Bitcoin Tipping Point & Mass Adoption

Bitcorati.com ^ | 23 March 2014 | Drew Carey

[Errant]

The Bitcoin Tipping Point is coming and it will be the Big Bang of disruption in financial services, money and payments as we know them!

I often think about the “tipping-point” in Bitcoin’s journey to mass adoption and regularly as myself several questions. When will it be noticeable and what will trigger it? Has it already begun or if not, how far away are we? How do you define or measure “mass adoption” of Bitcoin?

A bitcoin meme of Morpheus and Neo posted online recently got me thinking again about how Bitcoin’s true exit most likely itself. Once a significant number of people begin to realize this idea, the tipping point may have arrived!

Even now, I can and regularly do pay for almost anything with bitcoin; if not directly, then with a convenient 3rd party concierge service such as Snapcard. Even still, in my opinion, Bitcoin isn’t even close to mass adoption considering the latest studies that estimate about 2 to 3 million people actually own or have owned bitcoins. The majority of those people own less than 1 bitcoin!

[Errant]

Where Bitcorati is saying we're at:

Other News:

•Researchers Find Problems With Rules of Bitcoin [MIT Technology Review - bet you didn't know MIT cared!]

•Developers Battle Over Bitcoin Block Chain [Good Article for teckies]

•Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne to Keynote Bitcoin 2014 Conference [I like this guy]

•European Central Bank: Bitcoin Shouldn’t be Ignored or Dismissed

•Follow [up - related to the main story] the venture capital money into bitcoin

•Bitcoin barons face tax dilemma as April 15 deadline looms

•National Bitcoin Alternative Auroracoin Launches To Save Iceland's Economy

•BitBeat: Bitcoin Less Risky? Currency Hedges Arrive

•Australia to get 100 Bitcoin ATMs

•Supporters hope bitcoin helps spur a global financial revolution

•You Get A Bitcoin ATM, And YOU Get A Bitcoin ATM… [Duba]

[Errant]

Click to be Added / Removed.

[Star Traveler]

Well ... dang it! I wanted it to go lower, so I could get a better deal ... :-) ...

[Errant]

It seems to be headed back up for now, but who really knows. Don’t forget: “a trend is your friend.” ;)

[Errant]

Related:

Russia Gets Ready for Life Without Visa and MasterCard

It seems to me that both Russia and China are two countries ripe for something like a national cryptocurrency. They should give serious considerations to Iceland's efforts to establish one, IMO.

[kidd]

Replace the present paper unbacked currency with an electronic unbacked security?

A future Obama-like POTUS could introduce QE-25 with the push of a button rather than go through the inconvenience of having to take the time to print up all that extra money. Except with Bitcoin, QE-25 could be initiated by someone who we don’t get to vote for. My life savings could be made worthless in a microsecond.

I guess I am an uber-laggard. There. Now I have been negatively labelled by the article and I wear the label as a badge of honor.

[Errant]

A future Obama-like POTUS could introduce QE-25 with the push of a button rather than go through the inconvenience of having to take the time to print up all that extra money.

I've got some bad news for you: the future is now! Most of the us currency doesn't exist in paper form, instead it exists as entries in private ledgers. Crypto currencies use a networked public ledger system. Crypto units are "mined" into existence and rely on "proof of work". Fiat is "printed" out of "thin air" at the discretion of a small cabal of government and bankster elites.

My life savings could be made worthless in a microsecond.

Like the interest your "life savings" now draws, for all practical purposes? How far behind can devaluation be?

Don't put all of your nest eggs in one basket...

[kidd]

Perhaps. But US currency is regulated by US agencies who have to answer to US congresscritters who I can vote in/out of office.

Bitcoin puts the power of regulation in the hands of a foreign power.

And it doesn’t matter how many “baskets” I have. If the money supply doubles, then all of my electronic “nest eggs” are worth half.

There doesn’t have to be a 401K tax for the government to access my 401K. But with Bitcoin, this becomes a way for the world to access my 401K - and Bitcoin doesn’t answer to any voters.

[TsonicTsunami08]

I agree with most points the author brings up.The exception is with the ‘standard’ Bitcoin adoption curve. The adoption of Bitcoin is so compressed and excelerated that it defies known ‘ standard ‘parameters of measurement.
Never before in the course of human history has a technology been adopted so rapidly. The reason is the highway needed for its transport already exist, the internet.
Bitcoin is going viral in what Metcalfe’s law describes as the network effect. It’s adoption has moved exponentially from its inception to present day with no let up in sight.

[Errant]

Perhaps. But US currency is regulated by US agencies

The dollar is controlled by the Fed, a private entity.

who have to answer to US congresscritters who I can vote in/out of office.

I guess you missed all the failed trouble Ron Paul went through trying to view the Fed's books.

Bitcoin puts the power of regulation in the hands of a foreign power.

Bitcoin is regulated by a worldwide free market.

And it doesn’t matter how many “baskets” I have. If the money supply doubles, then all of my electronic “nest eggs” are worth half.

You're missing the point. Don't keep all of your "nest eggs" in "one" basket, means to have you net worth spread over numerous "classes" of assets (e.g., gold, silver, cash, equities, real-property, equipment, a business, cyrtocurrency, necessities, ...).

But with Bitcoin, this becomes a way for the world to access my 401K

One of the better features of crytocurrency, is the power it gives you to keep others from taking it, one you know how.

Bitcoin doesn’t answer to any voters.

Everyone who uses it, buys it, or sells it is casting their vote.

Those voters you seem to want to trust, are they the same ones who put O into office?

[Errant]

Good point. That is indeed and unknown, IMO too.

[TsonicTsunami08]

Respectfully, this can not happen as established by the protocol.Read the White Paper

[Organic Panic]

Now that the IRS has declared it is “property” it will be taxed like any real estate is taxed and will lose value, at least in this country. Then, once it is exchanged capital gains taxes will kick in. Being that is a digital based vapor, the NSA will track US owners and users and you can bet your bottom bitcoin it will be taxed out of practical use. The financial and federal overlords will not allow this challenge to their power stand.