I think it is a matter of time before the virtual currency connects with the modern world. M-pesa (African mobile money) has revolutionized the way payments are sent (was created out of necessity). How soon until we see some form of a virtual money being used by everyone else?
I also think that bitcoin has not been used by every single person who hears about it, because they might not fully understand it. Might be hard to teach people about the addresses and other things (unless they took the time to research it on their own).
Things like credit/debit cards are also used instead of cash. I do not know if bitcoin will be the one, but it will probably be, or maybe another virtual currency.
Reguardless the current price or FUD, I believe virtual currency is a great application and might be used in the real world scenario (in greater numbers than before)
Yep.
But screw phones, imagine a (not too distant) future where you have a watch with an embedded hardware wallet. You're in a store, and as you pass your hand/arm across the embedded barcode of the item you wish to purchase, the price comes up. You push a button on your hardware wallet and the price is accepted in your queue. The item is queued up for purchase in the store's app payment system. You put the item in your shopping cart. You continue shopping this way until you are done. At any point in time, you can remove something from your payment queue. Once you're ready to leave the store, at the door the store's payment & security system "scans" your cart to verify that you have queued up all the items for payment that are in your shopping cart (compares payment queue with the items' embedded barcodes), and asks you "Are you ready to checkout?" You push 'yes' on your watch's wallet payment system, and you just made your purchase in bitcoin (or some other virtual currency). You just paid, and the store's door security system gives you the green light to leave. You walk out the door with your purchases and your receipt.
No long lines to check out, no POS workers to deal with at all.
I have one of those watches on preorder!