As I understand it, currency should be:
Durable
Portable
Fungible
Divisible
Acceptable
Uniform
Limited in supply
I will take the word of my tech savvy betters, that Bitcoin has all of these characteristics - except one: acceptability.
I think it is too hard for the average person to understand when compared to, say, gold.
to transact on a day to day basis, it needs to be converted (sold) into fiat.
that’s a reality.
but it’s not that difficult. lots of mechanisms out there to do that.
and you make an excellent point.
in order for the whole bitcoin/ethereum/blockchain thing to be the next internet, the next personal computer, the next big thing, whatever that is....
it must be used and adopted by normal people who do NOT understand the technology, and don’t need to.
they are simply doing something differently which makes their life a little better
I don’t think anyone knows or can really project when/where/how bitcoin/ethereum/blockchain makes that move into the mainstream
but if it does, then, it will be here to stay and the bitcoin maximalists (and ethereum maximalists) will be proven right and will be crazy rich.....
(there was a time when only tech people thought that the internet was cool, and that owning a computer was cool....)
Nimiq may change that with it’s browser based wallet. Takes 30 seconds to get a wallet. Of course it’s an empty wallet(actually they’re giving people one NIM for creating the wallet).
Then you still have to send someone a copy of your ID to buy crypto unless you use a crypto ATM but they charge big fees, 5-10%.
I think eventually things will evolve enough for wide acceptance. It’s a technology race right now with thousands of different cryptos.
Eventually, they’ll get whittled down to several and those several will be interoperable.