Topic: I was interviewed about Bitcoin on more than 100 Radio stations! ~100K Listeners - page 7. (Read 10868 times)

+1

+1 this.  I hope the OP catches this suggestion and uses it.

Use more generalized terms like "financial privacy", "assets immune to seizure", "can't be manipulated by central banks to steal your wealth through inflation".

The listener will frame the talking points to their own situation.

If someone wants to cheat the IRS, buy illegal drugs, move money offshore, hide their activity from govt scrutiny, etc will be "read into" those open ended statements. 

You get the same effect without directly advocating tax fraud as an advantage to a national audience.  "Bitcoin is the best way to commit felonies" is not a good marketing strategy.  It attracts all the wrong attention and may turn off people who have no interest in buying drugs or cheating on their taxes but otherwise may be reception to Bitcoin.

@BadBear - I agree 100%.

I like it.  I hope he listens to the good advice in this thread, promoting the illegal things you can do just perpetuates to a bad image some may have about bitcoin already.  Don't appeal to just Libertarians, go for a wider audience.  Besides, this forum could use a more diverse political population.   

In the future, this may be able to limit the government's control of the money supply.

FTFY.

I think we should stay away from points that are speculative.

this sounds like a grandiose claim made by a FAN
stick to the facts

at best you could say

7. We hope, They will end the government's control of the money supply.


this list all seems to revolve around one point, the last point

consider only saying #7 and leaving it at that, if the radio host asks you what you mean, use the other points.




something interesting to look at
the 1997 Digialt cash proposal. http://www.simovits.com/archive/dcash.pdf

notice it been a long time people have though of make something like bitcoin... but all their ideas needed the bank to work with them, this is why all their ideas failed, and why bitcoin took off.

I think you mean 'cannot'.

Awesome Roger, can't wait to hear it!

Roger forgets to mention that not only is it on 100 radio stations around the US, but it's also a very popular Podcast, routinely ranking high in the charts. This also means any of you who want to hear Roger's interview tomorrow can download the Podcast via iTunes (just search for Free Talk Live)

Please don't advocate tax evasion.  Simply state that you can achieve certain levels of financial privacy with Bitcoin.

By default, Bitcoin is NOT private. But if you're very careful (maintain separate wallets, not send transactions from your IP, etc) you can achieve certain levels of privacy.  Hopefully Bitcoin will become more private in the future.  See this thread about tracking transactions: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--24784, and this post about forwarding transactions https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.603865

Again, please don't advocate tax evasion. Also, you have to go to a lot of work (patching the client, using nonstandard tools, running behind tor) to actually have some semblance of privacy.

There are no 3rd party/centralized fees, but there can be small fees imposed by the "official" bitcoin client depending on certain factors. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees

Again, please don't advocate illegal activities.

I would suggest avoiding talking about tax evasion (or "voluntary taxation), money laundering, buying illegal drugs, or using it to purchase anything illegal.  Talk about "privacy" instead of "anonymity" (which is really the same thing but has a more sinister sounding tone).  If you talk about transaction and asset privacy, anyone interested in such things will put 2+2 together and you don't have to give the banks/gov't any sound bytes to use against bitcoin.  

Talk about how the founders of the US likely never imagined a scenario where privacy in financial dealings was effectively impossible, and yet eCommerce has brought about just such a scenario.  Had the founders had such fore sight, they likely would have put provisions in the US constitution to protect financial privacy rights.  

Mention how bitcoin can help impose fiscal discipline on politicians by competing with national currencies.  In the long run, that makes our economies healthier and stronger (which eliminates a big precipitant for war).  Gold as an alternative currency serves that role in theory, but due to the inconvenience of actually using gold, we've developed these debt backed fiat currencies that always ultimately lead to over indebtedness, financial ruin, and war.  The fiat system requires an ever expanding money supply to provide the money needed for repaying debts…and because new money is only issued with debt backing, by extension, the system requires an ever expanding credit.  Needless to say that in such a system, you'll periodically find yourself at a point where debt is over-extended and consequently on the verge of system collapse…and at the very least, extreme and disorderly deleveraging.  With bitcoin you would have less dramatic swings of expansion and contraction of credit because debt is not at the foundation of the system.

Talk about how money is information.  Talk about how it's money designed for the Internet age.  Talk about how all other methods of online transactions require third party involvement.  Talk about how credit cards were designed in the 1950's and ACH in 1972…these technologies are old and could never have anticipated the digitally interconnected we live in today.

Lay out the case where, given the unique properties of bitcoin, it really could serve as the basis of a new, Internet era, financial system.  Make bitcoin synonymous with the future.

Yea don't focus on the 'shady' side, just put it out as a form of 'free' money. (as in free speech...)
Everybody can reason that anything can be used in both good and bad ways, thats not a bitcoin issue at all.

Government would still be able to collect as much revenue through taxes as before, if bitcoin was the only currency in use. Basically they would just have to utilize only VAT tax and land tax for all of their tax revenue, by adjusting these two taxes (that are close to impossible to dodge) tax revenues could end up being exactly the same as before.

The only reason why government wouldn't like this kind tax system is because, as mentioned, tax dodging would be difficult no matter who you are, so oligarchic and corporate interest groups would suddenly have to follow the same rules as everyone else.

My personal view of Bitcoin is different from this, but this is probably related to my political opinions, which are not worth discussing.

For me, Bitcoin is a non-proprietary easy way of sending money over the Internet to anyone the world. It's important that they can't be counterfeited and I like the fact that they are not controlled by a single company, but I don't agree with the most of your points. I think that people should pay taxes and Bitcoin is not an excuse for tax evasion. And ideas like "in 10 years the government will have no control over money because Bitcons will rule the world" are complete non-sense to me. But of course that I respect your opinion and those points will probably please the listeners.

I agree with everyone else, you are playing up the illegal aspects too much.  Focus more on what bitcoin is and how its different from fiat currencies, people who care about that kinda stuff will see the implications.  People who don't care will get the wrong idea and be turned off by it. 

I would downplay the whole IRS thing.  Just tell the listeners that Bitcoin, if set up properly, can provide financial privacy.  If the listeners are liberty advocates, they will understand the implications.

Since MemoryDealers' interview is tomorrow, let's use the rest of today to critique his 7 talking points and 7 reasons for adaptation. Having them numbered would make them easy to do such. Simply state which numbered bullet point should not be mentioned and which one should be more focused upon. Any suggestions we offer up should also be numbered--8; 9; 10; etc.--for easier referencing. MemoryDealers should stay on this thread most of today so that tomorrow he'll be less prone to trip over himself during the interview. I further suggest, MD, getting plenty of rest tonight so that you're fresh in the morning, therefore state what you're cutoff time for calling it a night.

I post this because this could be to much of an opportunity for Bitcoin to get it effed-up. We (this community) should devote as much time on this today to help MD with his request for input. This may be the only post I'll offer up on this tread today, for I've be to busy in the field and I'm not as bright as some of you other folks here to aid in his TP request, short of short positive/directional asides.

That said, good luck with the interview tomorrow, MD.

For those not able to listen to it live, I hope there's a link to the recording of it somewhere. I'd love to here it.

Bruno

I would like to add that some people disagree with the complete anonymity issue of Bitcoin. In fact, it is possible to create an economic structure using current Bitcoin protocols in ways that make it reasonably traceable by law enforcement while still maintaining privacy for users.

Nice, but focusing on it as a way to avoid taxes can make people have the wrong expectations about bitcoin

Try to focus a bit more on the easy of use, you can sell everything everywhere and get paid instantly and then buy something instantly. If you are a gamer and you play mmo for example you can sell golds for bitcoins and use them to buy other games (Battlefield 3 for example, is awesome) for bitcoins.

This illustrates a strange facet of Bitcoin, whereas the credit card companies and PayPal can send their CEO, there are few experts that have legitimacy beyond "self-proclaimed", due to the non-organizational nature of Bitcoin itself, and that nobody is looking to take money out of your pocket by advocating your use of Bitcoin. What its users say about Bitcoin can reflect on their own attitudes.

It is not an IRS tax dodge (corporations have figured what that really means a long time ago). To not declare your income is advocating lawbreaking, and Bitcoin, like any other currency, can of course be used for illegal activity, no differently than paying your illegal labor in undeclared cash or buying drugs with dollars or stolen TVs.

It is a new international currency that is independently valued and includes its own instant transfer method over the Internet, unfettered by banks. It will not magically debase nation-state currency, however, it is an exercise in what currency transfer can look like without the banks or middlemen, credit scores, merchant fees, contracts, frozen accounts, or anyone else telling you how you should use your money. There is no "credit card fraud" as the owner of the Bitcoins has complete control and only he has the cryptographic keys required to send money. I can transfer my Bitcoins for goods or services, and merchants or individuals providing services can likewise re-spend those Bitcoins, as it is a real economy unto itself. It also is uncounterfeitable, irrevocable, and doesn't have disputes or chargebacks, so you can be certain when you have been paid in Bitcoins you won't be losing out later.

Whereas governments can print more money as they see fit, devaluing personal savings and causing inflation, Bitcoin has a fixed rate of production and a maximum number that will be produced, in a mining process that rewards computer processing power,similar to the way that the world's gold is limited and mining it becomes harder. The currency is not scarce like gold, though, as it can be divided down to eight decimal points, enough for the whole world population to each have 20 million of the base currency units.

It is completely supported by a network of tens of thousands of other users, who use the software to transmit user transfers and account balances to all other users, and who verify that transactions are legitimate and un-forged by securing the record of all past transactions with a cryptographic authentication method that currently involves more computer power than the top 100 supercomputers combined.

It has immediate obvious use a a payment method for web services such as online game economies, auction sites, retail sites, gambling sites, and, just like the Internet itself, has no geographic boundaries. It also can be used in person, as there are varied people that will trade goods (or even your lunch) in person for bitcoins or even trade you dollars for it.

Even though it's true, I don't much like the idea of emphasizing the "shady" properties of bitcoin (tax dodging, money laundering, purchasing illegal drugs, etc.)

Doing so just seems like it would just invite the wrong kind of attention from the government, and gives them fuel with which to go after bitcoin.  Not that there's much interest from political types at this point, but I could see them a few years down the road pointing to this interview and saying "see, it's a tool for tax dodgers and criminals, even it's proponents admit it!"

Seems bitcoin has enough other positive properties (non-reversible, anonymous, worldwide, etc.) that emphasizing the illegal uses isn't really necessary.