Topic: One question nobody is asking... - page 2. (Read 2717 times)

Too funny for words.

You actually have some reasonable answers here from members of the bitcoin community that you simply ignore for fear of oversimplifying your own nonsense argument about self-driving cars and people writing checks.

Is your issue with bitcoin, or is there no support line for your phone company?

I am not too worry about this. If anyone wants to be connected, it is very easy to get internet to anywhere in the world. Although speed maybe limited, we only need very slow speed for bitcoin transactions to be broadcasted!

As for the unbanked populations, it will be much easier to bring internet to them, compared to bring the Banks to them.

You have absolutely no idea what my point was because you are so wrapped up inside it. You are living in a VERY small community, and I am saying that the rest of us aren't even close yet.

at one part of your OP you are talking with the mindset of a one world currency. which in and of itself is not a good thing. choice and freedom is better. so trying to force people to get the internet and then force them to use bitcoin wont work.

bitcoin is already 150 of 200 real currencies of the world based on market cap. and its achieving this not by becoming a dominent currency, not by becoming a government used currency(fiat). and not by using pressure.

for instance in africa the majority of their economy IS based on cellular phone access to funds (mpesa). so bitcoin can work even in third world countries

there are over 1 billion mobile broadband (3g/4g) connections in the world and 5 billion cell phones with active lines in the world.
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/mobile-phone-world-population-2014/

there are over 3.1billion internet subscriptions
http://www.statista.com/statistics/273018/number-of-internet-users-worldwide/

so try not to think that bitcoin only has usage to 1% of the world. it has potential of 50% of the world.


and to get to your point. if all you care about is the FIAT valuation of bitcoin, then thats just a speculative user and not a true bitcoin user.
anyone who just wants to hold a currency purely for future profits can find a numerous amount of other assets to invest in.

bitcoins users should not be trying to push users into bitcoin out of promises of riches. but on its real utility. the deflationary nature is just a bonus.

so if you tweak your mindset and realise that todays 2million of 7billion (0.028%) has alot of potential for growth for speculators, as i said 0.028 to 50% is alot of multiples 2000x infact. so relax on the speculation.

and instead think about the utility.

getting people into bitcoin does not need to blind them with science of mining or c++ code. you just need to tell them to down load an app from circle, coinbase etc to buy in and then use a different app to secure the funds and use them without the corporate control.

I doubt that full internet connectivity is required to let Bitcoin take off. look at how large the connected world is, Bitcoin has so much untapped customers in that area, why venture into new areas when there is an untapped reserve around. before we can talk about educating relative less developed countries on the beauty of bitcoin, we should target more technologically savvy people first. Even amongst users of the Internet not many know, use or trust bitcoins

Yes, that is the first part of what I was saying. However, the second part was that even IF a person gets access to the internet, the convincing it will take to get people to turn their paycheck into a QR code will be near impossible in the foreseeable future.

There is YOUR world, and there is the non connected world. I am arguing that the non connected/ intimidated world is much larger than people on this forum believe.

Never mind. This is the exact mindset that I am talking about.

For some people, bitcoin will just be like western union.  Convert from fiat to bitcoin and send to another part of the world and then convert back.  In fact western union could do this without the customer even knowing.  Banks could use bitcoin in a similar way.  I just think bitcoin can be used along with other currencies.

I somewhat agree with the OP....I live in the mountains of California so there are places that are blacked out completely.  However, we're talking about the United States here with it's somewhat unique economical system.  We pay for what we want here....so, satellite service, while available in most areas, is costly.  In other regions of the world their economic system is different, so many have access to the internet via satellite or local "hotspots" which are provided to them by their economic structure.  There are also foundations, such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which not only provide satellite access in these regions but also provide the devices to connect to them as well.

So, yes, there are many spots in the US where access to the internet is precarious, but that's mostly a result of our economic system.  The world is pretty much blanketed by satellite service....whether or not one utilizes that service is just a matter of economics.  The same with prescription drugs in the US; they are available to us here in the US with a huge overhead, but they're cheap, if not free, in other regions.  The fact that internet service is difficult for some of us to connect to in the US is further evidence that our economic system needs to be decentralized.

to be a miner you need reliable and constant internet... and millions of dollars invested in equipment. and so if you can afford the ASICS then getting a couple satalite units tethered together is no issue

to be a full node requires reliable and constant internet... and the desire and motivation to not just be a user but to be a dedicated part of the network. there is no reason for everyone to be dedicated. and with an estimated 2mill people only 0.3% are running nodes. so i would say 0.3%-1% is a sufficient about of decentralized distribution ongoing.

as for regular users. if you have no internet then you wont know, want or need bitcoin. but even if you have basic internet just to write stuff on this forum. then you have enough internet capability to run a phone app/lite client.

Yes, that is sort of what I was saying. However, the second part is trust. Right now, the easiest way to purchase BTC is probably Coinbase. By easiest, I mean both simplicity and not intimidating. Local bitcoins does not look professional enough yet. The website looks like a scam to a newbie.

To purchase BTC on Coinbase, you have to supply a checking account number. That is also intimidating for most people. That is a huge, huge, obstacle.

Yes, this will change as tech progresses, but that isn't my point. My point is that for people that do not routinely use the internet, there is no way they are going to trust it with their money. You might as well ask them to go swimming in a pond full of piranhas.

Most of the people I know around my community still don't trust Amazon. They are intimidated by typing a credit card number on the computer.

Actually, I shouldn't say most. That is an exaggeration. I know a lot of people that are afraid to use Amazon.

I think this is indeed an issue that any digital currency will need some sort of connectivities to work. Like what have been discussed, many companies are working on this with ideas such as wifi drones.

Let's look at the telephone network- just 100 years ago not many people has even heard of it... But now it is everywhere... This is just like the blocksize debate that, with time will solve itself.

This is the reason I believe that fiat currencies will always be needed even if bitcoin is around forever.  There is a place for both to exist.

Bigger picture? Um, if I am 4 hours from NYC and I don't have reliable internet in 2016, who is missing the bigger picture?

Technology only changes quickly when there is a market to exploit, "mate."

The cost to bring high speed internet to remote areas is still too expensive relative to the potential profit.

People in Africa may have access to internet, just like I have ACCESS to internet. Access isn't the issue.

In order for this to be used as a currency, a person needs to be able to carry it with them. I sincerely doubt that rural areas in Africa are carrying a smartphone.

Moreover, IF this technology somehow makes its way into rural areas, it will be another several years before people trust enough to turn their money into a QR code.

There are many many more years to go before there are any real gains in bitcoin.

And I'll bet my BTC that the current price is higher than the ten percent. It'll take a lot more than 10 percent adoption to see the gains you think you'll see.

I've got family in Africa. You'd be pretty goddamn amazed where great coverage appears. I agree that it's kinda shitty in a lot of places but that's gonna change.

Exactly. If it is a problem in some locations in USA, just imagine in less advanced coutries. But internet adoption will be enough to consider it an absolute success.

I have actually thought of this and I agree that it is somewhat of a legitimate concern especially for third world countries where it is very difficult to access the internet with a speed good enough for doing stuff with Bitcoin. There are several unrelated projects which work to get internet access to everyone such as Google's Project Loon. However, I think the Bitcoin community should come up with their own project for Bitcoin specifically.

I think we should make a Bitcoin Radio network where nodes can connect to each other over radio to relay blocks and transactions. If we get a few cubesats then this radio network can be spread across the world and used for connecting people to Bitcoin without the need for internet.

Bitcoin is still in a phase that cannot support mainstream adoption, the mempool gets clogged even with 3 transactions per second if they keep coming for a decent amount of time. There's a lot of discussion about this scalability issue at the moment and hopefully we'll see it being addressed in a viable way. On the plus side, pushing a bitcoin transaction (if you have the software installed on your machine) doesn't use up that much bandwidth, so someone could transact bitcoin in most of the world with a data plan and a mobile device.