I am well aware that this will be an unpopular opinion here, but maybe i'm looking for someone to change my mind. I've been interested in the idea of bitcoin and the technology behind it since I first heard about it years ago. Admittedly, I'm no expert on bitcoin or blockchain technology in general, but you shouldn't have to be to want to adopt it. Example - I don't have to be a mechanic to see how an automobile would benefit my life.
Anyway, while the idea is fascinating to me, I don't really see a point. I went to business school with a focus on entrepreneurship and when it comes to "inventing", we were always told to create something that solves a problem. Exactly what problem is bitcoin solving?
You might say, "well, it's decentralized". So what? What issue am I having with my "centralized" US dollar? None. Is the fear that the USD will collapse? I don't see that happening in my lifetime....but I have seen bitcoin collapse multiple times.
Ok, we ll I read an article about how bitcoin is taking off in Africa because their local currencies are very unstable and prone to hyper-inflation. This would make sense to me.....again, if bitcoin were stable, but it's not. It's down 22% over the past week. Wouldn't these people have had better luck converting their money into USD or gold?
So you might say, well it's anonymous (I'm not sure if that's even true). Again, ok, so what problem is that solving? Unless I'm doing something illegal, do I really care about this? No. The last peer to peer transaction I conducted was sending my sister $50 to reimburse her for a gift card. It doesn't need to be anonymous. I don't care if the whole world knows. I used facebook to send it. I've never sent money through facebook before and it literally took me 30 seconds with no fees.
That brings me to my next point. Bitcoin is slow. Last week I decided to put my money where my mouth is and (attempt to) make a bitcoin purchase th rough Newegg. It was honestly kind of a pain in the ass. Once I had the wallet all set up, I went to coinbase to buy my bitcoin. Had to verify identity and bank account, which took a couple days and didn't feel very anonymous. Then I went to buy my bitcoin....oh, it's going to take a week before I can actually access my coins?? That's stupid. Guess what also happened in that week? Bitcoin went from $8700 to $6800. Awesome!
Then I went to send the money to my wallet. Ok, that also takes forever. While I was waiting for it to confirm, I started reading up on the delays. I saw that during the bitcoin rush, it could take days for transactions to confirm. Also, you can pay a higher fee to have your transaction confirm faster. Ok, that's stupid. Anyway, the whole process of getting set up to buy bitcoin was annoying and drawn out and again, for what benefit? I planned on making a purchase through Newegg. I could have just used my credit card and completed the purchase in s econds. Instead, I waited weeks and ultimately decided to wait in hopes that the value of bitcoin comes back up first. Fun.
So lets talk about the fees. I've seen people say, but the fees are so low!! Ok, well again, I sent my sister money on facebook for no fee. If I used my credit card on new egg I wouldn't have paid a fee and could actually earn 1-2% or other various rewards depending on my card. Oh, but the merchant has to pay a credit card processing fee. Yes this is true......but if I were a merchant, I would much rather pay a 2% fee than deal with the insane volatility of bitcoin. Again, as a merchant let's say I sold $9,000 worth of product and was paid in bitcoin last week. That's now worth less than $7,000. Nah, i'll pay the 2%. Also, i've seen that when bitcoin volume is high, fees go through the roof....and what if you are trying to use it at a brick and mortar store, but you have to wait 2 hours for the transaction to confirm....yeah, no thanks.
Admittedly, I don't know much about the new lightning network. Maybe it solves the high fees and long delays, but again, what benefit does it offer versus using traditional fiat? As much as I want to see a reason, I can't, and therefore I don't see mass adoption of bitcoin happening anytime soon. I think the hype around bitcoin has mostly been based on speculation and a lot of people trying to get rich quick, but when it comes to the practicality of bitcoin, I just don't see it.
If someone can tell me why I would ever benefit from using bitcoin over fiat (in the US) then maybe i'd change my mind, but until then I see bitcoin as a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
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