Bitcoin as a Mainstream payment method

[karmamiu]

As the title implies, we all know that, almost the whole world knows about the existence of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, the problem is although more and more people are becoming aware of it, there're still barriers preventing them on using crypto. I have been into this social app called MEEFF(recommended by a friend of mine), and some of the people there dislike the idea of bitcoin and crypto. So, I was wondering why, but didn't bother to ask them since it's their own preference, and so it cross into my mind that "What does BTCitcoin needed in order to become a mainstream payment system? "


I know some of you would say improvements of Security, Scalability, and User Experience, but aside from that, What is the most needed for BTCitcoin right now?

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[Ayers]

Government acceptance, the biggest barrier to bitcoin right now is the government, as long as they accept and decide bitcoin as the mainstream payment method, everyone will have to accept and obey. People who don't like bitcoin and cryptocurrencies because they obey the government, if the government doubts and bans bitcoin, those people will never learn about bitcoin. And I think the possibility of bitcoin becoming a mainstream payment method won't happen, governments won't let that happen.

[mk4]

If we're referring to people in countries with decent currencies — adoption aside, people simply don't like holding/using money that's volatile; they want it to be as stable as possible. People simply want to pay for their daily coffee without worrying much about how much their "money" has moved.

[dzungmobile]

"What does BTCitcoin needed in order to become a mainstream payment system? "

To break barriers and make Bitcoin goes mainstream, you need to see it goes to big names in traditional markets and industries like big banks accept Bitcoin for their deposit, withdrawal, exchange with fiat currencies or CBDCs.

Big names can be big techs too but it is what we are gradually witnessing.

Sum up, wait for big banks to accept Bitcoin and mainstream Bitcoin will open that gate.

Another thing I'd like to note, like other things in life, thereare two sides, support and protest. There are people who never accept new thing from a day they know it till a day they die. Let them be.

[Upgrade00]

If fiat was an option and not a stipulated legal tender, then a lot of people currently depending on it would not and rather find alternate means to transact.
For Bitcoin to go mainstream, 100% of the people do not have to use it, it just needs to be easily accessible anywhere and available as a means of payment by merchants globally. There would still be preferences by people who prefer fiat, altcoins or some other means of transacting.

I know some of you would say improvements of Security, Scalability, and User Experience, but aside from that, What is the most needed for BTCitcoin right now?

Security and to an extent, user experience is not a problem with Bitcoin. As one of the most secure networks it only relies on the holder to use it the proper way and the user experience depends on the wallet you use to store you coins.
Scalability is a work in progress and is one major barrier to adoption, along with volatility.

[noorman0]

Bitcoin needs regulatory support.
Most residents in certain countries would still respect the law if their financial situation was relatively stable. Worse, such a country would not have a plan that they would allow foreign currency as a means of payment unless it had some truly revolutionary state officials.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

I know some of you would say improvements of Security, Scalability, and User Experience, but aside from that, What is the most needed for BTCitcoin right now?

Adoption and which is the sustainability for the currency being acceptable, the world has known bitcoin and some have adopted it, but yet we need to get to the rate of global acceptability serving as the most common and acceptable legal tender, we don't need to get worries about the security or scalability because all that has been dealt with while making the protocols on the bitcoin whitepaper and blockchain technology, all we need now is bitcoin massive adoption, awareness and orientation.

[Rikafip]

What does BTCitcoin needed in order to become a mainstream payment system?

The biggest obstacle I see (beside those that you already mentioned) is volatility, especially for people that are or on the minimum income. But even if bitcoin was more stable, there is another ((much bigger)) problem and that is people, as dealing with bitcoin means that you take responsibility in your own hands, and that's something majority of  people don't like/want. They prefer sense of false security by giving someone else their money so in case they forget pin of their debit card, they can just go to their bank and get another one, while we know that you can't do that with bitcoin.

After all, bitcoin doesn't even have to become mainstream payment option to be useful.

[Spaceman1000$]

I think some persons are having second  thought about using bitcoin because they don't have a concrete knowledge of it.

I think to make bitcoin a mainstream payment method, we need to employ owner of malls, Restaurant's, shop's, eateries, online payment platforms etc, to widing their Bitcoin payment method, to make it one of the mainstream (Bitcoin) payment options more available to customers that patronise them. That way, people will start seeing it as verifiable payment method, which will in turn make lot's of them wanting to know more about Bitcoin, this way it help to mediate whatever doubt they might have.

[Faisal2202]

I know some of you would say improvements of Security, Scalability, and User Experience, but aside from that, What is the most needed for BTCitcoin right now?

Emergence of Bitcoin had unleashed the authenticity of banking system. And these banks are running way back like from start. It would not be an easy task to shift people from traditional banks to modern finance. All We and you can do is to spread awareness and before spreading awareness among your friends and relatives you should also know the basics. So that, you do not feel bad when they hit a question you do not know. I would like to suggest you some basic concepts that you might choose to start a conversation about btc or crypto among relatives and friends who are not familiar with the truth of digital finance.

• Start from, Blockchain and how does it work along with the uses of blockchain
• If your audience is not a techy one, then teach them the working of Web 1 and Web 2 at least because they must have used these technologies.
• Web1 and Web2 must gave them the idea then move to the centralization and decentralization mechanism and ask them what could be the possible pros and cons of these system might be
• Then try to explain blockchain again, but now teach them the basic functioning too like how crypto uses blockchain for decentralization. How it provides you the full custody of your assets and how no other person could tamper with the information of yours in smart contract ( teach them about smart contract too)
• Once you tell them the basic. Move to use cases of block. i must say tell them the basic 5 use cases of blockchain
• These applications of blockchain will open there eye and they could be able to predict the potential of btc and blockchain that it could have.

Because once i am also run away from blockchain and BTC. WHY? Because i did not know these basic questions and one more thing i must include. I was not sure that this work is halal or haram, (These are terms related to my Religion Islam) I can interpret them for your understanding. Halal means Good and Haram means not good. That simple. So as a newbie i do not have the resources and do know where to look and what to look.

So in 2018 i started cloud mining but left it. How i started that's a dumb question. because i only fall prey to scams. So i left it. after 2 years in 2020. One of my friend explains me the basics of blockchain and crypto he invested his time in me. he open zoom app and started to teach me free of cost. for that i am thankful. But ITs just a hint story for you. To get started and instead of ignoring there comments about thnigs that they do not know and you know that. Then i must say its your work to tell them the rights and wrongs so that they could meet up with the pace of technology.

[Lucius]

As the title implies, we all know that, almost the whole world knows about the existence of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, the problem is although more and more people are becoming aware of it, there're still barriers preventing them on using crypto.

Do you think that's true? Well, half of the people in the world don't even have access to the Internet, and even if they heard about Bitcoin, how should they use it if they don't have the basics for it? The barriers you are talking about are primarily infrastructural, although of course there are also those mental barriers for most people who understand economics and finance only to the extent that they know what a bank card and a 4-digit PIN are for.

"What does BTCitcoin needed in order to become a mainstream payment system? "
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I know some of you would say improvements of Security, Scalability, and User Experience, but aside from that, What is the most needed for BTCitcoin right now?

Forget any mainstream payment method in the sense that you will be able to pay with Bitcoin in every store and for every service, because that will probably never be achievable, especially in countries that strictly control their financial system, and besides, they are among the most populous countries in the world. Bitcoin will always be an alternative, and by no means some kind of coercion that should be imposed by any state or individual.

[yazher]

We could start with all online stores accepting bitcoin payments at first then we can talk about the mainstream because right now that's what matters if we don't see all online stores accepting it, then seeing it accepted by mainstream would be harder really. Maybe when they see those big online stores starting to accept bitcoins as payment, then not so long that they will also gonna follow them. As of now the only stores and services that are accepting bitcoin payments are mostly in Africa because that's what most users posted here.

[karmamiu]

As the title implies, we all know that, almost the whole world knows about the existence of bitcoin and cryptocurrency, the problem is although more and more people are becoming aware of it, there're still barriers preventing them on using crypto.

Do you think that's true? Well, half of the people in the world don't even have access to the Internet, and even if they heard about Bitcoin, how should they use it if they don't have the basics for it? The barriers you are talking about are primarily infrastructural, although of course there are also those mental barriers for most people who understand economics and finance only to the extent that they know what a bank card and a 4-digit PIN are for.

"What does BTCitcoin needed in order to become a mainstream payment system? "
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I know some of you would say improvements of Security, Scalability, and User Experience, but aside from that, What is the most needed for BTCitcoin right now?

Forget any mainstream payment method in the sense that you will be able to pay with Bitcoin in every store and for every service, because that will probably never be achievable, especially in countries that strictly control their financial system, and besides, they are among the most populous countries in the world. Bitcoin will always be an alternative, and by no means some kind of coercion that should be imposed by any state or individual.

You mean half of the world doesn't have proper access to internet? It's true that there're people who chose to rely on the traditional system we already have and it is also their choice to believe or use what they want as long as it benefits them. I do get your point coz personally the main reason for me  why it's never unachievable is because of its volatility. That reason alone is enough for people to be hesitant/against on using or implementing it as a mainstream payment system.

[Lucius]

You mean half of the world doesn't have proper access to internet?

It's not literally half, but according to data for 2023, even around 35% of the world's population does not have access to the internet at all, while it is questionable how many people have a permanent and high-quality connection to the internet. Many members of this forum from some African countries have exactly this problem, their internet actually depends on whether they have electricity, and this makes their activities much more difficult - although this is not something specific only to Africa.

But even if we take the 2/3 who have access to the internet, looking at it as a whole, all researchers say that less than 5% of the world's population is in some way involved in cryptocurrencies, and of that number there are certainly many who have invested only in altcoins.

When you draw a line under all that information, then your question cannot get any kind of positive answer, regardless of which aspect of the problem you are talking about (if the problem exists at all).

[Plaguedeath]

The main problem is the regulation, many people are worried if Bitcoin will get banned since India and China are really easy to ban and unban Bitcoin. As a businessman, do you want to update your payment method for every 6 months while you can have a choice to just accept fiat which is never get banned? as a citizens, do you want to feel not safe for holding Bitcoin since when your country declare Bitcoin is illegal, you can't use your coins anymore except you're move to other country.

The other reasons are a religion forbid to hold Bitcoin, privacy concern etc.

[passwordnow]

Isn't it recognized yet that bitcoin is already in the mainstream as a payment method for some? Yeah, some because many consider it as an investment but payment platforms that come from the big exchanges like Binance Pay, Coinbase Pay and other exchanges and platforms that focus on servicing crypto payments are already there. But talking about in general about those people that don't really like the idea of bitcoin as a payment, it all starts with they have lack knowledge of it so they don't understand the whole thing.

[CryptSafe]

With respect your topic, I really think there are lots of work to be done as regards bitcoin awareness and adoption. People can only adopt something when they are fully aware of it although some might be skeptical about it but at the end they would see reasons why they need to adopt it. This is still applicable to bitcoin. What I basically know and see is that government policies strongly affect the bitcoin adoption in various nation's. Some people are yet to understand how bitcoin works not to talk of accepting it as a means of payment for services. We should know that bitcoin is volatile hence many people finds it difficult to accepting it because of the uncertainty and expectations of price fluctuations.

[kryptqnick]

I've never heard of this social app before, but of course many people don't like the idea of cryptos. Cryptos are new, and while some humans try to push the boundaries of what's possible for humanity by inventing something new or going somewhere new, there's also this totally natural reaction to new as dangerous, threatening. It challenges the status quo, and many feel like if status quo is fine for them, they shouldn't endorse those things that try challenging it. As for what Bitcoin needs, I think it's secured enough as it is, it will need more scalability one way or another for an increase of its adoption as a form of payment, and user-friendly interfaces similar to online banking wouldn't hurt either. Another this it lack is, despite everything, more awareness of what Bitcoin is and isn't, how it works and how it's different from stocks and from fiat alike.

[BlackHatCoiner]

"What does BTCitcoin needed in order to become a mainstream payment system?

It needs to attract the average user. Due to high volatility, in comparison with fiat currency, it's a no-no for average use. Even if merchants lowered the prices if you were to pay in bitcoin (which some I've noticed do), it's still unapproachable. We need more education around bitcoin, and more importantly: the acknowledgement that you need to be responsible with your money. Lots of people think like you can reverse anything if you become a fraud victim.

[buwaytress]

It's got to be user experience for me, more than anything else. We're talking mainstream here, so we have to accept, for better or worse -- people don't really care about security, about sovereign money, or even inflation, and that's judging from the majority of crypto "users" I've come across.

It needs to be cool and easy to use. It needs to be simpler than an existing form of money to use. It needs to solve problems too (and less about my money's not worth anything and more about I need to be able to buy this but I can't because I don't have a debit card or PayPal).