As Bitcoin's popularity grows, so does talk about its standing as legal tender, but there are lingering issues that need to be sorted out before people start using Bitcoin to buy everyday things, experts said on Monday.
Bitcoin has been described both as a store of value and a currency, but it's debatable whether it is either of those things. Its price can swing wildly from day to day, if not the hour, and its reputation has been tarnished by its connection to the sale of illegal goods and other illicit activity such as money laundering.
For those reasons and more, Bitcoin has a long way to go before it becomes a mainstream form of payment. Here are three challenges that generated some discussion on Monday at The Future of Money and Technology, a conference in San Francisco.
1. Buyer beware
For starters, Bitcoin transactions are designed to be irreversible. So if you buy something online from a merchant that accepts Bitcoin and the transaction turns out to be a scam, or the payment is sent to the wrong place, or any number of other things happen, the buyer will probably lose that money.
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