How to solve the problem of "You give me Bitcoin, but I don't want it"

Editor's note: "You give me Bitcoin, but I don't want it." Maybe this is just a joke in your opinion, but the author Matt Schlicht believes that this is indeed a big problem. Matt is the founder of the Bitcoin community ZapChain.

I have been working in the Bitcoin industry full time for two years.

I also wrote hundreds of blog posts about cryptocurrencies. Then a year ago, I founded ZapChain (funded by Boost VC).

ZapChain is the only community platform in the world where people can reward each other with Bitcoin for great content, rather than just clicking a "like" or "top" button (anyone can create a community). In the past three months, ZapChain has grown 27% per month, with users including Paul Vigna and Michael Casey of the Wall Street Journal* and even epic rapper Talib Kweli.

However, there is a big problem.

No one wants Bitcoin.

I gave my sister $100 worth of Bitcoin for Christmas this year. You know what she said?

“Matt, I want to buy myself a new phone and I was wondering if you could give me $100 USD instead of $100 in Bitcoin?”

Bitcoin is really great because it's incredibly divisible and has incredibly low transaction fees. This means that for the first time in history, people can send each other small amounts of money, like half a cent, or even a nickel. This wasn't possible before because most third-party payment providers, like credit cards, charge 20-30 cents per transaction. Because of Bitcoin, we can make ZapChain an engaging platform where people can send small amounts of money to each other, rather than just "like". However, not everyone wants Bitcoin, and this is the biggest pain point of Bitcoin.

Of course, we can definitely fix it.

Here is what we need to do:

1. Bitcoin must be super easy to use

If I have Bitcoins, I need to be able to spend them everywhere, and it needs to be really, really easy to do so. If my sister wants to buy a new phone with Bitcoins, she should be able to do that.

Here are some startups trying to solve this problem:

Fold : Get 20% off Starbucks and Target gift cards using Bitcoin.

PurseIO : Use Bitcoin to buy anything on Amazon and get 5%-20% off.

Shift Card : A debit card that allows you to spend Bitcoin anywhere and is directly linked to your own Coinbase account.

Airbitz : A mobile app that integrates with the Fold and allows you to instantly purchase Starbucks and Target gift cards.

Coinbase : Allows you to easily buy, sell and store Bitcoin.

2. There needs to be more Bitcoin services

This would give someone an advantage over owning their own national currency.

The following startups are solving this problem:

ZapChain : Anyone can create a community, it can be any topic, people can use Bitcoin to reward people who post excellent posts and wonderful replies. Bitcoin is used as a reward: "Good post, reward some Bitcoin!", "Answer this question, you can get some Bitcoin!".

ChangeTip : Tip people in Bitcoin on social media.

21 : Create APIs and hardware for developers to create Bitcoin-enabled products and services (microtransactions, machine-to-machine payments, etc.).

JoyStream : Earn Bitcoin by creating torrent files.

Not everyone wants Bitcoin, and that’s okay. In the early days of the internet, not everyone wanted to be online either.

The Bitcoin industry has come a long way, especially in the past year, and I expect Bitcoin to become even easier to use and have more products in the future. Until then, we will continue to improve ZapChain and enable more interesting and insightful people to earn Bitcoin.

Original article: https://medium.com/@mattprd/nobody-wants-bitcoin-ae86f9677dd#.glhjrnfmj
By Matt Schlicht
Compilation: Overnight porridge
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/nobody-wants-bitcoin)