Quote from: JorgeStolfi on January 14, 2015, 05:52:24 AM

Perhaps bitcoin will one day make good on its promise to bring freedom and productivity. But so far its score is not good at all.

For blockchain technology to live up to its full potential, it is going to take multiple steps and it's going to take time. Lots of time. The internet did not spring into existence fully formed and neither will the bitcoin economy. Jorge, I think you simply do not appreciate this fact. Some people cannot envision something until after it is already built and perhaps you are just one of those people.

Let me try to break down just a few of these steps for you. Right now, merchants are adopting bitcoin because 1) it's cheap and easy so there's little reason not to try it out and see how it goes, 2) they get their money faster compared to CC transactions and 3) they save on CC fees (which is a big deal for low margin businesses). But most of them are just dipping their toes in the water. They don't want lots of customers using it because they (the business owner) haven't yet figured out how this whole thing works. It will take some time before Joe the Store Owner becomes comfortable enough with bitcoin to decide to incentivize customers to use it instead of CCs. And once that starts to happen, we will start to see consumer adoption rise. But this process will take time. Just because it didn't happen yesterday doesn't mean it's never going to happen.