Bitcoin Forum

Some may disagree, but if you mention the word Bitcoin somewhere outside this forum, those who have heard something about it will probably have some bad associations that will be associated with various financial frauds, ransomware, the term fake money or even the claim that Bitcoin is responsible for climate change (due to mining). There are some truths in all this, but why just point out the bad sides that ordinary money has anyway, when we have very positive examples that not only Bitcoin, but also the people who use it are not bad at all, but on the contrary help the community.

I will only cite a few examples that I have noticed on this forum, and they relate to charity in general terms, but especially with an emphasis on the pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus.

Someone donated 2 BTC (1 for each charity), which, along with other donations, made it possible to help hundreds of families. And all this, of course, mostly without asking for any recognition and in an anonymous way (as far as donations are concerned).

1 BTC donation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5124375.msg54515978#msg54515978) & 1 BTC donation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5243099.msg54514805#msg54514805)
Bitcoin donations saving Italian lives and helping to protect first responders on the frontline. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1032587.msg54169715#msg54169715)

Dude, bitcoin hasn’t been seen as taboo for many years. Most of us here are good people simply using it as a tool for payment & or an investment.

One of the received address is the project COVID-19 and I can tell you that so far we have served 190 families in two thirdworld county.
90 in Nigeria and 100 in Bangladesh.
We have also sent 100 masks and 100 pair of gloves in Iran too.

That's just here, on the forum. It's usually associated with the darknet and the darknet is usually associated with "red rooms", "black markets", "hackers" etc. The image most have in their mind when you mention "Bitcoin" out loud is in almost every case one about some criminal activity. Unless you do a bit of research (which is just a Google search really), you'd have this idea from the MSM.

People tend to remember the bad stuff and forget the good. :)

I believe the Bitcoin name is just dragged on these things.  Criminals will use everything just to do their bidding and sadly, they found Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to do their bidding much easier.  And this criminal activity associated with Bitcoin was already in the past.  We can see Bitcoin now associated with legal merchants and accepted by the open-minded government.  

Aside from that, Bitcoin is seen by people not only here in the forum as a mode of payment and I think, there is much more people outside this forum who use it as payment.  Btw, isn't fiat currency have higher cases when it comes to corruption and criminal activities?


Sadly, that is the truth, negative things linger much longer than the useful one.  Oh well, that is media for us.

An online friend recently asked me if I know bitcoin and I said yes. He then asked me if I joined bitcoin and I was like wuut! ???
I laughed at the other things he said after that (he was talking about some investment scheme) but I still ended up explaining to him that bitcoin not a company and that he doesn't have to join any group and invite people to earn. I hope he was able to learn from our discussion.

It's a fact that some ignorant/uneducated people are quickly drawn to quick income and there are those who takes advantage of that using bitcoin's popularity.

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Effect of too much TV/Media/Social Media I guess.

From the previous years of the bitcoin, we experience also came from the history of it that this is one of the payment methods into the dark web, deep web and more kinds of stuff that is more on illegal also by the included of the movies most of them are portrait the bitcoin as the use for bad payments but today by the time goes by it becomes more popular in terms of investment because the people see the other side and potential of this coin. Now we are using bitcoin as the payment and transaction method because of a lot of benefits of it like transparency, security, integrity, blockchain, faster transaction, and less tax.

Bitcoin is now changing the images of it because some of the people stated by the OP wants to become anonymous users but still they are helping other people which is a good aim.and changes the perspective of the other people to encourage to use this kind of coin for the near future.


Still some people becomes ignorant of the use of the bitcoin becomes of the mindset inserted on them because the bitcoin is came from the bad side only and they didn't see the possible potential of this coin to help them to increase their funds and elp other people.

I stopped to talk about Bitcoin with people IRL, it's a waste of time. I'm tired of hearing people talking nonsense. Just repeating what they heard on TV, without even really understanding what they were talking about on top of that. And when you explain to them the reality to debunk it's like if you are lying. LOL.

From, Bitcoin is the official money of the dark web, only used by criminal, to it has no value, it's dead. You know, the same arguments we were listening to here...
(I know money talks more than a speech) I believe only Bitcoiners know BTC is not only for criminals.

Another older examples like in OP that a lot of us know are the donations for Hal Finney fund (https://www.coindesk.com/armory-match-10-btc-donations-hal-finney-bitcoin-fund), or when Antonopoulos organised a fundraising campaign for Dorian Nakamoto (http://Antonopoulos organised a fundraising campaign for Dorian Nakamoto) (50BTC), and himself received 100BTC as a donation (https://qz.com/1151233/andreas-antonopoulos-got-1-5-million-in-bitcoin-donations-after-roger-ver-bitshamed-him/)

Too much of wrong info from media is the cause of this. Fear created by the government is also part. When people hear the government threats, they would back off from listening to people preach to them.

Friends are the only set of people that can be easily preached to about cryptocurrency.

No, when I mention bitcoin to people, they don't think I'm doing something illegal or something.

Bitcoin is used because it's anonymous, and granted, that's good for criminals. But other people do use it for everyday things (Buying pizza with bitcoins, everyone remembers that right? ;)) or sometimes even good things (OP mentioned charity).
No, I think the age of people thinking bitcoins is only for criminals is gone.
Also, people also use bitcoin for fun or just for daily payments (since it is irreversible and efficient).

I agree on what you have said thats why i dont waste up my time anymore trying to convince out people on whats Bitcoin is all about.
Even my own family doesnt even believe me on what truly is it and just directly say that it is a scam or fraud.Trying out to educate but still
useless in the end of the day.

Even telling my co-workers in real life is still useless.They would make you look like some crazy old guy that been murmuring into something
that they dont know about and when you try to explain they do just argue you with nonsense without even trying to dig deeper.

As we all know, you cant please anybody!

I am going to refer specifically to your title, taking your OP as the north or orientation of your idea, but not wanting to go much deeper than what you very well say in your OP.
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The first movie I saw in which they talk about bitcoin is about of students who sold drugs and used Bitcoin for their online sales ... Hollywood accommodates everything and has a happy ending, in the history of the boys.

I would dedicate its title as a synopsis of this film because I would close it with the phrase… The good ones also fall at their feet ”, that is to say;

Bitcoin is not just for criminals / bad people and get rich quick! The good ones also fall at their feet ... or their nodes.

In reality it is what sells and in rumors from people to person, positive feedback gets stuck among those who understand it and the bad spreads more quickly among the ignorant.

I'm not seeing a lot of comments about Bitcoin being a tool for bad people, or some get rich quick scheme, but I do see opinions that Bitcoin is useless, that it's a failed experiment, that Bitcoiners are just crazy libertarians and so on.

I think the fact that Bitcoin is alive, traded for such a high price, and has so many people in its community  and even used by some merchants easily proves that it's not useless. Maybe it didn't bring the global financial revolution like early bitcoiners have hoped, but some adoption is better than no adoption at all.

I think it's not all about that thing, bitcoin is not only good for bad people or for doing taking things like hacking and scamming or even in the dark market that process some drug transactions, etc. There are some people who only use bitcoin fo normal things like a fiat currency, they just converted it into fiat currency so they can spend it for their needs and wants. There are some people who ate earning this kind of cryptocurrency through good things like freelance, online jobs, forums, trading, investing, etc. Its not all about the bad things because bitcoin can be considered really good for everyone.
Well said, just like me most of the time I used it for online transactions, like paying bills, e-loading, buying some stuff. There are many usages that bitcoin can give us.

Don't take this as a "I support criminals" statement, but without the Silk Road and all the illicit activity that happened through BTC on the darknet we maybe wouldn't have known today about its existence yet. Criminal activity is associated with lots of things, IIRC there was some kind of candy (or soap) cartel at one point :D

Governments aren't as "open-minded" as they seem imo: they push for a "legalizing & accepting Bitcoin" narrative while implementing rules that go against Bitcoin's fundamental ideas. And yes, you are right, fiat is used way more in criminal activity & corruption than Bitcoin is. Here's a quote from one of my older replies (will translate from Romanian):

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Very true. That's the moment when you literally only take what you see on TV & MSM for granted without ever questioning a narrative. Sadly, too many people are going through this nowadays.

And once dragged to such schemes and the outcome wasn't in their favor, the ending is that they would only see bitcoin as a tool of fraud, something bad, and not as something good. They're then too blind to see the benefits bitcoin can provide.

If only they would make a bit of an effort to learn about things first and not just go into something they know nothing or little.

We are seeing here amounts but there are donations that are not much as amount but still they are donations, there are donations which never been talked about in anywhere - I am pretty sure there are millions of cases we will find if anyone takes a project to find bitcoin donations.

If I bring the example of Project COVID-19 then you will find we are only talking about the 1 BTC donation that made but except that one there are more 20 entries I have in the spreadsheet and all of them are donations that came from good people.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/112dk74xnUlgMHSREP4Ny0kqwrRSEUSAHrGjMJVwXQfY/edit?usp=sharing
Row 7 to 36

Bitcoin is a currency like we have other fiats. It depends on the person how he wants to spend it.

The purpose of this topic is for some to understand that Bitcoin has its other side, the much brighter and nobler one. I think I saw somewhere that there are about 7000 active users on this forum per week, maybe so many more are read by the forum without logging in. That’s a really small number of those who get some information about what’s really going on, and the rest are left to the mainstream media who write mostly about Bitcoin in a negative context.

For those who don't believe this is the case, try asking one of your friends, acquaintances or family members what they think of Bitcoin.

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That's right, I've even been called a criminal on several occasions because it's all one big scam, ponzi scheme or multi level marketing that will collapse sooner or later. After such things, I no longer want to enter into any discussions when it comes to crypto, not only because of discussions in which I always turn out to be a bad person, but also because of the security risk.

I think every object will have both good and bad sides, whether it's fiat money, knife, crypto etc, can be used to commit crime, but because Bitcoin has an anonymous or less transparent nature so people will find it easier to commit fraud and crime.

we are all aware about this, unless someone can't agree... but this is the reality.
I have discussed about bitcoin even in job interview or company meeting since I am feeling pretty sure about what I am talking.
If people are "fast to judge" bad it's not my fault :)

BTW about "criminals" also police know very well that just a very small portion of cryptocurrency has been used for trading illicit stuffs:

Just as example, 15 millions of euro (cash!) have been seized in Italy (find below more details, Italian language).
https://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/20_giugno_08/15-milioni-contanti-nascosti-muro-trafficante-droga-hashish-massimilano-cauchi-fd11763e-a97e-11ea-b9d7-2bd646fda8c5.shtml

It's very interesting declaration made by head of the Milano's DDA Alessandra Dolci that has run this operation:
"This is proof that international drug transactions, even those involving tons of drugs, take place only in cash. Narcos are often thought to use cryptocurrencies or elusive digital payments. This must ask us about the use of this money and its circulation ", explained the head of the DDA Alessandra Dolci.

Thankfully, I have been getting better responses. Thanks to a recent legal battle won by crypto proponents. The thing is that people seem to consider Bitcoin, ethereum, ripple in the same category of some fancy internet company stocks. I have a hard time trying to convince that Bitcoin isn't a "company" per se. Then the next question is then why do people buy its "shares". How can you predict when it goes up and when it goes down.
The argument about a non-inflatable asset with a possibly bright future is something that cannot be used to convince people who are just looking to make some money. But people have been exceptionally open off late because of certain initiatives from involved exchanges etc. It is quite clear that when the businesses like exchanges put effort into spreading the word, it works.

According to the stats only 10% of the Bitcoins is being used for Foul Purposes . Which means that the rest 90% is actually being used for good reasons.

I do think we need to look for planet friendly Mining resources , for example: Using Air Power to fuel the Mining machine , it would reduce the carbon footprint drastically . In just some years we will see a drastic reduce in mining industry because of scarce supply but I do think we need to take this issue out in the open .

I have seen people commenting how they have been called a criminal and such , the sad thing is the country I belong to actually thinks the same and is thinking about putting a total halt on cryptocurrencies , with a 10 year imprisonment for anyone who uses it.

I have seen people come here with a dream of becoming millionaires but one forgets the fact that Bitcoins does provide people with :
 Reasonable Freedom
Which the government unfortunately cannot , therefore I do think people should be educated correctly about cryptocurrencies. They should start teaching about it in schools and colleges , because it's something that is going to be in the future for sure .

People are quick to label something bad especially when they have bad experience with it. Most people that I can categorically witnessed that condemn bitcoin are those that have one time participated in pyramid scheme. For somebody like me that comes from third world country, I must say the discovery of crypto have bring joy and smile to my face than the government. Donation through crypto is one of the most transparent thing I have ever seen because in traditional donations, people do not get to see how much people donated but you just hear the total amount donated but through blockchain technology, you can check the total number of people and amount donated.

Bitcoin is good for both sides, simple use bitcoin for bad things, just like in the dark market, but good sides of using bitcoin are more powerful compared to those bad things. Some are using bitcoin for investing and trading which is legal to do, both things are good at earning money but so risky especially for beginners who don't have enough knowledge of doing so. There are also some people who use bitcoin for the online transaction which uses bitcoin for paying purposes.

Actually, most of the people that use bitcoin have good intentions because if it's not true I think bitcoin would not live so long.

That's the reality of Bitcoin outside this forum or other Bitcoin community because unfortunately they aren't educated about this technology very well, those who are criticized on Bitcoin are most likely lack of knowledge or even uneducated. Because they only heard the bad side of Bitcoin on news not the good side which is most likely we heard in the crypto community.

We have nothing to do about that, but I hope someday they will realize how really useful it is.

If someone will continue a good habit that gives a good image to Bitcoin probably this might end.
Like,

• Charity program using Bitcoin
• All merchant suing Bitcoin payment method as a contactless payment

..and etc.

There is nothing to be surprised to be honest I am one of those who also think of it that way when I first heard about it,
But we could change how they see it on explaining it to them thoroughly they just need to be guided and it isn't just Bitcoin that has been used for those kind of things also money/Fiat has been used like that.
We just need them to know how it really is and not just the bad side but also the good side of crypto we couldn't change the fact that Bitcoin has been known because of it in the past but we could change it by showing them that Bitcoin isn't just criminals money or just for illegal transactions.

I'm actually just here out of curiosity and not really wanting to get recognized, rich or anything. Most people are looking at bitcoin in a negative way because that's what being portrayed on mainstream media and the fact that it managed to get where it is now in just a short span of time. Add to that the ever growing number of scams and hacks relating to bitcoin that most of us don't wanted to happen. Result? Negative opinion from all walks of life, amplified by the thoughts of giant names such as Buffett and "trusted" banking entities.

No matter how many good things bitcoin do, or how bitcoin helped changed things for the better, the media and people will just stress on the fact that a lot of bad things are still associated with it and that's the reality.

I strongly agree with this.

Bitcoin already conquered its space in financial market ecosystem. It is known already.

If you take a look at websites such as investing.com, you will find bitcoin session. If you look at Bloomberg, forbes, etc, you will also find countless information about it.

Financial investors know it. Due to legal and regulatory reasons institutional investors are not buying it, but the people behind those institutions know what bitcoin is and many of them buy it.


Additionally, it is already used a lot as a payment method. I wouldn't say largely used, but it is used a lot (for example, this forum, bitpay, gift cards, etc)

And, as Antonopoulos said recently: "Bitcoin is not important to buy a coffee at starbucks, but to buy a bus ticket from Syria to somewhere else"

The problem is when people with influence talk and write about Bitcoin in public with very little to zero knowledge about it. It wouldn't be so bad if they talk or write about it as if it is something new, something they have yet to thoroughly study and understand, something they would warn the public not to immediately buy or use without familiarizing it first, and so on.

But that is not what a lot of influential people are doing. Many of the media, public officials, and other so-called financial experts seem to dismiss Bitcoin immediately as something shady, illegal, risky, and therefore should be avoided by the public.

As a matter of fact, just yesterday, Bitcoin was mentioned in a national news channel in passing. I think it was the Department of Finance warning the public against online investment schemes. And, if I'm not mistaken, Bitcoin was mentioned as an example. And because there was no explanation whatsoever, that irresponsible mention of Bitcoin ended up as a sort of labeling Bitcoin as a scam.

You both don't understand that I'm not referring to institutions, banks or some so-called experts who are waging their private wars against Bitcoin for various reasons. What I wanted to emphasize is how Bitcoin is perceived by ordinary people in everyday conversation, and that in addition to still being quite unknown, in most cases it falls into some negative connotations.

If someone makes a ransomware, infects hundreds or thousands of computers and demands a ransom in Bitcoin, that's news everywhere. When it comes to global warming or environmental destruction, Bitcoin is again cited as one of the causes because polar caps are melting and acid rain is falling.

Should we as a community just keep quiet and accept all the lies that are being placed or show that there are also very positive things that can be done with Bitcoin? Someone donated tens of thousands of dollars to help hundreds of families around the world, have you seen anyone write about it?

This is what commonly we heard in the crypto world, it is about the negative sides and issues of the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. however, right here, the users will be different and we may not need to suspect each other.

First to consider is that Bitcoin will depend on don the user, how it will be high value will depend on how the users use the BTC. We cannot avoid that probably some people also use it for bad things. therefore, we must be careful to choose the news to be accepted.

Briefly, Bitcoin is for:
1. Investment, long term, and short term investment re god enough because BTC always has a big value and volume. So never worry if we lose our money because of BTC. It is a good investment.
2. Transaction
Some countries legalize the use of BTC, therefore some shops or eCommerce accept BTC as one fo the payment. however, it will depend on what country to live in. Because sometimes it is not legal for the transaction payment.

And we found the bad news or things about the use of BTC, never think about it too much. We can make it as one of our considerations.

The one of causing climate change is what I still don’t understand till now. I have read some articles that said it’s not true, it has not been proven, so it’s just fake news? ??? .As for people saying it’s used by criminals, they have to understand when it comes to cryptocurrency people are given freedom and can do whatever they want to do with it.

Many of us are not evil, we make use of cryptocurrency for good and we just prefer to have some privacy when dealing with some things. And we can only get that privacy with crypto. The bad guys then saw the opportunity and decides to use it the wrong way. But there are still scammers who make use of banks to scam people and they have not been caught till today, so does that also mean that banks are bad too? Because we can’t just blame Bitcoin and not blame banks if the same activities are happening with both.

In many cases Bitcoin plays a big role.  Many people don't know about it. It is a completely wrong idea that Bitcoin is used only for criminals and bad people. Only those who don't have good knowledge about Bitcoin will talk about it.
The COVID-19 virus has spread around the world. It's great to know about this donation. I hope all those who have the power to help will come forward to help the helpless people in this difficult time.

Not everyone who uses bitcoin is a bad person or is considered a criminal. Only some people use bitcoin for illegal business. The bitcoin market is completely censored. You have the right to invest and do your best business. I have been in this market for many years and have not encountered any fraud yet!

As we all know, the world knows a violent struggle between good and evil!! Finally, good will triumph over evil with the power of faith.
Crypto can be used in two different fields, one of which calls for good and the other directs its owner to do bad things, In the end, the bad guys will be punished for their actions, and the people of good will triumph because of their correct handling of technology.
Technology at the beginning of its development I think will be bright in the future,Let's hope so.

Only the thing that this needs to be raised and discussed / defeated at all - doesn't look good

Bitcoin was created for 0 - no ticker - no Ponzi - max transparent, for P2P ( IP - IP ) easy use ( incl micro pay)

It has moved away in its btc ticker form ... why?