Bitcoin's as a currency is most hindered by its lack of true widespread adoption. Instead of stores adopting Bitcoin, what if Bitcoin "adopted" stores? Maybe this idea has already been proposed, but it would be theoretically possibly, in my mind at least, for their to be a Bitcoin debit card that could be used by normal debit card payment terminals. Suppose an exchange, such as Mt Gox, used your online wallet as the balance for the debit card. When you spent your debit card on something that cost paper money, such as USD or Euros, Mt Gox would charge your Bitcoin wallet according to the current exchange rate of that currency. Mt Gox could do the verification (as is normal for a card, whether credit or debit) of the payment immediately, as all they would have to do is to check if the wallet had enough Bitcoins for the purchase based on the purchase's currency's exchange rate.
These are just my thoughts. If they have already been thought of, tell me. If not, criticize, elaborate, question, etc. I want to see Bitcoin take off, but I don't see the less technologically savvy members of the world to understand/accept it.
Hey Splatster!
Welcome to the community
There have been multiple attempts to create POS systems capable of accepting a "Bitcoin Debit Card". I think the closest thing that exists is OKPAY:
https://www.okpay.com/en/index.htmlKeep thinking about ways of boosting adoption!