

Ask HN: Is Bitcoin still hot?  The hype seems to have died down - hoodoof


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Avalaxy
Yes and no.

Yes: the public has somewhat lost its interest in Bitcoin. It's no longer new
to them, it's no longer in a price frenzy, the hype is gone.

No: that the hype is gone doesn't mean that Bitcoin is no longer 'hot'. There
are still massive developments and there's still massive interest in Bitcoin,
but it has just assumed some more realistic proportions. There are TONS of
huge things going on behind the scenes that the general public is not
interested in, but that are really really promising for the future of Bitcoin.
The amount of VC money flowing into Bitcoin is enormous, more and more shops
keep accepting Bitcoin (in 2014 we've seen companies like Dell, Overstock,
TigerDirect, PayPal, Braintree, Newegg and many others starting to accept
Bitcoin) and behind the scenes there are loads of developments.

I think that Bitcoin WILL be huge, but that the general public will never care
about it and will almost never use it directly. I see Bitcoin as just a
network, or a protocol. Tons of payment services will be built on top of
Bitcoin, offering superior service to the customer, but abstracting any
interaction with Bitcoin away for the end user. For example: this week came
out that the 3 biggest banks in the Netherlands (ING, ABN AMRO, Rabobank) have
been investigating Bitcoin for a year now and are looking to make all their
transactions work through the blockchain. The user wouldn't notice anything
different, but the bank would be able to provide its services much faster and
much cheaper.

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UnoriginalGuy
While a lot of Bitcoin's boom can definitely be attributed to hype, it is also
worth remembering how much value was added by the illicit drug trade (e.g.
Silk Road). That trade provided some of Bitcoin's long term stability, and
given the recent closures and arrest (even on Tor) that market has diminished
somewhat (plus the legalisation in some locations).

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bjourne
On most sites (such as Coinbase) you must provide passport and id scan to even
buy any bitcoins. Then you have to wait while they verify your credentials. So
there is no anonymity at all and it's more hassle than purchasing something
with your credit card. Well, you can use a mixing service but then you incur
even more hassle and fees.

Realistically, to use bitcoins you have to buy it from a site (incurs fees),
then create transactions to other bitcoin addresses (more fees) whose owners
will have to someday convert their bitcoin to real currency (even more fees).
It's not even competetive with bank transfers which costs me a flat fee of
about 5€ to transfer funds using my banks internet portal to any other eu bank
account.

~~~
radio4fan
> It's not even competetive with bank transfers which costs me a flat fee of
> about 5€ to transfer funds using my banks internet portal to any other eu
> bank account.

They charge you? These are free for me.

In fact, EU law says that your bank cannot charge you any more for a transfer
to another EU account than to a domestic account.

~~~
bjourne
Yes, you're completely right. The 5€ fee is for transfers to accounts outside
of the eu area.

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jefflinwood
Realistically, I think that bitcoin will probably be "embraced and extended"
by some larger financial institution (PayPal? Stripe? Wells Fargo? Goldman
Sachs? HSBC?) that takes advantage of the open source codebase and creates
their own trusted version with colored coins and its own blockchain.

The killer app for bitcoin will be the FDIC offering insurance on bitcoin
deposits.

~~~
ksherlock
SIPC already exists. I don't see why that wouldn't cover bitcoin investments
at registered broker/dealers.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_Investor_Protection_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securities_Investor_Protection_Corporation)

------
mathiasben
Transactions per day is close to it's all time high.
[https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?timespan=all&s...](https://blockchain.info/charts/n-transactions?timespan=all&showDataPoints=false&daysAverageString=1&show_header=true&scale=0&address=)

------
kolev
I think people finally realized that Bitcoin is never gonna be a mass-market
thing... especially after Apple Pay.

~~~
Avalaxy
It doesn't have to be, just like HTTP doesn't have to be mass-marketable in
order for you to use the internet.

Also: Apple Pay is no innovation, it's just the existing financial system in a
new coat. It's so completely different from Bitcoin...

~~~
kolev
Tell the billion consumers out there that Apple Pay (and Google Wallet) are no
innovation! It's fast, it's secure, it's convenient - nobody except the crooks
and those vested in it need Bitcoin!

~~~
Avalaxy
If that's really what you think, you have sooo not any clue about what Bitcoin
is. Bitcoin is much faster and much cheaper than the current financial system.
How can you say nobody needs it?

~~~
kolev
Yeah, the Bitcoin fans always arrogantly assume and claim that they are
smarter and only they can get Bitcoin (which shows how flawed their thought
process is anyway as if Bitcoin is so hard to grasp, how can one hope for mass
adoption). I do get it, I've been using Bitcoin since 2011, I trade Bitcoin as
there are enough idiots to still keep this thing going, but I've never used it
for buying stuff or moving funds as there are better, safer, and cheaper
alternatives.

