Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin, the five year old digital currency, is gaining mass traction as bitcoin companies receive hundreds of millions of dollars in investment, but the majority of the American public remains highly uninformed of the benefits and uses of bitcoin and have heard little to nothing about it.

In a new survey published today, almost 2,000 American voters were asked of their opinion on a range of financial questions, including bitcoin, during the end of May and the beginning of June. The results show a wide gap between the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the religious as opposed to the non-religious and a gender difference between males and females. The younger, richer, the less religious and the more male you are, the more likely you are to know about bitcoin, be permissive towards allowing it for use in commerce and to use or to have used the currency.

The Generations Gap

As one would expect, younger individuals are highly enthusiastic about bitcoin, especially when compared to the older population. 55% of 18 to 29 year olds know some or a lot about bitcoin, as opposed to 62% of 30 to 45 year old who know little to nothing. The lack of knowledge increases slightly for individuals older than 45, with 66% of those age 45 to 65 and 73% of individuals older than 65 knowing nothing or very little about the online currency.

This lack of knowledge highlights the need for more education in all age groups, especially for the older generations,  as it seems to have led to concerning attitudes towards using bitcoins for commerce. The young, 58%, and the middle age group, 54%, show overwhelming support for allowing the purchase of goods and services with the digital currency. The older age groups have the opposite attitude with 64% of 45-65 year old and a staggering 73% of individuals older than 65 stating that they were against voluntary transactions in goods and services if the means of exchange is bitcoins.

The Rich and Poor, The Religious and the Atheists, the Male and the Female

The higher the income and wealth, the more likely you are to know about bitcoin with 51% of earners of 100,000 dollars and more knowing some or a lot about the currency, as opposed to only 29% of individuals earning 50,000 or less. Perplexingly, this greater knowledge does not translate into a highly permissive attitudes, as, although the high income earners are slightly more in favor than the other income groups towards allowing commerce with bitcoins, the majority, 55%, are against it.

Non-religious individuals, 48%, know some or a lot about bitcoin, as opposed to 35% of religious individuals, corresponding to a 50-50 split on whether the government should allow or prohibit transactions in bitcoins for the non-religious individuals as opposed to 63% of protestants and 58% of roman Catholics who are against the purchase of goods and services with bitcoins.

The same attitudes are expressed by females as opposed to males, with only 27% of females knowing some or a lot about bitcoin as opposed to 48% of males and 62% of females being in favor of banning bitcoin commerce as opposed to 53% of males.

 

The Need for Education

There seems to be a strong correlation between individuals who state that they know some or a lot about bitcoin and their permissive attitude towards the purchasing of goods and services with bitcoin. The more they know about bitcoin, the more likely they are to be in favor of allowing it for the purchase of goods and services and the more likely to have used it or currently use the currency.

The effects of education on attitudes towards bitcoin highlights the importance of informing and educating the public on the nature and advantages of bitcoin and the need to counteract misconceptions or misinformation about the currency. The greatest misconception may be that bitcoin is pervasively used for illegal activities. Studies however show that the dollar remains the currency of choice, far surpassing bitcoin, to purchase and sell controlled substances and other illegal goods or services. The general public needs to be informed that purchases from Silk Road amount to an almost insignificant 0.25% of the total global money-laundering and other illegal activities, accounting for only 1 billion dollars out of a 500 billion to 1 trillion market and that bitcoin has far greater and legal uses than purchasing goods or services on Silk Road.

Thankfully, merchant adoption and investment in bitcoin is increasing at a fast pace with celebrities and industry leaders in Silicon Valley and beyond adopting and promoting the currency. As such, it may be only a matter of time before the misconceptions are addressed, leading to an attitude change as the public is informed and accustomed to, what many call, the greatest technological innovation since the internet.

Source "http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/americans-want-ban-bitcoin-new-survey-reveals-highlighting-need-education/2014/06/20"

Just means that the propaganda media has done it's job making BTC look like some evil online drug money.  It's an uphill battle to legitimize it, but in time we'll win.  I did find the part about religious people wanting to ban transactions with it interesting.  Brainwashed people tend to believe anything shoved down their throats :D

I would imagine that similar percentages of each group get their news predigested from the major outlets and do very little thinking or research on their own.

When I first found out about bitcoin, I was confused out of my mind. Like what the hell are blocks and confirmations and all that shit. Even the bitcoin website didn't explain clearly at all.

It would be really nice to see the exact questions.  Sometimes they are biased to obtain a specific result (e.g. push-polling), so knowing the questions and the context in which they are asked is important.  E.g.

Q 1. "Bitcoins have been used to buy drugs.  Have you heard that?" 

Q 2. "Should bitcoins be banned?"

v.s.

Q 1. "Bitcoins have been used to send money to charities around the world.  Have you heard that?" 

Q 2. "Should bitcoins be banned?"



:-)

Classic case of people simply fearing what they dont understand.

Phony mathematics for political polling, note how they scream about percentages yet in reality it's only 2000 people that have taken part, 2000 is not a representation of an entire country, you could easily get that many to turn up at a poll if they hate Bitcoin enough and make up some biased results. As someone who has had to learn how to calculate percentages properly after leaving school I have ranted about this many times, you can title it "2,000 American pollers want Bitcoin banned" but not "Most Americans want Bitcoin banned" which is a total lie.

Who gives a flying f*** about what the uninformed masses in the USA think?

Here's some more random info, and who knows, some of these claims about the stupidity of the masses might even be true!

- 25% of USAnians don't believe in Darwin's theory of evolution while less than 40% do.
- Two out of five USAnians think teachers should be able to lead prayer in the classroom, despite the fact that the separation of church and state is a foundation of their democracy.
- As of just a few years ago, about half of USAnians still suspected a connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11th.
- Nearly one-fifth of Americans think Obama is a Muslim.
- About a decade ago, 20 percent of USAnians still believed that the sun revolves around the earth.

Asking the general public what they think about bitcoin at this stage is silly. Most of them will either not understand it at all or heard mostly bad things about it.

Polls that don't reveal methodology are pretty much worthless. Anyone with an agenda can make a poll say what they want.

I agree on this, bitcoin is still in the early adaptor phase. It's like asking people what they think about the world wide web in the early 90's.

Yawn, another worthless and useless poll. Move along nothing to see here.

Amen ;D :P

Bitcoin is a new invention, nothing can stop it.

Limited number of coins is as same as limited number of real estate properties where prices always go up because of the growing population demand.

Ban it! Non-government entities can't help people! :D

The young and the educated are favoring Bitcoin. The less educated are against crypto. That is a good sign. No need to get disappointed with the survey results. The opinion will change pretty soon, once BTC goes mainstream.

5 to 10 years from now, you could be buying properties and cars with bitcoin all around the world

The typical US point of view is to ban anything that represents change, or something you dont understand. And this is coming from an American.  It's pretty sad.

How low the bastion of freedom has sunk, it saddens me.
what ever happened to the land of the free, all that remains now is socialism and manipulated fiat money.

Ask any parent, bitcoins can be used to purchase drugs on the internet, they would immediately jump to banning. Ask any female, bitcoins is used in the online sex trade, she would say ban bitcoin. Ask anyone whose work is related to finance or economics, you will get the same thing.

It depends who you ask and what kind of news they heard about bitcoin. If the survey is done after giving them an introduction. The result would be very different.

I have absolutely noticed both a generation Gap and a corresponding correlation in negative attitudes as age group increases.  Agree with OP that education is the key here, focus on the kids for crying out loud! :)

Fred Hoyle, Francis Crick, James Jeans, Robert Jastrow, George Greenstein, Arno Penzias, and Robert Shapiro also don't believe in evolution. Are they stupid people too? You might want to remove this off your list.

uh... He very likely could be a muslim.

http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/obamas-ring-there-is-no-god-but-allah/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGdkqfBICw&feature=kp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmC3IevZiik

Exactly.  You need to see the internals of the poll before you can trust them.

Who gives a fuck about what most Americans think? Most Americans believe in angels. Most Americans are clueless slaves who think they're free. Most Americans still believe in fucking capitalism for fuck's sake!
Most 'Muricans still believe in the American Dream - a system that through them overboard thirty fucking years ago, they can't see what's right in front of their goddamn faces.

Bitcoin is the sovereign global currency of Earth. The indoctrinated obedient masses of China, USA, Russia, Iceland, and all the other nations will follow the herd when it is stampeding out of the burning forests of fiat into the cooling oasis of crypto.
Human beings are social creatures, they always follow the herd. The only question, dear reader, is where in that herd do you want to find yourself? At the front of the pack, or trailing at the end, closest to the flames?

There's only so much water in that Oasis.

I believe in capitalism... and angels. :)

Lol jonald, then why are you here? xD

We shouldn't treat them like complete idiots, even though they might be idiots. We need to encourage bitcoin adoption and educate them.

i dont follow... what does my belief in capitalism or angels have to do with Bitcoin?

And yes you are right... most people aren't literally "idiots" -- mostly they have been
given bad information and programming. 

Most of them will come around when it becomes hard to ignore and or the price speaks for itself. The rest can sit in fiat slaveland and be the final bag holders in the wealth transfer. 20 years later and there's still those that won't use a computer, very few but the point still stands. You can't teach an old dog new tricks much of the time and those w/ the most amount of money on average are those that are past retirement age and hanging on to the past or what's left of it.

Agreed jonald.

give it a few more growth spurt cycles (also incorrectly referred to as bubbles sometimes) and people will become either more positive about bitcoin or greed will drive them to accept it regardless.

either way is fine, eventually they'll learn to love it.

What we learned from the peak in late 2013 is that once bitcoin is at an ATH, newspapers are filled with bitcoin news. This will be even greater in the next growth spurt, as all financial institution already have their eyes on bitcoin at the moment (this was not the case during the previous growth spurts).

So once we are close to $1000 expect a lot of media coverage.

If you disregard facts proven again and again by the scientific method and instead choose to believe in made up fairy tales that has no more credibility than santa claus himself, then yes. Or maybe you are just forced to act like you actually believe in such childish nonsense because of your surroundings. Those are about the only two reasons I can think of.

Wow, that's too bad. I suppose it's been villainized quite a lot by the media, associated with all sorts of illicit stuff. I was hoping all the good news over the past few months would start to cancel that stuff out.

This is not so much propaganda as a lot of bitcoin activity does have to do with nefarious activity.

What needs to happen is more business start to accept bitcoin to associate bitcoin with legitimate commerce.

lmfao Survey Says Most Americans Want to Ban Bitcoin: Highlighting Need for Education

I find that very hard to believe when most of the US is beginning to use it and learning how to use it. And highlighting a need for education. US needs a far better education system all together and to actually give US people something they can actually use in the future that will  benefit them from all the crap they learn. English and maths yeah ok  but the rest of it is not really needed is it. the education system should throw in better subjects like working out money. How to cook. How to prepaid food and not have to go to college to learn this.

With regards to the 2,000 that voted they wanted it banned I bet they where all related to bankers or partners 2,000 people is nothing. Go try getting a survey from 1 million people or at least 10% of the US and ull find better results.

Non-religious individuals, 48%, know some or a lot about bitcoin.

Again seems like they wasn't asking the right people and to be honest the more I read about this survey the more shady it gets and i find it very doubtful they will ban it with the amount of things that are going on within the US to make it fully compliant with their laws.

I agree. Evolution doesn't belong in science. The scientific method shows that its a made up fairy tale from the 19th century.

PM me to discuss. I have no qualms of tackling any argument you use to support your views.

So you want to put a fairy tale in its place? Are you trolling? I'm not even sure anymore.

I doubt you've got the mental capacity to reason through a sound argument. You broke two rules of logic with your first sentence. You cobbled a strawman argument into a loaded question.  ::)

Then by all means please enlighten me with your mental superiority.

Clearly it sounds like you have a better answer to how we ended up with such a diverse display of life than what can be explained by natural selection. Then let's hear it.

I'll let Rust Cohle answer that for me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RfUj09pWfM), few have ever said it better.

"If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, than brother that person is a piece of shit, and I'd like to get as many of them out in the open as possible."
"What's it say about life? You've gotta get together and tell yourselves stories that violate every law of the universe, just to get through the goddamn day? What's that say about your reality?"
"People are so goddamn frail they'd rather put a coin in a wishing well than buy dinner."
"Certain linguistic anthropologists think that religion is a language virus that rewrites pathways in the brain; dulls critical thinking."

-----

The parallels between nation-state indoctrination into fiat and debt-slavery and religious indoctrination into godfear slavery are clear as crystal for those of us who have survived the painful process of auto-deprogramming the lies and myths of our sick mother culture.
In the end all forms of controlling human beings comes down to making them afraid. Fear. Fear of god's wrath, fear of prison, fear of poverty, fear of homelessness, fear of state-violence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLCEXtpTNYU), fear of loneliness, shame, guilt, stigmatization, and social rejection.

All suffering is rooted in fear, all fear is rooted in violence and survival insecurity. Systematic violence is aided by superstition as superstition inhibits reason, and fear inhibits compassion.

Reason and compassion are the cures to all the ills of human society. Utopia waits just outside the dark tunnel of a world governed by violence and fear.
If we want our species to live in a world governed by reason instead of violence - ruled by compassion instead of fear, there is only way to move forward.

We must make decent food, shelter, healthcare, and education [And I don't mean nation-state indoctrination-schooling (http://www.amazon.com/Dumbing-Down-Curriculum-Compulsory-Anniversary/dp/0865714487)] available to all human beings as a birthright.

The plain fact is, humanity can do better than capitalism.

Yours in solidarity and compassion,

World Citizen Beliathon

http://uafs.edu/sites/default/files/COB/images/face%20the%20world.jpg

Your worldview is self-contradictory.

You say food and shelter, etc should be a birthright
but who pays for it?   If others are not forced to pay
for it, then that is capitalism.  If others are forced
to pay for it, that implies violence. 

Most Americans are not intelligent.  It's the harsh truth.
does that correlate with the fact that most Americans want Bitcoins banished?  It probably does.

I know it's hard to fathom in your brainwashed myopia, but for a looooooong time (about 500,000 years, actually), Homo Sapiens supported each other without the need for money. Love and reciprocity were all that were necessary.

Capitalism has existed on this planet for an unbelievably tiny length of time when viewed on an evolutionary timescale.

Read this:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XtLyKDoMrSc/Ty3eFQTlCJI/AAAAAAAABiA/iT9u9HJih5I/s640/Sex+at+Dawn.jpg

And this:

http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328690284l/6638829.jpg

Kind of like how it works in the really poor parts of Africa today?

Not even close, no. Being poor does not exempt you from the power relations inherent in violence-backed capitalism. Quite the opposite.

You're evading the question.

Someone always "pays" whether
its with money, bartering, or
simple time, effort, and energy.

Not that it matters, since money
isn't devolving back to barter,
in fact its evolving forward into crypto.

Bottom line: either you force individuals into certain
behaviors and supporting others financially (socialism) or you don't (capitalism).

If you're gonna advocate socialism, at least be consistent and admit
there's an element of coercion and force involved to make people
follow the rules.

Our society today is controlled by direct violence or the threat of violence, we agree, right? The societies of primitive primates are also very much controlled by violence. So you are claiming that between those two stages of our evolution, all was just fine and dandy?

Apes are fighting over fruit and even buying sex for it. If you had to pick one point in all time of history to be alive as a human, you couldn't pick a better time than now, or of course maybe the future  ;)

That is a myth, and is wholly untrue. Hobbes was an idiot who totally misunderstood human nature. Read Sex at Dawn.

I'm sure the noble families of the feudal age thought the same thing, oblivious to the endless suffering of their peasants. If you're an American or European white person (especially male), you're living in a bubble of privilege. You're clueless to the reality of the lives of most people on Earth.
Life is not so great for the folks who make your clothes in Bangladesh, or the kids who assemble your electronics in Guangzhou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn_suicides), or the wage-slaves who harvest your coffee beans, or the undocumented migrant workers in your own nation. Ask them what they think of capitalism.

Oh wait, you don't care. Far easier to remain blissfully ignorant, apathetic, and tacitly complicit in their suffering, while in utter denial about your own.

Nah, I'll decline. You're too closed minded to engage in a rational argument.


You're almost apologetic for believing in evolution. You should be, its a stupid idea. Doesn't stand up to rational thought, violates physical laws, and is immune to the laws of probability.

Survey Says Most Americans Lie On Surveys

Evolution sounds pretty rational to me.  How do you think it violates physical laws or probability?
Genetic variance is an observable fact.  Survival of the fittest is quite logical. 

There are fossil records and other empirical evidence.  Evolution is widely accepted as fact in the scientific community.

So if you have some contradictory evidence, please... do share, including the alternative theories. Thx !

http://www.troll.me/images/futurama-fry/not-sure-if-trolling-or-just-very-stupid.jpg

The human eye evolved in an aquatic environment. As such, it is full of fluid and therefore FAR from ideal in non-aquatic environments, such as ours. Evolution is the only explanation that sensibly explains the human eye.

Unless there is a god, but (s)he's retarded. Scary thought.

Getting back on topic, regarding American Education. Here is a great book:

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/images/3rdcover.jpg

More propagandas are coming with the beginning of Bitpay sponsoring St. Petersburg Bowl, which is first campaign through TV. More people will be aware with the new technology existence of BTC and dig more infomations about it then find what BTC really is. More companies bring convenient service related BTC to the people, such as Bitpay. More merchants will accept BTC payment, such as overstock, Expedia, DISH network.

what survey said so? Can you provide?

What is the meaning of life?

Paste from elsewhere:

Haemoglobin (the oxygen carrying truck in your blood), is formed from a protein chain 574 amino acids long. Working from an available proteinaceous alphabet of 20 amino acids, what is the chance that haemoglobin occurred by natural selection acting on random variations according to Darwinian evolution? Zero, because natural selection only selects from beneficial precursors, and anything leading up to haemoglobin won’t be haemoglobin until all the bits are in place and the protein folds, locks and launches.

So what are the chances haemoglobin got it right by accident? 1 chance in 10 to the 650th. Out of that staggering number of possible permutations of amino acids, only one is haemoglobin with an error-rate of zero, or you’re dead.


So lets summarize my point: We bitcoiners believe that the chances of a key collision is pretty much zero, with the probability fixed at 2^160.  *source (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=104461.msg1143787#msg1143787)

And yet some of the same people accept (or support in ignorance) that a haemoglobin molecule was formed at random, with massively worse odds.

2^160 is a 49 digit number. 10^650 is 651 digits.

And by the way, that’s just haemoglobin! Now you’ve got to account for 33,000 other proteins forming in like fashion, and 2,000-odd enzymes, and then all the fats, vitamins, minerals, hormones and substrates happening by accident for starters.

Needless to say, we haven't even reached a base from which evolution can work yet. We don't have any proteins to form life! No need to even get into the theory of how improbable spontaneous eye formation is. Why go there? Lets start with basic systems first. Like blood circulation. A closed leak-proof blood vessel system complete with a miraculously working pump forming by chance? There's really no debate to be had. Its a fool's game.

lol, now that changes everything

Foggy, I think this mostly speaks to how amazing nature is!

And for those of you who'll chime in with "yes but billions of years".

Remember this number: 10 to the 150th. This number is known as Dembski’s Universal Probability Bound and represents the maximum number of particulate reactions that could have occurred since the start of the universe. Compare that to 10^650 for haemoglobin.

Whoever doesn't get the implications of this, spare me the ignorance and believe what you will. I'm not going to engage in further discussion, its usually pointless anyway.

Yes maybe nature is more intelligent than just random permutations

 ::)

This is less propaganda and more advertising. You are however correct to say that companies like bitpay will over time cause bitcoin to become more respected

I don't understand why people call advertising campaigns as propaganda drives. Look at the amount spent on advertising by companies such as Visa and Master. The corresponding figures for Bitpay are no way near those.

I don't see much of a difference in relation to people's attitudes towards bitcoin based on religion. 8%-13% could have just been a coincidence, as opposed to other clear statistics such as income groups.

Is this really caused by the media propaganda that bitcoin is only used to order drugs online?
If so then that's sad that people will belive everything that media says, even without researching about it first...

Education or even propaganda (in good sense) of bitcoin is maybe the most important direction of work for BTC community today!

So you tell me how wrong and stupid I am, and yet will not tell me what you believe created the diversity in life on earth? And then on top you change subject and starts asking the questions, when you fail to answer.  ::)



Does that include an infinite number of multiverses? Infinity is a rather large thing.


I say this from the bottom of my heart and not as an insult, you really should seek some help - you could call Stefan Molyneux on his show. I really mean it.

Elderly, religious, poor Americans need educating about technology. Quelle surprise; didn't need to carry out such a huge survey to learn this.

Both sets of those questions have heavy bias for or against bitcoin.  A better question would be:

Q 1. Bitcoin is a currency that exists without the backing of a country.  Are you for or against Bitcoin's regulation by the United States Government?

There are entire graduate level courses that focus entirely on asking survey questions without bias.  That way you can gather accurate data.

 

Oh, this is SOOOO good. I just got to this topic, but there is the answer to evolution, with Bitcoin thrown in to prove it.

We Bitcoiners trust Bitcoin. Well at least we are hopeful. And our trust is based on the fact that the Bitcoin encryption-breaking odds are way too great for Bitcoin encryption to be broken. And even if the encryption were broken once, it would have to be broken over and over again to make it practical to "steal" bitcoins.

The thing that tickles is that life and existence are encrypted so immeasurably greater than Bitcoin, that there is not even the slightest chance that evolution (as we theorize about it in the general public) could even be a theory, much less have really happened.

This is extremely important because, IT SHOWS THAT EVERYTHING HAPPENED FOR A PURPOSE, rather than simply happening by accident with no real rhyme or reason. Let's look for the purpose. It will take us to God. It will show us that we can't understand how God is "benefited" by our existence. But it will also show us that God IS benefited by our glorifying of HIM.

So let's learn about God, and then do the thing that He created us for, namely, to praise, worship, and glorify HIM!

:)

For me it's not about trust or hope, it's about mathematics and reason. Bitcoin is based on hard, verifiable, observable science. Fiat, by comparison, is largely based on myth, deception, and illusion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0). The choice is clear, the future is clear. Fiat is obsolete.

You really need some chaos theory in your life. Here's a taste (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkWeMvrNiOM).

More Americans Believe in Angels than Global Warming

I’m not sure whether to be amused or frightened by this juxtaposition of polls by Blake Hounshell:
Percentage of Americans who believe in angels: 55
Percentage of Americans who believe in evolution: 39
Percentage of Americans who believe in anthropogenic global warming: 36
Percentage of Americans who believe in ghosts: 34
Percentage of Americans who believe in UFOs: 34


http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/more_americans_believe_in_angels_than_global_warming/

Don't be so disturbed, what you need to understand is that there are (at least) two Americas. There is the America of the East and West coast cities - the places connected to the world, thought, and technology. Think of them as surfing the wave of "new" knowledge.

And there is the South, the midwest - places far from the hyper-connected coastal cities, with all their icky culture and learnin. Many states in the South still insist on teaching "Christian Science" (lol!) alongside evolution, implying there is some kind of controversy.

The only real controversy is that actual children are allowed anywhere near these "schools" and their "teachers".

Obviously things evolve.  Species evolve. (There were dinosaurs and now there ain't)  Some of it may be based on natural selection, some of it may be due to other factors that can't be explained, at least right now.

Just want to say that I appreciate your posts a lot. Spot on.

Older folks and the poor (who are often on Social Security or welfare) in the U.S. don't like Bitcoin because it has to do with money. They fear Bitcoin because it might disrupt the money flow from the "system" to them. The little these people understand tells them that the money system is in danger of collapsing as it is. And Bitcoin is only something that might make it happen, or at least make the fall faster.

While it is a fact that Bitcoin would help the money system to crash, if it had the chance to become a little stronger, it won't happen that way. The money system will fall on its own, not because of Bitcoin, but because of the trust people place in untrustworthy bankers and government people. The whole fiat money system is inherently flawed. It simply cannot uphold the weight of its own stupid bulk. At least not the way the money managers are using it.

It's too bad that folks don't use what energy they have to investigate Bitcoin. It just might wind up being our salvation when the money system DOES collapse in the near future. And if they are dependent on the money system, they need all the preparation that they can get before the crash.

:)

That was the point.  

Both are biased and if you don't know the poll internals, you don't know which way it is biased or whether it is biased at all.

(and by the way, your sample is heavily biased too - "regulation" is an emotion heavy word, as is the phrase "without backing of a country.")

I think at some point it will go viral...old folks putting at least a portion of savings into Bitcoin...the idea/meme will catch on...and it will snowball... at least that is my hope.

While close-to-home mathematics works very well for practical, everyday life, distant math is still very much unknown. For example, we haven't found a form of mathematics that explains Pi (π). We still don't know for a fact that PI is infinite, although it seems that it is.

Reason suggests that chaos has to do with everything. Yet chaos theory is still only a theory and will probably always be, because, chaos theory suggests that reason doesn't hold the answers.

:)

It all depends on the way bitcoin was presented to them.

If bitcoin was presented in a way that would cause fear in their hearts, make them feel skeptical, no way will there be support for bitcoin in their eyes.

Similarly, if bitcoin was presented in a way that benefits them immensely, I'm pretty sure their views will change.

Evolve. Semantics.

The evidence that suggests that species evolve along the lines of the The Theory of Evolution is that same evidence that can be used to show that they did not do so. It all has to do with where one decides to place his faith.

The fact that plants and animals change (evolve) only suggests that they did it. It doesn't close the door to the strong possibility that they have it in their programming to do so under the right conditions.

:)

yes, bitcoin has to work hard to be able to fight to be recognized by the countries in the world. even though you have a lot of bitcoin but the circulation bitcoin reject your city, it will be useless and can eliminate all the bitcoin that you have

Very true as well.  I was typing quickly.  This is why well thought survey questions are difficult.

I totally agree with you on wanting to know the questions.  Sample size is also very important as well as sample location.   Was this survey conducted in rural Midwest with old farmers or Silicon Valley with 20 somethings?

I agree with you. More and more people will start to make Bitcoin a part of their lives. The thing we bitcoiners should not do is wait around. Perhaps the average Bitcoin user can't develop Bitcoin further, because we are not guru Bitcoin dev-like people. Yet, we should strive in other areas, and add our talents within the Bitcoin realm in other ways.

Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu1hTE-Gqms for example. Then look at all the Youtube associated videos. Think up ways that you could use Bitcoin in conjunction with Karl's wisdom to open freedom up further.

Just a thought.

:)

Yes, but not everyone agrees even on that.  ( Biblical fundamentalists ).
I thought that's what we were talking about.

Natural selection always sounded plausible to me... but i'm certainly
open to other theories and evidence...although doesn't seem like
anyone can really explain those mechanisms.

I can explain them - the Angels did it. lol

this

It's very sad how so many are completely uninformed about Bitcoin. The mainstream media painted such an ugly picture of it for so long, and still they are not a fan of it. We just need to keep doing our part and explaining the huge benefits of it. Anyone who takes the time to learn about it, sees the huge potential.

Bitcoin is like in the dawn of the internet era when people used to skeptical and negative about it. Look how it has grown. Same thing is gonna happen.

Complex mechanism may be able to be described, but it won't be easy. It would be like have a hundred Bitcoins systems, that were all radically different from each other, and yet did the same job, and worked together as one. Who could hold such an operation in his head? It could be written down, but it almost wouldn't be understandable. Someone with a reasonably clear picture of it might be able to describe it to us lay-folk, but we would have to trust that his explanation was accurate and truthful, rather than that he was simply propagandizing and politicizing his own points of view.

:)