Exactly. It's already mainstream when countries are talking about putting it on their list of reserve assets.

If someone thinks bitcoin is not mainstream, tell me what asset is.  For instance, is Tesla stock mainstream? I don't think so, since most people in the world don't own it, just like most people in the world don't own physical gold, apart from maybe a wedding ring, or a chain. Is Ferrari a mainstream car? It's not, but people still want to own it, just like many people want to own 1 bitcoin but lack knowledge or funds to get it.

Transaction fees and cost, they're high compared to the others. But the value of each satoshi is increasing based on the demand that it's getting and that reflects to the price of it. So even if the fee will be costing 1 sat/vB, it will still become expensive or overpriced based on the equivalent of it in dollars because of the continuous high price of Bitcoin. And there's a reason behind the operation cost, the miners and we can say that it also contributes to the value of it.

Bitcoin will most definitely become mainstream at some point. I know firsthand that Apple executives have been stacking behind the scenes since at least 2018. It is only a matter of time before Bitcoin is added to ApplePay, at which point many people will be able to stack and simply use it without even knowing anything about it, the network, or self custody.

When I read the op, I asked myself if the op really understood the meaning of mainstream. In recent times, the adoption of bitcoin has become very rapid. I am still wondering how a digital currency that has caught the attention of the government, big investors and even small investors is not and will never be mainstream. I guess OP is talking about it being used generally by all as a currency. Even though majority of the bitcoiners see it as an investment, few still carryout p2p transactions with it. Bitcoin which started as one insignificant coin is now gradually being talked about and used in different countries, except maybe op is not up to date with recent happenings.

WRONG
currencies value does change

the biggest currency trading platform (forex) always moves the price

MONEY is suppose to be the most stable where it should only meander by a couple percent per year of the goods/services purchase value.. but currency can vary per community/region/user
EG native americans centuries ago trading seashells near the coast buy them cheap but can charge a premium to another community far more inland
where as the inland community that choose to use seashells as their domestic community money. would then settle on a more fixed value within their domestic community group

currencies are more negotiable and can vary for multiple reasons.. money is more fixed

..
money (the main currency used domestically within a country/community) set that unit to more tight and limited spread of change
however when used as currency more broadly with different communities or regions then the price can vary wildly as the demand/desire and other utilities of the currency are a factor

EG a 1USD=1USD domestically in america (bar inflation difference of how much goods 1USD may get you) however 1USD may not always=0.79GBP when used as international currency exchange

..
bitcoin wont become a nations money.. nor some one world order with only bitcoin used as money, due to many factors
but bitcoin already was, is and will be an international currency

No, it's due to the fact that Bitcoin takes up to 30 minutes and cost up to $30 to do a single transaction. That is not "user habits".

Bitcoin cannot possibly scale to handle even a tiny portion of the world's daily transactions. It will never EVER be a mainstream means of payment. Ever. It was never made to do that, and it doesn't.

If you want mainstream, find an architecture that will actually scale to the world's daily transaction load. Everything else is just a speculation instrument.

When you want to talk about something, don't be bias. Makes sure you stress through the both side if you think there is something bad about something. Scam didn't start with Bitcoin, it start with the conventional currencies, gambling didn't start with Bitcoin, it started with your fiat currency. What Bitcoin is doing is it's trying to make a better world where things will be more easy and accessible for people that doesn't have privilege like you do that's why you are saying all these about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin helps the people to send value without any middle person and it's censorship resistance, privacy to some level. The gambling you are taking about, it's also helping you facilitate transaction so you don't have to go and buy dollar card just to gamble in one global casino that has your favourite games. Tell me what exactly is wrong in Bitcoin, the excuses that you gave are just water statement, the scams and fraud that is happening in the fiat ecosystem is beyond the government control, that's why you see them arresting scammers and fraudsters every day, all are link to their traditional banks.

OP, I can understand some of your worries. And I've also started a related thread: Bitcoin is not a Ponzi. But sometimes it is marketed like one.

I think the marketing of Bitcoin as an investment which can only go up ("because Central Bank X will buy it! because of the ETFs!" etc.) indeed does harm its image a bit. The "currency usage", in contrast, seems to be stagnant at this moment. It's hard to find reliable statistics, those I found hint to a slight growth, but hundreds of thousands of payments per year at Bitpay for example isn't exactly "mainstream".

Of course one of the problems you and others have mentioned already in this thread is blockchain congestion due to the 4MB limit per block. However, there are some solutions for that problem which aren't centralized. Lightning is already operative for 6 years, it's a bit stagnant currently but it is constantly being improved. Sidechains have recently been rediscovered, and for the first time in 2024 there were some quite decentralized designs like Nomic and the upcoming Stacks sBTC (see this thread). And there are solutions like Ark currently in the conceptual stage which may be even better.

You can't simply say "these solutions are not Bitcoin". Are credit card payments in USD not real US dollars? Lightning, (decentralized) sidechains/rollups and Ark are only methods of bundling real Bitcoin transactions together, so not every full node has to store every small transaction, but only "bundles" of transactions are stored. A LN payment channel is essentially a "prepaid"-type transaction which will result in a "real" transaction bundle (with only one transaction having to be stored on-chain) once the channel is closed.

Regarding Bitcoin usability my impression is that it has been improved over the years. The self-custody issue is of course a feature, not a bug: if you don't want this, then you can use a Bitcoin bank of all sorts.

Honestly nobody needs to know everything about it, you think all the people in your nation know how money works? How FED (or whatever it is in your nation) works? Central banks are mystery to most, they do not know about inflation, they do not know about anything regards to money seriously.

I mean they know they earn it by working, they know they spend it to live, and they know if they have a lot they can put it in a bank for interest or stocks, or they know if they have none then they can take out a loan. That's literally what 90% of the population knows about money and nothing more, that's it, there is absolutely no understanding about anything else.

So, I believe we can definitely see Bitcoin to be used without everyone knowing about it. Look at El Salvador, it's legal tender there, you think every single person living there knows how that works? Of course not, they know just enough to be able to earn or spend it, and that's enough, that's more than they need, nothing more.

That's a speculation, we don't know who are stacking satoshis. Everyone is free to buy their own according to what you feel. Now, this currency is already penetrating the mainstream market, it is up to the user whether he will accumulate or not. But in any case, whether big entities are stacking or not, it will show later on who's making a good profit from this market. Remember, time is the ultimate truth-teller. And before you are left behind in this craze, better think about your opportunity and see what you can do to have your own stash as well.


The population who are into crypto may still be small as compared to world population. But I believe it is fast increasing now that we have reached the 100k mark. Of course, people will be curious and from those curious people, for sure, there will be some of them who will dip their hands on crypto, and so the demand will further increase. And so the price as we have fixed number of bitcoins.