Can we really call it Bitcoin adoption when Bitcoin just gets incorporated into the Visa/Mastercard/PayPal systems and real coins are rarely moved on blockchain? I was thinking more about directly sending and accepting Bitcoin without any intermediaries, because that was the point from the beginning.
Where does that refer to? Bitrefill? You buy the gift card using bitcoin and redeem it without intermediaries.
There's a ton of other reasons why people are not using Bitcoin as a currency, but here I want to specifically discuss the problem between merchants and their customers that neither makes a first move in adoption.
Sure, but the main reason is that they don't respect those three I mentioned for if they did, I believe we'd all be using bitcoin at the moment.
Although I should add that even with this situation we are getting adoption in both camps: investors and spenders.
So here's another issue: The usage of the investors can affect the spenders' side negatively, but not the opposite. The fact that it's seen more speculatively affects those who want to use it as a currency. This is what, after all, makes it difficult to achieve adoption in a global level.