2) The utter ridiculous hassle of having to deal with multitudes of addresses to get any measure of privacy or know who sent you bitcoins.
No Mom, that's your address this time, really, it just changes every time you use it. No it is him. The money Uncle Ted sent you was sent to this address see, that's how you know it's from him. No, that was the address from before, it's different now. No, when Chris sends you money it's this address. No, you're suppose to use this address for now with Aunt Sally. No, it still in the same wallet. No, they are all different ... ! ... look ... how about I just get you a prepaid VISA card?
No Mom, that's your address this time, really, it just changes every time you use it. No it is him. The money Uncle Ted sent you was sent to this address see, that's how you know it's from him. No, that was the address from before, it's different now. No, when Chris sends you money it's this address. No, you're suppose to use this address for now with Aunt Sally. No, it still in the same wallet. No, they are all different ... ! ... look ... how about I just get you a prepaid VISA card?
Mom, imagine your Bitcoin wallet is a stack of envelopes you store cash in. You can get as many envelopes as you want, and for all the cash you receive, you get to pick which envelope you store it in. If you don't care where the money came from, just stick all your cash into the same envelope. If you want to separate the money and track whether it came from Ted or Chris, just ask them to put the cash they send you into their own separate envelopes. You can even label those envelopes as "Cash from Ted" and "Cash from Chris." The only difference between actual envelopes and Bitcoin is that instead of you getting the cash and stuffing it into an envelope yourself, you give those envelopes to other people and ask them to put the money there themselves. Don't worry, they can only put money in. They can't take any of it out unless they ask you to put the money into one of their envelopes, and you do it yourself.
Regarding #3, personally, I think a few people with an ENORMOUS amount of money invested in a project have an ENORMOUS incentive to see the project succeed, so I actually see this as a strength. In other words, had bitcoin started the way you suggested, we'd still have a few nerds with a little bit of cash still stuck in their parent's basement (sorry for stereotyping, rich nerds
), but instead we have a few nerds who suddenly have A LOT of cash to invest in developing this system.As for #4, Bitcoin is doing just fine on Android, and that OS has more users than iPhone, so even if Apple never allows any Bitcoin apps, it'll only hurt them (more) in the end.