Bitcoin Forum

I just read this:
http://www.finance-guy.net/finblog/what-is-bitcoin

It got me thinking that most people I talk to, don't understand enough about tech, or cryptography, to fully appreciate BTC.

How would you explain it to them on a simple level so that they might become believers. 

A simple hook might help generate larger scale adoption by the masses.

It's hard to explain it to newbies.
I never talk about bitcoin to my friends or people around me, as the price of bitcoin is really disappointed.

LOL, me too  ;D
very difficult to introduce bitcoin in the area that I live

but if anyone ask me, I can explain a little bit what is bitcoin and how to use bitcoin   :)
if no one knows that I will keep silent

You say no wrong and I am one of those people. I know about Bitcoin is quite long but technically I like a blind man.

I think maybe my english is not enough to understand all what people guide

i would say to those newbies that bitcoin is like a thing composed by multiple safe box all connected by a chain, inside those safe box there are bitcoin(25 x for each safe box), and to use them you need a key(private key)

the definition of spending bitcoin in this case it's simple transfering them from a safe box to another

Well, you could point them at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgo7FCCPuylVk4luP3JAgVw/videos (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgo7FCCPuylVk4luP3JAgVw/videos)

Apart from that, I will advise you to NOT try and convince your friends to get in to Bitcoin.
Instead just educate them and let them make their own decision.
Try not to be pushy otherwise when they lose money (and as newbies they will definitely lose some) they will blame you.

Decentralized - working like torrent
Crypto - the principles of PGP

These two things are put together. Now almost every one uses/heard about torrent, but mostly do not understand how it exactly work. And PGP, well hard to find one who heard about PGP at least. So basicaly both concepts have to be explained to those interested...

If the person is having lots of trouble converting to other currencies, or sending money to other people outside their country or using Paypal then that's usually a great place to start. With paypal I got so frustrated once that I actually went an bought some Bitcoins in the same amount I was going to give a domain host I use and used that instead just because it was far easier than having to write out tons of personal information all the time and make an account I'd never use.

I would explain commissions. I would ask them how they would send 5 cents to one hundred people spread across the globe - I might even introduce the notion that wikileaks or some governments cannot receive paypal/mastercard but Bitcoin knows no borders. I would focus on these things. Newbies do not need to know how EC cryptography works on Day One.

I explain the way a bank work to them first.. {Some people think, a bank keep all the money that is deposited, in their huge vault} ...When they understand that banks use a ledger to keep track of all transactions.. I start talking about the Blockchain and they grasp the concept quicker.

The only difference being, the lack of physical paper money and coins... like having virtual money, controlled by a ledger.

When they do get this... I get the "Ah ha" moment, and then the obsession starts.  ;D ;D ;D

I use comparison to the internet in 1995 and another comparison to gold.

After all, what was gold before it became precious metal? Just some shiny yellow stone.

Simple just explain bitcoin same as like token, but its decentralization, limited and have significant value. First to explain bitcoin to newbie is tell them bitcoin is worth, especially with the price ;D i also explain about bitcoin to my friends and people around me, they interested but not much who learn depper about bitcoin, just few of them.


~iki

How and why would you "convince" anyone to use, or invest in a foreign currency?

Well there are a couple reasons:
1)   as a commodity in 2015 BTC is growing in value (same could not have been said for 2014)
2)   as a currency it is a digital currency, modern lightweight, no footprint,
3)   as a currency it is a medium of exchange but also a way to move money very fast, relatively safe, at very low cost even over boarders.
3)   as a currency it is growing in adoption / utility  ...


A project called PICISI (in development) will be a crowdfunding site that will accept fiat as well as cryptocurrency.  I think PICISI will add a whole new perspective on how BTC and CC in general will be viewed.  

PICISI will allow people to see CC in actual action as a currency, just like they see fiat in action at all other crowdfunding sites.  They won't have to be concerned with the exchange value, and won't have to be bothered with downloading a wallet, most of that just confuses people.  

Let's look at an ordinary person seeking to CF a project that was never involved with CC, how does PICISI convince them to want it, get it, and to use it?   Well first of all  we know their primary motivation for visiting the site -- to get money, so we give them money via our sponsors.   The will have many opportunities to receive money for their campaign simply by asking for it.  What do you think will happen when they see those funds coming in?  The will want to know it's comparable value to the fiat of their nation, they will want to know how they could convert it or how to use it.  When they see that they could use it to help them develop and/or market their campaign they will have a well rounded appreciation of the currency.

When someone is gently immersed into a positive environment it will likely cause them to want to know more about that environment.  

Current List of PICISI Sponsors:

I have convinced one my friend to start use (also) bitcoin due the lowest fee and the rapidity/irreversibility of the transaction. She is using it to sell their technical stuff online (on their platform) and she is happy to have discovered it. At the moment I am discussing with my other friends and maybe they will start to use bitcoin (or at least I hope to convince them).

The important things are :

- Lowest fee,
- Irreversibility and rapidity,
- Don't need any document to "open" or better create an public address.

The number 1 best way to get people into bitcoin is show them.  Get them to download a mobile wallet and send them $5 bitcoin or something, this will get 90% of people interested.  They have a reason to now be interested.

Except that they probably can't do anything with that $5 you just sent them because almost nowhere offline no where accepts bitcoin!
I don't try to convince people about bitcoin, if they want to use it, I will help them, but I don't want to be responsible for them losing money if they make a mistake or the price crashes.

I don't give stock tips either!

Give a small amount of BTC as free (may be BTC0.001 or BTC0.002). In 2013, I convinced my cousin to use BTC, after giving him BTC0.01 and then explaining the benefits.... but that was when BCT was trading at $10.....  ;D

i think in these days it is not hard to introduce Bitcoin to newbies because now bitcoin has more merchants and global acceptance and much informative materiel available like videos blog and etc, i think now easy to introduce to others. 

Honestly, this is literally one of the hardest questions there is
It requires people to understand the concept of the blockchain which is best explained in Satoshis Whitepaper

Once people get that it all makes sense but it requires reading lol...

The other approach in words is to say, its a new way of storing and transferring data securly and transfering value at low cost.

Convincing them that bitcoin is an online payment system that is most convenient, fast and cheap. And also, bitcoin can be used to make money.
Especially if it is supported by video and blog post for sure they will be more understanding about bitcoin.

I don't think most people understand enough about electronics or circuitry but they can use their computer and phones just fine. Bitcoin is a hard sell to newbies because at the moment I don't think it is much use to them especially as bitcoin's biggest positives seem to be political or capitalistic (if you're in it to try make some money which could be a 'hook' but as we have seen recently it's not a sure thing and people seem to have lost money rather than made it but the potential is still there). Most people sadly don't seem to care that much about economics nor do they understand it enough to see the benefits of bitcoin and get involved with it but maybe they will over time.

I did it only a few times. Mostly after some of my friends had issues with slow and clumsy legacy money transfer methods (with high fees). Bitcoin is a lot less hassle.

That's the problem, too many focus on the cool technical aspects of the technology rather than on the actual utility of the technology.  And as you can see by the responses to this thread most people are consumed with BTC as a commodity rather than as a currency.  

If you introduce something new to someone they are very likely to associate that thing with the initial introduction.  So if you introduce BTC as a 'great investment' they will keep looking at it as a commodity.  It should be introduced as a currency NOT as a commodity because it is as a currency that it will have long life and higher value.

The best way to learn about any currency is through use -- buy things with it, not buying and selling it.



 

The best way to introduce bitcoin to a newbie is to setup a wallet on their phone and send them some btc over a meal. You cannot convince anyone to use bitcoin without them having some bitcoin to play around with.

This. Set a wallet up for them on blockchain.info and send them $20 in BTC, not 10 cents.

I use political arguments. BTC is a currency outside the control of any government. To most of the people I'm hanging out with, they appreciate.

i don't know, this will tech away the notion about how bitcoin work and what it really is, in this way you are just giving away money, they ask for more in the end without care too much about how bitcoin really work, you will distract them more i think...

The best thing to do is have them try out themselves how things work. Lead them to faucet and tell them basically the bitcoins that they earned is equivalent to real money. Once they got hooked they will by themselves search more information and voluntarily learn about bitcoin. I find that it's much better than telling about decentralization, deflationary which doesn't impress them at all.

Show it in practice, works much much better. Easiest way of doing it is to do it with something they are already familiar with, get them the app GetGems messenger which is WhatsApp/Telegram like. Now tell them that now they can also send money like sending a text message as simple as typing 1 btc and pressing send, you can also make payments with it by scanning the QR code.

I did this to someone completely non tech and she liked it, since she was familiar with it like downloading app, instant messaging, whatsapp etc. I showed her in the app how 1 BTC is currently $244 and the thing she said after was of course 'how can i convert BTC to Dollar'. Then you can explain things such as exchanges and where they can buy it etc. Once she understands this whole Bitcoin/money thing. You can explain the more technical aspect, you need to dumb it down first and show it in practice first going into details.

So now i have her contact details through texting and introduced bitcoin to her. It's like a new way to get in touch with girls without having their phone number muaha.

I get you. I want to introduce them to the blockchain and mining too. Those are too heavy for newbies. Similar to internet was first used, you introduce newbies to email and webpages, not explain how IP address works.

There is currently no reason to USE bitcoin. The reason you might want to hold bitcoins is so that you get it while it's cheap, or you want to support the economy and get it going faster.

It's probably better to just admit that bitcoin as it is currently just isn't a great tool yet, just as the first computers were not all that useful. But it has the potential to become a globally accepted currency/store of value, and could bring innovations that we haven't imagined yet. That's the selling point right now.

Don't try too hard saying there are 100k merchants accepting bitcoin or whatever. I don't think that'll convince anyone.

It depends on what that person needs. If he wants to get paid for small jobs like coding and such then Bitcoin is a great option.

Getting rid of paypal and their charge backs is mostly enough to convince people. Sending money instantly with a near to zero fee is also music in their ears.

He is asking, how would you convince a "newbie" to use bitcoin?  No why bitcoin is better then Paypal (as method of payment ).

I've already converted so many people to BTC use.
I just explain how it works, what it is about, why is safe etc., I let them asking me questions and then if they're OK they start discovering the BTC world.

Easy and clean

OP asks "How would you convince a newbie to use BTC?"

Can't you read? I stated it depends on what that person needs. If I know what he needs and wants I would tell (convice) him to use Bitcoin and tell him why it is better.

Your turn.

read again
he said it depends.

if this newbie is having a hard time liking bitcoin because he is only interested in buying things, bringing up paypal's (or whatever it is that they use) cons and bitcoin's pros is a good way too convince them.

if the guy only interested in making money, then we can introduce them to trading and other money making method that uses bitcoin.

I see some dumb posts here. even if they're a newbie to bitcoin doesn't mean they're an idiot.

I think because Bitcoin really is something too vague , unrealistic . Even people who have knowledge of information technology are hard to understand let alone those who do not know anything about computers

Don't.

not only vague, bitcoin is complex too.
but it certainly is not unrealistic.. of course people might think it is unrealistic the first time they hear about it, but it will change after they do a little reading about bitcoin
and one does not have to learn how crypto technology works to use bitcoin.

Sure, but it is obvious that in the beginning it will be hard to understand how bitcoin works. As you,me and all the other users who have "heard" about bitcoin in the first days, no one know what bitcoin is really but each day we have learned the "background" (with a little IT knowledge) and now we can explain to the "newbie" how to buy/spend bitcoin easily (trust me, if you talk to a person "you can send thousand & thousand of dollars with only 0.03 $ of fee" they will start to use it for send money to their relatives/parents in other countries ;), instead to use WU, moneygram or other money transmitter).

I simply tell my friends, now I only send money to my relatives abroad through bitcoin exchanges, it can be done in a couple of hours, which is much faster and cheaper than international bank transfer

And another answer with much steeper learning curve:
Henry Ford: "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."

This should do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O305BmU1VgQ

This can impress clueless people. Given they aren't braindead, they should see the revolution of sending value this quick surpassing all limitations as never seen before, which shows how much of a FUD/clueless idiot one is to not be buying like crazy as we speak.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you . Even my family , no one believe me though I tried to explain to them whenever possible. Sometime, I also don't understand what i said . LOL

Yes, as i said above to Katsou and now to you. Sometime, I also don't understand what I said to my family. Hihihihi !;D

I don't want to introduce bitcoins to my friends as they will first question me if using it is legal or not and it's not legal to use bitcoins nor do online websites or local stores in my country accept it. It's like making them risk their money in stock market/forex.

I would just simply ask :

 8) "want to store your money in codes and keep it under the pillow instead of having to worry about safe deposit box, then use bitcoin...simple..." 8)

You cant really convince people telling them, you can showing them. Show them how you can easily convert BTC into fiat quickly without anything else but a smartphone with bit2me. This is effective.

tell them to look at the 5 year price charts...then let them decide!

I think most people will think that bitcoin is dying if we do that without a proper explanation  :P

I believe most publicity is good publicity.

I wear a bitcoin t-shirt about once a week and have had a few people ask me about it. They usually begin with, "I've seen that on the news. What is it?"

Just yesterday I put this on my car. This weekend I'll get a more professional-looking sticker but for now, I'm hoping for a few questions...and tips :)

http://i57.tinypic.com/2ln9w0w.jpg

I think everyone will understand widely if their goverment accept Bitcoin

Tell me about it. I am so passinate about this but all around me fail to grasp th eimportance and still look at me as if I am some idiot. It has me half wishing for an economic collapse or funds seizure from banks so that I can say to them that they shouldve listened to me earlier.

I recently watched The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin. It's worth the watch if you're into BTC, which I'm assuming you are if you're reading this. One of the things I heard a few times in the movie was people's frustration with trying to explain Bitcoin. Several people likened it to trying to explain what the Internet was during the early-mid 1990's. It took time for people to understand what the Internet was and the possibilities it offered. So, during the movie, a point was made that's essentially this (I'm paraphrasing):

Bitcoin is to money what the internet was/is to communication.

You see that sticker I hastily slapped on my car? Between the time I posted that pic and this post, I had a guy (early 20's) at a gas station ask me what Bitcoin was. We were pumping gas so there wasn't much time, so I just told him it was basically money for the internet, that no government controls it, it's free to get and basically free to use, and can be sent globally. He said he'd never heard of it but he seemed receptive to it. I suggested that he do what I did: put a sticker on the back of his car and maybe someone will send him Bitcoin (money). He asked if it would cost anything, and when I told him no, he said, "yeah, free money, why not?"

well, yeah!
I was explained to my friends about cryptcurrency (not only BTC, but also i've introduced some other coins) with price comparison.
By this price comparison, unfortunately BTC has more valuable than other coin. So they're wondered and now they're using.. ;D ;D

How you convince someone to be interested and use bitcoin is dependent upon the target audience, but the three easiest ways to do it are:

1) Go to a store or restaurant that excepts Bitcoin and buy something with bitcoin in front of them (repeat if needed)

2) Send them a off the chain tip or gift with coinbase or changetip that gives them bitcoin without them having and account yet and lets you know if they setup an account to claim the free gift(by returning unclaimed)

3) Buy something on amazon for 15-25% off with purse.io or brawker in front of them and brag how bitcoin saves you so much money.

SEE and this is why you should not introduce the currency as a commodity to invest in.

INSTEAD you introduce the currency as a currency to use to buy things.

When did anyone ever introduce a fiat to you talking about its exchange value with other currencies.  Most people come into contact with 'foreign' currencies when they visit other countries, and at that time you really, for practical purposes, don't care what the exchange rate is you just want the local currency so that you can buy things.

 




BINGO ... give them money and have them BUY SOMETHING!

In my country is very easy!I just say how safe do you believe your money are in your Bank??

P.S. I live in Greece!


Just kidding i believe that the most attractive today for someone wich is not idealist is to show him the charts from the beginning (for investing and profit purposes) and explain how much you can earn from time, fees, anonymity and how useful it can be the network and use of Bitcoin.That is my personal opinion, also if you want to trick him you can say: The best part is that you can start mining your own! profit from a machine working for you in your home!Woohoo no one newbie(without any knowledge) will ask for the power cost or difficulty!  8)

I really never make it well explaining Bitcoin to my friends...or they are so closed minds.
Some reactions are: Total unsecured, Buble, oh another fraud, The only value is money that you can have in your pocket, What is that like the free coins in games?

Kind Regards,
BTC-Bank.

Most of the doubt from newbies come from 3 categories:

1. They are not sure if it is a scam

2. They are not sure if they can handle the required IT skills

3. They don't understand why bitcoin is superior than fiat money

No need to educate them, they just need a proper channel to find out the answer by themselves

Time is also important, I have several friends constantly express their doubt for bitcoin during last several years but now they start to accept it as a normal existance

Only think is a lot of people couldnt handle number 2, leading them to an instance of number 1.  Either getting scammed while buying, selling, sending coins to wrong address, losing private keys, etc.  I've seen even experienced members of this forum do those things, making it a tough sell for new users

Oh yeah that shit is pretty awesome. I was so turn off by the idea of needing to give your ID, a tax paper and god knows what else in exchanges, even your god damn fingertips in actual BTC ATM's to get some damn money. With stuff like that now we can use the existing infrastructure to get things done quick, instantly without even waiting for confirmations. The future is now gentlemen, and we are 10 years ahead of the pleb.

Convincing them that bitcoin is an online payment system that is most convenient, fast and cheap.

And also, bitcoin can be used to make money.Especially if it is supported by video and blog post for sure they will be more understanding about bitcoin.

Rofl. Just convince them, ....convince and convince. They will understand it after. I think so

Nope. Completely wrong. 99.99+% of people are content with their national currency. There is absolutely 0 benefit to using bitcoin currently. Any potential discount is completely offset by the difficulty in obtaining bitcoins, and the transaction + exchange costs associated with it.

It's clear that the bitcoin of today is no where near as versatile, as useful, and as easy to use as USD, chinese yuan, japanese yen, euro, or any other major currency. Bitcoin fails on pretty much every point for the average person.

The bitcoin of today is about as useful to the average joe as the first computers were. Or the first airplanes. Or the internet in 1990. It simply is NOT useful yet.

Even if the action of sending bitcoins from one address to another is not particularly difficult, that is only a small part of the whole process, as it is. Showing people how to do that doesn't help. Even if they think, okay, that's not too difficult, when they look for an exchange and see how hard it is to actually obtain bitcoins, they'll give up right away.

But let me ask you this. If I had this card, and I show you how it works (say it works exactly like a credit card, except it's accepted at 1/10000th the number of stores visa/mastercard is accepted at) and you see it's not too difficult to use, what motive do you have to suddenly start using my card? None. There's no benefit to it. So you're not going to use it.

It's really that simple. The reason you guys might want to use it is because you're motivated by a particular interest, whether it's in technology or some political agenda. But the vast majority of people in the world don't have that motive. They need to see actual, real benefits to THEM. They don't care if this technology succeeds or not. So they have no reason to use bitcoin.

Again, the selling point of bitcoin is in its promise as a TECHNOLOGY. Perhaps it will ONE DAY be feasible as a currency, once the foundations have been set, and disruptive businesses have been built on and around it. Once it's easy to use, and is beneficial for the average person. Currently, that's just not the case, and to "force" it into a currency won't help at all.

People are pretty skeptical these days. Words such as "digital money, virtual currency" only give people red lights, and make them think it's an elaborate scam. Especially when you tell them that this "money" essentially came out of thin air. The fact that fiat came from thin air as well doesn't even matter, because people are hypocritical, people are irrational like that. They're used to fiat, they're not used to this new thing, and they'll be skeptical.

I think we should avoid bringing up those words. Especially when you're talking with someone who's never heard of bitcoin before. If they've heard of it, don't stress that point. Rather, stress it's amazing potential as a technology, how it might be used to build business that was not possible before, how innovative it is, and how it'll continue to improve as more and more people build on top of it. I think people will be less skeptical, and less defensive like that.

I have tried to convince my family to understand what is bitcoin worths and how to spend it , how to earn it,... They ask me "who will pay for you" ? Computer ? what happen if "it" don't pay ?  

I am very tired of that. Until they still not yet believe me . LOL

Honestly, Until now, I still have not yet convinced my parents . LOL

They have not believe in what is Bitcoin

How do you convince a newb to use Bitcoin?

The same way Satoshi did. Sell it as magic or sell it as science.