Topic: Charlie Shrem on National Affairs - Canada TV 4:30 EST Thurs - page 2. (Read 5594 times)

Add another 'nice job' to the list - I can sympathize with the initial jitters.

I've periodically had the opportunity to speak with some influential and progressive people, the kind that might be interested in funding the next CoinLab venture. Almost all of them have been completely, and somewhat surprisingly, unfamiliar with Bitcoin. Those that are aware of it regard the system warily, as something too new to be taken seriously yet.

Concrete examples and tailored analogies tend to be most effective; weusecoins.com does a great job of that from a consumer viewpoint. For business/entrepreneurial and high net worth types, the interest piques when I mention the potential to move arbitrary amounts of funds across borders and nearly instantaneously, especially when speaking about selling gold for bitcoins in one location and reversing the exchange upon arrival at the destination.

Whenever fears about Bitcoin disappearing come up, I compare the system to bamboo or ivy. Anyone who's wanted to get rid of either knows it can be an exceedingly difficult task, even borderline impossible if there's enough growth. If they press for a deeper answer, I note that the technical structure is built on proven technologies decades old (hitting the mathematics point you made), and that nodes are geographically dispersed such that the US would have more than a hard time shutting off Brazilian or Chinese participants. I try to avoid BitTorrent network comparisons at first because of the unwarranted negative connotations.

On the question about what Bitcoin is backed by, I've found that it gets the target's brain working when replying with this question: Where does the value of the Internet come from? For the more business-oriented, that can be modified to: What is the value of your contact network? When asked to put a number on something so nebulous but integral and ubiquitous, only a handful so far have been able to say more than 'highly valuable' without quantifying - a few times it's been stated as the most important part of the owner's company.

That's usually where I've seen a trigger hit, telling me the person realizes Bitcoin is more than it seems at first glance, and the impact has led to inquiries (some up to months afterward) asking me how to get started. Most of the time, they also want to know if and how they can use it with people they know. For that, I start with the analogy that it's like sending a message to an email address, only the message contains the number of bitcoins to be sent.

I sometimes suggest they also buy mining bonds to profitably support the network, but BitInstant is one of my perennial recommendations


+1


You misspelled SolidCoins

Good interview. I hope everyone in Canadia gets to see it!

Great job Yankee! 

Expect more of it from now on(hopefully). Maybe join Toastmasters or something like it to help with public speaking. Good job though, really thrown on the spot with having only been told just before it was live.
I like what you are doing in general with pushing Bitcoin forwards.

Kudos, Charlie. I think the best thing you did was to appear sane and friendly. Most of us would have been nervous in that situation.


Know your audience. Know yourself. Cypherdoc is very knowledgeable, and correct, and I have a tendency to approach political, bitcoin, and economics discussions in this way too, but this was a fairly light segment. There wasn't much time to get deep or super-passionate on any point without risking alienating the thousands of viewers who were probably hearing about bitcoin for the very first time.

Similarly, there's no point in raising the ire of David Birch when he's actually doing service for bitcoin in this interview. He gave it some credibility. We don't need to convince him. We don't need to convince anyone. We just need to present the facts. Bitcoin is building up a track record. It's not yet for everyone. It's rough around the edges. Right now it's only useful for those who can understand it. If you don't understand it, it's hard to reason about. Right now most people don't even know there's a fundamental problem with fiat money. Hell, they don't even know what fiat means. They've lived their whole lives with this thing, and they've never had to think hard about it's fundamental nature. Well that's all going to change - but we don't need to cram it down their throats. Soon enough governments will be busy cramming fiat down their throats. Let's be the saviors - not the wackos.

If you're having a conversation with one or two people, you have a chance to gauge their interest, intelligence, and disposition. You can tailor your arguments and anecdotes to suit their moods. If your on TV, it's a whole different ballgame. I'm not saying it can't be done. It's just not for everyone.

As more people hear, more will be interested. We'll grow the ranks, and find not only valuable ambassadors, but resonant phrases. We might be fond of using terms like "decentralized ledger" (I certainly am), or "cryptocurrency", but in time we'll learn that lay people can't actually hear those terms. Someone will hit on a new, dumbed-down, term that just makes sense to most people. They'll hit on a concept that's currently being presented too logically or in too much detail - and crystalize it for millions.

Bitcoin needs time to work its way into our culture. People need to hear the sad stories about dollars and drachmas, and the good stories about bitcoins and "lucky schmucks". There will be much gloom in the medium term. Bitcoin will be one of the bright points. At some point even the most stalwart critics will relent and purchase bitcoin - the evidence will be just too overwhelming. Herd mentality will kick in.

In the mean time, let's pick our fights.

Great job, Charlie.

PR analysis
Stayed calm, +1 nice analogy with the blood / veins, +1
Didn't answer the question, -1
Don't interrupt the old man, -1

The part where you explained how to purchase bitcoin is perfect.

Ps : Galactic, solar-system local digital currency ? is this guy losing it.

heh, I've got some awesome ScamCoins here... 

You can have fool's gold but you cant have fool's bitcoin 

You can also have tungsten bars painted to look like gold ones and stored at fort knox.

 

CaVirtex is good, but also having BitInstant for CAD would be awesome.

Good job overall Charlie..   

yes that's one thing i noticed, some of what was said "We will put them out of businesses"    wasn't so diplomatic. say "bitcoin is a new competitor to WU and in some ways better." or something to that effect

its a good thing you didn't say bitcoin could replace the dollar, the people of the matrix would hate you for it, they love their paper bills, and they dont want to here how its a ridiculous system. it was cool the other guy said that for you "fiat will die, soon too" yes, thank you Dave!

Thanks! Very nice of you to say.

Canada is just practice for American TV 

Having appeared on Canada's BNN multiple times I can agree that one can get fairly nervous when they know hundreds of thousands or millions of people will be watching. But you did a great job and the more you appear the less nervous you will be.

I think you did a great job of responding but doing so in a fairly diplomatic/political way since most people are still in the Matrix. Awesome job!

I did say that!

Cut me some slack lol, I was so nervous. They didn't tell me it was live until I sat in the chair

And you can say back Bitcoin is cool, is used to instantly transfer value across the globe for dirt cheap without middlemen, solves the two generals problem of consensus, ect ect

see how that works?

i'm not sure that's not out of the question.  and if it is, who cares? we're close.

these types of interviews are strategic opportunities not to be wasted.

They will say gold is shiny, is used for jewelry and in computers. Oh, and that it has couple millenias of history.

When they ask what is Bitcoin backed by, the best response is to ask back what is gold backed by, and whatever clever answer they can come up with you can 100% guaranteed just as well apply it to Bitcoin, it's that simple.

Well, it is a galactic currency.

Hundreds of thousands? Come on 'doc. If that were true, we would be seeing entirely different price levels.