Bitcoin will never become mainstream

[l99l]

You said Bitcoin will never become mainstream, but I regretfully disagree, it's okay for me not to agree because it has already become mainstream, many people use Bitcoin today because of the many benefits it brings.
Such as freedom, decentralization and transparency.
And thus, they escape inflation, by using fiat money, your money only melts away with inflation, this is the real issue to discuss.

[coolcoinz]

You said Bitcoin will never become mainstream, but I regretfully disagree, it's okay for me not to agree because it has already become mainstream, many people use Bitcoin today because of the many benefits it brings.
Such as freedom, decentralization and transparency.
And thus, they escape inflation, by using fiat money, your money only melts away with inflation, this is the real issue to discuss.

Exactly. It's already mainstream when countries are talking about putting it on their list of reserve assets.

If someone thinks bitcoin is not mainstream, tell me what asset is.  For instance, is Tesla stock mainstream? I don't think so, since most people in the world don't own it, just like most people in the world don't own physical gold, apart from maybe a wedding ring, or a chain. Is Ferrari a mainstream car? It's not, but people still want to own it, just like many people want to own 1 bitcoin but lack knowledge or funds to get it.

[l99l]

You said Bitcoin will never become mainstream, but I regretfully disagree, it's okay for me not to agree because it has already become mainstream, many people use Bitcoin today because of the many benefits it brings.
Such as freedom, decentralization and transparency.
And thus, they escape inflation, by using fiat money, your money only melts away with inflation, this is the real issue to discuss.

Exactly. It's already mainstream when countries are talking about putting it on their list of reserve assets.

If someone thinks bitcoin is not mainstream, tell me what asset is.  For instance, is Tesla stock mainstream? I don't think so, since most people in the world don't own it, just like most people in the world don't own physical gold, apart from maybe a wedding ring, or a chain. Is Ferrari a mainstream car? It's not, but people still want to own it, just like many people want to own 1 bitcoin but lack knowledge or funds to get it.

Very accurate observations and the right approach.
The fact that countries and large companies want to own bitcoin already shows that it is mainstream.
This non-acceptance generally comes from a lack of knowledge, it seems to me. Do we really own the funds you have in digital and precious metals like gold, but I know that I have bitcoin and this relaxes me every time.

[passwordnow]

And it's overpriced.

Alright, I get it why you've said all of those things about Bitcoin and that is because you're unable to afford it because it's priced in at $90k and up and likely to break $100k anytime soon.

It's not the first time I've read someone told all of these tales about Bitcoin, a ponzi, a pyramid scheme, not going mainstream, it's dark web, it's for illegal transactions. But you don't play blindfolded when there are financial institutions that have applied for BTC spot ETF and they've been approved and being traded now. So, I think it all falls to that quote of what you've said that it is already overpriced based on your situation for which it will increase more within the next months to come.

I was referring to the transaction / operation cost.

Transaction fees and cost, they're high compared to the others. But the value of each satoshi is increasing based on the demand that it's getting and that reflects to the price of it. So even if the fee will be costing 1 sat/vB, it will still become expensive or overpriced based on the equivalent of it in dollars because of the continuous high price of Bitcoin. And there's a reason behind the operation cost, the miners and we can say that it also contributes to the value of it.

[Synchronice]

It doesn't matter how large the market cap is. Bitcoin defined itself as a currency - currently, it is a very limitet one. Very far from being mainstream for a currency. For an asset? Sure it is mainstream. But bitcoin defined itselt (at least, satoshi did) as a currency - not an asset.

If you talk about Bitcoin as a mean of payment, then I agree with you, it's not a mainstream and will never be because it's not designed for that. Bitcoin was created to simply get rid of 3rd parties and create a decentralized, P2P transaction in ecommerce.

To be honest, I think that Bitcoin was most likely a test project than a final solution to the problem that Satoshi wanted to solve. There are 7 billion people in the world, 5.5 billion of them have access to internet and Bitcoin's block size is 1 MB. It's impossible for Bitcoin to become a mainstream currency because 1 MB block size is the limit. For it to become mainstream, we need to change it's protocol, so still, I wouldn't say that it will never become a mainstream because it can, we only need to modify things.

[OgNasty]

Bitcoin will most definitely become mainstream at some point. I know firsthand that Apple executives have been stacking behind the scenes since at least 2018. It is only a matter of time before Bitcoin is added to ApplePay, at which point many people will be able to stack and simply use it without even knowing anything about it, the network, or self custody.

[bitcurve]

It doesn't matter how large the market cap is. Bitcoin defined itself as a currency - currently, it is a very limitet one. Very far from being mainstream for a currency. For an asset? Sure it is mainstream. But bitcoin defined itselt (at least, satoshi did) as a currency - not an asset.

If you talk about Bitcoin as a mean of payment, then I agree with you, it's not a mainstream and will never be because it's not designed for that. Bitcoin was created to simply get rid of 3rd parties and create a decentralized, P2P transaction in ecommerce.

To be honest, I think that Bitcoin was most likely a test project than a final solution to the problem that Satoshi wanted to solve. There are 7 billion people in the world, 5.5 billion of them have access to internet and Bitcoin's block size is 1 MB. It's impossible for Bitcoin to become a mainstream currency because 1 MB block size is the limit. For it to become mainstream, we need to change it's protocol, so still, I wouldn't say that it will never become a mainstream because it can, we only need to modify things.

I agree with you, but I do think the original goal of bitcoin was to create a mainstream payments system.

About the block size, it's not only that. As transactions/userbase grows, the operation cost (I mean, more miners will join as bitcoin becomes more and more popular) grows exponentially. Proof of work just doesn't scale well.

Maybe I'm wrong, and satoshi did create this as an inital proof of concept.

Bitcoin will most definitely become mainstream at some point. I know firsthand that Apple executives have been stacking behind the scenes since at least 2018. It is only a matter of time before Bitcoin is added to ApplePay, at which point many people will be able to stack and simply use it without even knowing anything about it, the network, or self custody.

You are considering off-chain centralized transactions. But the whole point of bitcoin is to be decentralized. If more people adopt bitcoin as an asset and it becomes mainstream, but only using these payment apps controlled by big companies, it really isn't bitcoin anymore.

You said Bitcoin will never become mainstream, but I regretfully disagree, it's okay for me not to agree because it has already become mainstream, many people use Bitcoin today because of the many benefits it brings.
Such as freedom, decentralization and transparency.
And thus, they escape inflation, by using fiat money, your money only melts away with inflation, this is the real issue to discuss.

True, inflation is a real issue.

To clarify, I'm not against bitcoin or what it brings to the world. I just think that won't be mainstream. Not that i don't want it to be.

[Zoomic]

You said Bitcoin will never become mainstream, but I regretfully disagree, it's okay for me not to agree because it has already become mainstream, many people use Bitcoin today because of the many benefits it brings.
Such as freedom, decentralization and transparency.
And thus, they escape inflation, by using fiat money, your money only melts away with inflation, this is the real issue to discuss.

Exactly. It's already mainstream when countries are talking about putting it on their list of reserve assets.

If someone thinks bitcoin is not mainstream, tell me what asset is.  For instance, is Tesla stock mainstream? I don't think so, since most people in the world don't own it, just like most people in the world don't own physical gold, apart from maybe a wedding ring, or a chain. Is Ferrari a mainstream car? It's not, but people still want to own it, just like many people want to own 1 bitcoin but lack knowledge or funds to get it.

Very accurate observations and the right approach.
The fact that countries and large companies want to own bitcoin already shows that it is mainstream.
This non-acceptance generally comes from a lack of knowledge, it seems to me. Do we really own the funds you have in digital and precious metals like gold, but I know that I have bitcoin and this relaxes me every time.

When I read the op, I asked myself if the op really understood the meaning of mainstream. In recent times, the adoption of bitcoin has become very rapid. I am still wondering how a digital currency that has caught the attention of the government, big investors and even small investors is not and will never be mainstream. I guess OP is talking about it being used generally by all as a currency. Even though majority of the bitcoiners see it as an investment, few still carryout p2p transactions with it. Bitcoin which started as one insignificant coin is now gradually being talked about and used in different countries, except maybe op is not up to date with recent happenings.

[PeRo]

Sorry, but it's already very mainstream. Every day there's more and more investors, large companies and known people who use and invest in Bitcoin. I've been using, following and investing a few years now and I can just say that Bitcoin's popularity has taken a big step forward and it doesn't intend to stop. It has found it's way to the news, the media and to mainstream markets and it's pulling more and more people to invest day by day.

Although it isn't at a 100%, it's going there very fast. The market speaks for itself and I don't think you can have a real argument against the rise of Bitcoin.

[franky1]

You defined a currency as a storage of value - that's incorrect. A currency has a fixed value, one US dollar = another US dollar.

WRONG
currencies value does change

the biggest currency trading platform (forex) always moves the price

MONEY is suppose to be the most stable where it should only meander by a couple percent per year of the goods/services purchase value.. but currency can vary per community/region/user
EG native americans centuries ago trading seashells near the coast buy them cheap but can charge a premium to another community far more inland
where as the inland community that choose to use seashells as their domestic community money. would then settle on a more fixed value within their domestic community group

currencies are more negotiable and can vary for multiple reasons.. money is more fixed

..
money (the main currency used domestically within a country/community) set that unit to more tight and limited spread of change
however when used as currency more broadly with different communities or regions then the price can vary wildly as the demand/desire and other utilities of the currency are a factor

EG a 1USD=1USD domestically in america (bar inflation difference of how much goods 1USD may get you) however 1USD may not always=0.79GBP when used as international currency exchange

..
bitcoin wont become a nations money.. nor some one world order with only bitcoin used as money, due to many factors
but bitcoin already was, is and will be an international currency

[lizarder]

Well, if you look at the numbers, you see tons of usage in crime/gambling with bitcoin. Regarding the privacy - why do you think bitcoin is private? It's clearly not. Anyone can trace you. How is that more private?

I disagree with your view that bitcoin users are more in the criminal or gambling sector and where do you get that number so that it can be ascertained. When you intend not to be tracked due to privacy issues, it is better not to use a wallet or exchange that requires kyc so that your privacy can be much safer. Our mistake is not understanding privacy so that we only talk as it is according to a narrow understanding. But if faced with material benefits we will ignore privacy and will try to do whatever is asked because the most important thing is profit.

Don't forget that fiat currencies are also associated with many crimes, gambling and other cases but can we generally categorize it as the fault of fiat currencies themselves. This is just the behavior of some people or groups and they use bitcoin or fiat currencies to commit crimes, but the essence is not bitcoin and fiat currencies themselves that need to be blamed.

[legiteum]

Bitcoin in Daily Use:
Bitcoin not being widely used for daily transactions yet is not due to a lack of technology but user habits. However, second-layer solutions like the Lightning Network make everyday payments faster and more cost-efficient, paving the way for broader adoption.

No, it's due to the fact that Bitcoin takes up to 30 minutes and cost up to $30 to do a single transaction. That is not "user habits".

Bitcoin cannot possibly scale to handle even a tiny portion of the world's daily transactions. It will never EVER be a mainstream means of payment. Ever. It was never made to do that, and it doesn't.

If you want mainstream, find an architecture that will actually scale to the world's daily transaction load. Everything else is just a speculation instrument.

[bitcurve]

Bitcoin in Daily Use:
Bitcoin not being widely used for daily transactions yet is not due to a lack of technology but user habits. However, second-layer solutions like the Lightning Network make everyday payments faster and more cost-efficient, paving the way for broader adoption.

No, it's due to the fact that Bitcoin takes up to 30 minutes and cost up to $30 to do a single transaction. That is not "user habits".

Bitcoin cannot possible scale to handle even a tiny portion of the world's daily transactions. It will never EVER be a mainstream means of payment. Ever. It was never made to do that, and it doesn't.

If you want mainstream, find an architecture that will actually scale to the world's daily transaction load. Everything else is just a speculation instrument.

Totally agree. This is what i wanted to express initially.

[Cookdata]

I think bitcoin became a scam not by purpose. see, these days people on social media just tell you to buy it, because it's a currency and its price will go up. but what makes bitcoin a currency? its community? but most of its community just bought it as an investment, not as a currency - as an asset. it's like a pyramid scheme.

Bitcoin does bring some good things to the world, where free (as in freedom ) digital money is inaccessible, but to the western world, what it brings? gambling? crime? mostly. some will argue privacy, but what exactly is private about bitcoin?

It also grows exponentially in terms of energy and resources needed to operate it, which is a total waste.

Some will argue it's a "new kind of global currency". but again, most bitcoin users don't use it for daily transactions. you might say, how do I know that? simple - because all the data on the blockchain is completely public.

And it's overpriced.

Leave your comments.

When you want to talk about something, don't be bias. Makes sure you stress through the both side if you think there is something bad about something. Scam didn't start with Bitcoin, it start with the conventional currencies, gambling didn't start with Bitcoin, it started with your fiat currency. What Bitcoin is doing is it's trying to make a better world where things will be more easy and accessible for people that doesn't have privilege like you do that's why you are saying all these about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin helps the people to send value without any middle person and it's censorship resistance, privacy to some level. The gambling you are taking about, it's also helping you facilitate transaction so you don't have to go and buy dollar card just to gamble in one global casino that has your favourite games. Tell me what exactly is wrong in Bitcoin, the excuses that you gave are just water statement, the scams and fraud that is happening in the fiat ecosystem is beyond the government control, that's why you see them arresting scammers and fraudsters every day, all are link to their traditional banks.

[Faisal2202]

I think that bitcoin will never become mainstream due to the nature of it. The only possibility I can see that it will get mainstream is via centralized parties, like easy-to-use exchanges managing the users coins.

What are the arguments that support bitcoin will go mainstream? Any argument I can find online is something non-related to bitcoin itself - For example, if the US government buys bitcoin, or Tesla accepts Dogecoin it isn't something that (in my opinion, at least) makes bitcoin more accessible for the normal, non-technical every day person.

I think bitcoin became a scam not by purpose. see, these days people on social media just tell you to buy it, because it's a currency and its price will go up. but what makes bitcoin a currency? its community? but most of its community just bought it as an investment, not as a currency - as an asset. it's like a pyramid scheme.

Bitcoin does bring some good things to the world, where free (as in freedom ) digital money is inaccessible, but to the western world, what it brings? gambling? crime? mostly. some will argue privacy, but what exactly is private about bitcoin?

It also grows exponentially in terms of energy and resources needed to operate it, which is a total waste.

You are 100% right about BTC comparing with a pyramid scheme its' like the older investors are urging new ones to invest in it so more liquidity could be added and they when will leave the market it won't effect that much and the cycle goes on unless new buyers hesitate to invest etc. But overall it's not true that every investors or person involve with BTC is using it as investment as I have some part as investment and the remaining one I am using for for day to day expenses.

For example, in simple wirds BTC miners are selling their BTC to manage their expenses, after that project owners are paying in BTC to advertise them, the ones receive these BTC are also using them for daily expenses but it's not like that we can direcly use BTC to pay for the goods and servies because in many countries it's not legal and with full privacy we can sell BTC and can acquire our local currency which also can be used to explain how BTC provides anoynmity and besides anoynmity and decentralization we must realize BTC also provides the freedom of speech.

Using ordinals we can inscribe our documents and pictures on BTC blockchain and no one can tamper or delet them.

[d5000]

OP, I can understand some of your worries. And I've also started a related thread: Bitcoin is not a Ponzi. But sometimes it is marketed like one.

I think the marketing of Bitcoin as an investment which can only go up ("because Central Bank X will buy it! / because of the ETFs!" etc.) indeed does harm its image a bit. The "currency usage", in contrast, seems to be stagnant at this moment. It's hard to find reliable statistics, those I found hint to a slight growth, but hundreds of thousands of payments per year at Bitpay for example isn't exactly "mainstream".

Of course one of the problems you and others have mentioned already in this thread is blockchain congestion due to the 4MB limit per block. However, there are some solutions for that problem which aren't centralized. Lightning is already operative for 6 years, it's a bit stagnant currently but it is constantly being improved. Sidechains have recently been rediscovered, and for the first time in 2024 there were some quite decentralized designs like Nomic and the upcoming Stacks sBTC (see this thread). And there are solutions like Ark currently in the conceptual stage which may be even better.

You can't simply say "these solutions are not Bitcoin". Are credit card payments in USD not real US dollars? Lightning, (decentralized) sidechains/rollups and Ark are only methods of bundling real Bitcoin transactions together, so not every full node has to store every small transaction, but only "bundles" of transactions are stored. A LN payment channel is essentially a "prepaid"-type transaction which will result in a "real" transaction bundle (with only one transaction having to be stored on-chain) once the channel is closed.

Regarding Bitcoin usability my impression is that it has been improved over the years. The self-custody issue is of course a feature, not a bug: if you don't want this, then you can use a Bitcoin bank of all sorts.

[milewilda]

You said Bitcoin will never become mainstream, but I regretfully disagree, it's okay for me not to agree because it has already become mainstream, many people use Bitcoin today because of the many benefits it brings.
Such as freedom, decentralization and transparency.
And thus, they escape inflation, by using fiat money, your money only melts away with inflation, this is the real issue to discuss.

Exactly. It's already mainstream when countries are talking about putting it on their list of reserve assets.

If someone thinks bitcoin is not mainstream, tell me what asset is.  For instance, is Tesla stock mainstream? I don't think so, since most people in the world don't own it, just like most people in the world don't own physical gold, apart from maybe a wedding ring, or a chain. Is Ferrari a mainstream car? It's not, but people still want to own it, just like many people want to own 1 bitcoin but lack knowledge or funds to get it.

Very accurate observations and the right approach.
The fact that countries and large companies want to own bitcoin already shows that it is mainstream.
This non-acceptance generally comes from a lack of knowledge, it seems to me. Do we really own the funds you have in digital and precious metals like gold, but I know that I have bitcoin and this relaxes me every time.

Totally agree into those words pertaining about having that lacking of knowledge on which they do came up with this kind of sentiments and speaking that Bitcoin will really be never become a mainstream. On the moment that they've known everything or will really be that wary into the informations that they do get about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency market as a whole then they will really be simply laughing into themselves into the words that they have said earlier. Usually people who dont have enough knowledge do really always say something that having no sense specially into those people who do have that experience towards the market or have been on this place for a while or many years. Trying out to make up some comparison into its value into those past years then we can really be able to say on how far it does able to reach out on which the value did rise up into those levels on which even those investors or believers wasnt been able to anticipate that it could be able to touch up these numbers specially on almost $100k price level. Come to know that institutional funds are already that flowing into this market already on which does signifies that recognition and adoption is really that on the move. We are on this current cycle on which these things are really that getting involved with and anticipating that on this upcoming bull run then this will really be something huge in compared to previous cycle but of course you should set up your expectation low because there's no one will really be able to know on what will happen ahead.

[beerlover]

Very accurate observations and the right approach.
The fact that countries and large companies want to own bitcoin already shows that it is mainstream.
This non-acceptance generally comes from a lack of knowledge, it seems to me. Do we really own the funds you have in digital and precious metals like gold, but I know that I have bitcoin and this relaxes me every time.

Totally agree into those words pertaining about having that lacking of knowledge on which they do came up with this kind of sentiments and speaking that Bitcoin will really be never become a mainstream. On the moment that they've known everything or will really be that wary into the informations that they do get about Bitcoin or cryptocurrency market as a whole then they will really be simply laughing into themselves into the words that they have said earlier. Usually people who dont have enough knowledge do really always say something that having no sense specially into those people who do have that experience towards the market or have been on this place for a while or many years. Trying out to make up some comparison into its value into those past years then we can really be able to say on how far it does able to reach out on which the value did rise up into those levels on which even those investors or believers wasnt been able to anticipate that it could be able to touch up these numbers specially on almost $100k price level. Come to know that institutional funds are already that flowing into this market already on which does signifies that recognition and adoption is really that on the move. We are on this current cycle on which these things are really that getting involved with and anticipating that on this upcoming bull run then this will really be something huge in compared to previous cycle but of course you should set up your expectation low because there's no one will really be able to know on what will happen ahead.

Honestly nobody needs to know everything about it, you think all the people in your nation know how money works? How FED (or whatever it is in your nation) works? Central banks are mystery to most, they do not know about inflation, they do not know about anything regards to money seriously.

I mean they know they earn it by working, they know they spend it to live, and they know if they have a lot they can put it in a bank for interest or stocks, or they know if they have none then they can take out a loan. That's literally what 90% of the population knows about money and nothing more, that's it, there is absolutely no understanding about anything else.

So, I believe we can definitely see Bitcoin to be used without everyone knowing about it. Look at El Salvador, it's legal tender there, you think every single person living there knows how that works? Of course not, they know just enough to be able to earn or spend it, and that's enough, that's more than they need, nothing more.

[MeGold666]

Bitcoin is already mainstream; it's just not used as money due to its mediocre protocol. However, it is used as an investment asset globally and has been on a mainstream level for a long time now.

[AmoreJaz]

Bitcoin will most definitely become mainstream at some point. I know firsthand that Apple executives have been stacking behind the scenes since at least 2018. It is only a matter of time before Bitcoin is added to ApplePay, at which point many people will be able to stack and simply use it without even knowing anything about it, the network, or self custody.

That's a speculation, we don't know who are stacking satoshis. Everyone is free to buy their own according to what you feel. Now, this currency is already penetrating the mainstream market, it is up to the user whether he will accumulate or not. But in any case, whether big entities are stacking or not, it will show later on who's making a good profit from this market. Remember, time is the ultimate truth-teller. And before you are left behind in this craze, better think about your opportunity and see what you can do to have your own stash as well.

Sorry, but it's already very mainstream. Every day there's more and more investors, large companies and known people who use and invest in Bitcoin. I've been using, following and investing a few years now and I can just say that Bitcoin's popularity has taken a big step forward and it doesn't intend to stop. It has found it's way to the news, the media and to mainstream markets and it's pulling more and more people to invest day by day.

Although it isn't at a 100%, it's going there very fast. The market speaks for itself and I don't think you can have a real argument against the rise of Bitcoin.

The population who are into crypto may still be small as compared to world population. But I believe it is fast increasing now that we have reached the 100k mark. Of course, people will be curious and from those curious people, for sure, there will be some of them who will dip their hands on crypto, and so the demand will further increase. And so the price as we have fixed number of bitcoins.