| > Is massive credit card fraud not a problem? Still not sure how Bitcoin even remotely solves this. If someone steals my wallet and racks up a bill on my credit card there are legal recourses and ways to get my money back. If someone compromises my bitcoin wallet and empties it there is _absolutely no recourse_. Saying I should have protected it better is no better than saying I shouldn't have been mugged and had my wallet taken. In one case I have a chance at recovering funds, in the other I don't. > What about remittances that cost already poor people enormous amounts of money? I'm not sure a highly volatile currency that currently requires an expert knowledge of the internet and computing and is only a valid form of payment in a handful of incredibly affluent tech focussed markets solves this in any way. > What about the more core issue of being in charge of your own money? People in Venezuela, Argentina, Russia, China and Cyprus might have something to say for being able to choose what money they use. This has been discussed in what's currently the top comment, but Bitcoin is notably less democratic than a large number of government backed currencies. I can vote for a president who will put people in charge of the Fed who share my economic interests, and I think there's reason to trust that process more than an anonymous group of developers and middlemen who are attempting to make the entire process less painful. > What about accepting payments without relying on credit card companies and middle men like Square and Paypal? Excluding investing huge capital in hiring a group of developers (whom you are relying on) to develop a solution for you, you're trading that for relying on less proven companies like coinbase, bitpay, coin, etc. Philosophically it may be superior, but I'd trust my money more with Visa than any of the fraudulent bitcoin startups that have disappeared with millions in funds. > But really when you say 'consumers don't want it', what is that based on and have you ever used bitcoin yourself? I have used it, and it's pretty awful. I've tried explaining it to non-technical friends and family and they see no value proposition over traditional payments. > It is so simple and easy I buy everything online with it that I can and it's a breath of fresh air. When my options to get my paycheck to bitcoin are a) wait a week for a website I'm forced to trust to process my money or b) meet a guy in a coffee shop with a large amount of cash on me and have him transfer the bitcoin to me. I'd hardly call that a "simple" nor "easy" process, especially when the merchant then has to go through an equally difficult process to get the funds in a usable currency for things like taxes and payroll. Bitcoin may be an interesting development in digital currency and blockchain is undoubtably a promising technology, but claiming that for most users bitcoin is more reliable, safe, and easier than traditional payments is, to be frank, laughable. |