capitalism', which is rather different from "proper" Capitalism.  But I take your point.  Disrupting money would indeed disrupt power, because money has always been a system of control.  People tend to argue that we can change the world through better education, or forcing the media to be more responsible and honest in how they report current affairs and world events, but ultimately it always comes back to money.  Those who have vast sums of money make strategic donations to buy influence and generally get what they want, even if it's to the detriment of everyone else.

For a while, I thought there was a small chance for Bitcoin to disrupt the vice-like stranglehold which corporate lobbying has upon the world.  Although it looks like the potential for genuine reform is somewhat diminished from what I had hoped for.  Not least because I suspect most people can't even see that potential.  That, and I don't think the world is ready yet.  People want to complain about stuff, but the vast majority of them won't actually do anything about it.  Because they'd have to un-learn many of the habits they've spent a lifetime reinforcing.  And those habits are built around a total reliance upon systems of control.

[Ale88]

I would also add that buying a bitcoin is not exactly a straight forwarding thing to do since usually you have to open an account on an exchange, send the documents, wait to be verified, transfer the money and then decide where to store them. Many times when you explain to people all these steps, a lot of them immediately think it's too much effort. 

Then try providing them with the other methods of purchasing bitcoins.  You don't have to use exchanges.  If you're giving people the impression exchanges were the only option, then you're not explaining it correctly.

So tell me, where else would you bitcoin for the very first time? In an ATM on a public street? From some stranger paying cash? If you are new, whether you like it or not, buying from an exchange is still the safest way because nowadays exchanges are pretty much idiot proof, so it's very hard to lose your funds if you have a little brain. But again, if you have any other extremely simply solution that someone who never managed cryptos can easily follow, I'd like to know it

[BlackHatCoiner]

So tell me, where else would you bitcoin for the very first time? In an ATM on a public street? From some stranger paying cash? If you are new, whether you like it or not, buying from an exchange is still the safest way because nowadays exchanges are pretty much idiot proof, so it's very hard to lose your funds if you have a little brain.

Of course and you should use an exchange, but it doesn't have to be a centralized one. Use decentralized exchanges; there's no privacy invasion, no extraordinary fees, no KYC nonsense, no middlemen who own your money.

One with good reputation is Bisq.

[Gyfts]

the three main things that are hindering world wide adoption are:

1. over 50% of the world are on low income. meaning their minimum wage is less than half of the minimum wage of developed countries

The technical aspects of your argument may or may not be a hinderance, but most people would never get to that point because of the world wide poverty that exists for almost every country outside of Westernized developed countries. The goal for poverty stricken citizens is not to adopt a new currency or to invest for future wealth. Their vision does not extend that far. They live each day trying to get enough resources to have enough to eat.

Bitcoin isn't suppose to take people out of extreme poverty nor would it matter if the extremely impoverished adopted crypto. There isn't a large amount of wealth controlled by these folks. World wide adoption really only includes the major players, US + EU and China.

[wxa7115]

3. Fluctuating value: The value of bitcoin isn't steady as it rises and falls. The uncertainty in the price and value greatly hinders the general adoption worldwide.

4. Awareness: Nearly not enough effort on creating and spreading positive awareness on it as some government and individuals alike is hell bent on spreading negativity around and poisoning the minds of prospective users. People need to be aware and understand what bitcoin is really about and be awake to its uses.

Those two points are a major cause in my opinion. I would also add that buying a bitcoin is not exactly a straight forwarding thing to do since usually you have to open an account on an exchange, send the documents, wait to be verified, transfer the money and then decide where to store them. Many times when you explain to people all these steps, a lot of them immediately think it's too much effort. 

Personally I think that another reason is that simply many people are not really ready to be completely responsible for their own money and they are afraid of something like bitcoin.

After all a huge deal of money is stolen from credit and debit cards all over the world, and those people depend on the banks to save them and recover their money, but this is not possible with bitcoin, so since people do not know how to take care of their coins I think that we are bound to see a massive amount of money being stolen if bitcoin was adopted massively, and then once they lose their money this way those people will criticize bitcoin for its inability to reverse transactions, even if that is a feature and not a bug.

[Lanatsa]

3. Fluctuating value: The value of bitcoin isn't steady as it rises and falls. The uncertainty in the price and value greatly hinders the general adoption worldwide.

4. Awareness: Nearly not enough effort on creating and spreading positive awareness on it as some government and individuals alike is hell bent on spreading negativity around and poisoning the minds of prospective users. People need to be aware and understand what bitcoin is really about and be awake to its uses.

Those two points are a major cause in my opinion. I would also add that buying a bitcoin is not exactly a straight forwarding thing to do since usually you have to open an account on an exchange, send the documents, wait to be verified, transfer the money and then decide where to store them. Many times when you explain to people all these steps, a lot of them immediately think it's too much effort. 

That could be one on the many reasons, because people are usually kept their hands off to complex things such as creating a custodial wallet or exchange wallet as new crypto investors would always resort to such options as they see a lot of advertisement all over the social media.
But there is actually a few steps to purchase your own Bitcoin without using those services.
But then again, people will always have the first impression of purchasing Bitcoin to an exchange.

If you are that someone who isnt that tech savy or not really that much interested to new ideas and innovation then most likely you would really be ending up on having bad impression towards bitcoin.

You wouldnt tend to get engage to it since you do see that it might be that complicated on dealing thats why you do pass or skip which is a sad thing.There are people who are really having that curiosity which do really leads

to research out even more and its impossible for someone not able to learn yet its not really that requiring technical skills for you to get involved and learn with it.

[mildmanneredsuffering]

near criminal sawtooth market making algo. bitcoin is essentially always falling, interupted by short spikes to render the appearnce of gains. I repeat bitcoin is always falling until you sell

[nullama]

I think one of the things that will make Bitcoin more common worldwide is creators of goods and services offering them only through Bitcoin (or maybe with a discount incentive).

Here's one example:

If someone wants a design from him that person will have to pay with Bitcoin, making it a bit more common. If this is repeated all around the world, it will make Bitcoin being adopted worldwide.

[perfect999]

And these groups' choices are made usually based on the people's interest. If the people start using Bitcoin then they have to adapt to it unless the "elite" are completely authoritarian. We see how China is constantly fighting it; it can't shut it down, so it tries to "shut down" every citizen's right to it.

In the west, things are less excruciating humanitarian-wise. The governments want to portray themselves as freedom seekers; at least in the economy. People have their right to speech and if they all started treating cryptocurrencies as money by tomorrow morning, I believe the government wouldn't have a choice other than to adjust.

The main problem is that this won't ever happen, because they perpetually brainwash you to feel you need them. There are other problems too, such as people don't understand money or don't care about it at all. Then, there's the internet propaganda that misleads the public, the fact that Bitcoin is a hard term to grasp etc.

Those are what's really preventing worldwide adoption, not the block size.

China is fighting it because they want to have a complete control over their finances and economy, just like they want complete control over everything else in their nation. It's normal that nations like China would not like it, but what they are missing is that they could do a lot better in the long run.

If china used bitcoin as a weapon against the west they could have made a lot more money, make it a nationalized thing if you have to but not using it and completely banning it is a big problem. They could literally afford to build as many asic miners as they could, and mine majority of bitcoins and have a complete control, that would have given them so much power.