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My sensation is that the masses do not use tor.
The biggest thing holding it back is not enough people are interested in it other than for NGU.
This to me = tech is the problem. It implies that people won't ever be interested in bitcoin for its censorship resistance -- essentially, most people won't ever be bitcoiners -- so then bitcoin needs to be something that they use without knowing it. And this mostly hasn't happened because tech? But then again, maybe it hasn't happened because of taxes...
My sensation is that the masses do not use tor.
Exactly, and the masses do not use bitcoin
this mostly hasn't happened because tech? But then again, maybe it hasn't happened because of taxes...
As with anything, there's a spectrum to this. If people really wanted to use it, they'd manage to figure out the tech. If the tech was easier, maybe some people on the borderline of wanting to use it may finally give it a try.
I wouldn't know as much about the tax situation, but I imagine if you really wanted to use bitcoin, you'd figure out the tax stuff.
But now that I think about it, if the tax burden is really high, that just makes it so that it isn't worth it for businesses to deal with that headache
If people really wanted to use it, they'd manage to figure out the tech.
This is extraordinarily true. The ability of people to do shit when they really really want to do it is extraordinary. The fact that the road to btc adoption has been so gloriously paved, and still it's basically not being used by anyone except for speculation, is telling.
Also, I am enjoying the meta of the last 24 hrs of conversation spanning assorted threads and topics, where we have this tangle of belief, "if people really want to X then they can", etc. Big ideas that keep popping up.
I often think about how insane it is that we use automobiles -- trusting other strangers to not end us with their 2k lbs of metal hurtling in the opposite direction as us at 80mph mere feet to our left...oh, and it's a controlled explosion that powers the whole thing...and there's about a million things you need to keep track of: oil changes, insurance, different juridictions -- and yet they have super wide adoption. "The ability of people to do shit when they really really want to do it is extraordinary." People want to get places.
So, Bitcoin could follow this if it provides something equally compelling. In a way, the thing that bitcoin adoption most needs is heavy handed financial regulations and capital controls. Because then it would shine and people would bend over backwards to learn how to use it.
This seems like a dangerous thing to hope for, but maybe it's the only chance Bitcoin has: we need an incredibly hostile regulatory environment or no one will ever really want to use it.
I often think about how insane it is that we use automobiles.
Mine is sex and drugs -- the ability of people to get sex and drugs, even with the full power of civilization arrayed against them, beggars belief. They will pursue both in the face of death and dismemberment.
This seems like a dangerous thing to hope for, but maybe it's the only chance Bitcoin has: we need an incredibly hostile regulatory environment or no one will ever really want to use it.
One thing that sounds like cope, and that I think both is and is not, is when people say go talk to someone in $COUNTRY who was able to buy a goat / escape political persecution thanks to btc, you privileged asshole!
- Why it's cope: the absolute value of how much this has actually mattered in practice is de minimus; the amount of value that has flowed through btc for this reason is certainly de minimus.
- Why it's not cope: the more rich nations trend toward dystopian shitholes, the more this use case will manifest to people who have non-trivial wealth to attempt to preserve, or to transact, and btc will be the best avail option.
Every industrialized country seems to be hurtling in that direction, so I guess that's a bitcoiner silver lining.
Ironically then, if Kamala had won and Elizabeth Warren would be in charge, we would be at least at $150k now haha
People can use Bitcoin easier now than they ever could before... they just don't want to.
Why pay in Bitcoin... when I can just pay in dollars with the Credit Card?
Bitcoin may go up, and if it doesn't then "I don't give a shit" "I'll just use the Credit Card" is the attitude I get from many. No bravery and no spirit.
That's what happened.
Bitcoin really needs that smooth tap-and-pay experience. It’s dreadful to deal with the QR codes.. no wonder normies stay away
"not dead yet" may be the best attribute we can look for in anything that challenges the state.
I'm not that pessimistic - for once, haha.
I generally feel about this that many people have written Bitcoin's future obituary after (with all due respect) they burned out, all premature and all it does is fuel the shitcoiners wet dreams.
Maybe jamesob needs to leave the bird app and come to SN. Stackers get to read things like #1419471, which actually show that we're not here in vain, yet.
Neither imo. The biggest thing holding it back is not enough people are interested in it other than for NGU.
I think "bitcoin is the Tor of money" keeps coming to mind as a very plausible hypothesis