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Here's Why People Don't Buy Things With Bitcoin (vice.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: One reason for this, if you live in Toronto like me (or anywhere else for that matter), is that there's basically nowhere to spend digital coins in the real world. Coinmap, a service that maps bitcoin-accepting locations all over the world, shows a few places that accept bitcoin in Toronto, but it's clearly out of date -- I called several businesses listed on the site and they had no idea what bitcoin even is. A bigger problem is perfectly illustrated in a Reddit post from Wednesday morning complaining that a bitcoin transaction worth just $9 still hasn't gone through the network after two days of waiting. Two. Days. The likely reason is that the fee attached to the transaction in order to incentivize faster confirmation -- 50 cents, which is about as much of a premium as I'd pay for a $9 transaction -- simply wasn't enough. "Should I have paid $3 on a $9 transfer to get it processed?" the person wrote.
This.
the economic crisis of 2008, tarp, central bank stimulus by g7, etc. reminded the world that as flawed as they are, sovereign nation states that float fiat currency are still a backstop to a currency's floor and fundamentals. Not just a currency, I would say an institution. Sure there are multinational entities and pseudo-governments like the eu but my point is -- bitcoin being floated as an arbitrary currency will always be more fragile than something backed by a sovereign, because at least a sovereign is an institution with goals, one of which being the credibility of their currency. the recent forking of bitcoin, twice -- is also a concern. if bitcoin were at least licensed or supervised or administered by a known financial entity, and subject to control by host and operating countries, i think it would do better.
ultimately i think bitcoin is a proof of concept for blockchain verification. i can see it being applied to technologies like passports, professional licenses, contracts. But I think that as long as it is run without an institutional framework it will not last.
Bragging about being the fifth richest nation is not really something to brag about.
GDP of California - 2.448e12 USD
GDP of Great Britain - 2.619e12 USD (at today's exchange rate, for easier comparison)
(disclaimer: I'm comparing numbers from two different sources. IMF and World Bank respectively)
Bank notes, from actual banks, that means both public or private banks, typically offer to pay the bearer. That Bank of England is a national bank doesn't mean only government supported banks have issued notes with the same promises. There have been plenty of banks in history that would say the same thing, even they they were not a component of the government. This was very typical before the invention of central banking systems. The idea of central banking is something England and the US adopted early on, although I feel that the more modern ECB does a better job as a central bank than BoE or the FED.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Then there's those of us who saw it the first time and thought "..gee, that's a great too for criminals to hide their illegal transactions, I'd be nuts to get involved in something like that!" and passed on the whole thing.
Chose a shop at random. It will accept your USD/EUR/GBP/Whatever. Try to pay as bitcoin, watch them thinking you are insane. The lack of penetzration in shop make bitcoin solely a speculating commodity and not a currency. Facit : for 99+% of the population, the one who count, bitcoin do not exists.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Very few retail locations officially accept USD outside of the US. However, in almost all cases, you can talk them into taking it. They will usually penalize you though in terms of the exchange rate. On the other hand, in the US, it does seem that people are oblivious to the fact that other currencies exist.