kane

I am not pro or anti-bitcoin. I can see a future for it. I think eventually the dust will settle and it will be a niche currency. There are a few reasons I say this.

1. The price, at least right now fluctuates so much that many people are afraid of it. I don't want to pay $100 for a bitcoin on Weds only to be have it worth $50 on Friday. The same goes for a business that takes them. I don't want to sell someone $100 worth of stuff one day, have them pay me with bitcoins and a few days later the bitcoin is worth half as much.

2. Most people don't know about it. When GFY started turning into the bitcoin board about a month ago I did a casual survey of my friends. I asked 20 different people, all of which use the internet pretty much every day if they had heard of bitcoins. One of them had. This is just my circle of friends, but I still think most people don't know what it is and never will.

3. Using it, right now, isn't easy. It isn't terribly difficult, but it isn't super easy either. I have to get a wallet and use a code and store the bitcoins etc. It is more involved than just pulling out my credit card and typing the number into a box. Most people are lazy and don't want to put forth the effort using bitcoins will take.

4. Limited use. This could change, but right now there are not a lot of places that take bitcoins as payment. If they were widely accepted they would be more useful. As I say, time may fix this one.

5. Competition. We are already seeing Litecoins and other competitors start to pop up. At this point it is hard to say which, if any, of these will work in the long run, but the more competition there is the less chance bitcoin has of getting users.

6. History is against them. There have been other internet currencies. I remember Flooz which was promoted by Whoopie Goldberg. It wasn't the same thing as bitcoins, but it failed. There have also been other token systems that have come and gone. Again, they aren't the same as bitcoin, but none of the succeeded.

7. The government won't/doesn't like it. Governments tend to not like things they can't control. I would not be surprised if laws started getting passed that limited the legality of bitcoins.

These are just a few things I can think of off the top of my head.

Like I said, I am not for or against it. I am in a wait and see mode. If it starts to catch on I might use it. I am actually planning to sell a few ebooks I am writing right now. Maybe I will off bitcoins as a payment option since the dollar amounts will be pretty small.

Maybe it will be huge, but I think, in the end, it will be a niche product that some people will use and most will not. Just my 2 cents.