Topic: Why Bitcoin is over-ambitious - page 2. (Read 2433 times)

People need to get the idea out of their head that "bitcoin" is a singular entity. It's like saying "anonymous" is overambitious. Some people in the community are overambitious, others are keeping their head level and just doing their thing. The hype machine the is currently going is the result of MSM exposure, not claims by, for example, the developers.

You are right in that this is just the beginning, not the end, there's a lot to be improved. But everyone with the appropriate skills can help in that, there is not a closed elite like the banksters.

Please explain.

I dont see BTC taking over as main stream currency. There are basically two scenario's:

1: BTC will try to take over as currency to do regular shopping. This will not happen as there are already excellent infrastructures in place to facilitate money transfer. BTC has nothing to add here. Transactions take a while to confirm, money can be very easily lost with hard disc crashes, malware etc and simple stuff like account numbers are impossible to remember. In that aspect BTC is a solution to a non-existing problem.

2 BTC will grow because ppl dont trust their own local currency anymore. The 'fear train'. But if established currencies fail on a large scale, why adopt BTC? New crypto-currencies here are set to fail here if they are pre-mined. People consider it unfair. Why would this by any different with BTC. 'So you dont trust your local currency anymore, here buy my bitcoins. I have been mining and collecting them for years.'

BTC has to find its niche and stick with it.

Bitcoin has no set future.  I sell consumer goods (shirts, batteries, stickers) and I am doing fine.  I pay less for processing then paypal and what I do pay goes back to the community not paypal.  I like that. 

I'm afraid you are wrong

Try again next time

This is an x-post from a post I made on Reddit a few days ago. It got little traction there and I am curious what this forum thinks of it.



First of all, I am not a hater. I see opportunities for Bitcoin and I think it can fill a very valuable niche on the internet. However, Bitcoin as a full-blown currency is something that I think will never happen. I'll start out with some criticism but explain my positive view later on. Please bear with me.

Bitcoin is being described as a decentralized currency waiting to take over the world, but at this very moment it is neither a currency nor is it decentralized.

It isn't a currency because at this moment people are treating it as an asset. People are hoarding and speculating with it and trade in goods is quite rare. Cool story that someone bought a Porsche with bitcoin but if one look at the Bitcoincharts tells us that the 30-day volume has been 164 million USD, this should be a daily occurrence. It is not.

Buying goods for Bitcoin actually has zero added value. I can buy goods for local currency just as well. The only reason to buy goods for BTC is the idea that it is 'free' because I mined for it, and the only reason to sell goods for BTC is because it is a cost effective way to acquire BTC. With the current boom it is actually really hard to build a business around BTC since you probably still have to pay suppliers in USD or something.

The only real benefit of BTC is that it is fast and anonymous and I really think BTC should capitalize on that niche. Later more on that.

Also it isn't decentralized. Bitcoin should have died off last month when the fork in the block chain occurred. Once again, it did not. Some people took quick action and were able to correct it within hours. Although this saved Bitcoin, it proves that only a few people have an immense amount of power on Bitcoin. The devs, Mt-gox, and the mining pool operators are the bare-bone of Bitcoin and can make or break your fortune overnight. You can complain about the power of bankers, but please realize that the Bitcoin elite is a much smaller group.

Then there are the scams. Ow god, the scams. If it looks like a scam, it is a bad scam, if it doesn't look like a scam, it is a good scam. If it isn't a scam, it is an excellent scam. Lots of Bitcoin ventures were started for shits and giggles years ago and the kids who started ewallets back then suddenly realize they are sitting on millions. Only now Bitcoin attracts some real business entrepreneurs. Being longer in business doesn't mean more trustworthy in the Bitcoin environment.

So where is BTC useful? That is actually quite easy, just capitalize on the anonymity of BTC. People tend to ignore that because it is linked to porn, gambling and drugs, but in fact it can provide a real service to the internet economy in the form of micro-transactions. Lots of online games, mobile apps and websites revolve around micro transactions, and lots of people are being put off by it because it forces them to provide credit card or paypal details to random third parties. In fact, this community is already a good example of that with the use of Bitcoinbot, rewarding content.

Forget the Porches, it is all about the micro transactions for virtual goods.

If Bitcoin was adopted on a large scale by mobile applications, that would be huge!

And it should, because in that it lies its biggest strength. If anyone right now is thinking of starting a Bitcoin business, dont start reselling consumer goods, but start developing apps, games, content that can be sold for BTC.

TL:DR Forget consumer goods and replacing currencies, the future of Bitcoin is in microtransactions on the internet.