what's next for Bitcoin?

[niko]

The protocol seems solid, no bugs, and more features are under development.

The network has been functional for several years, no outages whatsoever.

Many exchanges up and running.

Several good-looking merchant solutions exist, all fully functional.

Several mobile clients are available, along with online wallets and full local clients.

What is the next big hurdle? Advocacy and other work to address some of the legal uncertainties? Simply spreading the word? Teaching by example?

[Spekulatius]

- Propagation (by e.g. social movements --> occupy, arab spring public movements, wikileaks and alike,..)

- Development of niche markets, as "proof of concept" for in business terms, like VPN providers, file hosters, sex toys, gambling,..
  everything where anonymity is preferred

- Development of bitcoin as a money transmitter, in opposition to moneygram et al

- Implementation of a distributed escrow system in the protocol, that would be a real advantage to tackle the risks argument associated with bitcoin

[unclemantis]

USB wallets that work!

[World]

Mobile phones and tablets application development cross platforms

[finkleshnorts]

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

[Jan]

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

This. And, finding a solution that allows Bitcoin to scale to 1000s of transactions a minute. Once we have achieved this -> Finding a solution that allows Bitcoin to scale to 1000s of transactions a second.

[grantbdev]

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

This.

The foundation for bitcoin is solid. Now the economy has to grow first by providing  access to plenty of (not just illegal) goods. Huge opportunity for someone to be a (temporary) monopoly in this. We have OTC and peer-to-peer marketplaces, but we don't have the benefits of lower prices because of bulk purchases like Wal-Mart and Amazon.

[jimbobway]

Make it easier so Gavin's grandma can use it.

[Stephen Gornick]

What is the next big hurdle?

We haven't solved that last major hurdles.

The client isn't for general consumer use (so what do they use instead).  Bitcoins are hard to secure (no multisignature, and even when it exists, it might not be consumer-grade.)

And I really fear the possibility that a couple lines of code placed in an upcoming "critical update" from Microsoft, placed by a rogue contractor or something like that, will be the largest wallet-stealing event ever.  (or an update that has the same end result occurring on Android, etc.).

[Phinnaeus Gage]

What is the next big hurdle?

We haven't solved that last major hurdles.

The client isn't for general consumer use (so what do they use instead).  Bitcoins are hard to secure (no multisignature, and even when it exists, it might not be consumer-grade.)

And I really fear the possibility that a couple lines of code placed in an upcoming "critical update" from Microsoft, placed by a rogue contractor or something like that, will be the largest wallet-stealing event ever.  (or an update that has the same end result occurring on Android, etc.).

Your avatar and post, coupled together, is scaring me. Are you saying that all that's needed is a couple lines of code to stop one from receiving any type of information on the net that's not an accredited source, e.g., peer-to-peer transmissions?

~Bruno~

[mdosi]

The rise of Bitcoin businesses that we have not even thought of. Just like the internet has brought Facebook, twitter, web 1.0 and web 2.0 when Bitcoin is adopted by the masses new forms of economic activity will be created. Some of them we can't even imagine and may only be possible because of Bitcoin. I believe what is next is amazing.

[Stephen Gornick]

And I really fear the possibility that a couple lines of code placed in an upcoming "critical update" from Microsoft, placed by a rogue contractor or something like that, will be the largest wallet-stealing event ever.  (or an update that has the same end result occurring on Android, etc.).

Your avatar and post, coupled together, is scaring me.

Heh.  That avatar is just a rock formation on Mars.

And I really fear the possibility that a couple lines of code placed in an upcoming "critical update" from Microsoft, placed by a rogue contractor or something like that, will be the largest wallet-stealing event ever.  (or an update that has the same end result occurring on Android, etc.).

 Are you saying that all that's needed is a couple lines of code to stop one from receiving any type of information on the net that's not an accredited source, e.g., peer-to-peer transmissions?

There are a huge security vulnerabilities that have not been employed to-date, but Windows automatic updates is probably the largest.  There technically could already be code running on your computers, installed during the last Windows update cycle, just waiting for the right time when it will copy wallet.dat if one exists up to systems under the hacker's  control.   Is that likely?  I would think Microsoft would have better controls on what goes into updates and this won't happen.  But that's the key.  It isn't under your control, it is under Microsoft's control.

And I'm not picking on Microsoft, ... Apple has access to this vector, as does Ubuntu (which isn't 100% open source, and even open source doesn't mean there's no rogue participant), and even Samsung and Google as well (for when they send out new releases of Andoid).

If the wallet.dat is encrypted, that makes such an attack much harder (would also require keylogging or other approach that would be discovered well before significant losses occurred, I'ld bet.)

But my point is that I don't know that Bitcoin is ready for a "mission accomplished" banner just yet.

[evoorhees]

I understand the developer-types are highly focused on technical improvements, and I hope they stay that way. From a non-developer point of view, here's how I see the next steps (occurring over the next year or so):

1) Easier/faster ways to pay in and pay out from Bitcoin in many countries. BitInstant has a pretty good solution thus far (cash deposits) but it is not ideal, and only available in a few countries. The expansion of these pay in and pay out options is essential (and BitInstant has some exciting developments in the pipeline).

2) As #1 occurs, the ability for Bitcoin to fill several niche markets becomes realistic. Gaming/gambling/adult industry/etc. These are massive markets in and of themselves but are restrained from growth by limitations of #1 above.

3) As the niche uses are demonstrated in #2, "the world" will start understanding Bitcoin's value proposition. Then things start getting very interesting very quickly. Once Bitcoin has proven a significant base of usage, a world of entrepreneurs will start finding new uses for it everywhere.

[bc]

There's lots in store.

The rise of Bitcoin businesses that we have not even thought of. Just like the internet has brought Facebook, twitter, web 1.0 and web 2.0 when Bitcoin is adopted by the masses new forms of economic activity will be created. Some of them we can't even imagine and may only be possible because of Bitcoin. I believe what is next is amazing.

This ^, ease for Grandma, the swarm client for bandwidth concerns, ultimate blockchain compression for disk/cpu concerns, Casascius' super-simple mixing for anonymity concerns, initially slow, inexorable climb in value, then snowballing  adoption as the Euro and dollar diminish. Eventually, Mike Hearn's blockchain-based bonds, or what have you. It's a bright, bright future.

We're incredibly lucky to be here to witness these early days. We're surrounded by bright people with diverse talents. There is room for growth in so many dimensions.

And let's not forget that we're about to pass through the First Great Halving. One day you can tell your Grand kids how you remember when a bitcoin block was rewarded with 50,000,000 microbits, and you were there the day it dropped to 25,000,000.

Lots in store. Enjoy the ride.

[OgNasty]

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

A popular game using it as in-game currency wouldn't hurt either.

[NRF]

Less of the Shady "Give me your bitcoins and I will give you back more" and penny gambling sites and mentality.

More professional "men in business suites" with proper accounting and accountability.

I am rather new to bitcoins, but I have been in business and finance since I left school back in the 80's and while I love the idea of bitcoins and very much want them to succeed I am rather shocked by the abondance of get rich quick schemes, gambling, badly secured amaturish exchanges and what appear to be Ponzi schemes.

If bitcoins want to be taken serious a place as a reliable, non gimmick currency we need serious and non gimmicky uses, people and businesses.

Just my opinion.

[grantbdev]

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

A popular game using it as in-game currency wouldn't hurt either.

If VALVe picked up Bitcoin...

[wyager]

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

This. And, finding a solution that allows Bitcoin to scale to 1000s of transactions a minute. Once we have achieved this -> Finding a solution that allows Bitcoin to scale to 1000s of transactions a second.

This is an important problem. At the moment, a rise in popularity might cripple the network. This is already becoming a bottleneck; it sucks to have to wait like 12-72 hours before you can use Bitcoin for the first time if you want an optimally secure client (because the blockchain is so large).

Amazon or another large online business accepting them as payment.

A popular game using it as in-game currency wouldn't hurt either.

If VALVe picked up Bitcoin...

Bitcoin would be great for something like the TF2 Hat market, and VALVe already takes paypal for easy payment. Bitcoin would not be too difficult, I think. Maybe I will email Gaben.

[evoorhees]

Less of the Shady "Give me your bitcoins and I will give you back more" and penny gambling sites and mentality.

More professional "men in business suites" with proper accounting and accountability.

I am rather new to bitcoins, but I have been in business and finance since I left school back in the 80's and while I love the idea of bitcoins and very much want them to succeed I am rather shocked by the abondance of get rich quick schemes, gambling, badly secured amaturish exchanges and what appear to be Ponzi schemes.

If bitcoins want to be taken serious a place as a reliable, non gimmick currency we need serious and non gimmicky uses, people and businesses.

Just my opinion.

That will come in time. Professionalism follows money, and money doesn't arrive in Bitcoinland until it's been vetted a while by the amateurs. An amateur will risk $500 on an amateur site far sooner than a professional will risk $50,000 on a professional site.

But let's look how fast it's already moving. A year ago, we had MyBitcoin as the best ewallet (a crappy site run by an anonymous scumbag which then disappeared and stole everyone's money). Now we have Blockchain.info, Paytunia, and CoinBase... all beautiful sites run by professionals who do not hide their identities.

 

[niko]

Less of the Shady "Give me your bitcoins and I will give you back more" and penny gambling sites and mentality.

More professional "men in business suites" with proper accounting and accountability.

I am rather new to bitcoins, but I have been in business and finance since I left school back in the 80's and while I love the idea of bitcoins and very much want them to succeed I am rather shocked by the abondance of get rich quick schemes, gambling, badly secured amaturish exchanges and what appear to be Ponzi schemes.

If bitcoins want to be taken serious a place as a reliable, non gimmick currency we need serious and non gimmicky uses, people and businesses.

Just my opinion.

Could you provide realistic examples - niche markets/applications that come to mind? Do you think that gambling, gaming, and adult industries do not provide a reliable stepping stone or even a testing ground? Or do you think that Bitcoin simply needs a PR effort to diminish negative perception by business people (Ponzi schemes and such)? It's hard for me to believe that a serious businessman would be turned off by how some people misuse a technology, instead of focusing on how he can use it.