Topic: If you guys want Bitcoin to heat up again .... - page 3. (Read 5601 times)

+1

That and reinstating trading fees would probably get the price moving again.

I'm not so sure about the "bored community" though - true, it seems attention span is somewhat rare these days but good projects need some time to develop. Just because not everyday some great new thing comes around doesn't mean there aren't many people working on their Bitcoin-related projects. The large influx of new people we've seen a few weeks ago will probably result in some great new projects, but that takes some time. People need to first wrap their head around the system, develop ideas and implement them.
Especially starting new sound businesses is something which shouldn't be done quickly over the weekend.

Patience my friends

Agreed. This is why I'm spending a lot of time on making it possible for merchants to securely deploy Bitcoin. The SELinux policy is just the start. I'll have more announcements to make in the next few days.

Participation outside of the US is absolutely vital (and will probably be responsible for the next growth wave).

But the problem is the rhetoric of "bitcoin is only fake money based on speculation only" will only get buried with sales figures from merchants, not profits by exchanges.
The percent of people who are buying bitcoins to buy goods with them needs to climb dramatically.

OK, and what are you doing about it?

bitcoins isn't going to be good for vendors until most of the population knows what it is.

Or, let Europeans transfer Euros to MtGox.   

Which has not been allowed this whole past week.

You're going to have to stop bending over and taking stagnation up the butt:

A) Spend some - preferably buying from one of the bigger merchants
-Someone's got to make money besides the exchanges. There needs to be success stories from VENDORS.
-Meze Grill accepting bitcoins is a success story to forumites, but it's not a success story to businesses. A follow-up article saying that they are getting 20% more sales now because bitcoin users in New York go out of their way to eat there, is a success story. So go out of your way and eat there. If you live in another big city, try talking to a local business owner.
-The 'bottom line' of most people here is to get BTC accepted in more places. Business owners' bottom line is MONEY. They want to know that they will get more business, they don't care about your utopia.
-Existing business owners will only be convinced to start accepting BTC as payment when they hear that others have had success with it. Enter a problem: the sales figures of our business are low. Is anyone making A LIVING? I'm as much for competition as the next capitalist, but honestly, no one's going to make money if what little BTC people are spending gets divided amongst a ton of small merchants. We need to prop up the 'bigger' merchants who have the best track record and know how to scale up. Get them PAID. They'll get press.
-Don't kid yourself - you shouldn't try to start your own unless you know what you're doing. Try offering your time to an existing one instead. Convincing one existing, already profitable business to accept payment in BTC would be worth more than 100 bitcoin startups from people who have no experience, connections, or face in the public. They are just going to get lost on the internet.

B) Draw attention    
-Don't be annoying, don't be a train-wreck - be entertaining. You can be ridiculous without looking like a lunatic. That dude who put the videos of himself dancing around in a costume on youtube (is he still here?) was confusing as all get up, but he wasn't an embarrassment to the community.
-If you don't have programming skills, try being a local consultant or an online entertainer (just not with crazy conspiracy political posts).
-Mass orchestrated stunts, anyone? Can ANYONE orchestrate something?

The price isn't the only boring thing right now - the whole energy level is low. It's like people coming to the forums right now are watching a made-for-TV-movie and don't know why they haven't changed the channel yet. Even Something Awful is bored by this forum, despite plenty of awful posts.

The media is not going to do it for you; we haven't given them any reason to care for the past few weeks. If bitcoin is to only be for a niche community, it still has only reached a fraction of its potential user base. Critical mass is only right around the corner, if the existing user base would just spend enough of their hoarded stashes on business, whose success will fuel awareness.

Even something like a tattoo race raises awareness. Your trading bot will not raise awareness.

Bottom line, this is the part that seems to fly over people's heads: long-term, you are not going to get yours unless you help others get theirs.

Signed, one lackadaisical motherfucker to another.