Bitcoins and other cryptos will never become mainstream before...

[Steph.A]

Bitcoins and other cryptos will never become mainstream before... people can buy water bottles with them.

Quite simple, many expecting an explosive entropy of the bitcoin adoption / price but truth is the average folk most common needs and use of money aren't met by bitcoin, this fact goes against the very foundation of any successfully implemented mean of money anytime across recorded history. It really is a political problem at it's core, the deep states run by bankers won't let a viable alternative co-exist in the streets. I have no doubt that with truly liberal and free alien civilizations, the blockchain technology would have attained (for all purposes) universal adoption in a shorter time that the cryptos have been around by now here.

What are your takes about that sentiment?

[Yamane_Keto]

Not all of the world's population needs to use Bitcoin, and if 5% of the population and 5% of companies use Bitcoin, I think we will reach an acceptable level of prediction such that there is no need to convert Bitcoin into dollars and the possibility of using it to make purchases for most needs due to the availability of the level of acceptance.

[Manny@11111]

Bitcoin acceptability this year was greater than 2022 and I can assure you it will be better in 2024.
Adoption of Bitcoin is fast growing as a friend even bought groceries with it in Netherlands and got balance back in Bitcoin, this is just a matter of time though it has a long way to go in competing with Fiat

[Lucius]

Bitcoins and other cryptos will never become mainstream before... people can buy water bottles with them.
~snip~

Do you live in the belief that this is not possible at this moment? Of course, this is not possible in every store that exists in the world, but it is possible in many countries where Bitcoin is a completely legitimate means of payment. If you go to El Salvador, you will probably be able to buy a bottle of water or whatever you want and pay with BTC (LN) - and if you go to the island of Boracay, you will certainly be able to buy water and pay with BTC.

Here, for example, I can now go to a local site and buy water or any other drink and pay with Bitcoin or some altcoin - or I can buy anything else that is there.

I don't know what kind of mainstream ideas you fantasize about, but Bitcoin will probably never be the choice of the majority but of the minority that wants an alternative. In addition, the idea of Bitcoin as a currency is disappearing more and more, especially when we take into account the on-chain fees that most people do not want to pay.

[KiaKia]

You do have a point and that's on the transaction fee side, it's not going to be easy for newbies to accumulate Bitcoin, but we can't deny the massive interest on Bitcoin right now compare to years back, I believe that Bitcoin will see more massive adoption rate soon and nothing can stop it.

Bitcoin is not a good option for making small payments but it's a good store of value and it's far valuable than anything I know, this point is enough for the whole world to want to have everything to do with Bitcoin, don't sleep on it, as one day you can look back and see that Bitcoin is worth half a million already and you will start beating yourself up.

[Tamaperdana]

Snip
What are your takes about that sentiment?

The bitcoin system is indeed in conflict with the system that runs in banking. Therefore, bitcoin will always be overshadowed by bankers who want bitcoin and its adoption will not go well. However, dropping bitcoin is certainly not easy, because bitcoin is very transparent and has a system that can make people interested^{(decentralized)}.

And currently bitcoin or crypto will definitely be a little difficult if you want to become mainstream in financial terms. Because the banking sector is still standing strong at this time. So it will definitely take longer for bitcoin or crypto to become mainstream.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Not all of the world's population needs to use Bitcoin, and if 5% of the population and 5% of companies use Bitcoin, I think we will reach an acceptable level of prediction such that there is no need to convert Bitcoin into dollars and the possibility of using it to make purchases for most needs due to the availability of the level of acceptance.

Five percent is too small, this means you will hardly finds a place or an organization that accepts bitcoin before you can be able to spend it, bitcoin is already getting to that stage, very gradually we are moving to be the mainstream of making payments, we many still have to use them both for now till that time arrived whereby we don't need any other means of making payments than bitcoin and exchange of this same digital currency into fiat may not be needed as before since it would have turned the mainstream global currency.

[Yatsan]

Not all of the world's population needs to use Bitcoin, and if 5% of the population and 5% of companies use Bitcoin, I think we will reach an acceptable level of prediction such that there is no need to convert Bitcoin into dollars and the possibility of using it to make purchases for most needs due to the availability of the level of acceptance.

Five percent is too small, this means you will hardly finds a place or an organization that accepts bitcoin before you can be able to spend it, bitcoin is already getting to that stage, very gradually we are moving to be the mainstream of making payments, we many still have to use them both for now till that time arrived whereby we don't need any other means of making payments than bitcoin and exchange of this same digital currency into fiat may not be needed as before since it would have turned the mainstream global currency.

Difference is with the way we are using it. If it is with mode of payment, then there's only a small percentage where it is being used as it is. Bitcoin and other cryptos are widely used as an asset or an investment and there's nothing really bad about it. With its wide acceptance, there'll be more years to come before its total acceptance. It is now known by many but there is a mix of impression towards this technology and we should wait further for improvements on such viewpoint. Global currency on the other hand is something.

[PrivacyG]

What is even 'mainstream' to people nowadays?  Is it Bitcoin becoming a national Currency?  Gold can not be used to purchase bottles of water.  I mean technically you can, but extremely pricey and inconveniently.  Yet Gold is mainstream.

Bitcoin will soon erupt past a 1 TRILLION Market Cap.  Is this not mainstream enough to people?  We will likely never see the day Bitcoin becomes the Currency El Salvador is portraying it to be and we hoped for.  But it is already very mainstream.  Still has a TON of room for growth but we are there already.

[Poker Player]

Bitcoin has triumphed in the last few years precisely because of the essential properties it has with respect to medium or high amounts, and it doesn't matter if it becomes mainstream because the people who can store and send those amounts are reduced. It is not even remotely the same people who can buy bottles of water.

Using the same criteria for Bitcoin as for altcoins makes no sense, when it is essentially different.

[SamReomo]

Bitcoins and other cryptos will never become mainstream before... people can buy water bottles with them.

That's funny, I'm shocked to see this why would anyone spend Bitcoin to buy water bottles? Bitcoin was meant to be a p2p payment system and it still is but these days people find it more usable as an asset rather than a p2p payment system.

You can't really buy a bottle of Bitcoin at the current network condition because the fee would cost you more than two bottles of water. It's possible to buy bottle of Bitcoin with water in normal network conditions but I'm pretty sure that no one is going to use Bitcoin to buy a bottle of water.

[libert19]

Bitcoin network is overwhelmed by ordinals, to use it as means of money in real world is far get fetched, in my opinion. Get adopted on Internet first, these days people are transacting with lower fee cryptos and forsaking Bitcoin due to it's high fees.

Even during normal times, you pay dollar a fee, and transaction will take few minutes to confirm, do you really expect to purchase water bottle like this?

Other cryptos are far from adoption too, little load and they get congested.

Why should I use crypto (fees + uncertain confirmation times) when I can pay with cash or card, for free & instant.

[Alpha Marine]

I see your point and I agree only to an extent. Bitcoin adoption would be halter with the current transaction fee. Nobody would like to make a transaction where the fee is almost half the actual amount you want to transfer.

I believe Bitcoin, or crypto as a whole cannot be "mainstream" as you say because everybody has not gone digital. There are places where you still need cash to make a purchase. They don't even accept bank or card transfers, so how will they accept Bitcoin?
Then again, how do people accept Bitcoin when it is currently so frustrating to use?

[justdimin]

You do have a point and that's on the transaction fee side, it's not going to be easy for newbies to accumulate Bitcoin, but we can't deny the massive interest on Bitcoin right now compare to years back, I believe that Bitcoin will see more massive adoption rate soon and nothing can stop it.

Bitcoin is not a good option for making small payments but it's a good store of value and it's far valuable than anything I know, this point is enough for the whole world to want to have everything to do with Bitcoin, don't sleep on it, as one day you can look back and see that Bitcoin is worth half a million already and you will start beating yourself up.

I feel like that is not going to be as much of a big trouble as people think it will be. You have dollars in your bank account, you wire that to some exchange, nearly no fee at all, maybe a very tiny one, then you buy bitcoin with the dollar you have in the exchange, only the trading fee and no transaction fee at all, then when it goes up, you sell that bitcoin back to dollar, again just trading fee, nothing big, and then you use that dollar to wire back to your bank account, and you have spent nearly nothing, maybe just 50 bucks at the very large case, and that is a ton of money, usually something less than a few dollars.

That's why you should not consider transaction fee as a huge deal for a newbie, because if the newbie is doing a lot more than this, the yare doing something wrong. I believe that newbies who spend hundreds of dollars on each transaction and moving money around like crazy just to make more money, they will have bigger issues for sure.

[bluebit25]

OP you should also understand that bitcoin and crypto are still very new from their launch until now, requiring a widespread acceptance is not an immediate story but takes time.

You can imagine the problem of the Internet, after many years, it took us to have the current popular network system that you see, but the truth is that not everyone has the Internet and even Some countries still don't have electricity to use it. So, looking openly, with bitcoin and crypto since its launch until now, its scale is much larger, and I think at a speed that is really fast, it won't take too long so that you can witness some regions accepting crypto as a popular means of life, and there is no need to impose too much on how to use bitcoin because in the end, the core thing is still bitcoin.

[bettercrypto]

Bitcoins and other cryptos will never become mainstream before... people can buy water bottles with them.

Quite simple, many expecting an explosive entropy of the bitcoin adoption / price but truth is the average folk most common needs and use of money aren't met by bitcoin, this fact goes against the very foundation of any successfully implemented mean of money anytime across recorded history. It really is a political problem at it's core, the deep states run by bankers won't let a viable alternative co-exist in the streets. I have no doubt that with truly liberal and free alien civilizations, the blockchain technology would have attained (for all purposes) universal adoption in a shorter time that the cryptos have been around by now here.

What are your takes about that sentiment?

You know bitcoin is for people who believe in it and will work it out so they can have it in the future. Although everyone can do it, not everyone has the dedication and passion to work out. So the tendency is always that, in the end, most of those who enter this industry fail.

So, stand up for what you believe in Bitcoin. But if you use Bitcoin just for the bottle of water, it seems like you are just wasting every bit of bitcoin because of the value it can provide in the future.

[Steph.A]

As for the water bottle example, you are bothered by details, most variables of btc aren't linked to deep physical limitations. The current btc is not suitable for such a transaction ofc, but that's irrelevant to the possibilities of blockchain.

Really, be it a water bottle or a Playstation 5, or a Ford F-Series, the physical goods market evade cryptos and that's the only challenge for it's growth. Humans need fuel to live, and they but it with fiat. And the reason is political otherwise you would have a plethoric amount of entrepreneurs willing to accept blockchain powered money for their products. Elon Musk tried it for a time with tesla, there's little doubt why he dropped the opportunity.

West Africans and Hindus getting access to internet won't make a huge difference also c'mon.

Restraining blockchain powered money to a digital stuff used to buy nfts, steroids and cocaine online or evade tax but no physical good such as water bottle is exactly buying into the establishment narrative about cryptos.

[Lucius]

~snip~
You can't really buy a bottle of Bitcoin at the current network condition because the fee would cost you more than two bottles of water.

If you use LN, then you don't have to worry about the fees, but the fact that so many people complain about the fees is really strange, considering that there is more than one alternative.

It's possible to buy bottle of Bitcoin with water in normal network conditions but I'm pretty sure that no one is going to use Bitcoin to buy a bottle of water.

You really turned things upside down, because it is not possible to pour Bitcoin into a bottle, but in a situation where you are terribly thirsty and you only have Bitcoin, wouldn't you buy a bottle of cold water and pay even $10 for the fee? I would really like to see those hardened holders who would rather die than spend Bitcoin.

[kryptqnick]

Not everything valuable can buy water bottles. For example, you can't buy a water bottle with the Internet as a technology, only through the Internet on specific platforms. You can't buy a water bottle with a smartphone, either, even though it's an invention that reached global adoption fast.
Bitcoin is an alternative to fiat, another way to do money, so to speak. Bitcoin is also a valuable asset.
I don't think that the main issue is the resistance of major actors like governments, banks, or lobbyists. Bitcoin is volatile, Bitcoin doesn't scale well, Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, there's nobody to blame for Bitcoin going up or down, and Bitcoin transaction fees regularly rise too high. There are enough reasons for people to prefer fiat and banks over Bitcoin, simply because there's someone in charge, there are some ways of controlling the value, fiat tends to be stable (generally more stable than Bitcoin), etc. Not everyone wants decentralization, financial freedom and responsibility that comes with it.

[adaseb]

They actually were discussing this like 5 years ago. But instead of water it was coffee. They want bitcoin to be used to be able to buy a cup of coffee. And you basically can’t do that with the main net. Even if fees were low, you would still have to wait 10-30 mins for confirmation.

That’s why all these layer 2 solutions are happening. Basically keep a small amount of bitcoin in a l2 and you can spend all you want with little or no fees. When you are done, just bridge back.