Bitcoin Forum

Hey all,
I am a fairly trusted and well known user on a few forums and am trying to encourage people to get into bitcoins and to start accepting/using for their various activities/services. I am running into some trouble however convincing them that it is a good/viable currency.

What are some arguments or points you guys think I should highlight?

Can't be confiscated.

Immune to inflationary handwaving of central banks and policy makers
for all intents and purposes infinitely divisible
Resistant to taxation and confiscation

Comes with a built-in payment system.

you don't have to convince them its a good/viable currency, you just have to convince them its a good way to get extra publicity & business from the bitcoin economy.

tell them to use bitpay to process the payments and have dollar deposited into their bank account right way.

CONs - It's a bitch to...

• explain how to setup local and online wallets
• keep track of long ass wallet addresses
• remember confusing passwords or super long mnemonics
• difficulty of converting cash > BTC

It's just really hard for anyone to adopt that isn't a techie geek who is willing to read wikis and message forums for 2-3 days to figure it all out. Once there are BitCoin ATMs and transferring cash to and from exchange accounts is as easy as any other ACH debit... the average person is not going to want to try and figure it out... just too difficult for them to understand and use.

this is simply not true

if they can make a paypal account and put a paypal button on their site.

they can make a bitpay account and put "buy with BTC" buttons on their site.

You might be able to convince some people to accept bitcoins if they know enough about the technology and how to stay safe.  Or if they can have someone they trust (like yourself) set it up for them.

Trying to convince people to "use"  bitcoins right now is going to be next to impossible considering how much it's shooting up in value.  Right now everyones hoarding their bitcoins, and for a very valid reason... it's making them money.

One, I was referring to the consumer... not the merchants. Which is all tied together. If the consumers can't figure out how to do what I mentioned above then why would the merchants take the time to bother with being able to accept something no one is offering.

This same issue has already happened and succeeded... places taking credit/debit cards. It used to be only cash and sometimes checks. Now look at us...

The creating wallets and things is not an issue, I have showed them how to make one and how to use it, even going as far as sending some btc to them so they can try out some things like satoshi dice.

Then you have very smart, techie friends... YAY!

Now about the rest of the world or USA even.... hmmmm.

Not really, I simply showed them how to do it. You don't need to understand the specifics of how bitcoin works to understand how to use it.

Just curious... what are the ages of your friends?

17-26

So the demographics are that young people who are used to the whole digital age will be much easier to adopt new technology. This we all know.

But 17-26 year olds aren't the demographic of the business owners or the ones 30 somethings with more spendable income.

Understand it is a long road... compare what is currently required to do a bitcoin transaction from person to person with pulling our a debit card ans swiping it at the register.

There is a big difference.... give it time.

Well, with BitInstant and MtGox down the shitter, I am now officially out of BTC

What happened?

DDoS?

BitInstant seems to be out of funds, and MTGox is shitty