Topic: Bitcoin as a Mainstream payment method - page 2. (Read 394 times)

You're exactly correct. People need to realize that access to internet isn't the only hurdle. Even if people have access to internet, poverty levels within the immediate area are what matters. If internet serves as a luxury and food/water/shelter take priority, it isn't reasonable to expect these people to adopt a digital currency that has volatility in its value.

Crypto is mostly designed for the first world. Trying to make Bitcoin palatable to under developed countries is a challenge.

It is a means of payment, and that is happening, there is no drama with that, and it is not the main one, but, in fact the sacrifice or the drive to achieve that is in the hands of the users.

Everything starts from the individual plane, so, people have to try it, take risks, Bitcoin is there, th the Txs flowing.

Aside from the given strong feature by the @op, I believe Bitcoin needs stability to become a Mainstream payment method. The high volatility of Bitcoin discourages merchant from accepting it since they are afraid of the risk of losing value if they accept Bitcoin.  Regulation is another factor.  If many countries accept Bitcoin as a mode of payment then the market can easily transact with Bitcoin and many merchants will possibly take advantage of this to get more customers and sales.

It just needs the right push. How do you become pro? By gaining experience and skills. So if all the people can get a hold of Bitcoin, then they will have to use it. They will learn the way to use it by themselves. It's just the matter of availability and the person to guide them. Also not to mention massive adoption in countries all over the world. If people are introduced to new things, it seems hard to get used to it. But when they do, it becomes fun and easy.

Mainstream as in every average Joe using it daily? It needs:
- less volatility
- way cheaper transaction fees (than now), yeah, including opening a channel in LN, 30 cents might now be much but make that 2 times a day each month and you have 10% of minimum wage on nearly two continents.
- a ton of education that the average Joe is not going to get this decade
- a ton of knowledge on how to keep your funds safe the average Joe will not get either.
- the average Joe to stop hoarding it believing it will get 100x by December and actually using it

Cards are considered mainstream but from what you can see in Nigeria happening now even these have problems getting used by the majority of the population, Bitcoin is one step further away as you need more than just swiping a card at an PoS.

But the biggest problem which has obviously no solution other than entrusting your funds to a 3rd party is that a lot of people really don't like to be in charge of their funds and love to have a guy they can call when a problem arises. Despite how much we love self-custody here and considered it one of the key points in the strength of BTC one also must admit not everybody sees it this way. And simply there will be always some that they will not touch it because of that.

 

Government regulation is the main barrier most likely to make bitcoin a mainstream currency as a means of payment. But how is this possible, that's because the government has not legalized bitcoin as a means of payment in many countries. You may have noticed it already, but there is good hope for the future if the superpowers and western countries adopt it.

I do not expect fiat to be replace by crypto, and instead these two payment systems will be used where fiat will remain the main means of payment and bitcoin as an alternative. I tend to think that someone will use bitcoin more for investment than as a means of payment, I think that is the majority at this point.

Legal framework by the government. This is the only thing needed for bitcoin to become the mainstream payment method. Otherwise no matter whatever innovation is happening around bitcoin, it won't become a mainstream payment method, ever!

People still trust the governments and their backing. So unless it is in place, nothing would happen and bitcoin will remain as a parallel economy.

I'm just thinking about the wider adoption bitcoin can achieve so that more people will use it. Even though the government has not approved the use of bitcoins in their country, people can use bitcoins on the internet freely as we do today.

The second is acceptance from the government, which finally allows using bitcoin, even from an investment perspective. It will open up opportunities for bitcoin to be accepted by even more people because they will see what bitcoin can give them. And they will try to own more bitcoins. But it's probably government acceptance that bitcoin needs most because if the government doesn't allow it, people can only use bitcoins clandestinely.

You see some of the people you met on you social media platform that disliked the idea of bitcoin and crypto will be influenced to have a change of opinion when everybody around them, people that they have close relationship with begin to accept and use bitcoins. Many of them will have a change of opinion and not be able to tell you because they will know how myopic they were to not just like bitcoins then without ever using it. Before bitcoin will become a mainstream payment method, there has to be mass acceptance first.

It's got to be user experience for me, more than anything else. We're talking mainstream here, so we have to accept, for better or worse -- people don't really care about security, about sovereign money, or even inflation, and that's judging from the majority of crypto "users" I've come across.

It needs to be cool and easy to use. It needs to be simpler than an existing form of money to use. It needs to solve problems too (and less about my money's not worth anything and more about I need to be able to buy this but I can't because I don't have a debit card or PayPal).

It needs to attract the average user. Due to high volatility, in comparison with fiat currency, it's a no-no for average use. Even if merchants lowered the prices if you were to pay in bitcoin (which some I've noticed do), it's still unapproachable. We need more education around bitcoin, and more importantly: the acknowledgement that you need to be responsible with your money. Lots of people think like you can reverse anything if you become a fraud victim.

I've never heard of this social app before, but of course many people don't like the idea of cryptos. Cryptos are new, and while some humans try to push the boundaries of what's possible for humanity by inventing something new or going somewhere new, there's also this totally natural reaction to new as dangerous, threatening. It challenges the status quo, and many feel like if status quo is fine for them, they shouldn't endorse those things that try challenging it. As for what Bitcoin needs, I think it's secured enough as it is, it will need more scalability one way or another for an increase of its adoption as a form of payment, and user-friendly interfaces similar to online banking wouldn't hurt either. Another this it lack is, despite everything, more awareness of what Bitcoin is and isn't, how it works and how it's different from stocks and from fiat alike.

With respect your topic, I really think there are lots of work to be done as regards bitcoin awareness and adoption. People can only adopt something when they are fully aware of it although some might be skeptical about it but at the end they would see reasons why they need to adopt it. This is still applicable to bitcoin. What I basically know and see is that government policies strongly affect the bitcoin adoption in various nation's. Some people are yet to understand how bitcoin works not to talk of accepting it as a means of payment for services. We should know that bitcoin is volatile hence many people finds it difficult to accepting it because of the uncertainty and expectations of price fluctuations.

Isn't it recognized yet that bitcoin is already in the mainstream as a payment method for some? Yeah, some because many consider it as an investment but payment platforms that come from the big exchanges like Binance Pay, Coinbase Pay and other exchanges and platforms that focus on servicing crypto payments are already there. But talking about in general about those people that don't really like the idea of bitcoin as a payment, it all starts with they have lack knowledge of it so they don't understand the whole thing.

The main problem is the regulation, many people are worried if Bitcoin will get banned since India and China are really easy to ban and unban Bitcoin. As a businessman, do you want to update your payment method for every 6 months while you can have a choice to just accept fiat which is never get banned? as a citizens, do you want to feel not safe for holding Bitcoin since when your country declare Bitcoin is illegal, you can't use your coins anymore except you're move to other country.

The other reasons are a religion forbid to hold Bitcoin, privacy concern etc.

It's not literally half, but according to data for 2023, even around 35% of the world's population does not have access to the internet at all, while it is questionable how many people have a permanent and high-quality connection to the internet. Many members of this forum from some African countries have exactly this problem, their internet actually depends on whether they have electricity, and this makes their activities much more difficult - although this is not something specific only to Africa.

But even if we take the 2/3 who have access to the internet, looking at it as a whole, all researchers say that less than 5% of the world's population is in some way involved in cryptocurrencies, and of that number there are certainly many who have invested only in altcoins.

When you draw a line under all that information, then your question cannot get any kind of positive answer, regardless of which aspect of the problem you are talking about (if the problem exists at all).

You mean half of the world doesn't have proper access to internet? It's true that there're people who chose to rely on the traditional system we already have and it is also their choice to believe or use what they want as long as it benefits them. I do get your point coz personally the main reason for me  why it's never unachievable is because of its volatility. That reason alone is enough for people to be hesitant/against on using or implementing it as a mainstream payment system.

We could start with all online stores accepting bitcoin payments at first then we can talk about the mainstream because right now that's what matters if we don't see all online stores accepting it, then seeing it accepted by mainstream would be harder really. Maybe when they see those big online stores starting to accept bitcoins as payment, then not so long that they will also gonna follow them. As of now the only stores and services that are accepting bitcoin payments are mostly in Africa because that's what most users posted here.

Do you think that's true? Well, half of the people in the world don't even have access to the Internet, and even if they heard about Bitcoin, how should they use it if they don't have the basics for it? The barriers you are talking about are primarily infrastructural, although of course there are also those mental barriers for most people who understand economics and finance only to the extent that they know what a bank card and a 4-digit PIN are for.


Forget any mainstream payment method in the sense that you will be able to pay with Bitcoin in every store and for every service, because that will probably never be achievable, especially in countries that strictly control their financial system, and besides, they are among the most populous countries in the world. Bitcoin will always be an alternative, and by no means some kind of coercion that should be imposed by any state or individual.

Emergence of Bitcoin had unleashed the authenticity of banking system. And these banks are running way back like from start. It would not be an easy task to shift people from traditional banks to modern finance. All We and you can do is to spread awareness and before spreading awareness among your friends and relatives you should also know the basics. So that, you do not feel bad when they hit a question you do not know. I would like to suggest you some basic concepts that you might choose to start a conversation about btc or crypto among relatives and friends who are not familiar with the truth of digital finance.

• Start from, Blockchain and how does it work along with the uses of blockchain
• If your audience is not a techy one, then teach them the working of Web 1 and Web 2 at least because they must have used these technologies.
• Web1 and Web2 must gave them the idea then move to the centralization and decentralization mechanism and ask them what could be the possible pros and cons of these system might be
• Then try to explain blockchain again, but now teach them the basic functioning too like how crypto uses blockchain for decentralization. How it provides you the full custody of your assets and how no other person could tamper with the information of yours in smart contract ( teach them about smart contract too)
• Once you tell them the basic. Move to use cases of block. i must say tell them the basic 5 use cases of blockchain
• These applications of blockchain will open there eye and they could be able to predict the potential of btc and blockchain that it could have.

Because once i am also run away from blockchain and BTC. WHY? Because i did not know these basic questions and one more thing i must include. I was not sure that this work is halal or haram, (These are terms related to my Religion Islam) I can interpret them for your understanding. Halal means Good and Haram means not good. That simple. So as a newbie i do not have the resources and do know where to look and what to look.

So in 2018 i started cloud mining but left it. How i started that's a dumb question. because i only fall prey to scams. So i left it. after 2 years in 2020. One of my friend explains me the basics of blockchain and crypto he invested his time in me. he open zoom app and started to teach me free of cost. for that i am thankful. But ITs just a hint story for you. To get started and instead of ignoring there comments about thnigs that they do not know and you know that. Then i must say its your work to tell them the rights and wrongs so that they could meet up with the pace of technology.