[tom_mellior]

> it's too technical to be used casually

In casual use with your mobile phone, you are shown a QR code, scan it, tap "OK", and it's done. Not that technical. Billions of people with smartphones could handle that perfectly. You're right about transactions being slow and expensive, and that is certainly a much bigger problem. That and the fact that there are still very few places accepting it.

[lucaspiller]

> That and the fact that there are still very few places accepting it.

This is one thing I don’t get. In countries like China and India (to name the two countries I know about) mobile payment apps are ubiquitous. You go in to a shop, scan a QR code, and boom your payment is done. This is what crytocurrencies promised, but instead more closed apps came to fill the market. What happened?

[zenlikethat]

I doubt it's about the government like another poster mentioned. Cash works great to subvert the government and that's exactly what a lot of little shops do. It's probably because as a merchant:

1. You don't want to _ever_ wait 45 minutes for a transaction to potentially be confirmed on the blockchain. Even before the recent craziness and high fees this would sometimes happen.

2. The price fluctuates wildly. Pretty hard to reason properly about whether or not you'll be able to pay your employees this week if your "store of value" could drop 20% or more at a moment's notice.

3. The fees charged by exchanges to convert to fiat are exorbitant. Unless all of your suppliers and handymen take Bitcoin, you will get screwed by this on the regular.

The bulls usually scream "Lightning network, scaling, store of value" or some other nonsense, but the truth is, today Bitcoin is garbage as an actual currency.

[stubish]

They take zero effort to setup, since it just adds to your existing phone bill. Unlike bitcoin, where people need to install apps, navigate subscribing to financial-like systems they don't really understand. The conversion rate will be tiny, and very few people who consider paying with Bitcoin will complete the process and actually be in a position to scan the QR code and hit the button. None of the other crypto currencies are even on the public's radar, and won't be unless Visa or Mastercard join in.

[CryptoPunk]

>>What happened?

Bitcoin Core betrayed the original vision of Bitcoin and hotwired it into a high-cost settlement system. The average transaction fee in Bitcoin is something like $38, which is more than the average weekly salary in many countries.

I believe that cryptocurrency will eventually attain mass adoption. The timeline has been pushed back a few years though because the main network has failed.

[eastendguy]

All these apps give the government more control, that is why their use is encouraged.

Bitcoin "as app" (once or if it works) will be more like cash payments, privacy wise. That is were I see the main advantage. I find it spooky what Visa and Mastercard now about all of us... at least about me.

[bootlooped]

> Bitcoin "as app" (once or if it works) will be more like cash payments, privacy wise.

One massive caveat is that all Bitcoin transactions are public, traceable, and permanently stored in the Bitcoin network. In most ways it's worse than cash, in some ways it's probably even worse than credit cards.

[cryptodogemoon]

zk proofs supposedly resolve that issue.

monereo, zcash, and eventually ethereum

the concept seems to make sense but I'd be curious how to audit such an obfuscated system

[Fnoord]

s/monereo/Monero/

[robryan]

At the current volatility how can businesses be expected to take on the risk of accepting bitcoin? None of their costs would be in bitcoin so they would have to be constantly moving their bitcoin to fiat currency and taking a risk on wild daily swings.

[tom_mellior]

Businesses accepting Bitcoin typically do it via third-party payment processors. The intermediate takes a cut, shields the vendor from the risks, and pays an agreed price in fiat.

The system has been in place for years, and it works reasonably well. More competition would still help. And yes, a better network and better systems to cut out the intermediary would help even more.

[StavrosK]

The problem with that now, and the reason why Steam stopped accepting Bitcoin, is that the peg expires by the time the transaction comes in, which can take hours.