Bitcoin Forum

In 1992, some annoying guy (university professor) I worked for told me I really should get 'an email account'.  I figured it was some weird thing that nobody would ever really use genuinely.  After all, telephones worked pretty good by then.  I got one anyway.

Today, nearly everyone would likely feel the same way about 'a bitcoin account' (wallet, address, whatever).  My wife doesn't think anyone will really ever need such a thing.  Good for nerds to tinker around with, but mainstream adoption?  Probably not. 

I think you basically pinpointed the logic behind most of the adopters 2012 onward. Cell phones were mocked too when they first hit the market. "Ridiculous" and "you'll never catch me using one of those things!"

Of course, the makers of the first cell phone mobile... What was they called again?

These days I'm wondering if a dark horse crypto might emerge.

Bitcoin boring

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6a/ElectoralCollege1992.svg/349px-ElectoralCollege1992.svg.png

At least pi was in vogue. (you'll laugh when you see it)

Dumbass

So what you are saying is we are now the annoying guys telling everyone to check out getting a bitcoin wallet. Point taken  :).

Yes, back in the 90's we played around with this http://www.pmail.com/ [Internet's longest-serving PC e-mail system] It was free and the company I worked for at the time, were using Dos. Most of the people working there, thought it was a waste of time, but they laughed all the way to the bank, when the telephone cost was reduced by 67%. We became the hero's of the company and now everyone is using email.
Bitcoin will follow the same path, and we will laugh at those who laughed at us. ^Ha Ha Ha^

well thers a block on the fact of digital coins to progress more avid that is the central banks with fiat currency but that can change yes

hahaha i was asking to myselft the same thing.

if thats whats he is trying to point, then maybe is truth, but there is a good reason , i really want that ppl near me BTC use it, is so simply ;)

I can't remember what the first cell phones were called but they weighed like a kilo, and the battery life was only twenty minutes. Look at this cool dude showing off an early cell phone.

http://s12.postimg.org/rlxvm14nx/mobile.png

If Bitcoin's going to improve as much as cellphones then the wallet will be unrecognizable in a decade or two.

The wallet is the first thing that needs to change to make mass adiptation possible.

The wallets bluntly said just suck. If u were not interested, it would take too much time to learn.

Phone apps and cheap hardware wallets will be the key.

The point he's trying to say is if you don't update and go with the flow of change be prepared to get left out. Nothing is too late nor is it too early and as in the case of bitcoin I would say there's a good chance it will be something big one day. In the end it doesn't hurt to try out or even take some time to learn more about new technology.

In other words, HODL to the moon.

- Mayer Amschel

Yup, Bitcoin is the early stages just like the internet was in the early stages in 1990. Only common folk morons don't get the revolution they are missing the opportunity to be a pioneer at. If only they knew just owning a couple BTC will put them on early retirement.. but of course, they will cry to us later saying we didn't tell them enough.

The problem is trying to explain this to people is pointless. Most people are biologically wired to be impulsive and live for the moment. Just do your own business and keep hustling all this cheap BTC, the mass has no hope, they'll get in when it's already trendy like always.

The best time to buy is when there is blood in the streets, ;).

Lol... I got my first email account in 2003. So I was a laggard, as far as email usage is considered.

http://smartideastore.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/technology-adoption-curve-Rogers.png

And I started collecting Bitcoins in 2012. At that time, there were fewer than 1 million Bitcoiners around. That makes me one of the "Innovators" in using the Bitcoin technology. A few decades from now, I am sure that people would look at me with jealousy, for being in the Bitcoin innovators' club.  ;D

Exactly!  I think the first modification that needs to be made for the average user is to crate an address in a wallet, and name it.  Like "tip" or whatever.  But the catch is that the address itself is hidden: it just shows up as tips.  You can click to get more info and see the addy if you want, its not secret.  Now, the wallet needs to somehow manage to change the address periodically under the hood.  So the average user never has to look at a confusing and nonsensical string of numbers and letters.  They just have payments com/going to/from simple addresses.  The current look of a wallet is very intimidating, they are pretty much all poorly documented, and the average person would not be able to/willing to figure it out.

Well all I can say is I hope I'm one of those people who like in 1992 was laughed at for getting something that nobody will ever supposedly need (bitcoins).
I've seen many stories linking the stage bitcoin is at now to the internet in the mid 90's.
If bitcoin can achieve one hundredth of the exposure, use & acceptance that the internet does now then we will probably be very wealthy men in 10-15 years time.

According to this graph, everybody who is currently involved in bitcoin is still an innovator. Not even close to 2,5% of the population is using bitcoin at the moment.

it is too easy to say that this will be the next big thing.  As soon as someone starts saying that I start thinking that maybe it won't happen :)

I actually don't believe that bitcoin is going to gain widespread adoption. I don't expect everyone to get a wallet. At least, not in its current version. The majority of people don't want to know what finance is. They don't care how their bank account works so long as it does. They don't care how money gets from point A to point B so long as it does. Therefore, mass adoption will mean no one actually knows that they are relying on Bitcoin.

Yeah we'll probably have infrastructures running their stuff through Bitcoin and everyone will be using it without realizing it. I think young people in social media will be all over it tho. If you have a big instagram audience for example, it would be so damn easy to get donations. All these hot girls with thousands of followers are going to be BTC rich in the future...

no  :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskpNmUl8yQ

I think this is going to be the driver for Bitcoin if there ever is one.  Our current system is in crazy ass land..

.25% ?!? WTF..

I don't think this analogy really works that well. The utility of email, the internet, and cell phones is a no-brainer - they all allowed people to do things easily that they couldn't do before they existed. We can already move money around quite easily and there aren't a lot of roadblocks in the modern world to saving, protecting, and spending money. It's more expensive than it should be, but people are generally able to do everything they like with money so no one is clamoring for a new, better way. In fact, in the age of computer hackers getting into most everything, no one wants to worry about having all of their wealth stored on a hackable device. They want it in a bank and insured.

3rd world countries are obviously a different story, but for the modern world Bitcoin just isn't providing that much utility that doesn't already exist.

This is why we have early adopters and late adopters. Late adopters usually get nothing.

Bitcoin will only have world adoption when the current financial system collapses.
Then people will look for a robust alternative.
Problem -> reaction -> solution

HAHAHAHAHA.
I'll ask some people from zimbabwe and cyprus about this advice....

I think he's right about the analogy not really working that well. Early cell phone adopters got a giant brick sized phone for the price of a small car. Late cell phone adopters got a tiny slimline sized phone for $10.

On the other hand early Bitcoin adopters got $1 million worth of coins for a $1 investment, and later adopters could only dream of getting that.

And I don't believe there is going to be a financial system collapse anytime soon. I do believe, though, that people in other parts of the world will start to benefit from the technology. The ability for me to send money to India in 10 minutes is incredible in comparison to other tools.

If the current financial system collapses, I don't see the mobile phone providers keeping their networks up and I don't see ISP's keeping their network up. Then what will happen to bitcoin?

As far as I'm aware most of the Cyprus based mobile phone providers and ISP's kept their networks up during the Cyprus financial crisis. People had strict limits set on what they could withdraw from their own bank accounts. If the ISP's networks go down in a future crisis it would be possible to travel to a country with functioning networks and spend Bitcoins from there.

https://pixelatedacceptance.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/telephone-ear.jpg
"Are you saying that by 1992 I'll be able to mine bitcoins with this shoe simply by walking over to 99's apartment? What next? Light bulbs?"

By 2050, the world population will touch 10 billion. If Bitcoin becomes a worldwide currency (like the USD or the Euro), then we can assume that by that time some 5 billion people will be using it. So the figures will be:

Innovators: 125 million (right now, we have 1 million people who use BTC)
Early adopters: 675 million
Early Majority: 1.7 billion
Late Majority: 1.7 billion
Laggards: 0.8 billion

If the question you are asking to yourself is; are people still early adopters today, then i believe the answer is yes.
OP made a nice comparison to advancing service that once was considered futile, but look at it now, and furthermore, unlike e-mail , people can
profit a great deal out of bitcoin by investing, but still allow people who just want to make transaction to make that transaction they need to make with virtually no cost.

cheers

I can already see it. <You have hot girls on a live streamium and a tipping system built in for viewers to do live tipping>
Like in a strip show, where the guys give cash, and the more they pay, the more clothing gets removed. The perv's will pay their salaries to these hot girls, to go completely naked. Stuff like this will happen, because people are getting bored with what is out there at the moment and they want a interactive experience within their own homes for more privacy.

Who is going to pay me for the idea? I want royalties. Let the Satoshi's fly!