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Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

theguardian.com

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Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#51

Post by zanny »

romanovcode wrote: post #45
tuxidomasx wrote: post #41

No. My dad still calls them "bitcorns." He heard about them on NPR. It's anecdotal, but cryptocurrencies practically don't exist in my non tech-related social circles.

Can confirm. Regular people who are not interested in technology has no idea what they are, or even that they exist.

This is how every technology has to start. It is a tautology to say the technologically ignorant arent informed or knowlegable about new technologies.

If cryptocurrencies are worth their time they will come to them, the illiterate don't seek books to read.

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#52

Post by notahacker »

tyingq wrote: post #25
linsomniac wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, this seems like a good reason a cryptocurrency COULD take off. The established payment companies are stuck in the past, and pretty much everyone just upgraded their point of sale equipment to handle chip and pin. We might be ripe for a revolution in the payment space. Credit cards have been dragging their feet, and there's a ton of money flowing through them.

Bitcoin confirmations take 10+ minutes, and there's no notion of a chargeback. I could see crypto currency replacing Western Union, for sending money to family far away. Replacing credit cards has some gaps on both the consumer and merchant sides.

The advantage of Western Union is that the person receiving the money be unbanked, living in a cash economy, and not even necessarily be literate, never mind technologically literate. To enable these people to receive and spend cryptocurrency there's a serious "last mile" problem that needs solving, and for everyone else there's usually already a better money transfer solution than Western Union, at least for legal transactions.

The developing world might have been impressively advanced adopting tangible digital goods like mobile phone minute allowances as transferable currency, but expecting liquid local markets in a highly volatile cryptographic tokens "mined" in foreign countries where mining rigs and cheap power are available seems like a big ask.

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#53

Post by hudon »

eternalban wrote: post #50
romanovcode wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm. Regular people who are not interested in technology has no idea what they are, or even that they exist.

Email. 1990. Conversation in some college.

Email is a drastic improvement on the way people communicate. It is orders of magnitude faster, for example, cheaper for the user and more convenient.

Bitcoin is slower, more expensive and harder to use than the existing financial instruments. It is censorship resistant though so you can use it to pay people online when the government does not want you to pay these people.

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#54

Post by atemerev »

polotics wrote: post #30
atemerev wrote: post #3

If The Guardian is writing about it — no. The hype is over.

The Guardian is a very small corner of the internet, the hype is over when it's all over Facebook walls.

Facebook before The Guardian (they have to fact check and correlate).

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#55

Post by wickawic »

ojr wrote: post #47
tveita wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not until they can really explain to the average Joe why cryptocurrencies are such a good thing. "Look at all these people getting rich without any work, you can too! Just buy this convenient financial product I happen to be selling!" I'd have hoped the mania would die out once the supply of people with technical skills was exhausted, but it looks like people are hard at work extending the bottom of the pyramid to…

bitcoin is an open source C++ computer program that created a deflationary currency that somehow was able to be seen as intrinsic value to the market, its impressive the emotions it brings out of people like you. I believe from a software standpoint, it functions better than some other software projects I've seen, so it is fun to see where this is going to go in the future

> people like you

People with common sense? Governments (the institutions that get to use guns and jails and make laws) will not let their control of currency slide out from under them. Blockchains are cool and fun and applicable, but I can't see crypto-currency-as-money becoming mainstream. Even if it does the governments of the world will not adopt Bitcoin, they would make their own.

Much more likely it will be outlawed or go the way of the beanie baby. Optimistically it could remain as a financial instrument on some sort, but IMO the only reason people value btc at all is because they think it will "go mainstream". When this doesn't happen either by legislation or force the value will disappear, and with that its utility will as well.

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#56

Post by jensC »

diogenescynic wrote: post #42
CM30 wrote: post #10

Not until they can really explain to the average Joe why cryptocurrencies are such a good thing. Because at the end of the day, privacy is nowhere near as important to many people are it arguably should be, and trying to market cryptocurrencies as 'independent from government control' is likely a losing proposition. Same with most of the reasons involved I've seen invoked for why to use Bitcoin or the likes online. T…

Cash is still more anonymous than cryptocurrencies.

That really depends on the amount.

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#59

Post by tveita »

ojr wrote: post #47
tveita wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Not until they can really explain to the average Joe why cryptocurrencies are such a good thing. "Look at all these people getting rich without any work, you can too! Just buy this convenient financial product I happen to be selling!" I'd have hoped the mania would die out once the supply of people with technical skills was exhausted, but it looks like people are hard at work extending the bottom of the pyramid to…

bitcoin is an open source C++ computer program that created a deflationary currency that somehow was able to be seen as intrinsic value to the market, its impressive the emotions it brings out of people like you. I believe from a software standpoint, it functions better than some other software projects I've seen, so it is fun to see where this is going to go in the future

Cryptolocker is "just" a C++ computer program too, it is technically interesting and variants are getting increasingly sophisticated. That doesn't mean I can't see that economically it's a negative sum game wasting massive amounts of value in order to enrich a few.

Re: Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

#60

Post by bitxbitxbitcoin »

CM30 wrote: post #10

Not until they can really explain to the average Joe why cryptocurrencies are such a good thing. Because at the end of the day, privacy is nowhere near as important to many people are it arguably should be, and trying to market cryptocurrencies as 'independent from government control' is likely a losing proposition. Same with most of the reasons involved I've seen invoked for why to use Bitcoin or the likes online. T…

While it may be true that it is hard to explain to the average Joe what the value of cryptocurrency is versus their native fiat currency - it is less true for your "average Juan."
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