Topic: The only serious issue with Bitcoin is (Read 262 times)

Many issues you mentioned are the price of decentralized system & fundamental difference between Bitcoin and fiat.

As for Simplicity & Ease of use, there are attempt to fix it such as more user-friendly wallet which usually involves security trade-off or custodial wallet.


It's tall order, there are 2 problem which hardly can be fixed :
1. Bitcoin legality as currency or payment method
2. Bitcoin volatile price

We shouldn’t confuse cause and effect in the scalability problem of bitcoin using. The problem isn’t purchasing, the problem is where to spend it. It is necessary to increase the points of bitcoins reception in real life. The bigger the infrastructure, the more people using bitcoin. Then, over time, simplicity will be better too. There are two main problems with the usability of bitcoin: transaction fees and confirmation time. LN development trying to solve this problem. But now, people are willing to pay for that and waiting more, because this creates more security.
If we talk about bitcoin like money, it shall perform all features of money.
As a measure of value and a unit of account, it is already used. There is a problem with the medium of exchange. When bitcoin will be accepted as payment for all goods purchased, it will be full-fledged money.

A lot of the population don't understand how cash works but still use it every day. What we need to achieve this with Bitcoin is simplify the "outer shell" rather than the inner core of Bitcoin. We can do this by simplifying how we receive and send Bitcoin which I think is already being done with the current atms and debit cards which work with Bitcoin. We already have systems in place to simplify the process of spending and receiving Bitcoin. Bitcoin atms work just like that of a normal atm as well as Bitcoin debit cards functioning just like a normal debit card.

Bitcoin might be complex behind the scenes and will forever remain so just like the cash system but we can definitely simplify it on a consumer level.

Simplicity. Ease of use. That is the only long term problem I see with Bitcoin that cannot easily be fixed. Fundamentally Bitcoin is a highly complex system which requires technical skills which may seem intimidating to those that are new to cryptocurrency. I also think seasoned vets within the computing industry don't fully understand the system and how the Blockchain is the most inspiring and promising part about Bitcoin.

Despite its existing problems such as the size of the Blockchain, transaction fees, stability, and other things such as a reputation for criminals using the cryptocurrency. All of these problems can be either fixed over time or fixed immediately.

 The size of the blockchain and the cost of hosting a node will continue to rise and become an expense that most people will not be willing to do. But he fact that Bitcoin keeps rising and that nodes are required to keep the system operational and more secure there will be a good enough reason to do so. Also with emerging technologies we should see storage systems get cheaper and bigger over time. Potentially looking at ways of reducing the size of the blockchain could also be looked at and I'm confident in the future this will be a problem of the past.

Transaction fees are expensive and because of the way the price falls and rises over time and how often it does it can seem like a waste to pay expensive transaction fees. We see less and less transactions when the price of Bitcoin rises and thus the transaction fees rise however this is a problem for Bitcoins stability because for the value to remain high we need people holding, transacting, and selling/buying. This is what drives the market of supply and demand. Despite this issue transaction fees can be scaled and Bitcoin could be scaled in the future so that transaction fees are lower. There is also the option of using Segwit2x which has proved to be a worthwhile investment for those that send micro or regular transactions.

Currently people are automatically suspicious of Bitcoin because of all the news articles out there that point out the bad bits about Bitcoin and to be honest this is going to have an effect if our goal is using Bitcoin in every day life. However as times goes on and we have more reputable companies accepting Bitcoin and more reputable celebrities endorsing Bitcoin we should see an increase in its reputation and hopefully ditch this "criminals use Bitcoin" view point that much of the western world has.

Despite all of this there is a fundamental problem with Bitcoin if we are aiming to become a mainstream currency and that's simply simplicity. In its current state the Blockchain, exchanges, transaction fees, and mining is too complex for your every day grandma at the superstore. Which in turn could prevent us from becoming a main stream currency and in fact I think this is the biggest reason why we don't see more people buying into Bitcoin. Anyone who hasn't heard of Bitcoin will probably ask you "how do you buy Bitcoin" or "how do you sell bitcoin" or "how do you store Bitcoin". These are questions that can seem complex to an ordinary person who doesn't know anything about Bitcoin and wants to get into it. The complex answer which follows these questions will likely put off most people interested in it which is a massive problem if we are to ever become a mainstream currency.

So my question to the Bitcointalk community is how would we go about simplifying Bitcoin for an every day consumer?