Topic: Getting more people to adopt bitcoin.... (Read 1496 times)

I agree, education is the way to go. Unfortunately you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Many of us have been posting for years now explaining what to look for when learning to secure your bitcoins, yet we still have people storing coins on the same computers they use to browse the web.

Smart people, the ones who know how to earn and save money, will ultimately hear about Bitcoin and it's advantages. These are the adopters Bitcoin needs, not the average Joe who is thousands of dollars in debt. The average Joe will pay the smart folks to provide him with services to keep his money "safe".

I was more thinking the likes of education and features such as mycelium's cold storage spending or piper printer.
Not many people have had experience of having/getting to look after their own money and doing it wrong then getting burned will

A. Spread the false word that bitcoin is not safe and
B. leave a very bitter taste/put people off for good.

It is easy. Bitcoin is easier to secure than any other asset on the planet. I can't make a digital back up of my home or car. I can't protect my gold with cryptography.

The point is, the user has to do it themselves. They can't rely on a third party or insurance company.

Eventually there will be businesses which you can pay to protect your bitcoins, just like the businesses you pay to protect your traditional assets today. In fact, there is one already. I'm sure a search for "insured bitcoin" will lead you there.

I'm not poor, but the WU fees are even killing me. How do people not realize that bitcoin is great.

I think this is more true than people give realize.

Most people struggle with good security measures without bitcoin, once they start carrying bitcoins on their phones, pc's and exchanges (they will, it's easier than offline/cold) it will become a BIG target.

Hackers/thieves and crooks will adopt bitcoin as fast as the mass market, I don't think I want it to become to mass adopted prior some good solutions to potential security issues.

Security needs to be easy.

I've got an idea of how to spread bitcoin adoption. Every time you shop at a store where they employ minimum wage workers, like Walmart, ask them if they accept bitcoin.  After they tell you no we don't accept bitcoin, "what's bitcoin?"  Tell them what bitcoin is.

You're giving new possible buyers too much credit.  People new to bitcoin know that they don't know much about it.  Why send or give your hard earned money to some exchange (or coinbase or, even better, some guy at coffee shop) when there is a chance you could get defrauded like the people who had their bitcoin with mtgox?  That's the end of the analysis right there.  Your suggestion that the new possible investors will start an in depth research of the different exchanges and the bitcoin protocol is simply not reality for vast majority potential new buyers.   

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they have no idea how Bitcoin could benefit them in the first place. [/quote]


95%+ of the people buying it are doing so for investment or storing wealth.  Almost no one is buying bitcoin so that they can transact some type of business.  Why would I go through the headache of buying bitcoin so I can buy something on overstock?  It's really much more expensive for me to do it this way compared to simply using my credit card.  The benefit for the new buyer is the appreciation in value, and protecting one's assets against governments which have the power to hyper inflate their currencies.

While it certainly is an important issue today, you are giving it far too much weight.

If people can't distinguish between an exchange collapsing and Bitcoin collapsing, they have no idea how Bitcoin could benefit them in the first place.

This Gox debacle will all be ancient history in a few months time.

The most important factor is security.  If people believe there is a distinct possibility that they will be cheated through owning bitcoin, they won't adopt, period.

Right now, the most important circumstance surrounding bitcoin's security is how mtgox plays out.  If people get cheated out of bitcoin or cash, the new potential adopters of bitcoin will simply turn their backs on it, which is understandable.  They won't care that it was one particular exchange.  All they will care about is that thousands of people were cheated out of a lot of money relating to a bitcoin investment.  Unlike what a lot of people say on here, these new potential adopters won't look into what the particular cause was simply because owning bitcoin is not that important for them.  The can all live without it.

  

I disagree, when the poor become more rich, everyone becomes more wealthier. Sure, the poor will still have less relative wealth than the wealthy, but technology and the invention of liberty/democracy has made the pie bigger for all of us to share. The invention of synthetic fertilizer brought down the price of food which brought into the existence of the 1st world countries. Prior to this, even lots of people in europe and america starved. Now, the invention of a new technology, the bitcoin will pull up everyone up one wealth bracket. Perhaps, people in Africa won't starve anymore.

Bitcoin democratizes the economy and the pseudoanonymity and lack of government confiscation (if you don't cough up your password to decrypt) is a tenet of liberty. Anything that is a cost lowering technology and a liberty/democracy assisting event will improve everyone's lives.

In the middle ages, even royalty lived in conditions of squalor compared to the average middle class worker of today. Technology and liberty makes the world better for all, rich and poor. It is a win-win scenario.

When poor become rich, they are still poor, because the rich are more rich.

Without a bottom, there is no top. Without a top, there is nothing to rise up to. When everyone has millions, it costs millions for everything, and thus, zimbabwe.

Sad fact of the matter is... the few rich become rich by getting most others (poor), to do more for less. (Robbery of value)

Even sadder... Contrary to popular belief, money does not run the world. Power and assets do. Those in power, with assets, spend forever trying to convince us (with money), that we want more money... More of their money, while creating them more assets and giving them more power.

BTC is a step in the change of that whole game. Though, the ones with power and assets, will still be the ones in control. Unless you convince them to give us the assets and power, for the BTC. (Which is slowly happening.)

Agreed.

The easiest way to promote bitcoin is to ask whether they accept bitcoins whenever you pay. The more people hear about it the better.

Giving something away is not really effective in proving it has value. (It worked in the beginning when it didn't really have any value.)

Bitcoin doesn't really need "salesmen" at this point.

Educating others is fine, as long as they show an interest. Pushing things on people won't work.

OK,

We should get more people to adopt bitcoin because;
1. poor people cannot afford the crazy fees bank charge you for not meeting minimum balances.
2. people in third world countries cannot sell you a $2 handmade necklace if it costs $5 to $25 to wire money for the purchase.
3. when poor people become less poor, the velocity of money goes up and everyone becomes wealthier.

How to get more peeps bitcoining?
1. give an extra tip to your waiter/waitress on top of the fiat tip in bitcoin. Install a wallet on their phone for them and put some coin in there as their tip. Make sure your tip is big enough for them to buy something useful with it like a Bitcoin Tshirt or a baseball cap (about $20) or a music album, etc.
2. tip helpful independent merchants and salespeople in bitcoin. Show them how it has less crazy fees than credit cards.
3. give gifts to children in bitcoin; christmas, birthdays, etc.
4. pay back your debts to friends in fiat and the interest in bitcoin (if your friend didn't ask for interest).
5. pay panhandlers in bitcoin, they all have smart phones with internet now, thanks to the "Obama phone" they got for voting for the guy.
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/09/bitcoin-homeless/
http://www.budgetmobile.com/
don't pay panhandlers cash. They DON'T want cash as they can get robbed of their cash easily, but bitcoins are encrypted so they're safer if you live on the street.

Any other ideas?