The thing that makes bitcoin different than other online payment systems or virtual currencies is that it's
distributed. That property, however, is also what makes it difficult to use.
It's true that if you re-centralize things by trusting someone else with your wallet, or outsourcing block chain verification to a central party, then it can be quite usable.
From what I can tell, nobody is entirely comfortable with the direction that's headed, which is why there's a lot of handwaving about things like javascript-based cryptography, which just doesn't work.
localbitcoins is cool, but a friend bought some BTC off me the other day, and it took over an hour (for the above reasons).
Don't get me wrong, I think all of this is really interesting and amazing in a lot of ways, but not "easy peasy" as the parent commenter was saying.
It's true that if you re-centralize things by trusting someone else with your wallet, or outsourcing block chain verification to a central party, then it can be quite usable.
From what I can tell, nobody is entirely comfortable with the direction that's headed, which is why there's a lot of handwaving about things like javascript-based cryptography, which just doesn't work.
localbitcoins is cool, but a friend bought some BTC off me the other day, and it took over an hour (for the above reasons).
Don't get me wrong, I think all of this is really interesting and amazing in a lot of ways, but not "easy peasy" as the parent commenter was saying.