Topic: What is the biggest problem in crypto currencies? - page 5. (Read 6835 times)

I think the biggest problem in cryptocurrencies is the fact that the vast majority of users still see them means of speculation (buy - hold - sell) rather than currencies (earn - spend).

Synchronization is only needed by the client long full connection like Bitcoin Core. Technically, synchronization is the process of downloading and verifying all Bitcoin transactions previously on the network. Some Bitcoin client needs to pay attention to all the previous transactions to calculate the remaining balance on your Bitcoin wallet and create a new transaction. This step can require a lot of resources, bandwidth and storage enough to accommodate a full-size block chain. In order to stay safe Bitcoin, some people should still use the full client connections because they served to validate and submit the transaction.

Hi, thanks for your opinion. What do you think that these "killer aps" should look like? What do you think is wrong with existing SW or HW solutions? Is there somethink what can be improved and if so, what is it? I think that SW wallets are not easy to use, it is still too "hacker app" for normal BFU users.

Service? I was talking about something the merchant can implement. A piece of software so that they wouldn't have to use Bitpay/Coinbase and could interact direct with the exchange. The merchant runs this themselves accepting BTC directly, and they'll save the Coinbase/Bitpay fees and not have to depend on them.

I agree with what you are saying, but you are in essence asking someone to develop and maintain a service, but not get paid for it.  Whenever a service is provided, some sort of fee is typically going to have to be paid.

Ok how about this. How about instead of going around telling merchants to use Bitpay, we make a system that allows merchants to accept BTC, but automatically sells the BTC as soon as it is received via an exchanges API So the merchant can do the same thing as with bitpay: accept BTC and get fiat into their bank account, but instead of having Bitpay as a middleman it interacts direct with the exchanges via an API.

You have to remember that the merchant STILL has to integrate Bitpay. Integrating something like this is almost exactly the same as integrating Bitpay except this does not have the fee, extra unnecessary third party risk and (negative) the locked in exchange price.

Sure they have the risk of having to deal with an exchange, but this is much better than the risks when working through Bitpay/Coinbase. If the exchange gets hacked/scammed/poor managment they can temporarily hodl while they switch to another exchange. With Coinbase/Bitpay their entire bitcoin payment system can go offline.

Additionally it's up to the merchant what information they decide to share with third parties about their customers, so that will put a spanner in the works of the latest "attack" on Coinbase with the stringent AML requirements and data mining.

Whats the point of going slow when it isn't really a big step? Accepting BTC directly isn't some huge technical challenge like many would have you think.

dude, i know 100% that you have not successfully got merchants to accept bitcoin directly through your actions. and when that day comes where you have to actually talk to a human about accepting something they know nothing about. you will soon learn.

telling a merchant to accept bitcoin manually, to then hoard it himself and only cash out at the last minute to buy new stock is not how you do it. Seriously, you will never make it as a salesman.

again the bitpay thing. imagine it as a demo, a pre-run. part of the merchants beta test just to see how his customers interact whn its time to pay. at this point ALL THE GOD DAMN MERCHANT SEE's and NEEDS TO SEE is how to get a bitcoin address, show it to a customer and get the customer to pay. and know he will get FIAT to restock his shelves

GET IT, thats stage 1 again its the live demo/ pre-run showing the merchant how easy it is to accept bitcoin customer. its just the dipping of the toe in the water...

THEN i will say it once more THEN when the merchant as stuck his toe in the water, then you introduce him to the rest of the bitcoin benefits and let him choose what options he wants to go with. you dont just get someone that has never touched bitcoin, to start downloading programs for websites he has not heard of, and then download plugins for his shopping cart, which may cost him money to get his web developer to add (after all most merchants are more of the manager experience not the technical stuff like webcoding).

What we have is not identical to PayPal.  Bitcoin users cannot pay with bitcoin through PayPal and that is the whole point of services such as bitpay and coinbase.  Merchant services are just as much to the benefit of bitcoin users as it is to the benefit of the merchants themselves.  The incentive to the merchant initially is to open up their businesses to an entire new customer base:  bitcoin users.  They don't get that customer base through PayPal.  Also, bitcoin users have new places to spend their bitcoins.  Eventually, merchants may choose to keep some or all of their bitcoins, pay their bills in bitcoin, and pay their employees with bitcoin.  Baby steps first.

Theres too many of them. However, I like the ones that separate themselves, like Darkcoin, etc, but the btc and litecoin clones just have to go.

Pump and dump bullshit artists.

The problem is people isn't educated enough to handle this. Once people get it then it's simple. Of course we need better wallets, faster, less bloated and more secure.
People is also scared at the fact of lossing your hard drive = lossing your wealth.

They never accepted bitcoins, they accepted fiat from a payment processor.


Accepting USD from Coinbase isn't really "trying it out". It's just another BTC->USD gateway you can use to pay them with. You could've also used a bitcoin-accepting virtual credit card, one of those websites where you pay in BTC and they order it for you, or in some cases transferred funds to their bank direct from an exchange. The merchant doesn't even see the bitcoin address when you order from coinbase/bitpay if you order online and in-store bitcoin payments aren't really ready yet, the way we currently do it is bad with all the fumbling of electronic devices, some customers not paying enough tx fees leading to confusion and waiting for confirmations.

We have tons of retailers who accept USD from Bitpay/Coinbase now. I use both of those services so many times every single day when buying stuff.

There is very little techno babble involved in accepting BTC or using it, Gavin Andressen used to (don't know if he still does) check if his grandmother could use the bitcoin-core client without any help, and if she could it passed the usability test and she always could. All most merchants need to do to get setup is install an already available free and open source plugin for their eCommerce software in most cases.

When do you think it's a good idea to start telling merchants who are currently "accepting bitcoins" that they are in fact not doing so at all? if you ask me that time is WAY overdue. We need to ween the retailers away from these services because right now what we have is identical to PayPal and it is starting to show the same flaws PayPal has. In fact if you ask me, it could turn out worse than PayPal.

for me, merchant acceptance happens in 3 stages
1. show them the bitpay 1% fee method, where they simply get FIAT next day in their account simply by showing a QR code. then leave them for a while to have received a couple customers and seen how easy it is to accept bitcoins
2. show them how they can use their own addresses instead and cash out elsewhere, thus saving the 1% fee, and subtly explaining that they could hoard as an investment. and mention to them a few more details about bitcoins potential
3. if they show interest in hoarding coins then simply say "well dont cash out as much then" and then go into alot more detail about bitcoin

you simply DO NOT run at a FIAT merchant full speed throwing every bitcoin benefit and detail and techno babble at them before then have ever tried it. you also do not go into your first contact with a merchant with the mindset that they will be 100% investors at the first transaction.

its called being subtle, being smart and patient.

I'm sure if you ask most merchants who accept BTC most of them are unaware how easy it is for them to accept payments directly without a payment processor and also unaware of the benefits of doing so. This is my experience anyway.

And how much more difficult is it to integrate a wallet rather than an API? In reality not a whole lot.
Why don't we focus our energy on making it easier for merchants to accept bitcoin directly rather than preaching to them to use BitPay/Coinbase?

All we need is for Coinbase/Bitpay to get hacked or run away with the coins and it's game over, most of these merchants will never touch bitcoin again. And lets not forget that fairly serious issues were found in the coinbase website during the last vulnerability bounty programme. If this keeps up it'll end badly. It's already showing signs of bad things ahead with the recent Coinbase AML requirements. Coinbase IS the PayPal of bitcoin currently and there should not be a PayPal of bitcoin as bitcoin makes PayPal obsolete.

you dont throw someone that has never swam before, into the deep end and tell him its in his best interest to hold his breath.

instead you find the easiest way just to get him to try it, even if he aint going to use the pool ever again. atleast letting him get his toes wet he will see how easy it is to say "yes customer heres a QR code". once they have got their toes wet, then you introduce them to the art of swimming, diving in head first, or somersaulting into the deep end (investing).

another analogy
dont throw 5 eggs at him at once or he will just defend himself and the eggs will just hurt him and break. instead gently hand him one egg and and then a second egg.

As others have alluded to, end user security is the biggest problem IMO.  It would be nice if the bitcoin wizards could just program away the hackers and scammers and protect end users from themselves but that is easier said than done.  I do feel confident that eventually a hardware and/or software "killer app" solution will be designed to do this without the requirement of third party trust.

I have to agree here.   I fully understand that people need to be responsible for their own money (just like with cash), but I think security and the risk of theft is one of the major things that steers a lot of people away from cryptos...

Yes, the private keys are what actually needs to be cold stored etc. I used the term 'coin' just to make idea clear. For people who are unfamiliar with or new to Bitcoin, if I use the term 'private keys' instead of 'coins' then that may be difficult to understand.

When merchants are using these services, here is what happens in 90% of cases:

User buys Bitcoin from an exchange using his bank account
User places order with merchant.
User sends BTC to Coinbase.
Coinbase temporarily hold BTC and send it back to the exchange.
Coinbase sell the BTC and exchange sends money to their bank account.
Coinbase sends USD from their bank account to merchants bank account.
Merchant sends goods to user.

If you're going to tell all merchants to use services like bitpay/Coinbase, then why use Bitcoin at all?

Why not just send direct to the merchants bank account and avoid bitcoin altogether?

All this seems to do is expose the buyer to more fees and expose the merchant to unnecessary risk, as they have to trust Coinbase to send them the USD. They could be hacked, they could be goxxed (poor management leading to bankruptcy) or they could one day pull a massive scam, one of which is bound to happen one day to at least one of these services.

In addition Coinbase has recently implemented stringent AML requirements. They now require users of their wallet service to specify if a transaction is to a Bitcoin business and to give the businesses URL, information which can be used to do blockchain analysis and hinder the anonymity of everyone using bitcoin. And this is only going to get worse as these kind of services are put under more pressure to try and stamp out "money laundering". No doubt one day in the near future we will see Coinbase freezing accounts for AML issues.

Why should a merchant do all of that when it can accept BTC directly with no risk at all. Sure they have to trust an exchange if they wish to change some of it to fiat, but in this way they are encouraged to keep the money circulating inside the Bitcoin economy by spending their BTC - for example by switching to suppliers who accept BTC and paying employees in BTC (which is perfect for those outsourcing to emerging economies). This in turn is what will lower the price volatility.

We really shouldn't be encouraging merchants to use these services, these services should be a "fallback" for merchants whereby it isn't viable for them to accept bitcoin directly.

thats where bitpay should come in to not even talk about encryption. not talk about blockchains, not talk about satoshi. but to simply say

"if a customer asks for bitcoins show them one of our special barcodes (QR Codes) and we will guarantee the conversion price for 15 minutes, and send the funds straight to you by the next business day"