Topic: How much closer is Bitcoin to being mainstream? - page 3. (Read 1222 times)

We may have seen many developments related to bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general but I think we are still not that near yet to being mainstreamed. Though there are other countries that legalized bitcoin, there are others who are banning it. Some countries are ahead in technology while in other countries even electricity in some places are lacking so it would be hard for it to be mainstreamed.

As we are already part of the crypto world, it seems that we are getting closer to it but if I ask people randomly if they knew about bitcoin, many don't still have an idea what it is. Step by step we may be able to reach the day cryptocurrency will become mainstream.

Not at all close before the China exchange ban, and even further after that. To be fair, though, China's actions kind of acknowledge Bitcoin's growth, in a way. It is making waves so to speak. We currently have a problem of a few groups/individuals holding a large percentage of coins such that a little cause of panic can cause these players to move, and the market along with them. We also have people like Dimon who tries to manipulate the market for enormous gains. A larger population base holding coins should alleviate these problems somewhat, making Bitcoin value more stable, and then we can go from there. I believe volatility is really the only big hurdle for Bitcoin to become mainstream.

As of now, it is not even close for bitcoin to become mainstream because if bitcoin is mainstream right now then we don't need to worry for the price of bitcoin because it will pump more and more because of the demands that are coming from different parts of the world because of being mainstream, bitcoin still needs to prove something before it gets mainstream.

Hopefully soon, users who continue to increase make very strong bitcoin. besides the support from the government will soon accelerate bitcoin to being mainstream.

I think we are one step away from it being mainstream. However, one needs to consider the cycles Bitcoin needs to go through first, as the "next" step may still be one to two years away.

The first cycle was from Bitcoin's inception to the Nov 2013 high of $1000. This period included pretty much the computer nerds and hobbyists, and eventually some tech savoy investors. The later's involvement propelled Bitcoin into the wider world of public awareness, but with the peak and bursting of the initial bubble much of its early momentum was lost.

The second period, that we are in now, many people have seen the first rise and fall of Bitcoin and may have gotten in because they decided to ride the on the way up. I think many are now starting to see the writing on the wall and may be selling their assets in anticipation of another crash. I don't think the crash will be as severe as in 2014, but it will still hurt a lot of people. Once this next period is over and Bitcoin is sub $1000 for some time, probably at least a year, will people start getting in again once it stabilized and hopefully rises again with more restraint.

In the meantime, 1 to 2 years, hopefully more establishment type of exchanges come online that are following regulations of their respective governments so as to eliminate much of the current drama and probably much of the "mainstreams" hesitation to get into Bitcoin. Once it is not subject to being shutdown or banned simply on a whim of a government, or the exchanges are not so shady as to simply vanish overnight, then the more mom and pop type investors will start to enter.

As far as day to day usability, we will need more and some major merchants to start accepting Bitcoin directly, giants such as Amazon, Walmart, as well as most online stores will need to make taking crypto payments as easy as they now offer credit card payments. Again, much of this will depend on how much larger exchanges and possibly banks deal with Bitcoin and of course the surround government regulations that are sure to be in place by then.

Depends on what you consider 'mainstream'. By mainstream, do you mean widely used by everyone in the world? Then we're very very far away. If you mean mainstream coin within cryptos? Then bitcoin has always been mainstream. It depends on what you define mainstream as.

Yes using it regularly is a sign of mainstream and bitcoin is going on that if the different country continue to accept bitcoin as a legal payment method. It would be a helpful currency for everyone if this make a legal payment method because the money that you hold via bitcoin will grow even there is a high transaction fee.

Still a while to go before bitcoin is mainstream. When people are using it regularly like fiat for their usual everyday purchases, without thinking twice about the fact that they are using it.

Same with computers and the internet. Before they became mainstream, when people first started using them, they were like, "Oh wow, I'm using a personal computer and I can surf the world wide web. AOL is so cool."

Nowadays, we take computers and the internet for granted Everyone has a device with access to the internet. And we don't really think much about it when we use the internets and apps on whatever devices we have. That's when you know something is mainstream. When it is so ubiquitous and widely used, that people don't even think about the fact they are using it. They simply just use it without any extra thought.

I think it is still a far way away. I think that is still a good thing since it gives us early adopters a chance to gather as many bitcoin as we can before it goes mainstream and be rich. 

It is already mainstream, haha!

You gauge a lot of "progress" for Bitcoin by determining whether or not people are actually using it, and one major incident, such as walking to your local grocer and seeing that they are accepting Bitcoin, would be a pretty good indicator of how Bitcoin is doing on the world stage, and how it is being integrated into the rest of the economy. If you start seeing people talking about Bitcoin or paying with Bitcoin very consistently, then you know for a fact that it has become "mainstream". Beyond that there isn't much.

Nah... Bitcoin has become more widely known and people are just starting to realize that there might be something to it, that's true. But it's still quite far from mainstream, albeit we're slowly getting there.

Knowing about something and using it are two very different things. A lot of people knew about cars, computers and the internet before the general populace started using them.

PayPal's market cap is a useless metric in this regard, unfortunately. It will be mainstream once the userbase is the size of PayPal.

not very close. It all comes down to fees. If fees are low people may just start using it for paying for food etc. That way it will become common knowledge.

Much closer thanks to Japan, but still not close enough. You can see that there are people working every single day to take us there, but it really is a struggle.
Bitcoin is facing many obstacles on its way and may never reach a goal of becoming a secondary currency, though I'd just like to see it accepted worldwide. Not as a mainstream currency, but like a foreign one. For the people to know what it is and how to use it and be able to transact if needed.

I think about the next 5 years, people who know bitcoin will be more and more, bitcoin will become more famous and mainstream than now , and will used in life everyday ..

I think bitcoin is far away from being mainstream and I gauge that by looking at the current number of users it has now. It can also be clearly seen that it is far from being mainstream not just because of the current number of users, but because bitcoin still has it's bad image to some people. They think bitcoin is illegal money or whatsoever so for bitcoin to be mainstream, it needs to be made clear to them that btc is safe and good to use. Besides that, it needs more exposure.

I think we are very close. I see a handful of restaurants accepting bitcoins in the US. Cryptocurrency is the future and I believe it will continue to gain popularity as our economy struggles.

Press releases are doing nothing other than inside the crypto community. The average Joe who never heard about Bitcoin etc is not going to read coindesk etc...
Comparing with paypal marketcap is so useless and oesn't bring anything valuable

It's far from mainstream.

This is bad and good news.

It's good news because the price still has a long way to go, to reflect mainstream.

One of the ways to gauge it is regulatory involvement and institutional investment options. These things tend to be purely reactive; they are not the "early adopters" of a technology. The fact that Bitcoin is getting so much attention from these groups (e.g. CFTC formally registering LedgerX for swap execution, or the new Bitcoin ETF to be listed on Canadian markets) says that it is definitely here to stay.

Commodities market insiders are also indicating that the SEC is getting closer to approving an ETF in the US as well. Once that happens, a big potential pool of investors could have access to BTC options.