Topic: what hinders bitcoin to become a mainstream currency? - page 4. (Read 46188 times)

False.

Bitcoin is structurally not fit to become a mainstream currency. The reason you have mentioned in not the main roadblocks, let me point out , why! Remember, money is produced by the government and government controls its flow to the masses. Also the value of any money is backed up by an asset like gold. Do you find any similarity with bitcoin here? No!

Bitcoin is not generated by government and not backed up by any asset. Only public trust is what we got for bitcoin. So bitcoin looks good as an investment or a method of online transactions where government doesn’t have much to do. Bitcoin is not meant to become a mainstream currency, take it as an investment and prosper in life. 

I think the other alt coins, or the changing value of dollars. I believe that even though alt coins are being converted unto it, some people want other alt coins rather than bitcoin, but I dont even know why.

Bitcoin haven't reached majority of population. This is one that hinders bitcoin go as a mainstream currency. Even this cannot be indicated because bitcoin is too young to reach the entire population in a short time of around 8years.

I think that is not possible at this time, later not known, but the tax is the revenue of all countries

As a "daily means of payment", bitcoin is a clunky solution looking for a problem that almost doesn't exist.  In most countries where people have sufficient computer means, network means, education, .... to even be able to use bitcoin, there are modern fiat means of payment in place with which bitcoin cannot compete in terms of ease of use, legal protection, rapidity, generality, reliability, security, and yes, cost.
The "cost of a daily transaction" is in most of these places, negligible as compared to the taxes one has to pay on the transaction (value added tax, income tax, ...), you can pay with your credit card in a store, it takes 10 seconds, and what's more important: if there's a dispute, you have legal recourse.  If there's a computer mistake, you're not accountable.  If you've been stolen, you will get refunded.

All these are things that bitcoin payments cannot provide, if even technically bitcoin were capable to handle this kind of payment, which it isn't:
- at the moment, bitcoin can handle only about 4 transactions per second world wide
- you have to use the software correctly
- if you send you bitcoins by mistake, there's no recourse
- if you want to be sure that your transaction is taken into account, you have to wait a multiple of 10 minutes
- you need network connectivity (not only the store needs it, you need it too)
- you need to secure your wallet, as you are entirely responsible for any form of theft.

On top of that, bitcoin's price is volatile with respect to the price of things you want to buy.

All this makes that bitcoin is not solving any issue for most people, who already have a better solution to that.

Bitcoin is useful, however, for all those things where you cannot do the thing with fiat, or where it is difficult, risky or expensive to do with fiat.  In other words, in unregulated or illegal environments, bitcoin is an interesting means of payment.  Bitcoin used to be used also if privacy was a concern, but people are slowly finding out that bitcoin is a worse night mare on that side than fiat.  Fiat, as long as it is used legally, is pretty private.  It is not anonymous against law enforcement, but it is perfectly private against your employer, your neighbour, Google, or a Chinese hacker.  Bitcoin isn't.

So no, as compared to fiat, bitcoin is a clunky solution to an essentially non-existent problem for far most people.  It does have a niche application for all those payments where fiat cannot go, and where all difficulties in using bitcoin over fiat are acceptable.

But the main application of bitcoin is "greater fool game".  Most people holding bitcoin are in the belief (correctly until at a certain point) that they will be able to sell their coins for more fiat than the amount of fiat they bought them for ; that is, in finding a greater fool than themselves when acquiring their coins.

I think the main obstacle in bitcoin becoming the mainstream currency is its volatility. Bitcoin's volatility makes it awkward as a cash substitute.  Every transaction is a gamble.  For the seller, they must add enough to cover possible losses between the time they make the sale and the time they then either spend the bitcoin or trade it for fiat currency.

Of course the scaling issue that has been causing continual disruption to the market price of bitcoin. I think this is foremost factor that been hindering us for the last couple of years for bitcoin to be really mass adopted globally. I agree with you that Japan is leading the way for bitcoin to be used by a lot of people globally.

volatility, age and adoption.
that is all the things that are "slowing down" the process. when price changes a lot as in big swings and the media is full of propaganda against bitcoin then regular people get scared of wanting to try bitcoin out. you know people love their money and don't want to lose it.
which is why it is a slow process and taking a long time.

although Japan is seemingly getting ahead of the rest of the world and they are reaching that stage.

You are right about mainstream. Just like the US dollar.

For faster transactions and lower fees, segwit need to be activated and it is quite not sure when all this political drama over block size debate will end so that we will get segwit and LN afterwards.

regulation, come to my mind first, after all amazon and other are not accepting bitcoin because of no proper regulation, japan did experienced an increase after they regulated and accepted it as a payment

if every government follow what japan did, you can be assured that bitcoin will be successful

The question needs to be clarified before it can be answered.

By mainstream currency, do you mean fiat currency? If you do here's the reason it can't happen:


By mainstream currency, do you mean a regularly used means of exchange used by the masses? If you do then it depends on government regulations and acceptance.

Japan for example is becoming more open to Bitcoin than any other country. The U.S. treats Bitcoin more like a commodity and has stiff laws against making a competing currency. In the U.S. a man named Bernard von NotHaus was found guilty of counterfeiting charges for minting and distributing a form of private money called the Liberty Dollar. There are ways around that problem even in the U.S., during the Great Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage. Scrip is legal but, by law, may not resemble federal bills or be promoted as legal tender of the United States. That's kind of where Bitcoin is now but people have always been hesitant to accept scrip as they would government fiat. It will take some time for wider acceptance to happen because trust must be established first.

You're right, Bitcoin could serve all the functions of money you outline. It could be a medium of exchange, a unit of account, and a store of value. Widespread use as those functions depends on governments regulation of Bitcoin (or lack of), the individuals willingness to accept scrip instead of their local fiat, and bitcoins continued evolution. Right now, today, Bitcoin isn't ready for the job.

Education is good, but it can not change the fact tt btc is often associated with crimes, tax evasion, ML. 

nothing, were about to become mainstream. enjoy !  

Security should be a major stepping stone, if major exchanges can't secure their coins, how will my Granny manage it?  Crime doesn't really matter, it is used as an excuse. People commit crime with cash, crypto and bank transfer.

Inflation also isn't really an issue in a growing market. My 1 bitcoin is worth more than it was, even though it has been 'reduced' in value by inflation.

I think you missed scalability and the lack of a true need! They are 2 major issues, people don't see why they should use Bitcoin.

The only thing standing in Bitcoin's way now is global governments. They are so closely linked to the fiat banking systems that they cannot distance themselves from it. The fiat banking system is the building blocks of the financial world and a system that helped to keep some governments in power.

They also help these governments to control and monitor individuals with their private internal ledger systems.

Once these governments break away from these traditional systems, we might have a much better future. ^smile^

That not enough people use it or know about it and some countries prevent BTC from spreading across.That for me are the biggest reasons,also the misunderstanding about BTC that some people have.That's why it's good for us to have campaigns about BTC where it is explained in an easy and understandable way because many people hear about BTC but don't associate it with something positive

Totally agree with you, Government, they want control of your life but with Bitcoin, they lose this control. I believe they are just fighting a lost battle

It needs a lot of time. It has many flaws that needs to be fixed. When it becomes a mainstream currency many users will be using it, but with these many users, it needs fast transactions and lower fees,