Quote from: PalmerLaura on August 25, 2014, 04:38:01 AM

Quote from: illymoka on August 24, 2014, 11:42:27 PM

"soon be able to switch from real money to digital currency when paying with a single card
All 5 million of these people have moved actual money into these accounts".

I don't think these people know what real money is, much less Bitcoin. A lot of these startups seem to be missing the point of Bitcoin. They are trying to integrate the old insecure system with Bitcoin. Why mix in a card-like system that depends on a third party if Bitcoin already has direct payment options? You're just making it less secure.

There will be a transition phase. You can't expect people to just jump from the one to the other. Hybrid systems will be with us for a long time.

This. As much as these centralized services fly in the face of the decentralized nature of Bitcoin, there will be this transitional period where they make sense.