Topic: Bitcoin Not an Awareness Problem But an Education Problem (Read 1383 times)

Digital currency works for me....lets make it official. 

I think digital or virtual currency is acceptable too.

Open source, peer to peer money for people that might've taken a computer class.  

Well yes, and in later phases too (I envisage using BTC to buy PMs in the future, for example). The point is that using BTC as mere currency, and encouraging others to think of BTC as something they can buy groceries/coffee/beer with, doesn't really help Bitcoin. (And, taking this further, could potentially be detrimental - if someone buys 1BTC on our recommendation, spends it successfully, is generally happy with Bitcoin... but then watches as the BTC price rises... their initial positive impression is probably going to be replaced with a "WTF did I do? If only I'd kept that 1BTC and spent fiat instead What a rip-off!" (unless they took your advice and replaced the BTC they spent - but that's hardly convenient compared to fiat. I'm still going to use fiat for coffee!)

 

Good job.
You will all eventually do well with BTC, but it might take "too long" at first.
Hopefully they know it can go down (~100%) first?

"internet cash" or "internet currency" is what I use to describe Bitcoin to people.

I think that Bitcoin can be both a currency and a commodity during its growth phase.  You can use it to buy coffee as long as you replace those coins at the end of the day.  For the most part though, Bitcoin will be pumped up in these early stages by investors.

Here's a very small, very obvious problem:

What do you think of when you hear the words crypto-currency ?

Crypt as in tomb/grave, cryptic as in complex/overcomplicated, encrypt as in encode/hide something....see where I'm going here?

The very phrase that we use to describe our alternative currency movement is full of bad associations for Joe Public.

I strongly suggest that no-one ever uses the word crypto ever again....at least not where Joe Public can hear you.

According to this chart, it seem that the price of Bitcoin will hit a high of $5,000 this August.  The price hits a high every 8 months and the incremental jumps seems to be double, and then double plus the previous.

I can walk into my local café/bistro today and spend BTC instead of fiat... but - I'm not going to. It's a silly idea. The fiat I have in my pocket is losing its value constantly - in a month's time it'll buy me less coffee than it buys me now - so it makes sense to spend fiat, not BTC. (BTC is deflationary - in the long term I expect BTC to be worth much more than that coffee I could have bought with it).

Bitcoin does need to grow, the number of users does need to increase. But this "mass adoption" windmill is something we should stop tilting at. Bitcoin has far better potential than "something we can buy coffee/beer/groceries with".

I discovered Bitcoin shortly after returning from working abroad. I'd been paying a mortgage in one country while working in another. The forex costs were a killer (and I needed to plan ahead, since transfers between the two countries took a few days, and were a bit hit or miss in terms of time). This is Bitcoin's advantage for me - not a new way to buy stuff at Walmart.  That isn't to say this is the only use for Bitcoin, just that aping fiat is not a good use, and "mass adoption" (if it means granny can use BTC to buy her shopping) isn't a goal we should be seriously considering. (It is, however, one of those "truthy" goals, one that seems obvious and right - even if it's anything but).
 
(Disclaimer: I probably will use BTC in my local café at some point. But I'll do it to encourage a forward-looking business, not because it makes sense for me personally).

I highly disagree with your strong disagree.  Most people who use fiat money are completely unconcerned with the origin or meaning of that currency; only thing that they care about is the fact that they can spend that money when they need something.  Lots of people right now do not want to deal with a currency that they perceive as being easily stolen, hard to use, and limited usage.  A person can walk into Walmart and buy some ice cream with fiat, this is not achievable with bitcoins right now.  

lol

well that kinda defeats the purpose of bitcoin.
You're now letting a 3rd party in charge of your bitcoins again when you use that service.

It is better if merchants receive the bitcoins themselves.

Makes sense, it took me about 3 months to convince my friends.

When "we" go out "all over the web" talking about BTC, the results are mixed.
Some good...but much of it is viewed as spam and/or "ponzi recruiting."

Speaking as someone in the game for 3 years, I think it's more of a patience problem.

I have to agree with the above - now moving into my 1st week having learned about it, my increasing understanding is pure self directed. I wanted to learn and know. I wanted to understand...so I've learned a lot in a few days.

The people I've talked to - both to share this amazing advance in our world as much as to test out how well I do or do not know what I'm explaining based on their feedback and all, what I've seen is that they're perfectly willing to hear me out but are indifferent at best to take any initiative to learn more and pursue bitcoin to secure their own finances.

I can see myself reaching a place where I just shrug it off and go on about my own business and down the road when I'm "doing bitcoin" or even cashing it in for real world goods and services and they ask where all that money came from, I'm just gonna go, "Bitcoin" and shut up.

If they ask me a single question, I'm just answering, "google it" and be done with it 

I also think people downright refuse education on global financial matters as it would use up too many braincells (and overload them). The majority still goes with the flow - whereever it leads them.

Attempting to bring BTC to them will always be seen as advertising/spamming or preaching. Those who wish to participate need to come by themselves, it's the only way.

Plus, educating them would also be a three-edged sword :
- advantages
- risks
- how to effectively and safely use BTC

Technically speaking, Bitcoin is still far away from general usability, its infrastructure is still waaay to complicated and user-unfriendly for the average Joe Sixpack to pick up & use.
So far, nobody has built a bridge for that hughe usability gap (a secure, one-size-fits-all, all-features-in-one BitCoin application that operates cross-platform and could be used by non-techy people from age 4 to age 90 that never used a computer).

And adding the risks to the education process (in the techy world of BTC) would downright exceed most people's abilities, even most typical computer users need to perform active research to get their knowledge kit together concerning current IT security.

PS.
If you tried to bring them i.e. to precious metals, you'd be labeled a goldbug and/or a conspiracy theorist and get weird looks.
If you tried to bring them i.e. to CryptoCurrencies - they'd likely and simply just not understand you at all, even if they tried. You'd probably get a blank face (visible "Software failure" of their brain ).

It's just nothing you can fully and correctly explain to average people within a few sentences that covers their limited attention span.

bump

the real issue is that people are not as stupid as you folks want them to be. so, unless bitcoin starts to become a real solution to a real problem instead of being just another hipster tech-revolution that will change the world for sure, you'll have to hold the bag on your own.

Excellent idea here - I've had this reality check in the last few days crash course learning all I can learn and meanwhile starting to tell people in my family about it. Like talking to a box of lettuce...they're all old school. I did step back and assess in a day to day frame whether or not they'd benefit on the short term with btc and it came down to their simple willingness to cling to convenience and status quo rather than spend just a few days reading more about it and finding ways to incorporate it.

Old school money and old school technology are likely not going to care about btc or embrace it.

I owed a relative $50 that I was getting ready to repay over the weekend but ended up obsessively reading the forum. I talked to this person at length about it because they showed receptivity, very sincerely insisting they're totally interested in it. Yesterday I said that Thursday I'd be investing in btc and asked if they'd prefer I add in the 50 I owe and let them watch the market price fluctuations to see how it works and will cash out for them whenever they're ready.

They were all thumbs up about it until I offered that as an option and went fiat instead...which told me they wasted my time talking to them about it, they were humoring me...so I handed off the 50 bucks and watched them hand it over 45 minutes later for pizza.

Agreed, best to preach to the teens and 20somethings who are entering the world fresh out of school - now challenged with the enormous responsibility of remembering which context to use there, they're, their, your and you're...because if they can't master 3rd grade shit, Life is going to sodomize the crap out of them down the road. (Life is hard. It's even harder when you're stupid - Duke)

I also agree that a bitcoin card that can be used to "swipe and go" is going to be the one thing that send btc use mainstream in the shortest amount of time. Investors care about the freedom principle, shoppers just want to cash in and cash out.

+1 for the quoted comments