Pursuer -
1. Volatility is still a huge problem. You say it is becoming less common with $200 price jumps but yesterday August 19th it was trading at $4,038 at one point, then last night it was at $4,232, before tumbling down again to $4,115... that's still a kind of wide range to be in. Especially since 2 days antecedent on the 17th it was $4,510.
2. Warren Buffett is an investing genius. I have studied Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA, BRKB) There are REAL reasons behind why it BRKA went from $19 dollars in 1964 when Warren Buffett took over to what it is today. You can NOT compare Bitcoin to Berkshire. In the latest quarter Berkshire reported 90 billion dollars of surplus cash. Not including all the companies they own stock in. The entire Bitcoin market cap is worth less than 69 billion. There's no comparison. One is what people believe in, they believe in Bitcoin, therefore the price is what it is and the other is a real company making billions of dollars daily. Plus it wasn't 0.001 cents a share, it was $19 in 1964 which adjusted to 2017 inflation is $150.52, which even by today's standards is expensive for a lot of people.
Warren Buffet "Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically...The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is a joke in my view."
3. If the USA and/or Japan ban Bitcoin it's basically done. There would be no coming back from it. If the majority of people stop using it for fear of prison time, the countries that haven't banned it would not be enough behind it to drive the price up to what it is today. It would die out quickly. Of course that's only a scenario of what if... but that what if question doesn't come to my mind in stocks. Something that's been here since 1817 in the USA and proven to work for the better part of the last 200 years.
4. Yes, coinbase is making it easier, but you're missing the point. I wasn't asking for the average person to become a bitcoin miner, I was asking the average person to use bitcoin. Most can't figure it out. Everyone on this forum can but I'm on a bitcoin forum, but if I was to ask a person for their smartphone and download Coinbase for them and put 100,000 Satoshi in their wallet and said okay go buy something from a vendor that accepts Bitcoin they would probably be confused without being taught how to use it. It's not as easy as swiping a card, and I think this is going to be something that would be an obstacle to overcome in the future. Maybe it can be, but it's something that will have to be taught how to be used and not come natural to most people.... and for that reason I'm out. ( lol )
5. You'll have to bring that up with the HVAC man, I thought he was trustworthy? I guess not. Sorry my example of how my credit card company saved me $1,250 is weird for you.
6. I heard people have done it before? I haven't but I read comments online, maybe things changed? I don't know. I guess I should've did more research on that one but I still think if you did send to the wrong wallet you should be able to recover your funds.
8. Maybe Japan can afford not to tax people? I know the USA is tax hungry and they're even starting to make people that come into the USA declare if they have over $10,000 in cryptocurrencies before they can even come into the USA. It's been a law forever in the USA that you had to declare over $10,000 in cash for tax purposes, now this. They want to control us in any possible way and tax us for anything. I don't agree with it, but it is what it is.
9. I'm not a hacker, but again, read quite a few stories of people putting coins in different wallets in fear of being hacked because there were many that did get hacked. One guy said he got hacked and lost many coins but when he reported it to the police, the police didn't take it seriously because at the time Bitcoin wasn't worth much as they are today and now he basically lost a fortune. I'm not sure the ratio of people being hacked vs credit cards stolen, of course the latter is a lot higher due to the pure volume and acceptance of credit cards, but you're missing the point on that one. I had my credit card stolen once before and someone put $300 on it before it got blocked. ( they blocked it so it couldn't be used anymore, something else bitcoin can not do ) and my credit card company realized the fraud and refunded me my $300...
Maybe I shouldn't have said most are scammers, but it can't be denied that many are. It brings new ways for scammers to hurt people since it's harder to put an ID to their actual wallet and it's non-refundable. I am sure Bill Gates has received death and extortion threats in the past, but it's pretty low when you go after a dying man and his family - During the last year of his life, the Finneys received anonymous calls demanding an extortion fee of 1,000 bitcoin. They became victims of swatting — a hoax "where the perpetrator calls up emergency dispatch using a spoofed telephone number and pretends to have committed a heinous crime in the hopes of provoking an armed police response to the victim’s home" Again, scammers are everywhere, but it just seems like a new place for scammers to come to. Doesn't mean everyone is, but if the system was corrected this would be less of an issue.
Hitlab - I agree that it could help out in situations like Venezuela. I have quite a few friends from Venezuela, none of them mentioned bitcoin to me and one of them has a candy store and her dad owns a grocery store. ( so they have food unlike many there ) and they don't accept bitcoin. I am sure many do but as of now still the main currency people accept is BsF despite the inflation rates. Right now 1 dollar buys 16,256 BSF approximately on the blackmarket, and back in March it was around $1 for 4,500 BsF and then it dropped into the 2,200 range and my friend said to me that she was trying to get the BsF together now so she could buy back some USD on the black market to save for her and her son to leave Venezuela. She didn't mention buying USD to buy bitcoin. I think her main goal is to just get out of that country, as with everyone. As soon as Venezuela starts to calm down and get back on the right track ( hopefully soon, because it's bad there right now ) and North Korea starts to act right ( again, hopefully soon. ) I believe people will start to have more trust in governments again. Although Trump might be an issue too... but that's a completely different topic I'm not wanting to touch.
Edit:
Also something I missed in my first post I know the internet changes some things but imagine if you started to print currency out of your house and distribute it somehow to people. The government would flip. It would be illegal within the first hour even if you said it's decentralized the fact is you printed off a currency and then imagine trying to spend this new currency you just made at stores. It's the same in theory what's happened here which is why I'm sure Satoshi wanted to keep his identity hidden in the beginning for fear of what could happen.