Quote from: Technomage on April 01, 2012, 03:45:58 PM

Bitcoin adoption happens gradually based on its usefulness. Currently the biggest Bitcoin market is Silk Road and the reason is that Bitcoin is most useful for something like that. After this it will start spreading to other markets where it is not as useful, but still pretty neat. At the other end of the spectrum we have the brick-and-mortar stores which will most likely be the last place Bitcoin will ever have any significance. Anything is possible in the future but we're definitely not there yet. This is simply how it is. If you want to try a brick-and-mortar store, try one that has 1-2 people as staff so everyone can be educated easily. In that case it doesn't necessarily cause any extra costs to accept Bitcoin (if the owner has a smartphone). Any smart business owner will accept it then because there is nothing to lose by doing that.

I don't know what the next big market for Bitcoin will be, it could be virtual gaming markets, online gambling, porn, auction sites, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, online/mobile donations or just simply p2p local/international money transfers. I don't know what it'll be but I can guarantee that all of the former will be big markets for Bitcoin way before brick-and-mortar stores.

This reminds me of all of those Bitcoin startups that have attempted to launch a Bitcoin retail store online, not realizing that they are basically competing with Amazon by doing that. It's a hard road. This is the same, even PayPal which is gargantuan compared to Bitcoin, hasn't had an easy time with brick-and-mortar stores. Have patience guys, Bitcoin might eventually reach even the least probable markets but not today. Now it would be more productive to focus on the markets that have better potential and only offer Bitcoin to brick-and-mortar stores if it can be done without extra investments and staff training (except the owner/owners of course).

The next big market is clearly online gambling. People begging B&M stores to take bitcoins is a complete waste of time. Nobody who doesn't have bitcoins is going to think that they should get some in order to do something that could be done just as easily with dollars. When it comes to online gambling and other black/gray market things, the features of anonymity and decentralization have a clear and significant benefit to anyone involved.