The Practicality of Cryptocurrencies – Not Really Ready for Prime Time

Trying to actually use Bitcoin in the economy is anything but something that will replace any government currency. The transaction fees are outrageous typically 3 to 4 times that of a cash withdraw from an ATM. In this video, a journalist tries to actually use Bitcoin. The pizza ends up costing him $76.16 and the fee to use Bitcoin is $9.47.

To use Bitcoin, there are middlemen who are the equivalent of a foreign exchange broker. It can take hours to get a simple order in to buy a pizza.

From a practical viewpoint, cryptocurrencies are not quite ready for prime time. They are all hype and offering a futuristic vision of beating the governments, but the computing time it takes to actually use cryptocurrency and the complexities, demonstrate that what we are dealing with is by no means some instant success story that has beaten paper currency or a credit card, which is really also electronic money.