Bitcoin Forum

every time Im out an about talking with people I always try and work bitcoin into the conversation. If money is going to trade hands I try pretty hard to bring btc up and Id say 90% of people in my day to day get told about it. Generally nobody has ever heard of it, or if they have they have a bad impression of it from the news. in the past week 5 people in a row had heard of it and seemed to be using it, or thinking about it. I asked yesterday at a family Chinese restaurant and the manager said he had been trying to get his family to accept it. The man I was talking with seemed in his late 30's-40's, saying 70's -80's age range parents didnt trust it. He then thanked me for asking them to take it an said they will look into it harder. I was at the insurance office and the agent had never heard of btc, but after 5 min of talking she was hooked and understood how much btc can help business. the encounters go on, but this week an last week have been better than the past 6 months as far as people I talk to knowing about btc.

I really feel like btc will be in local shops soon, talk to small store owners, and inform them about the fact they can use coinbase or bitpay to easily get dollars for bitcoin and gain NEW business.

The proliferation of Bitcoin ATMs is what will drive adoption on a local level.  Bitcoin accepting businesses tend to "pop up" around these ATMs.

there is also a big change in mainstream media. one year ago it was very different (negative)!

don't just talk about the benefits of bitcoin, tell the chinese restaurant manager to go to bitpay, sign up and register his bank account as being the payment address. and watch the tutorials of th many ways he can then get bitcoin from his customers, via bitpay.
(i want to see a reply within the next couple weeks informing this thread that the chinese restaurant and insurance office have gone to the bitpay website and signed up because you showed them how)

same goes for the insurance office.

as for hearing random people talk about it in your area. if i tell a friend about bitcoin last week, then the following week he will of course tell you he had heard about it.

tell 10 people last week and an 11th person that one of those people know, would have been told by them. on average out of 10 people that do not care much about it. only one person passes the information on (compared to you, a passionate person telling 10 people (1000% multiplication))
so even if you think people dont care there is statistically proven a 10% chance your information will be passed on.

so if have talked about it to lets say 5 strangers each day from 6 months ago, then every 2 days (10 people) an 11th person would know about it purely by word of mouth. every 20 days 100 people know about it directly through you and 10 people indirectly
now the average person has a small circulation of friends and those friends do not want to hear about it over and over, so i suspect the amount of new people and conversations about bitcoin died down from 5 day to alot less, for a while.

but your friends who have friends are keeping the chain of bitcoin conversations going (analogy: chain letters)
so lets fast forward 5 months to bring you to this week. even with a 10% rate of passing it on. your community would have heard about it from someone they know.after all they say everyone is connected to every with only 6 intermediaries (6 degree's of separation/kevin bacon)

so kep up th discussions, but dont just talk about it, show them how to set up a wallet. even if they dont use it. they will know how to get to it, should anyone want to throw them a bitcoin donation in the future

I never actually thought of this until you said it. I agree that more business will accept btc in close approximation to the atms

I would like to see Bitcoin ATMs and BTMs near pawnshops. It's not that I advocate pawnshops; I refuse to darken their doors, but it sounds like a winning combination.

ATMs will be huge, most people still dont have a clue how to buy bitcoin even.

Just bought a new MacBook at Apple store today.   Guess what I asked them about leading up to the sale.  Investments in marijuana based companies and bitcoin.  Times they are a changin'...

The Bitcoin ATMs will be very useful, the only issue is the giant fee that most charge. I know people personally that wont use a Bitcoin ATM because the generally higher fee than a regular fiat ATM. Although most people I talk to about Bitcoin have heard about it at some point, just mainly the negative things the news has portrayed about it. Then when I tell them what Bitcoin really is, they seem to think it actually is pretty awesome.

We just need to make it easier to buy (which the ATM's help with) and also make it more attractive than fiat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlBtlDj-ARE

How the hell do you have time to explain Bitcoin to random, technically illiterate people?  It takes about an hour just to get to the point that the person replies, "I have no idea what you're talking about".  The simplest method I could come up with was saying, "It's like internet file sharing except instead of everyone having the same movie file, everyone has the same distributed accounting ledger".

Exactly like I say it: "Like file sharing, but there is only one file everybody is sharing. people with bitcoins has the keys to a little part of that file  where he stores his bitcoins. So everybody agrees that you own your coins, but only you can withdraw them."

You might as well have said, "I has a magical bag of dog coins"

Cash ATMs are free here, atleast the ones run by corporation owned by major banks... On other hand the one Bitcoin ATM I saw was websoftware on some expensive Internet screen thingy... Doesn't really do anything yet...

Some people are just natural teachers/leaders. It takes practice, good public speaking skills, and the ability to assess and properly scale the level of detail in your description. It takes practice...

You can't just parrot the same description to every person. You need to be able to communicate with the person while you explain...

It's not hard to explain Bitcoin. Bitcoin is simple, it's a highly secured network of millions of people who use the network to transfer wealth without the oversight, costs, limits, controls, or permissions of a bank. Bitcoin is cheap, fast, secure, and it's decentralized.

When people don't understand Bitcoin you could compare it at the most basic level to the internet of money.

Take the opportunity in you favorite financial institution, ask them if you can buy bitcoin there.

see the bank staff go scurrying....they know "buying" something means they will get money = good....they want to know what is it you are wanting to buy for the lovely fiat money that they want from you.

Sorry, but that's a bs post.  

Doesn't matter if you're Richard Feynman, most people will not understand the subject matter and just have to take your word for it on whether it's a secure/legit system or not.

This is not the same thing as actually getting someone to understand it that has no idea about technology.  It's basically an impossible task.  Most people don't know how paper money works either, and don't care, so it's the same difference.

That's a horrible explanation. I know how bitcoin works and I can't even figure out what you are talking about.

How about this:

What is Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a payment system that has it's own currency. It's like Paypal, but bitcoins are used instead of dollars and there is no company.

Why would I want to use it?
Bitcoin is fast, cheap, and mostly anonymous. Nobody can freeze or confiscate your bitcoins or prevent you from spending them. You can send bitcoins directly to anyone anywhere and at any time without having to go through anybody. Once you receive bitcoins, they cannot be taken back. There are no bounced checks or counterfeit bitcoins.

Why doesn't Bitcoin use dollars?
Using dollars is slow and expensive and the money is tracked. Dollars can be frozen and confiscated and you need permission to send them. When you receive dollars, there is no guarantee that you can keep them.

How do I spend bitcoins?
1. Get a wallet.
2. Get some bitcoins.
3. Go to a site that accepts bitcoins.
4. Send the bitcoins to the address that is provided.

How does it work?
There is a public ledger called the "block chain" that records every Bitcoin transaction. There are thousands of copies of this ledger held by Bitcoin users all around the world. When you spend Bitcoins, your transaction sent to everyone and they check it against the ledger. The transaction is added to the ledger when everyone agrees that it is valid. Once it has been validated and added to the ledger, the receiver knows that the bitcoins have been received. This process normally takes an average of 10 minutes.

Not bs at all...

If someone you're speaking with ever responds, "I have no idea what you're talking about", it's because of a breakdown of communication. Communication is a two way street and it's the function of a conversation; without it you're just ranting...

You can explain Bitcoin to the technically illiterate by choosing non-technical illustrations that they will understand. You'll need to be crafty if they aren't on your level.

If they don't take your word for it then subconsciously they believe you're either lying or you don't know what you're talking about; both of those conclusions are preventable. You're a teacher when explaining Bitcoin. Teaching isn't always effective, but with a combination of outspoken body language, a positive demeanor, and exceptional articulation it's much more likely to sink in.

If they don't take your word for what you say, they simply won't look any further into it; they will brush it off and forget about the conversation. On the other hand, if they do believe what you say, they will likely research it for themselves and build knowledge on top of the foundation you've provided them.

You don't need to sell it, but teaching and marketing share the same root...

I actually did say all those things haha, he seemed to already know half of what I said anyways though and that he was already on board to accept it, and I feel that me as a customer asking to give him more business via bitcoin seemed to 'tip the scales"  I do expect to see them accepting it here soon because Im going to be asking my friends to go in and say they want to eat here with bitcoin then leave.  

Ive explained bitcoin to many people who dont use computers or smartphones but they could understand the idea of encrypted and secure money  called bitcoin that can be split into 100,000,000 things called satoshis, that is impossible to duplicate and can be sent anywhere in the world in a moment. you dont need to be "smart" to see "smart" people will use it and that it has value. many people have asked me, " so it sounds like digital gold?" and I smile saying to them "yes, actually thats exactly what the goal was and what many people think of it as." then you simply explain to them its a free program out of the control of any CEO or government that they can use without fees, and the average blue collar person is already on board.

maybe Im just good at talking about it, and maybe its that I speak with dozens of new people every week because thats just the sort of life I live.
Id say if you cant explain something to someone it has less to do with their ability to understand, and more to do with a individuals ability to articulate a thought.

I don't see why small store owners would need coinbase to accept bitcoins from people, they can use local exchangers or any other option. they could even avoid taxes  ;D

In general, businesses that do not keep a narrow focus upon their core value proposition tend to fail. To personally manage the mechanics of money exchange would dilute their focus upon this core value - i.e. actually running the store.

It's true too, an ATM goes up and local business start accepting it pretty fast. Blah thing is, here in the U.S., too many hoops to jump through & paperwork involved with owning/operating one.