Can Bitcoin Ever Be Everyday Money?

[Rustam Meraj]

It will be a matter of time before Bitcoin is used as a medium of exchange in daily life. The adoption process is still on its way to reach more people so they can benefit from Bitcoin. Once Bitcoin widely spread in all countries and almost all people use it, that will lift Bitcoin to the next level.

The volatility will increase more than now. People use Bitcoin not just for savings or investment but they also buy and sell on the exchanges. Besides that, some people use Bitcoin as a means of payment so that will make the adoption still running.

There is nothing to worry about because Bitcoin is on track. Even if people just keep their Bitcoin, more people want to increase their Bitcoin in many ways.

I agree with your main point that future success of Bitcoin will be decided by people using it as daily buying and selling tool, which will move it not only to saving tool but also to helpful way of payment, although this will need time. You are correct that once large number of people and countries use Bitcoin every day, its price increases as it is more useful than being traded, and most experts think that this mass usage will in fact make price less wild, as huge amounts of purchases daily would make market too large to have large price swings caused by large number of daily trades. Lastly, what you say about people just holding their Bitcoin is important since their belief in its value is like safety net, and thus Bitcoin remains strong despite short term market changes.

[suzanne5223]

Yesterday, I posted a topic about btc adoption and how I bought coffee with my btc, here:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5562891.0 , I also tried posting on another forum and a user replied me with this:
 
'' They DON'T accept $BTC, they actually refuse $BTC !!

They just calculate the product price in USD into BTC, take your BTC and sell it instantly into USD...

Could do the same with Iranian Rubel or North Korean coins or videogame points stuff as well...''

It got me thinking, If this actually true, and I sensed it, then are we getting adoption?

No matter how we can call this. It is still an adoption but what we seeing here based on your explanation is an adoption when it's still in the pre-adoption phase.
The businesses, and organization taking the step to accept BTC as payment by collaboration with a payment firm which later gave them fiat is a step of adoption, but they are still unsure about what willl happen next and to secure their interest they choose to convert it to fiat which make it a pre-adoption step.
This will change when they totally believe in BTC.

If most businesses don’t actually keep Bitcoin, they’re not really using it in trade and they just convert it to fiat instantly. That means Bitcoin isn’t yet serving as a true day-to-day currency, even though some web3 media outlets and payment apps make it look like it is.

No, BTC still serve as day to day currency though even the business owner dont hold since the transaction activities does not decrease BTC transaction activities but add to it.

In essence Bitcoin has matured into a global store of value, something people save, invest, and hedge with but not yet a fully adopted medium of exchange if the businesses that accepts it don't hold it but immediately convert it to fiat. So really btc is not dual purpose as proposed but leaning more to a single purpose.

BTC is yet to be mature as the global store value but businesses dont have to hold it for the long term before BTC serve as medium of exchange.

Do you think there will ever come a time where we wont have as much volatility as we have with btc now and btc can finally serve its spending purpose truly?

Yes, theres going to a time where BTC will be less volatile and more people will see it as a genuine asset.

[Robinrex77]

El Salvador is enough as an experiment. Bitcoin used for remittance, also bitcoin was accepted as a legal tender, but most people living in El Salvador withdraw the bitcoin sent to them in United States dollar while most merchants were immediately converting bitcoin to United States dollar after their citizens paid in bitcoin.

Money is anything accepted by the citizens, it can be if we accept it by we need to maintain it value
I do not support withdrawal of Bitcoin, more mechant are advise to accept it because it is the future and it start now

[Bitcoin_people]

In my opinion, Bitcoin is a volatile currency so it is not possible to be an everyday currency, it would be an everyday currency if the price of Bitcoin was stable. But the price of Bitcoin will never be stable and it will not be a daily currency, as we use our local currency every day. But since Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, you can complete its transactions from any part of the world very easily and at any time. Bitcoin is a volatile currency, its value fluctuates at any time, so if it is used as everyday money, people will face losses. However, we can already see that different countries of the world accept payments for various goods and food through Bitcoin. Bitcoin will not be an everyday currency but it is the best and most reliable coin for investment which will gain more popularity as digital gold in the future.

[Woodie]

Bitcoin being used as an everyday money is a yes and no answer!

Like you said in the OP, alot of merchants that accept BTC payments do so by instantly converting the BTC for stable coins like USDT to remove any uncertainty and when it's comes to money you don't want to have this because it will mess up your profit and loss calculations, any tax obligations and a whole lot of other things. So on a large scale it's to very practical to have it as the everyday currency without the conversions, but where local currencies have proven to be useless like Zimbabwe and Venezuela, BTC did fit in well as the perfect substitute.

[hd49728]

Bitcoin being used as an everyday money is a yes and no answer!

Like you said in the OP, alot of merchants that accept BTC payments do so by instantly converting the BTC for stable coins like USDT to remove any uncertainty and when it's comes to money you don't want to have this because it will mess up your profit and loss calculations, any tax obligations and a whole lot of other things. So on a large scale it's to very practical to have it as the everyday currency without the conversions, but where local currencies have proven to be useless like Zimbabwe and Venezuela, BTC did fit in well as the perfect substitute.

Some people don't truly understand about stable coins and they simply think that if they convert their bitcoin to stable coin, they will have stability of their fund value. They only are fearful about Bitcoin volatility and don't want to see their $10,000 to become $8,000 months later. It's their concern and they see solution with stable coins without knowing that stable coins are risky.

With both bitcoin and stablecoins, they can use it for their daily transaction if they want, just pay the on chain transaction fee, it's will be well.

PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets/

[Richbased]

If most businesses don’t actually keep Bitcoin, they’re not really using it in trade and they just convert it to fiat instantly. That means Bitcoin isn’t yet serving as a true day-to-day currency, even though some web3 media outlets and payment apps make it look like it is.

Understand that bitcoin is highly valued and not many people are willing to use it as a means of payment for their businesses and since the adoption rate is very low, not many people own bitcoin which means it might be difficult to use bitcoins as a means of payment. Many people are converting their bitcoins to fiat, it is not wrong but where it becomes wrong is when you convert all your bitcoins to fiat without holding a part of it. Bitcoin will surely serve for its purpose of peer-to-peer decentralized transaction but that will be when the adoption will grow to a considerate level such that a reasonable number of the world population will own bitcoin. For now the world percentage that owns bitcoin is far low so it is almost difficult to use it as every day money, at least for now.

[Awaklara]

They just calculate the product price in USD into BTC, take your BTC and sell it instantly into USD...

The simple reason is that the value of Bitcoin can go up or down after the transaction is completed. Therefore, sellers of goods or services are merely avoiding the risk of loss. Another reason for sellers who accept Bitcoin payments but immediately convert them to stable assets like USDT is that they may not be able to spend their Bitcoin for cash flow and inventory turnover.

[GiftedMAN]

They just calculate the product price in USD into BTC, take your BTC and sell it instantly into USD...

The simple reason is that the value of Bitcoin can go up or down after the transaction is completed. Therefore, sellers of goods or services are merely avoiding the risk of loss. Another reason for sellers who accept Bitcoin payments but immediately convert them to stable assets like USDT is that they may not be able to spend their Bitcoin for cash flow and inventory turnover.

And that might make it look like traders (buyers and sellers) are against Bitcoin, but in real sense, they’re only protecting their profits from volatility. The only way traders can adopt Bitcoin a a direct alternative to fiat is if it becomes more stable, which we know isn’t possible because volatility is an inevitable aspect of Bitcoin.

[dzungmobile]

The simple reason is that the value of Bitcoin can go up or down after the transaction is completed. Therefore, sellers of goods or services are merely avoiding the risk of loss. Another reason for sellers who accept Bitcoin payments but immediately convert them to stable assets like USDT is that they may not be able to spend their Bitcoin for cash flow and inventory turnover.

It's part of many risks of accepting bitcoin as a payment method and it's why El Salvadorians dislike bitcoins after their government made Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador years ago.

With big companies, they can more easily build up their business treasury plan, financial flow and use bitcoins received from customers as their own bitcoin investments but with small business, merchant, they struggle more to deal with Bitcoin price changes after payments received from customers and when they need money for paying their company bills.

[ultrloa]

The simple reason is that the value of Bitcoin can go up or down after the transaction is completed. Therefore, sellers of goods or services are merely avoiding the risk of loss. Another reason for sellers who accept Bitcoin payments but immediately convert them to stable assets like USDT is that they may not be able to spend their Bitcoin for cash flow and inventory turnover.

It's part of many risks of accepting bitcoin as a payment method and it's why El Salvadorians dislike bitcoins after their government made Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador years ago.

With big companies, they can more easily build up their business treasury plan, financial flow and use bitcoins received from customers as their own bitcoin investments but with small business, merchant, they struggle more to deal with Bitcoin price changes after payments received from customers and when they need money for paying their company bills.

Maybe some of them dislike the idea about using Bitcoin as means of payment its because they don't understand how to use it and also its critical for them to know that its volatile since this asset is new to them.

But I'm impressed with the efforts done by their government since they are trying their best to educate people about Bitcoin which I think will bring good result to their country in future.

Also merchant would provably not struggle if they use those platforms that will convert their Bitcoin receive directly to USD or local fiat. Maybe this is the best thing they could do for now until they don't know how to deal with its volatility.

[TheUltraElite]

For now this can be as close to adoption thay we can get. It will not be like swiping a card and getting a credit from the account but converting to usd which that seller can easily spend.

Gift cards are also not a bad option if they are available. I can spend on those and buy groceries and furniture, book movie tickets ans buy phone topups.

It might become more seamlews in future but we can run with this for now.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

For now this can be as close to adoption thay we can get. It will not be like swiping a card and getting a credit from the account but converting to usd which that seller can easily spend.

Gift cards are also not a bad option if they are available. I can spend on those and buy groceries and furniture, book movie tickets ans buy phone topups.

It might become more seamlews in future but we can run with this for now.

Gift cards are only for small value trades and you can not spend your big value bitcoins for gift cards. It's time consuming and also requires you to do more unnecessary steps.

Anyone wants to trade with giftcards for bitcoins or bitcoins for gift cards.
[List] Gift cards providers.

If dislikes KYC but want to trade with bigger values that can not be done by giftcards, find no KYC exchanges or service providers which accept bitcoins and cryptocurrencies as payment methods.
https://kycnot.me/

[Minor Miner]

Bitcoin being used as an everyday money is a yes and no answer!

Like you said in the OP, alot of merchants that accept BTC payments do so by instantly converting the BTC for stable coins like USDT to remove any uncertainty and when it's comes to money you don't want to have this because it will mess up your profit and loss calculations, any tax obligations and a whole lot of other things. So on a large scale it's to very practical to have it as the everyday currency without the conversions, but where local currencies have proven to be useless like Zimbabwe and Venezuela, BTC did fit in well as the perfect substitute.

Some people don't truly understand about stable coins and they simply think that if they convert their bitcoin to stable coin, they will have stability of their fund value. They only are fearful about Bitcoin volatility and don't want to see their $10,000 to become $8,000 months later. It's their concern and they see solution with stable coins without knowing that stable coins are risky.

With both bitcoin and stablecoins, they can use it for their daily transaction if they want, just pay the on chain transaction fee, it's will be well.

PSA: Most Stablecoins Can Be Frozen, Even in Your Own Wallets/

Using stablecoins only poses risks if you are involved or involved in illegal transactions, otherwise you have nothing to worry about. Stablecoin issuers or law enforcement will not randomly freeze your accounts or cash flow if your business is law abiding.

Furthermore, as we all know, governments are pushing to legalize and provide a legal framework for stablecoins. This means if they freeze your business account and affect your business without good reason, you will be protected by law.

Using stablecoins has become significantly safer than it was years ago, thanks to a clear legal framework. As long as we use licensed and legally compliant stablecoins, there is nothing to fear.

[MusaPk]

In my opinion, Bitcoin is a volatile currency so it is not possible to be an everyday currency, it would be an everyday currency if the price of Bitcoin was stable. But the price of Bitcoin will never be stable and it will not be a daily currency, as we use our local currency every day. But since Bitcoin is a decentralized currency, you can complete its transactions from any part of the world very easily and at any time. Bitcoin is a volatile currency, its value fluctuates at any time, so if it is used as everyday money, people will face losses. However, we can already see that different countries of the world accept payments for various goods and food through Bitcoin. Bitcoin will not be an everyday currency but it is the best and most reliable coin for investment which will gain more popularity as digital gold in the future.

What we have seen so far is that people all around the world are using Bitcoin as a digital asset for investment because it's price goes exponentially up with time. More and more people are buying and holding it for long term like 4 years to attain financial freedom and many are successful in it. There are few limitations of Bitcoin that restrict it's use as day to day currency. These days even Bitcoin holders are not interested in spending their Bitcoins despite presence of solutions like LN (lightning network) that solves the problem of Bitcoin scalability. 

[Luzin]

We need a dynamic block size to my mind to be able to use Bitcoin every day because there are billions of people on this planet and 300K confirmation per day is nothing.

This is realistic and I agree, it is too slow and confirmations take a long time. This is what becomes Bitcoin's weakness. So I think in the near future it is indeed not suitable and difficult to become a legitimate means of transaction. There is consensus, but increasing transaction scalability reduces security, making Bitcoin vulnerable to hackers. I think currently Bitcoin is more suitable as a commodity asset and for investment purposes only. Although I know this contradicts the vision brought by Satoshi.

[Graph001]

Bitcoin's slow transaction speeds, high fees, and volatile price fluctuations probably won't make it into everyday money. Layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network could help reduce its slow transaction speeds and fees, but the first step is for the price of Bitcoin to stabilize. Bitcoin is likely to be used more as a means of saving or investing than as a means of paying for everyday expenses like groceries.

[henry_of_skalitz]

Bitcoin's slow transaction speeds, high fees, and volatile price fluctuations probably won't make it into everyday money. Layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network could help reduce its slow transaction speeds and fees, but the first step is for the price of Bitcoin to stabilize. Bitcoin is likely to be used more as a means of saving or investing than as a means of paying for everyday expenses like groceries.

Volatility becomes less of a factor day by day, so it will happen, in my opinion.

The question is only when and where

[asidastra2]

Yesterday, I posted a topic about btc adoption and how I bought coffee with my btc, here:https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5562891.0 , I also tried posting on another forum and a user replied me with this:
 
'' They DON'T accept $BTC, they actually refuse $BTC !!

They just calculate the product price in USD into BTC, take your BTC and sell it instantly into USD...

Could do the same with Iranian Rubel or North Korean coins or videogame points stuff as well...''

It got me thinking, If this actually true, and I sensed it, then are we getting adoption?

If most businesses don’t actually keep Bitcoin, they’re not really using it in trade and they just convert it to fiat instantly. That means Bitcoin isn’t yet serving as a true day-to-day currency, even though some web3 media outlets and payment apps make it look like it is.

In essence Bitcoin has matured into a global store of value, something people save, invest, and hedge with but not yet a fully adopted medium of exchange if the businesses that accepts it don't hold it but immediately convert it to fiat. So really btc is not dual purpose as proposed but leaning more to a single purpose.

Question: Do you think there will ever come a time where we wont have as much volatility as we have with btc now and btc can finally serve its spending purpose truly?

Is it true adoption if the ones adopting don't truly use or hold btc!!!

You’re right - if merchants immediately convert BTC to fiat, they’re not really using it, just accepting it as a payment rail. True adoption means people and businesses actually hold and spend BTC, not just treat it like a proxy for dollars. Volatility is the main blocker - until it calms down, BTC will stay more of a store of value than a day-to-day currency.

[Iranus]

This is realistic and I agree, it is too slow and confirmations take a long time. This is what becomes Bitcoin's weakness. So I think in the near future it is indeed not suitable and difficult to become a legitimate means of transaction. There is consensus, but increasing transaction scalability reduces security, making Bitcoin vulnerable to hackers. I think currently Bitcoin is more suitable as a commodity asset and for investment purposes only. Although I know this contradicts the vision brought by Satoshi.

Indeed, with block sizes ranging from just 1-4MB and only being able to process 7-10 transactions per second. Bitcoin is unlikely to compete with traditional methods or altcoins and become a means of everyday payment. This is the reality we need to accept.

But I think it could be an effective cross border money transfer solution. Because with its decentralization, we will no longer fear having our funds frozen and privacy will be guaranteed. Something that traditional payment methods and altcoins cannot do.

So we can still use bitcoin as a currency, true to its original purpose in some cases.