What is the biggest problem in crypto currencies?

[user528KD9]

What do you think is the biggest problem when you use crypto currencies for paying? It doesn't matter if you are developer, client that looks for services, newbie or pro. Is there something what needs to be solved and what slows down crypto currencies expansion? Thanks for you opinions.

[1715572816]

1715572816

[franky1]

1. lack of support from payment processors to go out and do sales pitches to businesses:-
 i have personally told bips, bitpay and coinbase of 5 merchants that wanted more info. and as of yet (upto 1 year in one case) the merchants have not had a single response from the gateways

2. software is still in beta phase and not ready for average joe (7billion population) daily spenders:-
a truly trusted service that actually adheres to consumer protection guidelines (liability insurance to protect customers holdings) to then be used as a offchain service for pre-confirmed funds, making it an instant use wallet to send funds as small as 1sat to merchants.

3. hardware/cold wallets are still in beta. yes trezor(hardware) and HD-01(coldstore) are still not 100% secure or easy to use for long term large storage.

4. bitcoin protocol is not ready to handle heavy volume, it is also not adhering to consumer requirements, but it is more twisted in favour to miners greed.
lets see 'death and taxes' appear with rebuttals to defend the miners honour, like always

in short, we are still in the innovator/early adoption stage.. we have a long way to go yet before being in the mass adoption: public stage

[user528KD9]

1. lack of support from payment processors to go out and do sales pitches to businesses:-
 i have personally told bips, bitpay and coinbase of 5 merchants that wanted more info. and as of yet (upto 1 year in one case) the merchants have not had a single response from the gateways

2. software is still in beta phase and not ready for average joe (7billion population) daily spenders:-
a truly trusted service that actually adheres to consumer protection guidelines (liability insurance to protect customers holdings) to then be used as a offchain service for pre-confirmed funds, making it an instant use wallet to send funds as small as 1sat to merchants.

3. hardware/cold wallets are still in beta. yes trezor(hardware) and HD-01(coldstore) are still not 100% secure or easy to use for long term large storage.

4. bitcoin protocol is not ready to handle heavy volume, it is also not adhering to consumer requirements, but it is more twisted in favour to miners greed.
lets see 'death and taxes' appear with rebuttals to defend the miners honour, like always

in short, we are still in the innovator/early adoption stage.. we have a long way to go yet before being in the mass adoption: public stage

Thanks Franky1. Some another opinions?

[franky1]

5. exchanges are now having $10k FIAT deposit limits. this means the days of rich investors throwing 10's to hundreds of thousands at an exchange are over. thank you AML policies.

[FUR11]

Security! It's still too easy to actually scam people out of their money. There has to be simple way for people to protect their Bitcoin without having a degree in cryptography. People are gullible and easily manipulated, too.

[user528KD9]

Security! It's still too easy to actually scam people out of their money. There has to be simple way for people to protect their Bitcoin without having a degree in cryptography. People are gullible and easily manipulated, too.

Hi FUR11, yes, I think that security is real issue that need to be solved. People are easily manipulated and when they send their money, there is no chance to get it back, people should use btcrow.com or some another escrow service.

Some another opinions what should be done in bitcoin ecosystem?

[Anders]

I would like transaction times of below one second. That would be very powerful. And I would like to have the coins stored safely on the block chain without me having to do cold storage myself or having to trust a third party storing the coins for me. And I would like to have zero transaction fees for all transactions. The price/performance of information technology is improving exponentially and having to pay for transactions feels like the old fiat systems.

[user528KD9]

I would like transaction times of below one second. That would be very powerful. And I would like to have the coins stored safely on the block chain without me having to do cold storage myself or having to trust a third party storing the coins for me. And I would like to have zero transaction fees for all transactions. The price/performance of information technology is improving exponentially and having to pay for transactions feels like the old fiat systems.

Hi Anders, thanks. What do you think will be revenue for such businesses (payment gates) that won't charge any fees for transactions? Is it profitable and if not, are such businesses able to survive if everything will be free? What do you think?

[Anders]

I would like transaction times of below one second. That would be very powerful. And I would like to have the coins stored safely on the block chain without me having to do cold storage myself or having to trust a third party storing the coins for me. And I would like to have zero transaction fees for all transactions. The price/performance of information technology is improving exponentially and having to pay for transactions feels like the old fiat systems.

Hi Anders, thanks. What do you think will be revenue for such businesses (payment gates) that won't charge any fees for transactions? Is it profitable and if not, are such businesses able to survive if everything will be free? What do you think?

As far as I know Bitcoin started with zero transaction fees. The miners earned 25 bitcoins per block in the beginning and over time that amount is reduced. It would perhaps be better to have the miners earn a fixed amount that remains over time.

[counter]

What do you think is the biggest problem when you use crypto currencies for paying? It doesn't matter if you are developer, client that looks for services, newbie or pro. Is there something what needs to be solved and what slows down crypto currencies expansion? Thanks for you opinions.

Ease of use and security are on the top of my list right now but I'm thinking greed should at least get an honorable mention.  

[moko666]

i think regulation and control
bcoz no one can control it thats why they are afirad of crypto but its the future

[Bad Uncle]

I think the biggest problem is people's perception of it or that it's too difficult to use, which it isnt. I think this will slowly chnage over time, though.

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[Honeybooboo]

What do you think is the biggest problem when you use crypto currencies for paying?

I think the biggest problem with spending it is getting merchants involved, which shouldn't be a problem if the benefits are clearly explained to them, but I think they're scared off by the volatility and the technology which can seem a bit daunting at first.

[franky1]

And I would like to have the coins stored safely on the block chain without me having to do cold storage myself or having to trust a third party storing the coins for me.

you do realise that coins are on the blockchain right? they never leave the blockchain.. EVER, the only thing you need to keep safe is the private key (imagine it as the password that proves your identity to do transactions.) the privkey is not "holding" bitcoins. so just look after your private keys securely away from a computer that can be malwared, hacked or lost in a computer crash/ accidental  hard drive format.

[franky1]

What do you think is the biggest problem when you use crypto currencies for paying?

I think the biggest problem with spending it is getting merchants involved, which shouldn't be a problem if the benefits are clearly explained to them, but I think they're scared off by the volatility and the technology which can seem a bit daunting at first.

thats where bitpay should come in to not even talk about encryption. not talk about blockchains, not talk about satoshi. but to simply say

"if a customer asks for bitcoins show them one of our special barcodes (QR Codes) and we will guarantee the conversion price for 15 minutes, and send the funds straight to you by the next business day"

[ForgottenPassword]

What do you think is the biggest problem when you use crypto currencies for paying?

I think the biggest problem with spending it is getting merchants involved, which shouldn't be a problem if the benefits are clearly explained to them, but I think they're scared off by the volatility and the technology which can seem a bit daunting at first.

thats where bitpay should come in to not even talk about encryption. not talk about blockchains, not talk about satoshi. but to simply say

"if a customer asks for bitcoins show them one of our special barcodes (QR Codes) and we will guarantee the conversion price for 15 minutes, and send the funds straight to you by the next business day"

When merchants are using these services, here is what happens in 90% of cases:

User buys Bitcoin from an exchange using his bank account
User places order with merchant.
User sends BTC to Coinbase.
Coinbase temporarily hold BTC and send it back to the exchange.
Coinbase sell the BTC and exchange sends money to their bank account.
Coinbase sends USD from their bank account to merchants bank account.
Merchant sends goods to user.

If you're going to tell all merchants to use services like bitpay/Coinbase, then why use Bitcoin at all?

Why not just send direct to the merchants bank account and avoid bitcoin altogether?

All this seems to do is expose the buyer to more fees and expose the merchant to unnecessary risk, as they have to trust Coinbase to send them the USD. They could be hacked, they could be goxxed (poor management leading to bankruptcy) or they could one day pull a massive scam, one of which is bound to happen one day to at least one of these services.

In addition Coinbase has recently implemented stringent AML requirements. They now require users of their wallet service to specify if a transaction is to a Bitcoin business and to give the businesses URL, information which can be used to do blockchain analysis and hinder the anonymity of everyone using bitcoin. And this is only going to get worse as these kind of services are put under more pressure to try and stamp out "money laundering". No doubt one day in the near future we will see Coinbase freezing accounts for AML issues.

Why should a merchant do all of that when it can accept BTC directly with no risk at all. Sure they have to trust an exchange if they wish to change some of it to fiat, but in this way they are encouraged to keep the money circulating inside the Bitcoin economy by spending their BTC - for example by switching to suppliers who accept BTC and paying employees in BTC (which is perfect for those outsourcing to emerging economies). This in turn is what will lower the price volatility.

We really shouldn't be encouraging merchants to use these services, these services should be a "fallback" for merchants whereby it isn't viable for them to accept bitcoin directly.

[Anders]

And I would like to have the coins stored safely on the block chain without me having to do cold storage myself or having to trust a third party storing the coins for me.

you do realise that coins are on the blockchain right? they never leave the blockchain.. EVER, the only thing you need to keep safe is the private key (imagine it as the password that proves your identity to do transactions.) the privkey is not "holding" bitcoins. so just look after your private keys securely away from a computer that can be malwared, hacked or lost in a computer crash/ accidental  hard drive format.

Yes, the private keys are what actually needs to be cold stored etc. I used the term 'coin' just to make idea clear. For people who are unfamiliar with or new to Bitcoin, if I use the term 'private keys' instead of 'coins' then that may be difficult to understand.

[keithers]

Security! It's still too easy to actually scam people out of their money. There has to be simple way for people to protect their Bitcoin without having a degree in cryptography. People are gullible and easily manipulated, too.

I have to agree here.   I fully understand that people need to be responsible for their own money (just like with cash), but I think security and the risk of theft is one of the major things that steers a lot of people away from cryptos...

[HeliKopterBen]

As others have alluded to, end user security is the biggest problem IMO.  It would be nice if the bitcoin wizards could just program away the hackers and scammers and protect end users from themselves but that is easier said than done.  I do feel confident that eventually a hardware and/or software "killer app" solution will be designed to do this without the requirement of third party trust.

[franky1]

..

you dont throw someone that has never swam before, into the deep end and tell him its in his best interest to hold his breath.

instead you find the easiest way just to get him to try it, even if he aint going to use the pool ever again. atleast letting him get his toes wet he will see how easy it is to say "yes customer heres a QR code". once they have got their toes wet, then you introduce them to the art of swimming, diving in head first, or somersaulting into the deep end (investing).

another analogy
dont throw 5 eggs at him at once or he will just defend himself and the eggs will just hurt him and break. instead gently hand him one egg and and then a second egg.