When bitcoin was first created, the vision was it would soon become a currency and be used for payments or exchanging value. Just like other money, except better, faster and cheaper.

The reality is it’s become more of an investment vehicle and has yet to show real promise as a payment system.

There are a number of reasons why bitcoin isn’t ready for use as a payment system as Darryn Pollock points out in his excellent article at Cointelegraph.

First, bitcoin is still too slow. Analysts testing transaction speed calculated an average of 10 minutes per 300,000 transactions. By contrast, Visa processes an average of 2,000 transactions per second and can actually handle up to 56,000 transactions per second if necessary.

The digital coin hasn’t scaled wide enough yet for large demand by consumers for merchants to accept it. Yes, there are thousands of merchants that will accept bitcoin. Some real estate developers have tested the water and a few luxury retailers are using it as a marketing tool. Amazon is even rumored to be considering it.

The reality is, consumers have enough trouble moving from cash, debit and credit cards to contactless payments.  So don’t hold your breath on bitcoin payments yet.

Another serious flaw is the delay in processing payments. It’s valuable that transactions are verified securely by the underlying blockchain technology but Bitcoin must be “mined” to complete transactions. that takes time. And that costs money.

Speaking of cost, fees for transactions for bitcoin payments are inconsistent and sometimes even more expensive than traditional payments. Forgive merchants and consumers for asking “where’s the beef?”

At this stage, bitcoin is still a great idea in search of a business case. It’s tomorrow’s possibility as a payments system but it’s not yet today’s reality.

That said, blockchain technology is proving to be an excellent foundation for banking in the future.  Blockchain, rather than bitcoin, may be the even smarter investment for the long-term.