You want bitcoin to succeed ? *THIS* is what you need to focus on

[Q7]

Bitcoin is a success. Its widely used, almost anything you can now buy with Bitcoin. Adoption is increasing and it will keep getting easier to use Bitcoin as a payment method.

I am with you in the wishful thinking department. I truly want to see bitcoin succeed.

But I'm sorry you have to be realistic: what you say is simply not true. In 2014 buying a house or a car, or getting paid by your employer, or paying your taxes with BTC in 2014 is simply not possible in 99.99% of the cases.

We are taking a step too far. Ok to start off what we need is basically an auction site (a legal one of course) where you can buy a product and that particular store will pay people the extra privilege for using bitcoin. Or a store or auction sites that accept only bitcoin. Nobody is goin to exchange usd to btc just to buy something they can get straight away using usd. And that is a fact. Or Something like a discount when you purchase with btc. Maybe you are asking me what store.... the answer is i don't know but if we are going to start on something that will take us somewhere....this is what i would say we definitely need

[xDan]

This is where I disagree with you. The one thing that Facebook should have taught anyone working in the digital economy, it's that once something has mushroomed to getting more than 90% of the market, they damn near undisplaceable (even if they're not a particularly brilliant product - fb never was). I'm worried that by the time this bitcoin killer app comes about, it will face an enormous barrier to entry. Whereas if bitcoin tries to move to the emerging market space first, its natural advantages will make it a damn sure winner.

hmm. I tend to believe/hope Bitcoin's natural advantages will cause it to be adopted. Plus the incredible innovation that can occur around such an open system.

but sure, marketing to emerging markets is good....

I'm pretty sure there have been attempts at bitcoin on feature phones. SMS payments and stuff.

I think most things you suggest will and are happening, but slowly...

So what else is there to do, crowdfund Bitcoin evangelists in emerging markets? Bitcoin tends to create its own evangelists anyway when somebody fully understands it..

[AJinNYC]

Bitcoin is currently a success in the same way Linux is/was a success: in a very tiny niche (geeks, sysadmins, tech-savvy folks, etc ...). Unfortunately, Linux never came out of that niche. It's still in there 15+ years later

You do know that 80% of the internet is run on Linux machines, right? This very website is probably sitting on a RedHat server or at least something Debian or Ubuntu based. And it's the most widely used OS on mobile (Android) world-wide. Add to that every game console uses a Linux kernel (If I'm not mistaken even XBox does). In regards to desktops/laptops, yes, small market share.

[HCLivess]

Is this a promotion post? I am confused.

[MicroGuy]

The Bitcoin community should boycott any BTC accepting merchant that doesn't also offer their employees a bitcoin payment option.

[BitUsher]

The Bitcoin community should boycott any BTC accepting merchant that doesn't also offer their employees a bitcoin payment option.

Good idea , but a little premature to be making those demands this early.

[btctrader22]

Is this a promotion post? I am confused.

This is a "unless we get our asses in gear and pay attention to what's happening out there, the thing we care about is going to become irrelevant in a New York minute" post.

[btctrader22]

Bitcoin is currently a success in the same way Linux is/was a success: in a very tiny niche (geeks, sysadmins, tech-savvy folks, etc ...). Unfortunately, Linux never came out of that niche. It's still in there 15+ years later

You do know that 80% of the internet is run on Linux machines, right? This very website is probably sitting on a RedHat server or at least something Debian or Ubuntu based. And it's the most widely used OS on mobile (Android) world-wide. Add to that every game console uses a Linux kernel (If I'm not mistaken even XBox does). In regards to desktops/laptops, yes, small market share.

Yes, I am aware. And the Android part was discussed earlier in this topic. I didn't know that XBox was linux powered (I do in fact find it surprising). And if indeed someone managed to pull off with Bitcoin what Android did pull off with Linux, that is wrapping something completely unusable by normal people into a foolproof and useful thing, that would exactly address my concern. But there is major amounts of work before we get there.

[BitUsher]

Yes, I am aware. And the Android part was discussed earlier in this topic. I didn't know that XBox was linux powered (I do in fact find it surprising). And if indeed someone managed to pull off with Bitcoin what Android did pull off with Linux, that is wrapping something completely unusable by normal people into a foolproof and useful thing, that would exactly address my concern. But there is major amounts of work before we get there.

Linux dominates, smart phones, tablets, servers, scientific computing ,
and many embedded systems. Open source software dominates everything but desktops and laptops.
 
Bitcoin is just a protocol like HTTP/TCP-IP/TELNET. People use these protocols everyday and have almost no knowledge they even exist . There are many developers working hard right now creating apps to interact with this protocol. Money is just one app or use of bitcoin. Your grandmother will soon be using it without even knowing she is doing so.

[exoton]

The Bitcoin community should boycott any BTC accepting merchant that doesn't also offer their employees a bitcoin payment option.

This would pretty much be all businesses that accept bitcoin, and would result in the companies to stop accepting bitcoin (they wouldn't be getting any bitcoin sales) and other companies not wanting to accept bitcoin

[jsgayo]

Bitcoin has been partially successful. Many well-known companies to accept it.