May we ask why your site is down -
http://www.donotcompare.com? Did you get scammed by accepting an insecure currency <paypal> in exchange for a more secure currency <Bitcoin>?
A) If you do so, you trust that Google(Android) or Apple(iOS) are not evil (modifying the RNG, keylogging you...) or incompetent (allowing a rogue third-party app to do the former). If you lose your phone (or it is stolen) your money is gone. If you are scammed by the seller, it is lost.
Nirvana fallacy. Just because Bitcoin isn't 100% secure doesn't mean that it cannot be used much more securely than cash or credit cards.
A)I agree, that might work. But at this point I don't see the difference with traditional metal coins and paper bills. And the risks of the previous point.
If someone steals my wallet full of fiat usd there is little hope of getting my cash back. If someone steals by cellphone with my bitcoin wallet that is secured than I can retrieve and use my bitcoins with my backup and the thief has almost no chance of using or stealing my bitcoins.
A) I agree that the governments (or the classes that control them) have way too much control over the currency. But this problem comes from really long ago. And the traditional way to deal with it are offshore investments.
Offshore investments are much more expensive and complicated to setup than bitcoin. They are also far less secure as governments have been successfully going after "terrorist" and money laundering individuals no matter which country they hide their wealth in.
A) National (or global) instabilities are a problem of the rich. If you have less wealth than a threshold ($100,000 I think?) your deposits are guaranteed.
Inflation actually hurts the middle class and poor most. Your deposits are not guaranteed to do anything but decrease in value. You can guarantee that you will lose 5-8% a year in the US and 25-55% in countries like Argentina. You are also making the false assumption that Fiat currencies never fail completely as history has shown otherwise.
A) So are Paypal/Visa/MasterCard, etc.
Making the assumption that the unbanked and underbanked don't exist in the world. How provincial.
A) If you say that Visa's fee is higher... well, that doesn't seem to be a problem for most people, considering the advantages (chargebacks and insurances).
Xapo and other merchants offer insurance as well. Clients can use escrow to protect themselves and businesses prefer not to deal with chargebacks.
A) Western Union can send money to many places. Of course with a fee.
Bitcoin 6 pennies or free and I get the money instantly. W/U costs 22usd for 1-2 business day transfer.
Day and night difference.
A) Bank accounts are NOT frozen for the most part of people. If you bank freezes your account often, I guess that you are still a niche market.
Bank accounts are temporarily frozen or permanently all the time for many people even if they are conducting 100% legal business. Ever hear of Operation Choke point or the Cypress Bail ins?
A) Your wealth can be gone in a matter of seconds for reasons you might don't event understand
This does happen all the time with traditional payment methods. You don't think hackers attack traditional fiat too?
A) Centralization problem.
So because there is a risk of less decentralization with Bitcoin we should go straight back to using a centralized solution instead. What is your point?
A) Future transaction fees. It is not clear how it will work once the block reward is negligible.
In a free market without government regulations you can expect fees to remain low if not get cheaper. Keep in mind that even when the block reward drops the value of Bitcoin will also be higher as well.
A) Conversion to other currencies (in anonymous but somehow not shady exchanges)
What?
A) Security
Bitcoin is as secure or insecure as you choose to make it. Example - selling Bitcoin for paypal fiat is just plain stupid.
A) Anonymous transfers incentive thefts and blackmail.
You are ignoring all the thefts and corruption that exist within Fiat that dwarfs the corruption scam artists using bitcoin. You don't have to be anonymous to steal money from people. People can easily be manipulated into thinking that they aren't being robbed blind. one example out of many - Economists now have over 5 different ways of calculating the CPI. When they normally cite inflation they use the formula that doesn't include food or fuel. Real inflation is actually closer to 5-8 % in the US. This is theft and hurts the middle class and poor more-so.
A) ....price instability and deflation.
Volatility is a valid criticism but Bitcoin is provably becoming more stable so in the longterm should not be an issue. The deflationary spiral argument is unfounded and research from payment processors like Bitpay have proven that spending actually increases during rapid deflationary bubbles.
