Bitcoin Forum

Don't act like you haven't done this, cuz you know you lyin' brah?!  Try to get your friends/family into bitcoin.

Like everyone I know, I try to get them into bitcoin (new users etc)

They just listen and like the idea (and sometimes get intrigued because of local news).  I also test to see how a new user would get involved.
I get a little frustrated because I think it might succeed and here I am trying to educate a family member/friend on it and there like "okay thats cool, whats on tv" type of attitude.

What would it take to get people seriously behind bitcoin?

And how have you guys explained bitcoins to others (and what were the results?  similar to mine or different?

[Personally this bitcointalk site has taught me a lot and I think newer people (then me) would need something like this to get in]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reo7WbibxaQ
shit bitcoiners say xD

Steering friends and family into Bitcoin is a staggeringly pisspoor idea in my opinion.

If it drops or turns to shit then it will never be Bitcoin's fault, it will always be yours.

If they come to you out of the blue then I'd put them on the right path but otherwise steer well clear.

I agree with this, and after I told someone, they asked me if they should go in, I said that it could all crash so there are risks etc (and they seemed to back off)
I just mention it and not try to "really" push them to do anything.  (I would have loved for someone to atleast mention it to me before november 2013 ;) )

Most people who even know about Bitcoin are just filled to the brim with the negativity that the media gives it.  Only bad media about Bitcoin makes it into bigtime news and that is how it has always been.  People aren't keen on big change in something that they are used to.  Can you imagine how many older people will become obsolete if BTC takes over? :)

Looking to pursuade them towards investing in bitcoin, which is what it sounds like you mean (else; would you even care?) is probably a bad idea even if you are convinced it's going to da moon.  cause: what if it dumps in the ocean?  You also take full responsibility for the secure holding of their coins in perpetuity - at least until the ("where my bitcoin at bitch?") day of their self awakening'.  I can tell you from experience; this unexpectedly just is not fun, even when you know enough to know its properly done..

I just mentioned btc to them, not like I am forcing them etc.  I tell them the risks.  I wouldn't hold their coins.  The purpose of this post was to get others experience on how they brought up bitcoin to others (and was sharing mine)

Because its a ponzi scheme?  Granted, everything is a ponzi scheme, but that does hurt one's credibility.

I got some of my family to invest a small amount last fall, after talking about it for half a year. I got them excited about its potential and let them know I believe in the technology. After I could see them catching the enthusiasm, I told them it is super volatile and its value could drop, but if it did ... they should hodl. I said this over and over and over. I showed them the 2011 run to $32 and crash to $2 and told them how sorry they'd be if they had sold at $2. Some of them bought in Dec close to $1000 and I told them that if it crashes to $500, $200, $100, $10, that they should ride it down ALL THE WAY TO ZERO.

IOW, I told them how to approach bitcoin like an investor, not a speculator. If an investor loses the entire investment, he can still take satisfaction in having backed a worthwhile idea.

It's difficult because of the volatility and all of the bad press.   From an outside perspective, it would be really easy to just read headlines and believe that it is a Ponzi Scheme or some sort of scam.  The profits in 2013 were pretty much unheard of, for any investment vehicle.   In addition, any high risk investment is a difficult sell for friends and family, especially if they already know you to be someone that is willing to make high risk moves.

Unfortunately, a lot of people are probably hoping that bitcoin fails, just so that they can tell you "I told you so..." but those same people won't admit that you made an educated and calculated risk by investing early.  They will just say that you got lucky or something like that, but deep down inside they will be wishing that they listened to you.

Also, many people just don't have much disposable income to put at risk.  I know a lot of people that are living paycheck to paycheck.   They would love to invest in bitcoin, but they just can't risk losing 30-40% of their money...potentially in a span of a few days.   The volatility is enough for a lot of people to lose sleep over...

I was at a real estate investors meeting last Thursday, I talked to a couple people about bitcoin this is how all the convos went.
ME: Have you heard of bitcoin?
Them: Didn't it get hacked and fall apart or something?
Me; No that was a exchange
Them; oh...

You want to get people to accept bitcoins, take them out to a nice dinner. Pay with bitcoins, and don't say anything, they will believe it. That is how I converted everyone in my family, I brought a huge dinner, and paid in 2 seconds.

its kinda like trying to get your mom to buy a 28.8K modem and connect to an IRC so you can chat in 1995, she thinks its cool that your having fun, but she'll stick to the phone. no amount of you telling her how gr8 the internet is and what its massive potential is, is going to get her to connect to an IRC chat room. 10 years later your mom is sharing her vacations pictures on Facebook, and recently started to "Tweet".

you saw what most don't and you wanted it right away, when they see what they want to see, it they'll get it too, end of story.

dose that make sense? lol

LOL

dear troll, please take swift action; you have just unwittingly exposed just what an utter-fuck-not you truly know.  immediate danger will robinson.

The only person I had to "get into" Bitcoin is my wife - 'cause we are either both in Bitcoin, or we are both out of it. So I just made sure she doesn't yell at me when I do buy some - had to explain a few things, and such. It also helped that there was no other way to get our money out of our home country.

With the rest of my friends and family, I prefer to stay as neutral as possible - explain a few things about how money works, explain a few things about Bitcoin, etc. My dad got hooked into watching Bitcoin price fluctuations - but he still haven't bought any. That's OK, if it goes to where I think it is going, I can take care of him. If it crashes to 0, on the other hand, I would be only responsible for my own losses.

It's likely because your family is smarter than you, as they live in the real world, with real bills and real responsibilities.  They don't have time for pyramid fantasies...they know what it takes to survive in the real-world and it's not Bitcoin and get-rich-quick schemes.

this here is a problem if it's someone you care about because the necessary awareness of secure storage takes a greater lurning curve than most of us actually appreciate;  trying to consider this in terms of direct steps we may have took A to B to C... gives a method of identifying all the different things and working out the best route for someone to follow;  but even this, particularly in the case of securing btc, comes with a lot of real danger to the newb.  Most common vectors of theft I've seen most have been from properly created wallets but used in some insecure way.. and only because at the time, they just didn't realise "that". 

Gox did so much damage.
The recovery will happen, but it's not going to be easy.

It's never a good idea to attempt to persuade family/friends into financial decisions.  If you think they might be interested you can mention it but only passingly.  If they're interested they will ask more; if they don't leave it be.  I'm not saying anything anyone else hasn't said but it's worth reiterating I think.

The real world is currently rigged for the house to win.

New girl here with post #2 ;-p Had to chime in on this. I am here solely because of what took place earlier this evening when I approached a family member about bitcoin.

I've heard of it for a year but didn't care, never looked into it until I read an article about second life using a virtual currency exchange and accepting bitcoin which is what piqued my interest that bitcoin was a "thing". Anyway, the last 24 hrs I've been mostly on You Tube to get the crash course on what it is, why it's being used, how it's used, why I'd want to and most excitingly of all, the future of currency because of it...and came away highly enthusiastic but not ready to jump in since I still need to learn the ropes about buying at all.

I either saw a video or read an article one about someone using a black box for mining bitcoin and then the value doubled and they made like 300 bucks - sketchy details and I was falling asleep from the crash course meltdown...soo, I went to ask a family member if they'd heard about it since I'd been considering delving into trying to do a mining set up if I could work out how to do that, just to learn, not to get rich. But I'm not a techhie so went to ask.

His first response was "I read the news just today that..." and right then I knew some big BS was on the way...he went on to explain that the IRS just outlawed it and it's worthless junk, not interested. I'm clearly not the expert but I had learned enough to know whatever he thought he read and whatever had processed into his brain were two entirely different things so I made an attempt to explain what bitcoin actually is and that the IRS has no ability to outlaw it even if it tried. I covered most of the basics about how it works and eventually managed to get his interest, or his curiosity.

I may or may not have been correct on this part but it did the trick anyway so hey :D but I said that I thought that bitcoin was trading at about $450 something so if he bought "a bitcoin" at $450 (theoretically) and the market settled down after this IRS nosedive that scared people who apparently thought the IRS could do anything about bitcoin (i.e. assuming it really is a decentralized unregulated uncontrollable free market currency), and eventually if he left that alone and let it start picking up, he could stand to make a lot of money (i.e. USD kind) and cash out (we avoided the taxation part, though).

I asked if he'd pull up the bitcoin exchange rate to see what it was right now and he pulled up some site that showed it at $461 or something. From there, he pulled up you tube and looked at a few, seemed to also like the idea of dedicated machines for mining.

Right in the middle of it, he gets a phone call from a neighbor a few houses down who, from this side of the conversation, had asked what he was doing. He told him he was reading some stuff about bitcoin, asked if the neighbor had heard of it and then repeated out loud what the neighbor was answering, which was...

Neighbor firmly warned to steer clear of it, it's a big scam, the guy who owned it stole millions of dollars from people and now the whole thing is gone...

At which point I decided maybe a nice bitcoin forum of people who actually know what the hell bitcoin is (and care!) would be more to my liking. I think I lost brain cells overhearing that conversation.

The answer is mainstream media talking heads and articles spewing misinformation and lies, nonsense, and a poor comprehension of it, and pea brained sorts who don't like to think real hard letting the former do their thinking for them. They automatically accept the media's accounts - that is in the way. If they heard it on the tv, if they read it on a common news site, that's the truth and everything else is scammer BS.

Sad, aint it?

And Bitcoin solves that how?  By getting people to add an extra 1% or more to the total cost of things they buy, when they have to purchase Bitcoin to make those purchases?  How is that helpful?

Had that (similar) conversation twice in the past week. First one, person felt bad that bitcoin just went through bankruptcy. Second one, person heard that the founder stole everybody's coins and he is now in jail awaiting trial.
 ???

Maybe give paper bitcoin wallets as xmas presents with a small amount on them?

Glad I am not the only one lol

Oh looksie another pyramidfag! 

Its just that they have been using hard currency all there life. Also somthing virtual is hard yo be understood, but they won't have any choice when it becomes global currency and they'll have to use it.

this should be the main challenge for the bitcoin devs, how much they can simplyfy it for global use.

When I go out to a party or a pub and meet new people, I've always be annoyed with the question "so what do you do for work?"  I have a great job, but for some reason I always found this a bit invasive if it came up in the first 2 minutes of meeting someone.

But now I love that question, because I tell them that I've been working on payment technologies for the bitcoin network.

...

And then everyone who heard me say that turns their head, stops talking, and starts to listen…

...

Then someone will say, "oh, you work for bitcoin?"

Or, "I heard the CEO went bankrupt?"

Or, "do you buy drugs from SilkRoad?"

It almost always turns into a very engaging conversation, most everyone nearby becomes captivated, and by just answering a few questions you'll clear up several misconceptions.  I find that people are very receptive to bitcoin.  But don't try to sell it--everyone can spot a salesman--just allow the conversation to develop naturally while maintaining a disinterested demeanour.  It doesn't matter if the conversation remains serious or it becomes a funny joke--bitcoin is anti-fragile.  But if people are enjoying the conversation, they will remain engaged longer and the concept of bitcoin will infiltrate deeper.  

Try to sense everyone's angle.  If you see a twinkle of greed in their eye, weave the fact that bitcoin prices have increased by 1,000,000% over the last four years.  Could it crash?  Yes, you could definitely lose all of your money.  Could it hit $100,000?  Well, some people say infinity is possible.  

For the selfless humanitarian type, mention some of our fundraisers and how anyone can send money for a cause to anyone else in the world with the click of a mouse.

For the black-market type, mention the anonymity, SilkRoad, and moving money around the world outside the reach of governments.

If you sense a general fear of change, then focus on the inevitability of progress.  Although it may be painful at times, bitcoin is the natural evolution of money.    

Only if you sense a genuine interest in the technical details should you get into the nuts & bolts any deeper than "your money is protected by unbreakable cryptography" or "the bitcoin network is the most powerful single-purpose computing network ever created."

 

Lol!  There will never be one global currency, until there is a one-world government that forces everyone to use one currency.  Even if that were to happen, why in the hell would they use Bitcoin.  ::)

If I've learned one thing its that you never give friends and family financial advice especially investing.

Also to be more on point with your topic I remember several years where no one in my family had an email address when I had a few dozen.  Enough said?

I think people need to look at a wider spectrum regarding bitcoin. Compare it to twitter or facebook, or any other huge product/service really. It starts out small, increasing overall at a healthy rate (100-1000% a year in bitcoin's case). In twitter/facebook's case, it steadily increased (100-400% a year) with ups and downs. (In facebook's case, introduction to new colleges, law disputes, ownership problems, etc. contributed to these ups and downs.)  After 5 or so years, both companies skyrocketed in users. I think the same thing will be true for bitcoin. It's a revolutionary idea, but with no advertising or inside promotion of any sorts, coupled with complexity and bad media ideas, I think it will take longer. I'd say 7 years from the start, or 2 years from now, is when it will really start to pick up a lot. Yes, a vast majority of the population is turning away from bitcoin because of what the media is telling them and whatnot, but the courageous ones who give it a chance are, for the most part, here to stay. And over time, the influence from bitcoin users will continue to grow, until eventually a domino effect occurs and a large amount of the population start using it.

This is the kind of thing I like to tell people. The volatility, in my opinion, is normal, compared to begins of other, more socially adapted services of today. The concept of a new, digital currency is a foreign one for the population. When I talk about bitcoin, I like to compare it to things that can be more easily digested. From that point, people can take it upon themselves to get more information if they are interested.

In my whole village(10000 population),  i am the only one who knows about Bitcoin. It is very hard teach them the basics of bitcoin here.

There's no point in trying to turn most of my family members onto it, because it really doesn't offer anything to them yet. It needs to be more widely accepted, before I can really sell them on its benefits. It took the web maturing and a lot of worthwhile content before they got interested and it wasn't until the iPod and iPhone that MP3 became a factor for them. The mainstream takes time to crack.

I took a few bad stock tips from friends in my early 20s. Lesson I learned was formed by my own feelings towards people who gave me bad tips. Basically, I never give financial advice or try to talk anyone into an investment. Sometimes I brag about my penny stocks when they shoot up +200% and people ask, "should I grab some?" And I always say, "no, good news is priced in, already went up, too late. But, if you do it anyways just remember I didn't advise it." When it comes to investing I only care about me and my wifey, forget trying to convince anyone.

Why not hand them a Bitcoin paper wallet with 0.1 BTC (or 0.001 if that's what's in your budget) and tell them to hope for the moon. No risk to them, and might peak interest. Or get them 5 GHz on CEX.IO to play around with. My wife and I decided to buy all the grand-kids of my recently deceased mother-in-law 100 GHz mining contracts from the little bit of money that came from selling her house.

People won't value a piece of paper that they don't know how to spend. Have a look at the gift card market numbers, tons of those go unused. Now take the gift card concept and add a big layer of complexity and confusion. I'm betting that paper wallet gift gets lost or never used. People need to come around when they are ready.

Welcome to Bitcointalk.  Know from the start that this place is an unofficial hotbed of vision and lies; and from here on you'll be fine.
The story you bring sounds about right... in fact, I award your neighbour 6 points - for he understands Bitcoin is money!


The correction is very simple; the owner of an exchange site stole millions of dollars from funds people had given to him to keep safe on the site and now it's all gone.
But you don't have to interest yourself in that, it changes nothing about anything.  perhaps you can even make your first gain from this- a revealed maxim:  do not trust fat french men.
Now, to the rest; the truth is... please promise not to tell... the majority holders of coin don't care!  There is an incredible engine at work to try and make it look like there's great dissent and fear and it's all coming crashing down :D  

But, not a fuck has been given from the start whilst all these poor people have crowded around screaming oh the woe, such has always been the woe - the woe is coming!
I offer alternative advice. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRrTKrWnu4g)

@OP

Because of this:

http://expressiveepicurean.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/iq_bell_curve.gif

The intellectual difference between the average person and someone like Einstein, is actually greater than the intellectual difference between the average person and a chimpanzee.

That's why we can have the Large Hadron Collider and the Westboro Baptist Church on the same planet.

...and more people at the funeral than the lab  ;D

yeah thikig getting them paper wallet bitcoin whenn there birthday arrives, you get them in slowly.

I think it's cuz goverment or any other authority doesn't control it and/or cuz of everyone on the internet and/or in news is claiming that they got hacked but it's their failure.
And also because of the unstable market price..

I think we should give them a clear about bitcoin how to use and how to get benefit from bitcoin.

Because anything that sounds to good to be true has to be a scam. "Digital money and no transaction fees? SCAM!"
I have convinced a few friends and family members that it's not a scam, but that took more than one year before they actually stopped looking at it as a scam.
Ignorance is also a problem, since most people don't know what bitcoin is and therefore thinks of it as that "internet drug currency" that the media writes about and therefore also has a negative view on it.

did you tell them about all the great things you can do with bitcoins and how they improve your everyday life?

oh wait...

 ;D

my family doesn't get the technology!

Yay I am in the top 2 %!  At the very low end, but I'll take it.

Are you trolling me, or do you not understand the societal benefits of a decentralized currency?

Bitcoin is not just a currency, it provides other innovations, like the block chain.

Much untapped potential.  Many aspects.

Suggest enlightenment on the subject, I do.

  

To the OP, I apologize for biting on off topic posts.

I first heard of Bitcoin while surfing the web on my lunch break early last year.  After the first nibbles of info about it, I was hooked.  I talked to everyone that would listen, family/friends/coworkers.  Not one, took my advice.  Like 50 people.  Some of them really smart, and the smartest of the bunch told me to stay clear.  Well, it was 70 bucks then, now look at it.  They don't want to talk about it with me now, the ones who told me it was a bad investment.  They would rather talk about ANYTHING else.

Some are still in denial, with bubble and scam flowing freely from their lips…whatevs.

But when bad news about Bitcoin surfaces, they run me down with I told you so's.

I don't even care if they buy it or not anymore, ignorance is bliss for some folks.  I am tired of trying to convince them.

too many scammers?

I consider BTC to be more of a curse then a blessing for most people.  It is not a trivial thing to deal with safely.  It takes focus and technical ability which a small fraction of people really posses.

I give BTC to friends and family to express and interest, but in quantities such that they are induced to take seriously.  Otherwise I earmark a percentage of my hoard for my close family and occasionally buy them things that they can use and find interesting.

I have only really advocated Bitcoin for a handful of people and they happened to have graduate degrees in computer science (and economics in one case) a good income stream such that they can absorb a financial loss.  Also without exception the people I have suggested Bitcoin to have a high level of interest in macro-economics.

Back in 2011 I was briefly involved in an effort which included Voorhees and Guo to put BTC into the hands of the masses.  After some contemplation I concluded that this may well end up doing the actual recipients more harm that good and ceases activity.

I think its hard to get people to understand the concept of "digital" currency. The smarter ones concerned about "what's backing it", etch...

That is part of the reason I've happened to only quasi-advocate Bitcoin to people with graduate degrees in scientific fields.  These people can appreciate the significance of what being backed by mathematics actually means.

These people also tend to have exposure to the open-source software environment so they can appreciate the risks of the backing foundation being sucked out from underneath them...and recognize that threat if it starts to happen.

(Actually, anyone with any science degree has the potential to understand these concepts, and a fair number of people who don't hold such a degree do as well.  I happened to work most closely with people who did hold graduate degrees so it is they who I spoke at length about it with.  The 'potential' to understand the concepts is a long way from actually understanding them.  Most people with advanced degrees will not grasp and appreciate most of this stuff even though they probably could.)

You don't even have to go into mathematics, they just need to shut up and listen for like 5 minutes. Like good lord, some people piss me off....

Anyone who would be convince to take a position in Bitcoin after listening to some evangelist for '5 minutes' definitely should NOT be fucking around with BTC.  These types have caused most of the damage to the ecosystem thus far be being dopes and losing their stash to criminal (among other things.)

And anyone with get's pissed off by not convincing a 'new user' that Bitcoin is the greatest thing since sliced bread with 5 minutes of witnessing (and undergoing the abuse of needing to field a question or two since you seem to wish they would 'shut up') is probably not the best Bitcoin advocate in the first place.

IMHO.

Correct, people should read/study/learn before buying any BTC.

Its not like that, they just ask stupid crap, and its the same stuff over and over.

I'm sure that this is one of the issues that people are facing his, what's making them stay away from bitcoin. Why would you invest into something which is very risky, where you could easily lose money?

That's an easy question to answer.  Because the potential exists to make a ton of money!  It is also a good way to make a concrete socio-political statement for those who are into that (though what, exactly, the statement is is nebulous and open to interpretation and debate.)

The risks of fraud and theft are significant, but relatively easy for a fraction of people to overcome.  Bitcoin is a completely appropriate speculative vehicle for a certain fraction of people.  Not a high fraction, but there are a lot of people in this world so there are a decent number of people for whom Bitcoin is a good fit.  As an established user I take it as a fairly serious responsibility to identify these people and tune any advocacy (if one can call it that) accordingly.

What would be more productive is to talk to local business that you do business with on a regular basis, and talk to them about bitcoin, and refer them to companies like bitpay.

You family's eyes are going to glaze over if you keep talking bitcoin, and there's no reason for them to use it, other than a speculative, currently very volatile, investment.   If they could actually buy something with it, then you will have made progress.

I'm not talking big box stores, but local businesses with local owners that would be receptive to the possibility of using bitcoin.  When my corner convenience store accepts bitcoin, I will be extremely happy.

If you buy 1 and it goes up in price, you still have one BTC

The trick is to try to get more than 1.   ::)

its easy, just wait they will ask you about bitcoin and how to buy.... dont start this discussion with them, just wait :)

I've found it pretty tough.  People just make up their minds to hate it.  I could only convince one of my friends to actually buy some, and he was in it for the gambling haha.

At point when i compared bitcoin transactions to bank transactions and compared fees, I had no problem to show it to my girlfriend from better point of view.

Is kinda hard to get family\friends into bitcoin,first because is been a lot of negativity in the media about bitcoin and for example my parents don\t understand bitcoin because is a new thing and they don\t spend a lot of time on internet and on computers .

cause they'd rather get you a girlfriend  :D

well my husband knows about bitcoin already yet he is not into it even though i said that it would be a very good investment like mining some btc or ltc he seems not intrested after all the proof i've showed to him

i also convince him to set a mining rigs in his room in saudi arabia since they have a free electricity he and his co-worker can contribute to buy atleast 400ghs or more because it will give them a good profit but seems like im only talking to myself

whatta dummy :D

It is not at all hard. Just 5 minutes of talk, and I convinced my cousin to collect BTCs.

Great! I have an investor in for $25,000  ;D  Now it's time just to set back and watch.  ;D O an the investor is Me  ;D Ooops LOL

It depends on who is your friend. If he is having knowledge in technology/online currency's  it is quite easy to convince. But for others it is very hard.

i don't think it is a good idea to let they know it :)

androidboss, Only limited knowledge of BTC tell them, How to Mine? YEAH!
Right Here!
http://i628.photobucket.com/albums/uu2/techjesse/Gaming%20Pics/IMG_1545_zps200e8636.jpg
 ;D
http://i628.photobucket.com/albums/uu2/techjesse/Gaming%20Pics/IMG_1202.jpg
 

The public perception is that Bitcoin is a bubble that's about to pop or it's far too volatile to risk real money.  I avoid arguing the points by simply acknowledging that Bitcoin is a fledgling currency so volatility is to be expected.  Maybe I point to the FBI being one of the largest holders of bitcoins and the IRS putting out guidance as evidence that Bitcoin is being taken seriously and is here to stay.

Then show them how it works (by which I mean make them use it -- have them download Mycelium for Android (fantastic app) or, if they have an iPhone (FU Apple), have them open a web wallet at blockchain.info).

Immediately send them some BTC.  Have them send some back.  Seeing Bitcoin in action is usually enough to make people curious.  Then explain that, going forward, you will send small amounts of BTC for birthdays, Christmas, etc, and show them where they can spend it.  Bitcoin makes for a great gift because they can immediately spend it/cash it in for giftcards, etc, or they can keep hold of it on the off chance the price will rise.  If the price goes down, well, it was a gift anyway.

You shouldn't expect family and friends to immediately adopt Bitcoin.  You just want to sow the seed and always be on hand to answer questions.  Never encourage anyone, least of all family and friends, to invest money they can't afford to lose.

Yea I agree, some people also dont take anything seriously if they cant understand it.  I told some family friend members about bitcoin and they were not so interested, only acting it

what a lovely idea. just let them install some app and show them how you can send bitcoins forth and back. awesome! if that doesn't convince them how much bitcoin will improve their everyday life, they really must be retarded.

Oh... compelling people to invest money in Bitcoin is much more difficult than asking some of your friends and relatives to collect mBTCs in their spare time. 

I always make the comparison with a Casino.

Casino: Just drop €50 on red at the roulette and it can go zero or double
Bitcoin: can go zero as well, but can reach far more than double in the long term.

Casino: You're done in a few minutes/hours
Bitcoin: Gives joy for months.


Just make sure they are willing to loose everything, just like I do myself.

i finally get my cousin's in law attention to BTC and he is now asking me how to use it and how to earn it i said to him that this time is probably the right time to buy it since its crashing down also i was shock when he ask me how much is the mining rigs cost now and how to set it up

;D seems my day will be much more intrested than before

Don't let him mine, it's not worth it at the moment.  Just Buy and HODL.

yeah i already told him about that and i suggest to him that if he really want to mine then mining some good altcoin would be ok and then trade it on btc when the price is ok

have tried a test on my colleagues by offering refund of 200% if bitcoin becomes worthless, and will buy back from them if bitcoin

value is lower than what they bought after holding for a year. Even tried a written contract. None works.

Unless its your really closed friends/person, you can forget about it. or maybe its bitcoin losing popularity?

NIDIAGH who posted on pg. 3 of this thread (acting all innocent) is a SCAMMER!!

DO NOT I repeat DO NOT do business with this person! they scammed me out of $500 and have ignored all of my messages since I sent the money! And this person has the nerve to continue to post on threads and attempt to scam other people. it makes me sick.

SPREAD THE WORD EVERYONE!! I DONT WANT OTHERS TO GET SCAMMED LIKE I DID!

Must be something wrong with your friends and family.  :P

Because bitcoin is still super not-user friendly. And they hear all the bad news in the papers. My family was like isn't bitcoin bankrupt (after mtgox closure)

Bitcoin is a tech invention. It will be hard signingup Anyone not into tech, at least for now. Maybe hardware wallets will bring in more noobs.

Well maybe after the community's reputation builds up or some major company/country accepts Bitcoin people will accept it too

Talked to one of my good friends I haven't seen in awhile.  First thing he says is "Are you still in Bitcoins?  Didn't some guy get arrested for it?  Is it banned yet?"

Until we get some "real" positive news, adoption, and answers to all the regulatory questions, Bitcoin will remain on the fringe or outside of the general population.

Maybe if a Starbucks started accepting it as a pilot program, or a small country started adopting it as a supplement or substitute for their current currency, or some major advertising or marketing push occurs in the next few years.

Until then, I'll continue to tell my friends and family the positive things Bitcoin can and will do.

Still, it's a tough sledding...

That is a good way to make sure they are prepared to lose, but doesn't tell them what BTC is really about.

I got a few friends into it, but i regretted it, because they would text me every time it went down $5, and and ask me why it keeps crashing...LOL.  I honestly think you can only briefly explain it to friends/family, and then it's up to them if they want to research and learn about it.  Honestly, most people are just too lazy and complacent to try anything new because they are creatures of habit.

Why is it so hard to get family/friends into bitcoin?
1) Because some/many of us don't want to tell our family/friends about BTC.
2) We tell them and it doesn't go very well.
^^^
This is clearly an important issue.

i wouldnt recommend bitcoin to any of my friends and family at the moment,

bitcoin and the altcoin scene has become way to scammy to bring a noob in at this point especily my family or friends

#2 has happened to me 2 out of the 3 times that I actually got good friends into BTC.   I'm sure it will be fine in the medium to long term...but it was like insta-plummett right after they bought in...lol.  Good thing that each of them just tip toed in and bought like 4-10 BTC only

At point when you find shop, that your family/friends are shopping often at and it is accepting bitcoin, they will easily embrace idea of different kind of payment solution.