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.

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[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.

1G5ns6teE2Zx8P8aTxpaZjLhWEAA5jS5AS

[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.

[ForgottenPassword]

..

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.

I'm sure if you ask most merchants who accept BTC most of them are unaware how easy it is for them to accept payments directly without a payment processor and also unaware of the benefits of doing so. This is my experience anyway.

And how much more difficult is it to integrate a wallet rather than an API? In reality not a whole lot.
Why don't we focus our energy on making it easier for merchants to accept bitcoin directly rather than preaching to them to use BitPay/Coinbase?

All we need is for Coinbase/Bitpay to get hacked or run away with the coins and it's game over, most of these merchants will never touch bitcoin again. And lets not forget that fairly serious issues were found in the coinbase website during the last vulnerability bounty programme. If this keeps up it'll end badly. It's already showing signs of bad things ahead with the recent Coinbase AML requirements. Coinbase IS the PayPal of bitcoin currently and there should not be a PayPal of bitcoin as bitcoin makes PayPal obsolete.

[franky1]

I'm sure if you ask most merchants who accept BTC most of them are unaware how easy it is for them to accept payments directly without a payment processor and also unaware of the benefits of doing so. This is my experience anyway.

And how much more difficult is it to integrate a wallet rather than an API? In reality not a whole lot.
Why don't we focus our energy on making it easier for merchants to accept bitcoin directly rather than preaching to them to use BitPay/Coinbase?

All we need is for Coinbase/Bitpay to get hacked or run away with the coins and it's game over, most of these merchants will never touch bitcoin again. And lets not forget that fairly serious issues were found in the coinbase website during the last vulnerability bounty programme. If this keeps up it'll end badly. It's already showing signs of bad things ahead with the recent Coinbase AML requirements. Coinbase IS the PayPal of bitcoin currently and there should not be a PayPal of bitcoin as bitcoin makes PayPal obsolete.

for me, merchant acceptance happens in 3 stages
1. show them the bitpay 1% fee method, where they simply get FIAT next day in their account simply by showing a QR code. then leave them for a while to have received a couple customers and seen how easy it is to accept bitcoins
2. show them how they can use their own addresses instead and cash out elsewhere, thus saving the 1% fee, and subtly explaining that they could hoard as an investment. and mention to them a few more details about bitcoins potential
3. if they show interest in hoarding coins then simply say "well dont cash out as much then" and then go into alot more detail about bitcoin

you simply DO NOT run at a FIAT merchant full speed throwing every bitcoin benefit and detail and techno babble at them before then have ever tried it. you also do not go into your first contact with a merchant with the mindset that they will be 100% investors at the first transaction.

its called being subtle, being smart and patient.

[ForgottenPassword]

1. show them the bitpay 1% fee method, where they simply get FIAT next day in their account simply by showing a QR code. then leave them for a while to have received a couple customers and seen how easy it is to accept bitcoins

They never accepted bitcoins, they accepted fiat from a payment processor.

for me, merchant acceptance happens in 3 stages
1. show them the bitpay 1% fee method, where they simply get FIAT next day in their account simply by showing a QR code. then leave them for a while to have received a couple customers and seen how easy it is to accept bitcoins

2. show them how they can use their own addresses instead and cash out elsewhere, thus saving the 1% fee, and subtly explaining that they could hoard as an investment. and mention to them a few more details about bitcoins potential
3. if they show interest in hoarding coins then simply say "well dont cash out as much then" and then go into alot more detail about bitcoin

you simply DO NOT run at a FIAT merchant full speed throwing every bitcoin benefit and detail and techno babble at them before then have ever tried it. you also do not go into your first contact with a merchant with the mindset that they will be 100% investors at the first transaction.

its called being subtle, being smart and patient.

Accepting USD from Coinbase isn't really "trying it out". It's just another BTC->USD gateway you can use to pay them with. You could've also used a bitcoin-accepting virtual credit card, one of those websites where you pay in BTC and they order it for you, or in some cases transferred funds to their bank direct from an exchange. The merchant doesn't even see the bitcoin address when you order from coinbase/bitpay if you order online and in-store bitcoin payments aren't really ready yet, the way we currently do it is bad with all the fumbling of electronic devices, some customers not paying enough tx fees leading to confusion and waiting for confirmations.

We have tons of retailers who accept USD from Bitpay/Coinbase now. I use both of those services so many times every single day when buying stuff.

There is very little techno babble involved in accepting BTC or using it, Gavin Andressen used to (don't know if he still does) check if his grandmother could use the bitcoin-core client without any help, and if she could it passed the usability test and she always could. All most merchants need to do to get setup is install an already available free and open source plugin for their eCommerce software in most cases.

When do you think it's a good idea to start telling merchants who are currently "accepting bitcoins" that they are in fact not doing so at all? if you ask me that time is WAY overdue. We need to ween the retailers away from these services because right now what we have is identical to PayPal and it is starting to show the same flaws PayPal has. In fact if you ask me, it could turn out worse than PayPal.

[giveBTCpls]

The problem is people isn't educated enough to handle this. Once people get it then it's simple. Of course we need better wallets, faster, less bloated and more secure.
People is also scared at the fact of lossing your hard drive = lossing your wealth.

[NattyLiteCoin]

Pump and dump bullshit artists.

[bigasic]

Theres too many of them. However, I like the ones that separate themselves, like Darkcoin, etc, but the btc and litecoin clones just have to go.

[HeliKopterBen]

When do you think it's a good idea to start telling merchants who are currently "accepting bitcoins" that they are in fact not doing so at all? if you ask me that time is WAY overdue. We need to ween the retailers away from these services because right now what we have is identical to PayPal and it is starting to show the same flaws PayPal has. In fact if you ask me, it could turn out worse than PayPal.

What we have is not identical to PayPal.  Bitcoin users cannot pay with bitcoin through PayPal and that is the whole point of services such as bitpay and coinbase.  Merchant services are just as much to the benefit of bitcoin users as it is to the benefit of the merchants themselves.  The incentive to the merchant initially is to open up their businesses to an entire new customer base:  bitcoin users.  They don't get that customer base through PayPal.  Also, bitcoin users have new places to spend their bitcoins.  Eventually, merchants may choose to keep some or all of their bitcoins, pay their bills in bitcoin, and pay their employees with bitcoin.  Baby steps first.

[franky1]

There is very little techno babble involved in accepting BTC or using it, Gavin Andressen used to (don't know if he still does) check if his grandmother could use the bitcoin-core client without any help, and if she could it passed the usability test and she always could. All most merchants need to do to get setup is install an already available free and open source plugin for their eCommerce software in most cases.

When do you think it's a good idea to start telling merchants who are currently "accepting bitcoins" that they are in fact not doing so at all? if you ask me that time is WAY overdue. We need to ween the retailers away from these services because right now what we have is identical to PayPal and it is starting to show the same flaws PayPal has. In fact if you ask me, it could turn out worse than PayPal.

dude, i know 100% that you have not successfully got merchants to accept bitcoin directly through your actions. and when that day comes where you have to actually talk to a human about accepting something they know nothing about. you will soon learn.

telling a merchant to accept bitcoin manually, to then hoard it himself and only cash out at the last minute to buy new stock is not how you do it. Seriously, you will never make it as a salesman.

again the bitpay thing. imagine it as a demo, a pre-run. part of the merchants beta test just to see how his customers interact whn its time to pay. at this point ALL THE GOD DAMN MERCHANT SEE's and NEEDS TO SEE is how to get a bitcoin address, show it to a customer and get the customer to pay. and know he will get FIAT to restock his shelves

GET IT, thats stage 1 again its the live demo/ pre-run showing the merchant how easy it is to accept bitcoin customer. its just the dipping of the toe in the water...

THEN i will say it once more THEN when the merchant as stuck his toe in the water, then you introduce him to the rest of the bitcoin benefits and let him choose what options he wants to go with. you dont just get someone that has never touched bitcoin, to start downloading programs for websites he has not heard of, and then download plugins for his shopping cart, which may cost him money to get his web developer to add (after all most merchants are more of the manager experience not the technical stuff like webcoding).

[ForgottenPassword]

...

Ok how about this. How about instead of going around telling merchants to use Bitpay, we make a system that allows merchants to accept BTC, but automatically sells the BTC as soon as it is received via an exchanges API So the merchant can do the same thing as with bitpay: accept BTC and get fiat into their bank account, but instead of having Bitpay as a middleman it interacts direct with the exchanges via an API.

You have to remember that the merchant STILL has to integrate Bitpay. Integrating something like this is almost exactly the same as integrating Bitpay except this does not have the fee, extra unnecessary third party risk and (negative) the locked in exchange price.

Sure they have the risk of having to deal with an exchange, but this is much better than the risks when working through Bitpay/Coinbase. If the exchange gets hacked/scammed/poor managment they can temporarily hodl while they switch to another exchange. With Coinbase/Bitpay their entire bitcoin payment system can go offline.

Additionally it's up to the merchant what information they decide to share with third parties about their customers, so that will put a spanner in the works of the latest "attack" on Coinbase with the stringent AML requirements and data mining.

Whats the point of going slow when it isn't really a big step? Accepting BTC directly isn't some huge technical challenge like many would have you think.

[keithers]

...

Ok how about this. How about instead of going around telling merchants to use Bitpay, we make a system that allows merchants to accept BTC, but automatically sells the BTC as soon as it is received via an exchanges API So the merchant can do the same thing as with bitpay: accept BTC and get fiat into their bank account, but instead of having Bitpay as a middleman it interacts direct with the exchanges via an API.

You have to remember that the merchant STILL has to integrate Bitpay. Integrating something like this is almost exactly the same as integrating Bitpay except this does not have the fee, extra unnecessary third party risk and (negative) the locked in exchange price.

Sure they have the risk of having to deal with an exchange, but this is much better than the risks when working through Bitpay/Coinbase. If the exchange gets hacked/scammed/poor managment they can temporarily hodl while they switch to another exchange. With Coinbase/Bitpay their entire bitcoin payment system can go offline.

Additionally it's up to the merchant what information they decide to share with third parties about their customers, so that will put a spanner in the works of the latest "attack" on Coinbase with the stringent AML requirements and data mining.

Whats the point of going slow when it isn't really a big step? Accepting BTC directly isn't some huge technical challenge like many would have you think.

I agree with what you are saying, but you are in essence asking someone to develop and maintain a service, but not get paid for it.  Whenever a service is provided, some sort of fee is typically going to have to be paid.

[ForgottenPassword]

I agree with what you are saying, but you are in essence asking someone to develop and maintain a service, but not get paid for it.  Whenever a service is provided, some sort of fee is typically going to have to be paid.

Service? I was talking about something the merchant can implement. A piece of software so that they wouldn't have to use Bitpay/Coinbase and could interact direct with the exchange. The merchant runs this themselves accepting BTC directly, and they'll save the Coinbase/Bitpay fees and not have to depend on them.

[user528KD9]

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.

Hi, thanks for your opinion. What do you think that these "killer aps" should look like? What do you think is wrong with existing SW or HW solutions? Is there somethink what can be improved and if so, what is it? I think that SW wallets are not easy to use, it is still too "hacker app" for normal BFU users.

[Nerazzura]

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.

Synchronization is only needed by the client long full connection like Bitcoin Core. Technically, synchronization is the process of downloading and verifying all Bitcoin transactions previously on the network. Some Bitcoin client needs to pay attention to all the previous transactions to calculate the remaining balance on your Bitcoin wallet and create a new transaction. This step can require a lot of resources, bandwidth and storage enough to accommodate a full-size block chain. In order to stay safe Bitcoin, some people should still use the full client connections because they served to validate and submit the transaction.

[Giulio Prisco]

I think the biggest problem in cryptocurrencies is the fact that the vast majority of users still see them means of speculation (buy - hold - sell) rather than currencies (earn - spend).

[Anders]

Having bitcoin being deflationary was probably the right decision. That is one key that has made bitcoin a huge success because it keeps the value of bitcoin up and likely increasing over time. As a more general currency however a cryptocurrency where miners earn a constant rate would be interesting to test how it would work. A cryptocurrency that is stable in terms of inflation and deflation.

[lihuajkl]

the big problem is the long time confirmation, ten minutes or 20 minutes for first confirmation. when going to grocery store, coffee shop, train station etc, a bit hassal when paying with BTC and waiting for confirmation before leaving! The more annoyed thing is to pay a small amout of BTC less than 0.1 without any fee, you will wait much longer than you think before the transaction gets confirmed.

[bitsmichel]

I think the biggest problem is the pump and dump alt coins. There are literally hundreds of them, made by the authors to make a quick dime, but end up having no value.

[Undefeatable]

The biggest problem is hacker stealing wallet...

[Anders]

Although the MtGox crash was horrible it could have served a good purpose. The problem in this case was outside Bitcoin. Now I understand the need for cold storage better. All centrally controlled Bitcoin services can end up like MtGox. Even bitcoin wallets could suddenly start robbing people of their bitcoins. And cold storage is a big burden for many people and there are many potential risks even there. So all the bitcoin management outside of the block chain is a huge security problem that would be nice to see solved by some clever trustless solution. Could be tricky or even impossible to solve.

[den.faulkner1990]

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.

difficulty.. i tried to explain my friends what is Bitcoin for few hours. Without any crypto and etc hard things. and he did not understand. And he is not the silliest man in the world. And I'm not the worst narrator. It's hard to accept ana idea of decentralized , uncontrolled currency based on "difficult terrible" crypto. I think it is really necessary for Bitcoins to become simpler and easier.

[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.

Hi, thanks for your opinion. What do you think that these "killer aps" should look like? What do you think is wrong with existing SW or HW solutions? Is there somethink what can be improved and if so, what is it? I think that SW wallets are not easy to use, it is still too "hacker app" for normal BFU users.

Perhaps the "killer app" is here but just hasn't caught on yet.  Bitgo and greenaddress provide multisig but the user could still lose their backup key and/or their hot key.  Think of how often people lose the password to their computer and forget to take a backup.  When it comes to money and real wealth this could be troublesome.  Also, hardware devices such as the trezor may be a good solution but I have not tried one. 

Another thought would be if one of the wallet services had a kit that could be purchased with multiple types of software and hardware backups and multisig with step by step instructions on how to store coins in a foolproof way offline.  That way, coins could be recovered in a variety of ways in case the user makes a mistake.  If the user loses a paper wallet, they may still have a USB backup or multisig with a hot key and the wallet services key.  All could be done offline to protect against hackers.  Just a thought.  Of course someone could physically steal the paper wallet.  At some point, the user will have to use their brain.

[QuestionAuthority]

People are far too stupid for crypto. ATM cards are a stretch for some people. Could you imagine this pig opening her Bitcoin wallet and making a purchase?

[jonald_fyookball]

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.

makes no sense.

it's like saying  "I want the key to my house stored safely inside my house."

if your private keys were on the block chain, what differentiates you from a perfect stranger
in accessing them ?  another password or id?  now you're right back to where you started.

[desired_username]

People are far too stupid for crypto. ATM cards are a stretch for some people. Could you imagine this pig opening her Bitcoin wallet and making a purchase?

What he said. I think bitcoin cannot reach its true potential with the current set of humans.

Sadly, dumb people tend to reproduce in a faster pace too, and that means even more mentally challenged individuals in the future.

I think the quality of the userbase is more important than quantity, so I don't mind if it stays as a niche.

[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.

makes no sense.

it's like saying  "I want the key to my house stored safely inside my house."

if your private keys were on the block chain, what differentiates you from a perfect stranger
in accessing them ?  another password or id?  now you're right back to where you started.

One solution would be to have the private keys generated from a user ID. It's the user ID system I described somewhere else.

"A heart to my key

IN “SKYFALL”, the latest James Bond movie, 007 is given a gun that only he can fire. It works by recognising his palm print, rendering it impotent when it falls into a baddy’s hands. Like many of Q’s more fanciful inventions, the fiction is easier to conjure up than the fact. But there is a real-life biometric system that would have served Bond just as well: cardiac-rhythm recognition." -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/05/biometrics

[jonald_fyookball]

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.

makes no sense.

it's like saying  "I want the key to my house stored safely inside my house."

if your private keys were on the block chain, what differentiates you from a perfect stranger
in accessing them ?  another password or id?  now you're right back to where you started.

One solution would be to have the private keys generated from a user ID. It's the user ID system I described somewhere else.

"A heart to my key

IN “SKYFALL”, the latest James Bond movie, 007 is given a gun that only he can fire. It works by recognising his palm print, rendering it impotent when it falls into a baddy’s hands. Like many of Q’s more fanciful inventions, the fiction is easier to conjure up than the fact. But there is a real-life biometric system that would have served Bond just as well: cardiac-rhythm recognition." -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2013/05/biometrics

biometrics aside, it doesn't solve anything.  You still have an "id" that authenticates.  so, no different than a private key in that regard.

[Anders]

biometrics aside, it doesn't solve anything.  You still have an "id" that authenticates.  so, no different than a private key in that regard.

With a biometric ID then the private keys can be generated with a deterministic algorithm. And then the private keys would not have to be stored anywhere, not even on the block chain. No cold storage needed! And the Bitcoin protocol can remain as it is.

[JohnFromWIT]

biometrics aside, it doesn't solve anything.  You still have an "id" that authenticates.  so, no different than a private key in that regard.

With a biometric ID then the private keys can be generated with a deterministic algorithm. And then the private keys would not have to be stored anywhere, not even on the block chain. No cold storage needed! And the Bitcoin protocol can remain as it is.

Yeah then all we'll need is a copy of your finger prints or heart beat to access your wallet.
I like it.

[Razick]

The trade-off between confirmation time and blockchain size is a serious problem in my opinion. I absolutely love the quick confirmation time with DOGE, because 10 minutes is just too long, but that being said, even Bitcoin has problems with a huge Blockchain, and faster confirmations times won't help.

[Swordsoffreedom]

The trade-off between confirmation time and blockchain size is a serious problem in my opinion. I absolutely love the quick confirmation time with DOGE, because 10 minutes is just too long, but that being said, even Bitcoin has problems with a huge Blockchain, and faster confirmations times won't help.

I don't mind the confirm times so much except when its with a timer or something example coinbase like you have 30 mins to make the purchase but you want to be out of the variance range by sending a no txt instead to save some fees.
Otherwise you need to send an e-mail about it later kind of a pain, the blockchain growing to much is a real problem though needs UXTO compression badly.

[DannyElfman]

"What is the biggest problem in crypto currencies?"

People

[SquashJ]

I don't have enough technical expertise to determine what is the "biggest" problem with cryptocurrency, but I do feel like a lot of Bitcoin users use the Bitcoin network without understanding basic things about the infrastructure, like mining and confirmations.

[DannyElfman]

I don't have enough technical expertise to determine what is the "biggest" problem with cryptocurrency, but I do feel like a lot of Bitcoin users use the Bitcoin network without understanding basic things about the infrastructure, like mining and confirmations.

Not saying you are wrong. But how exactly does it matter if people understand the mining and confirmation specs? Sure they will be confused at times, but other than that no harm will be done.

[Possum577]

They haven't made me independently wealthy yet. Oh, wait, that might be my biggest problem with me.

Seriously though, the mass copycat versions is a problem. They (most of them) don't provide some improvement over Bitcoin, they just provide an alternative that people spend time and money on that will rarely, if ever materialize. They don't help with adoption either, they support the ponzi scheme fallacy. They're just a distraction.

[DannyElfman]

They haven't made me independently wealthy yet. Oh, wait, that might be my biggest problem with me.

Seriously though, the mass copycat versions is a problem. They (most of them) don't provide some improvement over Bitcoin, they just provide an alternative that people spend time and money on that will rarely, if ever materialize. They don't help with adoption either, they support the ponzi scheme fallacy. They're just a distraction.

Useless, costly and redundant, yes. But a problem for crypto adoption in general? Nah, I don't think so

[elliwilli]

Lack of support from retailers and other payment processors.
If amazon or pay pal (and by extension Ebay) it would become much more mainstream

[littlewizard]

On my first thought, there are a few safety issues:
1. Bitcoin users have the safety issue of being hacked and then the transaction cannot be reversed.
2. 51% attack, it has the possibility of being 51% attack

[22MCoin]

security still the biggest problem.

[will_see]

Problem in people who think that btc/lts etc it's smth dangerous and unsafety.

[iluvpie60]

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.

I would say we really need some kind of voting system to represent what bitcoin really is. a decentralized voting system that allows someone with a certain amount of btc to vote would be very nice.

I feel like bitcoin gets ignored by a lot of people because they think its complicated but it isnt. and with recent news of russian gangs hacking 1.2 billion usernames and passwords i would say we need something that highlights the encryption more.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/06/technology/russian-gang-said-to-amass-more-than-a-billion-stolen-internet-credentials.html

[Este Nuno]

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.

Woah, this is news to me. That is pretty bad. That means people have to go through something like Second Market in order to buy a large amount of BTC.

edit: I love how franky always capitalizes FIAT. I picture him sitting at the keyboard shouting out "FIAT!" in anger every time he types it. lol

[Razick]

The trade-off between confirmation time and blockchain size is a serious problem in my opinion. I absolutely love the quick confirmation time with DOGE, because 10 minutes is just too long, but that being said, even Bitcoin has problems with a huge Blockchain, and faster confirmations times won't help.

I don't mind the confirm times so much except when its with a timer or something example coinbase like you have 30 mins to make the purchase but you want to be out of the variance range by sending a no txt instead to save some fees.
Otherwise you need to send an e-mail about it later kind of a pain, the blockchain growing to much is a real problem though needs UXTO compression badly.

It's not a big problem for internet purchases, but no one wants to wait in the McDonalds drive-thru 10 minutes or longer while their transaction confirms. This is going to have to be solved sooner or later unless we are fine with Bitcoin being primarily an internet currency, which is fine with me, but then it won't be a fiat killer.

[movelikejagger]

The biggest problem is people. People are afraid something new.

[Technologov]

Hard Problems of Cryptocurrency:
https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Problems

esp. big one is "Code Obfuscator".

[Honeypot]

People who are 'leading' it.

[FUR11]

Hard Problems of Cryptocurrency:
https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Problems

esp. big one is "Code Obfuscator".

How is this a 'problem' in the sense of something that needs to be overcome and that hinders bitcoin. This is a problem in the sense of a 'theoretical mathematical problem', i.e. a textbook exercise for which the answer isn't known yet. Obfuscation (as of now) is the most stupid and by far worst type of cryptography. Actually it isn't cryptography at all.

[doubleredrolex]

The biggest problem right now is lack of easy use. Still confusing to new people. If someone who knows nothing about bit coins suddenly thinks "I want to get some BTC to spend"... how the heck are they going to do it. Signing up for an exchange, downloading wallets, trying to figure out BTC addresses etc. Its all very confusing still. Need super simple wallets with none of this mining fee questions and input output talk. They don't need to know about the block chain and confirmations. Thats just confusing. Wallets need a "super simple mode" that noobs can use.

[coinsolidation]

I think the biggest problem in cryptocurrencies is the fact that the vast majority of users still see them means of speculation (buy - hold - sell) rather than currencies (earn - spend).

I completely agree, currency with no 'value', by the dictionary definition of value. Unused currency and empty blockchains, how sad.

People are too simple to use Crypto Currencies.
Crypto Currencies are not simple enough for people to use.

People are too simple to use Computers.
Computers are not simple enough for people to use.

Today we have the bash shell and the touch screen device, something for everybody.
Today we have the crypto currency clients, and the

[harrymmmm]

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"

For free!

[Icardi09]

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.

In the transaction, users had already shown some of the advantages that ensure the safe use of the payment instrument, such as cryptography which ensures that the electronic payment instrument is only owned by one person alone.

However, vigilance must be maintained given the cyber crime is always looking for loopholes that could be breached to get a point of weakness.

Bitcoin is an electronic payment transaction tool that is simple and fast, but the Financial Services Authority as a banking supervisor must now examine this transaction tool.

[sandykho47]

I think there are some problem :
1. Security, if you post your address on some site. You not anonymous anymore
2. Network Solution, if Crypto currency not popular and have heavy transaction. It will slow down
3. Stable Price, most Crypto currency is not stable. Some people easily dump the price
4. Mining, super power mining (ASIC) / 51% mining attack, cause price pump / double spend
5. Community, there are lot Crypto currency, so it's very hard to make big community like BTC, LTC, DOGE
6. Exchange / Service, no people will accept & use if there aren't Exchange & Service
7. Software, some Crypto wallet software still often error/crash

But, i think the biggest problem is number 3

[gtraah]

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.

I am pretty certain it was 50BTC per block at the start

3 Main Issues -

1.Older-Gen or Non-technical people find it hard to use and comprehend how to use.
2.Simple Security (Getting your BTC properly secured is a little complicated)
3.Adoption & Public Understanding

[Giulio Prisco]

Having bitcoin being deflationary was probably the right decision. That is one key that has made bitcoin a huge success because it keeps the value of bitcoin up and likely increasing over time.

I am not sure this is a plus. If the value of Bitcoin keeps going up, almost by-design and de-facto, then everyone holds and nobody uses Bitcoin to buy things. Then Bitcoin is only a means of speculation and not a currency, and I am not sure that is a huge success.

[DoubleBEE]

People who are 'leading' it.

even worse when people promote idea of uselessness of bitcoin imho

[laurapalmer]

Having bitcoin being deflationary was probably the right decision. That is one key that has made bitcoin a huge success because it keeps the value of bitcoin up and likely increasing over time.

I am not sure this is a plus. If the value of Bitcoin keeps going up, almost by-design and de-facto, then everyone holds and nobody uses Bitcoin to buy things. Then Bitcoin is only a means of speculation and not a currency, and I am not sure that is a huge success.

It is a plus because if I make a decision to invest my BTC in an entrepreneurial undertaking, I have to be convinced that I'm making a sound, profitable decision. If my business or investment won't pay off more than just holding BTC, then I hold. "Hard money" incentivizes better decision making, which is the opposite of the effect caused by easy money / credit expansion which encourages me to just throw money at projects that might not be sustainable (buying a house I can't afford, opening stupid businesses, consuming too much, etc).

Biggest problem: 51% attack by an entity wishing to destroy Bitcoin. But I am paranoid.

[wordman267645]

I think transaction times and security are the major problem of crypto currencies. If you do not use proper security in your wallet hackers can easily to hack your wallet and transaction times is the most worst thing ever..

[SomethingElse]

mining being busy work that doesn't really accomplish much but hopefully come up with the metaphorical winning lottery ticket of a block is by far the worst problem.  it is inefficient, the miners are greedy and willing to ruin the system, and it wastes hardware and electricity on top of the computational power.  if all that power was put towards real work instead of just random guessing of numbers trying to get lucky over and over, then a crypto could be much better.

Maidsafe will use computers hard drives in a useful way. 
PoS hardly uses any electricity or computational power but still has a robust and protected blockchain.

Both of these are answers to the mining problem. 

[SomethingElse]

I think there are some problem :
1. Security, if you post your address on some site. You not anonymous anymore
2. Network Solution, if Crypto currency not popular and have heavy transaction. It will slow down
3. Stable Price, most Crypto currency is not stable. Some people easily dump the price
4. Mining, super power mining (ASIC) / 51% mining attack, cause price pump / double spend
5. Community, there are lot Crypto currency, so it's very hard to make big community like BTC, LTC, DOGE
6. Exchange / Service, no people will accept & use if there aren't Exchange & Service
7. Software, some Crypto wallet software still often error/crash

But, i think the biggest problem is number 3

These are all very real problems.  I would add

8. the mining problem mentioned in my previous post
9. ease of use for the common person.  bitcoin has a long way to go before it is just as easy as a credit card. (the main competitor for electronic transactions)

[bornil267645]

they say that the best defense is the best offense so i'm gonna go with...'regulations'

[Mightycoin]

Most currencies face problem of exchangers, and not being accepted as mode of payment.

Hopefully BTC has lot of exchangers and sites are starting to accept it.

[ErnieX]

Altcoins could use a somewhat official review team that checks the codes before a coinlaunch.
Exchanges should not list coins that aren't coming through, that could safe a lot of people from scams. 

[desired_username]

Altcoins could use a somewhat official review team that checks the codes before a coinlaunch.
Exchanges should not list coins that aren't coming through, that could safe a lot of people from scams. 

I don't think altcoins function outside of testing concepts and attempting to make the creators rich.

Anyone who jumps into a new alt to make profits deserves what they'll get.

[giveBTCpls]

It's simple, trustness (or lack of it) and lack of information. Most people is too computer illiterate to get BTC and even if they knew what they are doing, it doesnt matter because most people dont trust it and most people don't have enough FIAT to risk into something they cannot trust.

We'll need major moves like eBay accepting BTC for us to see a legit mainstream adoptance.

[CreamyPie]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

[QuestionAuthority]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

[Cream]

Biggest problem with crypto is they dont have a backup. If they crash, they crash for real. All money gone.

[itsAj]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

[peeveepee]

Biggest problem is there are too many pump and dump coins.

Only bitcoin has make it mainstream so far, none of the other coin has.

[QuestionAuthority]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

[scryptasicminer]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

There will be mistakes during rush hour when cashiers need to process order and payment fast. Small mistake like what you described should be forgiven.

[evanito]

I think the biggest problems with cryptocurrencies are the bloated blockchains, the difficulty for the average person to adopt and the flat transaction fee, no matter what the coin is actually worth.

[itsAj]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

If a cashier notices right away that they gave you $20 instead of $5, then they can ask you for it back right away when it is still obvious that you received too much. If they ask for the money back before you put the money in your pocket, then I think most people will give it back in exchange for the correct amount of change.

The difference with bitcoin is that a person can try to send a message to someone they sent BTC to when they should not have, but the person would not likely receive it right away, and the TX would likely be confirmed (similar to cash being in your pocket) by the time the message would be received. Another issue is that many addresses look very similar to each-other, so it would be possible to do a "spot check" on the address to make sure the address they are sending to looks similar to the address then intend to send to.

[QuestionAuthority]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

If a cashier notices right away that they gave you $20 instead of $5, then they can ask you for it back right away when it is still obvious that you received too much. If they ask for the money back before you put the money in your pocket, then I think most people will give it back in exchange for the correct amount of change.

The difference with bitcoin is that a person can try to send a message to someone they sent BTC to when they should not have, but the person would not likely receive it right away, and the TX would likely be confirmed (similar to cash being in your pocket) by the time the message would be received. Another issue is that many addresses look very similar to each-other, so it would be possible to do a "spot check" on the address to make sure the address they are sending to looks similar to the address then intend to send to.

I guess if all you have time for is a "spot check" then you should get used to losing money. I know it's possible to do it but I never have because my money means a lot to me so I free up the extra few seconds to do it right.

[QuestionAuthority]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

If a cashier notices right away that they gave you $20 instead of $5, then they can ask you for it back right away when it is still obvious that you received too much. If they ask for the money back before you put the money in your pocket, then I think most people will give it back in exchange for the correct amount of change.

The difference with bitcoin is that a person can try to send a message to someone they sent BTC to when they should not have, but the person would not likely receive it right away, and the TX would likely be confirmed (similar to cash being in your pocket) by the time the message would be received. Another issue is that many addresses look very similar to each-other, so it would be possible to do a "spot check" on the address to make sure the address they are sending to looks similar to the address then intend to send to.

I guess if all you have time for is a "spot check" then you should get used to losing money. I know it's possible to do it but I never have because my money means a lot to me so I free up the extra few seconds to do it right.

One of my BTC addresses is 1GyaReuEUNSopCZYBbsWN5mhoAtUZJVfhj, not 1itsAJblahblahecdcw34gtveRV6h5. Your BTC address is not 1QuestionAuthorityLKM244. I don't think it is very reasonable to expect for someone to check every single digit in a BTC address prior to sending a TX as if they were to try this they would likely end up with too many false positives and would never get the TX sent.   

All I ever do is cut and paste the address from the source. Here is a list of real addresses. Are they different or the same?
Two of them are the same. How long did it take you to find them?

This really isn't that difficult.

17qq5A3XKfrxpJRSC5LH6APjvTDb9hTmma
14gZfnEn8Xd3ofkjr5s7rKoC3bi8J4Yfyy 
19ngVyAav9JLE6gVfeQB6zgHEpTZhxJ2qJ 
1KyYkZ8wJ7ybvGWxSuZqsm6FuthsALSXq5 
1PG1DB6uKdT9uwPBooAjRsNyewmrDrteMT 
15tvWYtQq8A4m6N1QGLLADfaLA8C1mKCZv
13ARRimWwGhXt7ozfRy6PTyZcyWxhmM1Gp
13c7aMAEoS1QkwK49GctvEE7ZBkSfvaXCo
1HZK8q2RhY718CZee51D5v7xtiHp9T92pN
1PU4vjyEnMTVCmcoAZgVKFByTzbEnEryaX
1Sb9oSA4bkm7GxPWzubRKtqc4pFa1pf3D 
1MtPYAjqohLH5gMq3PH5xKVFWWDxrRQEbh
15svFBR3qDuXoqTR3J2CQAiizNaE4v9CAG 
1EekHaBpdaxAFTyYLWApegYWPoBBcgknon 
1MBtmmai5T9kx5LxhkDPCybWXBLaYagFHu
126vMmY1fyznpZiFTTnty3cm1Rw8wuheev 
19NmcoeHo2qwEFjQdUrbGuk34SU2fgfDeg 
12K5SyY2Z3DNsqFtTCnyGC3J7jYTCjM54m 
1J15UnwBV2uQtgPpEcmaaEbysqtNBCqMGQ
186pHM1up927B9MC27aaics6B8W7bfVpQn 
1KJTGpNzYsFibLmq9WaTGAXQbhRFUgnG3z
1MW2LCfz7bvFZJG88QTeC3a1cUHLSbS2ty
198bLhyREhk2u94F5TnD8E8edbAEqEhPjE
1Sb9oSA4bkm7GxPWzubRKtqc4pFa1pf3D
15pWzRf8tkKNLbDxsqGVySXfMM2vz5yuo5


Are these two addresses the same? How long did it take you to check?

12K5SyY2Z3DNsqFtTCnyGC3J7jYTCjM54m
12K5SyY2Z3DNsqFtTCnyGC3J8jYTCjM54m

[wasserman99]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

There will be mistakes during rush hour when cashiers need to process order and payment fast. Small mistake like what you described should be forgiven.

In my experience it is the opposite of this. When cashiers are doing transactions back to back they are in the flow of working at a constant pace so they will make less mistakes. When a store is very slow they are more vulnerable to make a mistake as it has been a long time since they have last gone through the steps of processing a transaction.

[QuestionAuthority]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

There will be mistakes during rush hour when cashiers need to process order and payment fast. Small mistake like what you described should be forgiven.

In my experience it is the opposite of this. When cashiers are doing transactions back to back they are in the flow of working at a constant pace so they will make less mistakes. When a store is very slow they are more vulnerable to make a mistake as it has been a long time since they have last gone through the steps of processing a transaction.

That is true. It was slow both times I've had a cashier give me too much change.

[itsAj]

One of the problems I have seen is of wrong payment, if you pay wrong guy, you should have right to reverse it in next 30 seconds..or so.

What you're looking for is called PayPal. The best solution to that problem is don't fuck up.

BTC does not have the same consumer protections that PP or other payment methods have.

I think it is easier said then done to "not fuck up" as there have been many instances when someone has paid he incorrect address (or less commonly the incorrect amount) for something. There have been many instances when someone sent BTC to someone they have traded with in the past only to mean to send BTC to someone different. Many of these cases have been resolved with the BTC being returned, but this does not happen all the time.

You can't reverse transactions so it's necessary to pay attention to what you're doing. The same it true with cash transactions. I have been given back $20 bills by cashiers when I should have received a $10 or a $5. The cashier was lazy or rushed, wasn't paying attention and put a $20 in the wrong slot in the drawer. I don't feel sorry for people that lose money that way. If their Bitcoins or cash are not important to them then they deserve to lose them.

If a cashier notices right away that they gave you $20 instead of $5, then they can ask you for it back right away when it is still obvious that you received too much. If they ask for the money back before you put the money in your pocket, then I think most people will give it back in exchange for the correct amount of change.

The difference with bitcoin is that a person can try to send a message to someone they sent BTC to when they should not have, but the person would not likely receive it right away, and the TX would likely be confirmed (similar to cash being in your pocket) by the time the message would be received. Another issue is that many addresses look very similar to each-other, so it would be possible to do a "spot check" on the address to make sure the address they are sending to looks similar to the address then intend to send to.

I guess if all you have time for is a "spot check" then you should get used to losing money. I know it's possible to do it but I never have because my money means a lot to me so I free up the extra few seconds to do it right.

One of my BTC addresses is 1GyaReuEUNSopCZYBbsWN5mhoAtUZJVfhj, not 1itsAJblahblahecdcw34gtveRV6h5. Your BTC address is not 1QuestionAuthorityLKM244. I don't think it is very reasonable to expect for someone to check every single digit in a BTC address prior to sending a TX as if they were to try this they would likely end up with too many false positives and would never get the TX sent.  

All I ever do is cut and paste the address from the source. Here is a list of real addresses. Are they different or the same?
Two of them are the same. How long did it take you to find them?

This really isn't that difficult.

17qq5A3XKfrxpJRSC5LH6APjvTDb9hTmma
14gZfnEn8Xd3ofkjr5s7rKoC3bi8J4Yfyy  
19ngVyAav9JLE6gVfeQB6zgHEpTZhxJ2qJ  
1KyYkZ8wJ7ybvGWxSuZqsm6FuthsALSXq5  
1PG1DB6uKdT9uwPBooAjRsNyewmrDrteMT  
15tvWYtQq8A4m6N1QGLLADfaLA8C1mKCZv
13ARRimWwGhXt7ozfRy6PTyZcyWxhmM1Gp
13c7aMAEoS1QkwK49GctvEE7ZBkSfvaXCo
1HZK8q2RhY718CZee51D5v7xtiHp9T92pN
1PU4vjyEnMTVCmcoAZgVKFByTzbEnEryaX
1Sb9oSA4bkm7GxPWzubRKtqc4pFa1pf3D  
1MtPYAjqohLH5gMq3PH5xKVFWWDxrRQEbh
15svFBR3qDuXoqTR3J2CQAiizNaE4v9CAG  
1EekHaBpdaxAFTyYLWApegYWPoBBcgknon  
1MBtmmai5T9kx5LxhkDPCybWXBLaYagFHu
126vMmY1fyznpZiFTTnty3cm1Rw8wuheev  
19NmcoeHo2qwEFjQdUrbGuk34SU2fgfDeg  
12K5SyY2Z3DNsqFtTCnyGC3J7jYTCjM54m  
1J15UnwBV2uQtgPpEcmaaEbysqtNBCqMGQ
186pHM1up927B9MC27aaics6B8W7bfVpQn  
1KJTGpNzYsFibLmq9WaTGAXQbhRFUgnG3z
1MW2LCfz7bvFZJG88QTeC3a1cUHLSbS2ty
198bLhyREhk2u94F5TnD8E8edbAEqEhPjE
1Sb9oSA4bkm7GxPWzubRKtqc4pFa1pf3D
15pWzRf8tkKNLbDxsqGVySXfMM2vz5yuo5


Are these two addresses the same? How long did it take you to check?

12K5SyY2Z3DNsqFtTCnyGC3J7jYTCjM54m
12K5SyY2Z3DNsqFtTCnyGC3J8jYTCjM54m

I would agree that it is a best practice to copy and past an address from the source (I really don't see any other way of doing it). My argument is that someone would have an address already stored in their clipboard for some reason, then sometime later would want to buy something from overstock, go to checkout and get an address to send BTC to, they would press control-c (or in my case apple-c) to copy the address, but for whatever reason it doesn't copy to their clipboard (maybe due to a glitch, or they didn't hold it down loan enough, or some other reason), they then switch tabs to their blockchain.info wallet, paste what is in their clipboard (and check to make sure the address looks correct) then send the proper amount. Since the person *just* (thought) he copied the address he would likely give it somewhat of a lower standard of care. Additionally since the two addresses are not right next to each-other it is more difficult to compare them against each-other.

Yes, your two addresses are different. At first glance they are the same address, but after thinking for a minute, I knew that you were trying to prove a point so upon close examination of the two addresses while they are right next to each-other I see they are in fact different (I don't think a TX that attempted to send BTC to the 2nd address would actually be accepted by the network, but that is besides the point; and congrats on getting blockchain spam to an address of yours). As mentioned above many uses of bitcoin involve users not being able to look at the address they should be sending to and the address they are actually sending to on a side-by-side basis, but instead would need to look back and forth between screens on their computer. This is especially true with more and more people only having a phone, tablet or other mobile device and really not being able to look at the two addresses next to eachother.

[QuestionAuthority]

Maybe that can be a future upgrade to the client. Plain language addresses automatically generated for and associated with blockchain addresses. Instead of 1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v the client would show TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce. You would know instantly that you never sent btc to TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce.

[itsAj]

Maybe that can be a future upgrade to the client. Plain language addresses automatically generated for and associated with blockchain addresses. Instead of 1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v the client would show TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce. You would know instantly that you never sent btc to TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce.

You can use some clients to assign a label to frequent addresses that you send BTC to.

I would be interested to know how you could mathematically get from an address to some kind of custom name. I think this would likely replace a few few number of transactions involving sending BTC to an incorrect address to many more scammers receiving transactions that are meant for someone else. This happened when coinbase first started allowing (I think it was) account tags when you could send money to coinbase.com/QuestionAuthority the funds would go directly into your coinbase account; someone (that was not SeansOutpost) set up the tag SeansOutpost before they could get to it to try to get people to "donate" money to them.

[Hasher99]

Biggest problem is that its not backed up by any govt organisation, so it can become dirt in anytime[theory]

[jrossIV]

It is the difficulty of basic use, the ease at which you can lose all your funds, and the bells and whistles it takes to purchase a crypto-equity.  Especially one of the major ones like BTSX or NXT that isn't BTC.

[DDuckworth]

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.

The general psychology of humans and their lack of acceptance of anything new.  There are WAY too many things that the only way we can have change is to wait for the last generation to die out so that the problem either lessens or disappears...

Think: Gay marriage, racism (that one might take a while), allowing women to vote, murderous religions, and general xenophobia.  All of these things require generations to die off before us as a species being able to move on in the right direction.  I fear bitcoin may have a similar uptake, where all of our children will use it exclusively and there will still be old people ranting at a store when they no longer accept credit cards.

[QuestionAuthority]

Maybe that can be a future upgrade to the client. Plain language addresses automatically generated for and associated with blockchain addresses. Instead of 1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v the client would show TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce. You would know instantly that you never sent btc to TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce.

You can use some clients to assign a label to frequent addresses that you send BTC to.

I would be interested to know how you could mathematically get from an address to some kind of custom name. I think this would likely replace a few few number of transactions involving sending BTC to an incorrect address to many more scammers receiving transactions that are meant for someone else. This happened when coinbase first started allowing (I think it was) account tags when you could send money to coinbase.com/QuestionAuthority the funds would go directly into your coinbase account; someone (that was not SeansOutpost) set up the tag SeansOutpost before they could get to it to try to get people to "donate" money to them.

Well, I guess were fucked then. I'll just have to keep spending them like I always have. Without issue.

[itsAj]

Maybe that can be a future upgrade to the client. Plain language addresses automatically generated for and associated with blockchain addresses. Instead of 1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v the client would show TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce. You would know instantly that you never sent btc to TurtleSoupWithCheeseSauce.

You can use some clients to assign a label to frequent addresses that you send BTC to.

I would be interested to know how you could mathematically get from an address to some kind of custom name. I think this would likely replace a few few number of transactions involving sending BTC to an incorrect address to many more scammers receiving transactions that are meant for someone else. This happened when coinbase first started allowing (I think it was) account tags when you could send money to coinbase.com/QuestionAuthority the funds would go directly into your coinbase account; someone (that was not SeansOutpost) set up the tag SeansOutpost before they could get to it to try to get people to "donate" money to them.

Well, I guess were fucked then. I'll just have to keep spending them like I always have. Without issue.

LOL. I agree that our current setup is likely the best, but it is not perfect.

[bitcoin_purist]

Biggest problem is that its not backed up by any govt organisation, so it can become dirt in anytime[theory]

That's not a problem but a feature which makes it magnitudes better than the current fiat system.
If you don't get that, you should read bitcoin from start again.

You could better ask yourself the question why all government backed currencies have failed in the history of mankind. *all of them 100%*

[bitcoin_purist]

Biggest problem is that its not backed up by any govt organisation, so it can become dirt in anytime[theory]

That's not a problem but a feature which makes it magnitudes better than the current fiat system.
If you don't get that, you should read bitcoin from start again.

You could better ask yourself the question why all government backed currencies have failed in the history of mankind. *all of them 100%*

Oh damn it, you wrote "backed up"
Yes, that's a shame.
Also governments need to back up their wallets

[CozyLife]

The Bitcoin transaction confirmations are slow and that's the obvious choice. However, the one that isn't so obvious is the fact that no one has sent me all of the Bitcoins yet.

[Denis_Diderot]

The trade-off between confirmation time and blockchain size is a serious problem in my opinion.

[kleeii]

I think the biggest problem is the pump and dump alt coins. There are literally hundreds of them, made by the authors to make a quick dime, but end up having no value.

[Gargulan]

Three things:

1) Government regulation.
2) Long transaction confirmation time.
3) Price volatility.

[shawshankinmate37927]

Three things:

1) Government regulation.
2) Long transaction confirmation time.
3) Price volatility.

1) A decentralized P2P electronic ledger can't be regulated.  Bitcoin is the solution to government regulation.
2) It takes longer for credit card transactions and checks to clear than it does for a BTC transaction to be confirmed.
3) It's still early in the transition to sound, honest, stateless money.  Give it time.

[Omikifuse]

Scalability.

If Bitcoin really goes moon and gets as many transactions rate as the big credit cards or paypal, then I think we will see peoblems.

Of course that won't happens overnight and we'll have some time to think about how to solve it

[moriartybitcoin]

biggest problem is impending governmen regulation

second biggest problem is SCAMS

[master-P]

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.

I agree with all the points mentioned above.
In any case, time is the key to measure success. The problem: people today are generally impatient.

The transaction times are already only a few seconds if a TX has an appropriate fee attached. It will not confirm in seconds, but it will be safe to assume that it will confirm within a few blocks.

Coins that you have in cold storage are stored in the blockchain. Cold storage is a form of additional security, if you want to keep your bitcoin safe then you need to use it. There is zero way around this.

The TX fees are very low as of now. At most it will cost ~$0.05 to send a TX, but often you can send a TX for free. With that being said the TX fees are what gives the miners incentives to mine over time, as eventually the block subsidy will go to zero.

[David1978]

- Security
- Goverment trying to invade crypto currencies
- Scammers