Topic: Any intuitive benefits of bitcoins to consumers?? (Read 888 times)
Thanks for the comments. This gives me a bit more food for thought. I appreciate it
I think it will be hard to convince specifically consumers at this point because there still isn't enough infrastructure to yield a lot of benefits over fiat, as you've outlined. This will change in the future when getting in and out of Bitcoin can be done as easily as walking to a local bank or currency handler and storing Bitcoin becomes a virtually brainless activity. There's still a lot of fear and uncertainty associated with Bitcoin, which makes it scary for consumers.
On the other hand, you should be able to convince any long-term investor who can understand that central banks are inflating their respective currencies into oblivion.
On the other hand, you should be able to convince any long-term investor who can understand that central banks are inflating their respective currencies into oblivion.
This. Fiat is either spreadsheet numbers or cash, so if you remove the infrastructure and compare like for like, suddenly the bitcoin network looks enormously superior. We need a bit more infrastructure and ease-of-use stuff to comprehensively defeat traditional payments infrastructure still.
With that said, owning some coins and seeing how easy it is to transfer wealth anywhere without limits is quite enlightening. You could pitch it as being useful to people who for example get paid from overseas regularly, who would easily see how wonderful this new tech is. So not really the Joe Average consumers you might be thinking about here, but they still exist.
Oh! And don't forget that alt currencies open up online payments to those who are unable to do card payments for whatever reason.
I think it will be hard to convince specifically consumers at this point because there still isn't enough infrastructure to yield a lot of benefits over fiat, as you've outlined. This will change in the future when getting in and out of Bitcoin can be done as easily as walking to a local bank or currency handler and storing Bitcoin becomes a virtually brainless activity. There's still a lot of fear and uncertainty associated with Bitcoin, which makes it scary for consumers.
On the other hand, you should be able to convince any long-term investor who can understand that central banks are inflating their respective currencies into oblivion.
On the other hand, you should be able to convince any long-term investor who can understand that central banks are inflating their respective currencies into oblivion.
I agree with 1) and 3) of your points, not 2): micro-payments are not good on Bitcoin, because the transaction fee is relatively high for those.
Here's my pitch, based on the point of how good it is for merchants:
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You haven't noticed it, but every time you buy something from a place that accepts credit cards (except for the few that pass the cost directly to you), you're subsidizing the enormous cost of credit card fees.
Merchants can and should give you a direct discount for using a lower-cost payment system - Bitcoin!
Even if they don't give you the discount directly, the lower cost will allow them to provide more competitive prices, services, and employee salaries.
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Yes, trickle-down economics. It's weird that that's one of the biggest benefits to ordinary end consumers of a decentralized network, but there you go...
Honestly, just the fact that the sender has to pay fees instead of the receiver should mean that every merchant that accepts Bitcoin should give you at least a little discount, since the prices we're used to include all of their transaction fee costs.
Here's my pitch, based on the point of how good it is for merchants:
--------
You haven't noticed it, but every time you buy something from a place that accepts credit cards (except for the few that pass the cost directly to you), you're subsidizing the enormous cost of credit card fees.
Merchants can and should give you a direct discount for using a lower-cost payment system - Bitcoin!
Even if they don't give you the discount directly, the lower cost will allow them to provide more competitive prices, services, and employee salaries.
--------
Yes, trickle-down economics. It's weird that that's one of the biggest benefits to ordinary end consumers of a decentralized network, but there you go...
Honestly, just the fact that the sender has to pay fees instead of the receiver should mean that every merchant that accepts Bitcoin should give you at least a little discount, since the prices we're used to include all of their transaction fee costs.
I was asked to write up something that discusses the intuitive benefits of Bitcoin to consumers.... currently most of the intuitive benefits apply to merchants. I believe the perceived effort of adopting bitcoin (by newbies) is far greater than the actual effort but it's the lack of intuitive benefits that I believe are preventing widespread adoption (and among my friends/colleagues).
I've heard or come up with the following:
1) A wallet or app that lets you pay for items globally: thinking starbucks, paypal, amazon efficiency around the world. Travel to six countries and you only need to carry your phone. (Related to the remittance market.)
2) Ability to chose to forgo commercials/adds on tv/internet by submitting real time micro-payments (I believe the current transaction system is not efficient enough to do this)
3) Immediate transfer of money for transactions that require wire transfers; limited benefit but I closed on a house and had to wait hours for the wire transfer to post
That's all I've got for consumers.... I guess where I'm going with this is that I'm looking for problems in which bitcoin can be a solution. The privacy, easy of use, secure arguments aren't very compelling. I'm a huge bitcoin fan but I'm struggling to get others interested. Most people are just confused and don't really see how it benefits them but they can easily see how it benefits merchants.
Any thoughts or future applications where the benefit to consumers are intuitive would be much appreciated!
I've heard or come up with the following:
1) A wallet or app that lets you pay for items globally: thinking starbucks, paypal, amazon efficiency around the world. Travel to six countries and you only need to carry your phone. (Related to the remittance market.)
2) Ability to chose to forgo commercials/adds on tv/internet by submitting real time micro-payments (I believe the current transaction system is not efficient enough to do this)
3) Immediate transfer of money for transactions that require wire transfers; limited benefit but I closed on a house and had to wait hours for the wire transfer to post
That's all I've got for consumers.... I guess where I'm going with this is that I'm looking for problems in which bitcoin can be a solution. The privacy, easy of use, secure arguments aren't very compelling. I'm a huge bitcoin fan but I'm struggling to get others interested. Most people are just confused and don't really see how it benefits them but they can easily see how it benefits merchants.
Any thoughts or future applications where the benefit to consumers are intuitive would be much appreciated!
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