Nope. I have plenty of success getting friends, family, and coworkers, who haven't been tarnished by bad/over investments, to understand what Bitcoin is and how it works.
Your friends and family are not a large portion of the population that would be required for bitcoin to go "mainstream". Your friends and family would be an infinitesimal niche in comparison.
I think most people can understand that when a brick and mortar merchant register gets robbed, it's ok to still use cash.
Most people rarely use cash anylonger. They mostly use either EFT/ACH, checks, or a debit/credit card. These, for the most part, protects them from fraud and theft and has controls as far as the funds in those accounts are concerned, and are quite often easily reversible in those cases.
Market looks pretty stable now. How about refreshing your bag of arguments?
I am not making arguments against bitcoin. I love bitcoin and believe in it. I am telling you what they think of bitcoin if they know about it and are not part of these forums or the bitcoins community. Absolutely the market looks stable NOW, but the damage has been done. Its how they PERCEIVE it that matters, and they percieve it negatively, as very risky, scammy, and that perception is part what prevents bitcoins from going mainstream.
Hmmm. Cash has the same problem. Better stop using it too.
again ... perception.... not my opinion of bitcoin but their perception of it.
They say, "... invisible money, made on a computer, based on absolutely nothing, irreversible transactions, hacking, theft, fraud, no regulation, no protection, with no oversight??? Sign me up! NOT ..."
all of which falls right in line with my post:
Bitcoin may never become mainstream until most businesses start accepting it for payments, banks deal in it, and the state accepts it for taxes (which is pretty much the definition of a valid currency).
Now, consider our only success... Silk Road.
and
When people outside of this forum think of bitcoin, the majority have no idea what you are talking about. The majority of those that do, say its used for illegal drugs and guns on Silk Road. Next in line is for hacking and theft at the major exchanges. Next is the huge wallet theft. Next is the market volatility and crash from $30 to $4 each that really made them laugh at the investors and speculators who got in right after gawker. Then last we have the untracable and irreversible aspect that does nothing to protect them like thay have with credit/debt based currency.
So, ummm... yea.
You will always have success preaching to a choir.
Not that I dont think it cant change, but the items in my previous post needs addressed first, and I dont think that will be possible for a very long time, if ever.