Bitcoin Forum

As regards the wide spread of Bitcoin in our today society which should be of utmost priority? more awareness in urban cities or Exposure in rural communities? This might not be applicable to all nations but there are many rural communities cut across many nations around the world who don't still don't understand what Bitcoin is all about, what it values are and what it represent in our modern financial society.

Specifically in Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana where I have stayed in at different time, I discovered many rural areas in this countries still find it difficult differentiating Bitcoin from Ponzi schemes. In this case will sensitising people in this areas be a vain adventure following their  mindset.

And how fast will adaptation and acceptance take place. And are there any technique one can apply to impact this persons on the advantage of embracing Bitcoin without sounding like a scammer or a deceitful person. I don't know if any one has had similar encounter In time past.

Misrepresenting Bitcoin is not peculiar to any region or continent. There have been top investors in the traditional finance space that have talked down on bitcoin and showed to have little knowledge of it and there are people in the most remote areas who have good knowledge of how it works.

Sensitizing people about an investment is not a popular strategy, sort of like going to market real estate investment or some other form of investment.

- Jay -

The comparison of Bitcoin with ponzi schemes has nothing to do with rural areas in those countries you mentioned it's actually lack of interest from the people you had contact with. There is hardly a place you go to in a country like Nigeria and see young people atleast not having a Mobile phone or asses to the internet.

But depending on people's knowledge or interest some just writes Bitcoin off as a Ponzi scheme. I have a brother who is in the UK that feels same way and he isn't interested in getting to know more.

Here in our country, Rural awareness usually useless because of poor internet connection and people usually involved on typical farm industry as source of living that’s why they are not interested on technology investment such as Bitcoin because they consider it as high risk and hard to understand. I don’t blame them since the nature of their work is very far different than Bitcoin technology.

Urban Area awareness should be the priority since this the place which Bitcoin investment is more suitable rather than the people that working on different field because the success rate of adaptation his high with people that has a good background on technology especially crypto.

The adoption rate in rural areas will definitely be low because of certain factors like the exposure to internet. Most of these rural communities are faced by the challenges of having poor or no internet access up to the fact that even commercial banks are not close to them. So trying to spread adoption of bitcoin to this various places is certainly going to be difficult.

Most of these people also rely on solely on government policies and with the government strongly against bitcoin it would still be hard to get them into it. Because most of the stereotypes spread around bitcoin is that it doesn’t have an office and these are people that actually believe only on things they see. So the only people that would have aid the adoption of bitcoin easily in these areas would have been the government

Bitcoin understanding is required in both rural and urban communities, as networks can now be found practically anywhere in the world. It will be a good development if a farmer benefits from Bitcoin investment because the major goal is to spread Bitcoin over the world.

Some people in these regions of the world are truly unaware of Bitcoin since they always refer to it as a Ponzi scheme due to their prior experience with one or two Ponzi scheme platforms in their desperation to make money.

The issue with publicizing Bitcoin knowledge, particularly in Nigeria, is that the government has yet to legalize Bitcoin, and so publicizing good news about Bitcoin may land one in hot water with the government.

The urban developments should be prioritized FIRST. How well does it sound if some grotesquely looking old man begin to modify the processes of tradefare, with proper terminologies and 'em kiddies be trippin'? Hehe...
Secondly, the interest, the value and the quest is cherished in the Urban; any core villager believes in what they plant,... That at the end of the year, perennial crops could bear fruits and they'll survive with that. Thirdly, studying BTC demands alot of global, internet exposure. You're guided by the things you read ...for the fact that information is key, everything you read on the web either becomes a good guide, or something that'll eventually make BTC a big repulsion.

Sandra 🧑‍🦰

The slow phase of adoption in rural area is due to communication problem.  Unlike in urban places, communication is well established.  Lots of internet service providers are flocking in an urban area, making it easier for the people living on that area to access the internet.  While in rural area, even a cellular signal is very difficult in that place.  The access to ISP is also very difficult since most probably the infrastructure required to build internet service provider network is not available on that area.

In short information can easily transferred in a more developed area so we should not be surprised if rural area are lagging in terms of technological updates and adoption.

Awareness is needed in both rural and urban areas, but according to the current situation of my country, then I will say bitcoin awareness should focus on rural areas, most people in rural areas those not even know anything about bitcoin, some people in rural areas those not even know that bitcoin exist, they haven’t heard the name bitcoin before. Rural areas need to be focused on heavily about bitcoin awareness, or it’s going to take long than I think before the rural areas that understanding or investing in bitcoin.

My country is mentioned among the countries which you mentioned above which is Nigeria, bitcoin awareness is urban areas is really encouraging, at least reasonable numbers of people in urban areas that are investing in bitcoin is really encouraging, but when you get to rural areas, very few percentage of people in rural areas knows about bitcoin and most of them don’t believe in bitcoin, so they are not having any investment in bitcoin, that’s why I believe people in rural areas need more awareness.

Urban areas are more educated than rural areas with conditions they have from finance to infrastructures for education, entertainment, technologies and Internet. They have more advantage to be exposed to Bitcoin, new technologies and they have better conditions to connect to and use Internet.

Bitcoin can be used online with Internet or offgrid but normally we will use it online. Again urban citizens will have more advantage with better Internet.

In rural areas, when locals exposed to cryptocurrency, they can adapt to it quickly but they are more vulnerable to scams because they are less educated and more naively to believe in promising projects and might let their greediness blurs their minds. Scammers can expose them with Bitcoin story, Bitcoin Pizza story to make locals excited, then will switch to non-blockchain projects like Ponzi to scam.

I dont know but Bitcoin nowadays is everywhere even some people in my area know the name Bitcoin even tho just barely know the name only, but this mean bitcoin is everywhere some local news discussed a lot when the price crash or the price is bull.

and Big constituent/ Investment company know on the race to made Bitcoin ETF namely few like BlackRock and Fidelity and those I believe can drive more people to get know about Bitcoin

They mostly are exposed with this market in each bull run when FOMO is very high, everywhere. Locals in rural areas will be exposed to this market and joined it like when people who went to people who sell vegetables, fishes at spontaneous small markets in rural areas started to join stock market.

They are not educated enough or no educated about this market and they only join with FOMO, greed, zero knowledge, you can guess what ending will wait them after a few months.

I believe rural areas will be important but locals must prepare more before joining the market. If they can learn enough before joining, they will be richer and contribute a lot to Bitcoin adoption.

Pretty sure the rural vs urban thing will differ from country to country. The relevancy of bitcoin on rural vs urban areas will totally depend on how much they 'need' Bitcoin — regardless if it's because of needing bitcoin as an actual inflation hedge, or probably just as a get rich quick scheme that people are willing to risk for better finances.

Bitcoin can also be implicated in ponzi schemes and fraud in some news narratives, especially if reports of such cases are overwhelming in that country. So don't be surprised if a bunch of people come to the conclusion that bitcoin is a scam because most of them can't tell which is an entity and which is a process.

To be honest, I don't have the idea to give a proper understanding of bitcoin to stubborn people without considering the environmental basis they live in.

The two should be taken with utmost priority since bitcoin is for all and not meant for some particular set of people by thier location, the little things that may challenges the remote areas are the possible availability to the learning aid and the possible internet access challengs but still yet they must be taught and have the awareness of bitcoin and for them to know there's an alternative different currency decentralized aside the USD they've been used to.


The people will always have a take in since it's something they all expect to have a change in how they were been controlled by the government and centralized commercial financial institutions and getting an alternative to them will not be an hesitation to them before taking.

Bitcoin education and awareness are important if we want to promote Bitcoin and increase adoption. But the urban area should be given more priority because they have the necessary facilities and income to invest in or use Bitcoin. Many people in the urban area have Android phones, internet connection, education, and saving. Although neglecting the rural area is not the best option because there might be people that are interested in the sector but in most cases, they don't have the basic facilities and finance needed to be involved in the sector.

People in the rural areas in Western Africa can be easily deceived because there are many illiterates and poor inhabitants. They can be easily convinced to believe in a scam project and because of poverty most of them are attracted by many scam scheme that promises huge profit. Many of them have been scammed so when you come up with a legitimate investment, they conclude that it is also a scam.

Adopting or embracing Bitcoin is not by force. You cannot force them to accept Bitcoin because they are not your puppets. The only way is to tell them the whole truth about Bitcoin and let them decide what to do with the information.  Most of these scam schemes show them videos or pictures of people that have made money from the project. But you don't need to show off your profit to attract them because they might not be as fortunate as you and Bitcoin is not a magic money scheme.

I think that everyone who has had a previous experience in dealing with stocks or investment transactions will be afraid of bitcoin because it is something new and because there is a bad background about digital investments, whether it is Forex trading or buying stocks, in which brokers earn more than investors. I have a friend and he was surprised how you can increase your money without working, the rural areas strongly believe that you must work hard in hard work to get money, money cannot be obtained without effort or fatigue.

I doubt there is a difference though, in your case then I wouldn't go that far and educating everyone. It's not that I don't want bitcoin to go global, but we want people to discover it by themselves and see the benefits of it in the long run.

Just like what you have witnessed, for some of them it is a Ponzi scheme, and maybe you will tell them that it is not. However, it there mindset is close already so even if you explain everything to them, they will have a close understanding already and it will be very difficult to change their stands. So be it, if they don't want to, then it's their lost not ours.

The group of people who view bitcoin as ponzi schemes are those who have been defrauded by ponzi schemes in the past due to their desire to get rich quick and lack of due diligence when choosing their investment targets. Therefore, these individuals who have been victims numerous times automatically assume that any internet investments are frauds without conducting additional research.However, I will say this is not only occurring in rural areas but also urban areas.


The only way people can embrace Bitcoin without it sounding to them like a scam is by being enlightened about the importance of Bitcoin and giving them the proper knowledge they deserve to have about Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry. But why people will find it difficult to spread awareness of Bitcoin to those who don't know the existence of Bitcoin is that in many countries Bitcoin is not legalized, and to spread awareness of Bitcoin in those countries where Bitcoin is not legalized, it will be very difficult because once someone is cut by government, such will surely face the judgment for against the laws of the country.

It's one fact that there are still countries and communities that have hard time dealing with scams and ponzi schemes and it's because they lack financial education.

That's not just actually related to crypto but also in other scam schemes that's looking to victimize gullible people. These scammers are targeting people that have no financial education for them to target them easily.

Despite with awareness drive being done by groups and individuals, the sad fact is that the world is huge to cover all of them.

To introduce any product, you should begin with the benefits that users will receive after using it. The problem with Bitcoin is that the benefit seems not for everyone, at least in the current state. People just buy it to sell it later for a higher price, and it's not a good benefit for average people since they have different priorities in life (for sure not about investments), and they may or may not have any savings. We might argue that the price of Bitcoin will always increase as proven in history, but they don't know that, and they won't easily believe it, so better try another approach.

I've introduced Bitcoin to my friends, and it all succeed because I was not selling an investment, but a means of easier payment. FYI I mostly live in the rural area. You can easily find people who own a phone, even if the internet access is poor, it's still manageable.

If everyone plays their part bitcoin will become more popular quickly. In any place you find yourself either in the rural or urban place, and discover that there is poor awareness about bitcoins and people do not know what it is, just work with that environment and do your best to change. If you are in the rural areas and try to make bitcoins more popular and someone in the urban area also works to make Bitcoins popular, with the collective effort, knowledge about bitcoins will increase both in the rural and urban areas. The two areas are of priority.

It won't happen very fast. Just as gradual as it has been happening. Read down!

There was obviously when I was worried about what you have discussed about. But ever since I understood how this works, I do not bother myself again in trying to make people to understand the true nature of bitcoin as against what they think that bitcoin is, a Ponzi scheme or a scam.

Again, I bet you that there is rarely anyone who have not heard about Bitcoin.
-At one point, they will hear about bitcoin;
-Then another stage is for them to enquire about bitcoin;
-Then the next stage is for them to start using Bitcoin.

The most important aspect of the awareness is for them to hear about Bitcoin. When they hear about bitcoin and in five years time, for instance, they still hear about the same bitcoin. They will now know that it is not a ponze scheme. That is just my belief and that is how I have left it to be.

Only talk to people about bitcoin that are close to you, maybe your relatives and do not also give them investment advice. Just show them how to do their own research and make their decisions themselves.

The awareness about Bitcoin among the urban and rural areas are pretty much same and most of them think Bitcoin is scam or some kind of ponzi even mainstream media and economic experts interpret in that way so as crypto community it's important to create awareness among all the people is important.

It will happen only if there are people who can understand the technology as the policy makers or Bitcoin will remain mystery and never be able to attain the actual potential of it.

I stay in the city and taking the idea of sensitization about bitcoin to people in the rural area where I hail from for example right now would only be a futile effort. There's time for everything and it should suffice you to know that it's not yet a ripe time to taking the preaching of bitcoin and what it is all about to the rural areas whereas even the urban cities there's still people that picture bitcoin to be a scam and fraud.  I strongly believe that if the urban cities are taken over by bitcoin gaining much users/usage then the rural areas wouldn't be a big deal to handle.

in my area in the city or in the countryside it's the same, because what I know in the village are many people who know bitcoin and many of the villagers know that btc is the asset of the future and deserves to be adopted as a future asset. as well as city people they also know about bitcoin and its benefits.

so in my opinion btc spreads to all areas as long as there is internet access in that area, because in my area there are also areas where internet access is not good enough so when I asked the person he did not know about bitcoin because in that area internet access not good. In my opinion, the responses of city people and village people are the same, that is, there are those who think btc is a good asset and there are also those who think btc is a fraud.

In my opinion, the dissemination of information or knowledge about Bitcoin, both in urban and rural areas, must be prioritized equally. because everyone has the right to receive information regardless of where they come from.

not only in rural areas, I think even in urban areas there are still many who think Bitcoin is a ponzi scheme and not everyone even knows what Bitcoin is.
I think there is nothing wasted in spreading information and knowledge, any information or knowledge will be useful for someone.

Dissemination of information or knowledge about Bitcoin in urban and rural areas will certainly differ in the way it is delivered and received because the environment and lifestyle in each of these regions is also different.
if someone wants to spread information or influence someone, of course they have to do research first on what methods are suitable and acceptable in each of these urban and rural areas.
If our explanation and understanding can be accepted in rural areas, I think that information will spread more easily and influence rural communities than in urban areas. because in my opinion, the average rural community tends to be more collectivism, not individualism like those in urban areas.

but one of the dissemination of information and knowledge through online media or social media in my opinion might be more effective in reaching people in urban and rural areas, but the weakness is that we cannot control them and convince them directly.
for the last thing that I always emphasize when we want to spread, influence and teach others about Bitcoin, we should make sure that we are ready mentally, materially, knowledge and time. don't teach or introduce Bitcoin but we don't have good enough knowledge about Bitcoin itself.

Explain what is, never hesitate to say what is true. don't use methods/tactics that always give positive things to BTC/justification, here's an explanation that is easily digested by their minds and explains what is an obstacle in this time also conveyed properly and correctly. I think by providing honest information the audience will be interested.

Education is important for people as you mentioned at least they understand, even a little bit it's very cool, both in blockchain technology, its benefits, and the potential risks that in the end it can help reduce skepticism in their environment because It's all about building a knowledge base and encouraging an open conversation about Bitcoin.

Bitcoin awareness have started for some years, and thinking of the awareness of bitcoins in urban environment Ann's rural environment, i will narrate that Bitcoin awareness in urban is same thing with rural area because it's not village campaign of bitcoins that makes bitcoin to be known, what makes the information of bitcoins to get circulated is help of internet and social media. Bitcoin get circulated through the profit awareness of investors who invested in bitcoin some years ago.

In rural environment some people who is there is also taking bitcoin very serious because they access bitcoin through their hand set and laptop computer, so both in rural environment and urban environment none of them understand them know Bitcoin through class room teaching or learning of bitcoins,  the awareness of Bitcoin come from social media.

Learning is a continuous process

Bitcoin awareness should be the utmost concern for every Bitcoiner, the truth is, the awareness is growing like wildfire, and discovering the interested ones matters a lot, both in the rural and urban areas, how do we convince the people who have positioned their mindset to believe that bitcoin is a scam, I know that for the rural settlers internet service is one of the major obstacle faced by them, telling them about Bitcoin orally matters too, diagrammatic explanation with the help of flyers will be a good awareness process, for the urban dweller, organizing a seminar will be an immense help for this set of individuals, showing them how bitcoin works with the use of gadgets like smartphone, using the different platform you can get hold to, will help in spreading this digital information.

It will shock you to know that bitcoin is being misunderstood all over the world and not just in the regions that you have listed. We shouldn't blame the method of delivery or the method understanding of the audience. What should be done is that there should be an evaluation of the delivery of bitcoin after each sensitization section both in the rural and urban centers.

The advantage of carrying out evaluation is that it would provide a systematic and data-driven approach to assessing and improving the performance of bitcoin sensitization programs such at the end of the awareness nobody would think of it as a scam even if they have had previous experiences with scammers.

If we can have human differences then we should also expect this same as well with the bitcoin because we have different opinions from the way people see things and accept nee offer, yet we are having a massive adoption with bitcoin than the counter attempts, if we look at how the people have accepted bitcoin from the number of those raising fake alarm about bitcoin, we will see that bitcoin had more people willing to see it exist than those bot interested in it which is a usually thing we should also consider because that's the need that solves the people's want in their finances.

I think one of the problems that is affecting the awareness of bitcoin in some rural areas are no constant electricity and stable network,  these can be the problems that can make awareness of bitcoin to be slow. Their are rural areas where bitcoin is well known and people are investing it. Bitcoin is a currency that is well known,  the challenge anyone can have with bitcoin is network issues or no stable power supply this can be a problem in any where and not just in the rural area. Op thinks because most rural area are remotes area it will affect awareness of bitcoin and people would not want to accept it. As far as people have Internet bitcoin will surely get awareness.