Topic: Why any ordinary person would be interested in Bitcoins? (Read 2776 times)

Buy 1 for each of your grandchildren with a note, telling them you have always hoped for their good future.

I think Bitcoin is becoming too "serious" for the average person. The "fun" aspect of Bitcoin hasn't been really captured yet.

The good ole C-64.  Ahh, the memories.

They don't need to be interested in it - when enough rich people (self made rich people are obviously not ordinary people) are interested in it, it will be shoved down ordinary peoples throats. Just like paper money and credit cards.

My first approach to Bitcoins was just curiosity.

Today ... they likely wouldn't.  Good thing the world doesn't end today.  Seriously Bitcoin today is like the personal computer in 1982.  People can see the fundamental value (no I am not talking about price/exchange rates) but it is clunky and has a lot of shortcomings.



Those that want a perfect user experience, high security, large well capitalized and run companies, insurance, seamless integration into finance/forex, etc ... just wait 10 years.  Bitcoin will either have that and more or be gone.  I am not sure of many things but I am sure that ten years from now, Bitcoin's money supply won't be valued at ~$1 billion USD.  It will be many magnitudes larger or it will be gone (and "gone" includes scenarios where it has been go marginalized into a niche most people don't even know it still exists).

So the Bitcoin* can get busy busy building or get busy dying.


* the developers, companies, advocates, service providers, merchants, etc that collectively give the protocol value/utility.

I'm ordinary.
I don't like to give away my private information to buy a pair of shoes.
I like to buy things from around the world.
I like to own my money, not rent it from the government.
I like how easy and fast it is.
There are other things also.

Mr Smith soon will probably need to buy some cheap antidepressants from SR after his FIAT assets are frozen by a new Capital Control regulation.
He is probably a lawful man, but he cannot afford retail pharmacy prices.

I cant really be bothered explaining to much because it's 12:49am and I need to be up early but 1 major point will be they wont have a choice.
How much money do you think credit card fraud and Identity theft costs people, banks and governments? It's massive isn't it.
well bitcoin can wipe it out completely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_fraud
http://www.statisticbrain.com/credit-card-fraud-statistics/


Credit Card Fraud Statistics Statistics   Data
Percent of Americans who have been victims of credit card fraud   10 %
Percent of Americans who have been victims of debit or ATM card fraud   7 %
Median amount reported on credit card fraud   $399
Percent of all financial fraud related to credit cards   40 %
Total amount of credit card fraud worldwide   $5.55 Billion
Percentage of Each Type of Credit Card Fraud   
Counterfeit Credit Cards   37 %
Lost of Stolen   23 %
No-Card Fraud (i.e. giving card information to a non-legit telemarketer)   10 %
Stolen cards during mailing fraud   7 %
Identity-Theft Fraud   4 %

+1

They don't have better choice when it comes to long term saving medium: Fiat lose its value constantly, physical goods degrade through time, gold is not easy to carry and use, government bonds interest can not cover the rising living expenses

The kind of person who describe isn't an ordinary person. There are much more Mr Zhangs than Mr Smiths. Half of India's population has no bank accounts. http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/11/01/why-few-indians-have-bank-accounts/

There are many people in this world who have cell phones but no bank accounts. In ten years they probably have smart phones.

Those people might want to do low-wage online work and get payed despite having no bankaccount.

A lot of bitcoins economy will however still be illegal payments. Some third world towns that make their money through the drug trade
might switch to using bitcoins for their regular transactions as well.

Yes, good point... no charge backs. So, now we have young generation and millions of sellers.
Sounds that BTC does not need Mr.Smith to become well known & widely used currency especially if we take also all the people from not so developed countries.

Do you have any idea at all how many 'ordinary people' sell shit on the internet to stay alive?  Millions.  Seriously.  It's the modern day equivalent of the Dust Bowl Okies traveling west and managing to scrounge up enough odd jobs on the way to not die of starvation.

And as close to the bone as the bulk of those people are running - unemployment insurance gone, welfare payments at $150/mo in those few U.S. states where you can actually get it, no other resources, etc., etc., - do you have any idea how bad a chargeback on an old sale can hurt?  It can be the difference between one day of eating or not eating.

So there's just one use-case for an awful lot of people.

That´s actually very good point
But there´re reasons that make it future - maybe adoption comes simply from young generations and most other will follow.

well, it is just the future.
even my grand father started to use computer at his 75 

The way people started buying online in the first place was that things were cheaper.
It might be an idea to teach retailers that offering stuff for sale with bitcoins requires the savings from the limited transaction costs to be transferred straight back to the customer to make it worth while.

THe savings in the long term plus the additional international customers will make the economies of scale savings worth while.

The way I would try to "sell" the concept of bitcoin to people is more that it's a better payment platform. I love BitPay's pricing comparison, for instance. Even if they're not a merchant, people can see how having competition for payment systems can lower costs of goods and services for everybody.

Not happy with the way his gov't is going and read somewhere using bitcoin was a way to fight back.

Why Mr. or Ms. Smith or any ordinary person would be interested in Bitcoins? ...or start using Bitcoins?
is there any really good reason or any reason at all?

if we are assuming that
-they are not interested in any illegal activity so, no reason to hide transactions
-they are not interested in any kind of investments
-they have no need to send money fast to anyone and they are happy with ordinary bank chages and delays
-they are not tech, they think that even PayPal is a bit complicated

I'm quite new for this, bought Avalon Batch#3 and waiting for it, trusting in long run but just wondering if there are any reasons that can make BTC take off really?! ...or will is be just always thing of a small community and never grow up really?! Yes, nobody knows But please give any reason for Mr.Smith to proceed... ?

Reasons I can figure out:
-Maybe there will be some goods you can only buy with BTC, but i guess Mr.Smith is not interested in such things.
-Maybe Mr.Smith would like to watch porn and wish to pay that anonymously... that would be one driving thing for BTC.
-Maybe Mr.Smith is worried about savings at bank, but he trusts even less for own ability to secure private keys as he does not really understand what those are.
-Maybe Mr.Smith wants hide some money on the blockchain. That would be another driving thing for BTC and reason why Mr.Smith start learning how Bitcoin works!

So, Im unable to say any really good reason. Please help!