Bitcoin Forum

Illiteracy can't be eradicated; only field changes. Now, we have digital illiteracy, financial and other types in making  

Here, Bitcoin enthusiast actually understands meaning of money, assets, commodity, power of open source, decentralization and other jargon of Bitcoin community. What about common man? They buy gold because everyone else is buying, they're using money because everyone else is using without actually knowing- what is money and how it works? Now, they seem to be interested in Bitcoin because everyone else is interested. If you try to explain them, what is Bitcoin then most of them don't get it. All they get is, it's price increased during last few years and what will its price in future. Price is biggest factor for common man. This is my personal experience, but when I tell them 1 Bitcoin is $800 dollar. They become more suspicious of it because they're used to '1 is small digit'. What if 1 nuclear bomb explodes or 1 president dies? They do not understand that its not 1 Bitcoin but a bundle of coins(1 kg of gold 2.o that cen be divided in millions of atoms) that can be divided in sub-units like mill and satoshis. All they see is 1 Bitcoin is 800 dollar and that too virtual(which cannot be touched by hand). Generally, people with limited understanding don't like to invest their sweat in things they can't see. And we all know that majority belongs to those.

Bitcoin prices are going high every week and it's only matter of time that Bitcoin will reach $1000 dollar. We must change the strategy for mass appeal. Well, I think.. Exchanges must show bitcoin price in Bits/satoshi. So that, they can see everyday in exchanges that 1 milli BTC/ 1 Bits is 1 dollar or half dollar something and hopefully that might encourage to invest small amount into Bitcoin economy.

Just a thought! ;)

This is a great point.

I live in the United States and it took me several hours over a few days to get the most basic understanding of BTC. One of my co-workers looked it up and when he saw the metaphor for mining in a video, he said, 'how can you mine for Bitcoins if they're digital?'

He has a university education and very smart, but wrapping his brain around this concept requires a baby step process. Just imagine what it would take for someone without that background.

Exactly.
God help Bitcoin!

You have a very valid statement, most people do not get 1 bitcoin = $800 +/-   I try to explain the u.s. fiat currency has $1000 bills, but do they have one in their wallet?  Probably not, I tell them a bit coin is like a $1000, you really never use them that large, so it can be broken down into little coins, a lot of them!  I explain that they can actually spend less than a penny if the choose!

I have also explained that a a bitcoin is like a $20 gold piece was 150 years ago. Then with one $20 gold piece you could buy a horse, saddle, pistol, holster and some ammo!  Most go oh yeah, i understand.  We have to get people to think of them with a non inflated view.

I also explain that of all the dollars are not in print "physical form"!  1.2 trillion in print of 13 trillion "in use" and the more they don't count any more M3!

This really amazes people and wakes them up to reality!

Mtnminer

See Quote below

"the Federal Reserve has tracked these funds in three different values known as the M1, M2 and M3 money supplies. (M3 has since been dropped. More on that below.)

M1 represents all of the currency in the M0 money supply, plus all of the money held in checking accounts and other checkable accounts, as well as all of the money in travelers' checks. In June 2013, the M1 money supply for U.S. dollars equaled about $2.5 trillion [source: Federal Reserve].

M2 is the M1 supply, plus all of the money held in money market funds, savings accounts and CDs under $100,000. In June 2013, the M2 money supply was about $10.5 trillion [source: Federal Reserve].

M3 is M2 plus larger CDs. As of March 2006, the Fed stopped tracking the M3 money stock as an economic indicator because it felt it did not add any information on economic activity that was not already available from M2 [sources: Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Bank of New York].

All told, anyone looking for all of the U.S. dollars in the world in July 2013 could expect to find approximately $10.5 trillion in existence, using the M2 money supply definition. If you just want to count actual notes and coins, there are about U.S. $1.2 trillion floating around the globe."

Some people with a programming background can take weeks to fully understand BTC, some take months, some are not lucky enough to grasp it within their lifetimes....

As a miner, i explain what I do as Data "Transaction" processing and most say "oh, okay"  This avoids a lot of confusion with most people, If I know them personally and I understand their knowledge of the digital world, I explain more.

Mtnmier

If people with programming aren't able to grasp, then how can Bitcoin Foundation expect it to become mainstream? Mainstream seems a distant dream. Problem/Best thing about Bitcoin is- it being a perfect blend of economy, technology, philosophy and human psychology. To understand Bitcoin perfectly one must have command over all four to an extent. And people with all those qualities are in Wells Fargo, Google, or any other top posts in top organization leading a successful life. Or is it that success has nothing to do with qualities, talent and skills?  ;)

Kudos!

But then again the voodo of finance is considered science in modern society, if the average (at best) college educated person lets Wall Street shit all over him then why can't he let the Bitcoin Wall Street shit on him? There would be some actual science in the Bitcoin Wall Street.

Lets hope .. it happens is near future. But, is it possible that exchanges shift rates from 1 BTC to milli or satoshi in Bitcoinchats.com?

It would be cool if the Bitcoin foundation would simply move the decimal point to the right every year in the official clients.

I guess, the execution of suggestion I made depends on exchanges by configuring their APIs. Well, it has nothing to do with Bitcoin Foundation. All I meant was, rather than showing rate of 1 BTC in exchanges they must adapt to some smaller units so that people are able to digest price. If they use some unit between smallest(satoshi) and largest(Btc) then new learners will have both way to know about.. smaller unit as well as bigger unit.

For example: If exchange show 1 milliBTC=1 dollar then it would good for new comers in following way:
1. They won't panic with 1 BTC= 1000 dollar thought for 'virtual' thing.
2. They'd know that milliBTC is neither smallest nor largest unit. They'll have both way to expand.
3. People interested/thinking about investment will have greater confidence because now with 100 dollar they can buy some 0.111 BTC something like that..There initial reaction might be-- 0.111 of virtual think for my $100 dollar. OMG! I don't want to invest.
4. Whenever we invest we think of minimum 1 quantity. 1 is minimum and here 1 is maximum. A paradox for common man. This needs to be removed ASAP.
5. Smaller unit will facilitate, small invest of 50,100.. 200 dollar thereby making it more distributed. And you'll have new agents to work on publicity once you made them invest into BTC..No matter its is 1 dollar or 1 million dollar.  

Yeah the Bitcoin unit is misleading.

In India, because they like gold so much, you might want to use, drum-roll,  

An Ounce of Bitcoin

(An ounce of Bitcoin is the equivalent share of the Bitcoin total as an ounce of gold is to the gold total.)

The official number is that there is +-170 000 tons of above ground gold in the world or +- 5.44 Billion Troy ounces.
In other words there 444x more ounces of gold in the world then there are bitcoins. (+-12 250 000)

So given the current market price of Bitcoin = +-$800, we get $800/444= $1.8

So while they are paying $1250 (+Indian taxes) for an ounce of gold.

An ounce of Bitcoin = $1.8

A Kilogram of Bitcoin = $58

1 Bitcoin = The equivalent share of the Bitcoin total as 14 Kilograms of gold is to the gold total

There's no need to waste energy on this.  Just take a look and how much 1 bitcoin is in Yen, Rubbles, or Renmibi.  Large numbers didn't scare anyone in those countries.  If anything it's the opposite effect.  Bitcoin is seen as something worth more then mere local currency.

I was trying to give you insight into brain of a common man. This might be a small think for you, but for them it is a big deal.

I'm just pointing out that it's already been like that for a while and it hasn't hampered adoption or buying.  If you feel it's worth the energy knock yourself out changing it.  Some sites already show prices per mXBT.

There's nothing wrong if some people can't understand BTC. Most people don't understand how central banks work either. Very few people understand the stock market, nor know what an IPO is, and how it's done. Many elected politicians don't know anything about the economy.

If I give you a 10$ bill, you don't to know anything about the Federal Reserve nor the guys who printed that bill, and how they did it. What matters is that you'll know how to spend them. It'll be the same with BTC.

There's a huge difference between large numbers to the left of the decimal point and large numbers to the right

Same here. I consider myself fairly well educated, am Canadian and am fairly computer literate. I'm not the most versed in the digital world but I can't be that bad considering that I dabble in BTC.

That said, I took a few days to read up on BTC and even then I wasn't sure if I wanted to jump in.

Might be tougher for those who aren't too keen on technical adaptation, whether by choice or not.

Alternate perspective:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa#Markets (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa#Markets)

http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/216119/M-PESA-meets-Bitcoin-with-new-service-in-Kenya (http://www.mobilepaymentstoday.com/article/216119/M-PESA-meets-Bitcoin-with-new-service-in-Kenya)

M-pesa was sucessful in Kenya because they had no other alternation then to accept mobile money. Plus, mobile penetration was great! Same is not with other countries. Goverment and people here tried to introduce mobile money but it failed. I can think of following reason:

1. No past experience with digital money. Neither people have used gaming tokens, redeem codes or any other thing on large scale.
2. Like China, we don't have large gaming community(people experienced with virtual coins) to understand value of online money. Yeah! There was a time when 1 million Texas Poker were sold for 10,000 rs in India.

They don't think like us. One country has begun using cell phone minutes as currency!

http://www.coindesk.com/knc-wallet-bitcoin-price-bits/


As visioned by BTCIndia.

i support and like this concept of BITS. most stocks of out split their value from time to time to look "cheaper".

Good point. It took me some days to actually understand what Bitcoin actually is, after hearing it for the first time randomly on internet.

Exactly! This is what I was saying to boost mass adoption.