Bitcoin Forum

Just curious if there's any interest in vendors attending this event; seems like a natural fit for promoting Bitcoin.

http://www.libertywillwin.com/

Wow, *zero* interest?  I thought Libertarianism & Bitcoin made such a good pair.

 ???

I think it's just too much of an uphill battle.

A bitcoin vendor would have to pay to be at the convention, take out time to be there, then while sell little to nothing while trying to explain what bitcoin is.

Bitcoin and libertarianism are a good fit but there are two important points.

1) Bitcoin is still niche even in its best interest groups, libertarians and techies. It will take a while until we will have a continuous presence even among these groups.

2) It's actually good if we don't focus too much on something that's deemed political, it can create disinterest (even if unwarranted) among people who support different political ideologies.

People constantly expect too much and too soon from Bitcoin. Everyone should just wake up and realize that we're not on a rocket yet, our plane just left the terminal last summer. We're currently taxing. No one knows when we actually hit the runway and start truly accelerating but I can guarantee that we're not there yet.

And the newsflash to some might be that this is actually good. We're not ready for liftoff yet and it has been proven by the bubbles. Let it grow, if Bitcoin is as revolutionary as it is (and I believe that it is), it will grow inevitably. Just give it some time.

Nice. I live in Vegas. I'll head over to Red Rock to check things out, regardless.

As someone who has been a national delegate in the past, I think a Bitcoiner would be wasting their time with a booth. Instead, just walk in with Casascius BTC and sell them directly to people interested, along with instructions explaining what they need to do to redeem their coin online. I think a fair number of Libertarians are aware of what it is by now but have probably never seen a physical coin. If you have a phone or tablet you can show them how to check the blockchain to verify their coins haven't moved.

Well, I'm definitely going (not as a vendor, but as a delegate).  It would be cool to get some sort of informal meetup scheduled.

Indeed, the best plan is to simply go there and start discussions on Bitcoin. Showing them Casascius coins is a good discussion starter.

i think fliers/pamphlets with some basic information highlighting some specific bitcoin benefits that align with libertarian ideals, with some urls for further reading is a good way to go.

i know for me, all it took was getting started reading about bitcoin to get me hooked.

Convention? Libertarian? Las Vegas? So is this a Kochtopus (http://duckduckgo.com/?q=Kochtopus)-type thing right?  ???  :-X

Interested.... PM sent to locals and attendees.

I'll go if someone wants to pay for entry fees and air travel costs...from London.

Economy Booth Fee is $400, ($1525 with electricity and Internet)

8|

Well, shoot, if it's only $400-$1500 for a booth you might actually find enough interest to make it worth while. Mike Caldwell or MemoryDealers should honestly go and set up a booth and sell coins, I'm pretty sure they could recoop the costs of a booth pretty easily. A greater concern might be security at an event like that. You could probably sell a few thousand BTC in one weekend though. Especially physical coin. There were at least a few thousand in attendance at the 2008 convention, and every single one of them would be interested in a decentralized currency for sure. Most of them will have probably heard of it, too, so you could just put up a sign saying "Physical Bitcoins Sold Here" and they'd sell themselves.

Actually, just thinking about this is making me want to buy Bitcoin ahead of time since Caldwell or MemoryDealers would eventually have to restock.

PM sent to them seeking interest.

I know some folks on the committee organising the 2013 Libertarian Party of California's convention, and they put out a call last week for vendors interested in exhibiting at that event (probably to be held in March or April of 2013 in Sacramento).  I'd love to see BTC represented (and traded and promoted) at an LP event.

Well, we're a week away...who's going?

Too many bones for me to get a booth and a job (got laid off while back) fell out of the sky and hit me on the head this week, so I'm all booked up.

Well, I'll be arriving at the hotel this evening.

I don't have a BTC tshirt or anything to help with promotion...  :(

Since my 8 Bitcoin tshirt I offered to the Poker tournament probably won't get used, I'll donate them to this event.

Any Bitcoiners attending this event, PM me and we'll meet up, share a beer, talk about Ron Paul and Liberty and I'll transfer possession of said tshirts.

Considering what's taking place here this weekend, I think I'm glad Bitcoin isn't making a showing.

http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/05/anarchy-at-the-libertarian-party-convent?nomobile=1 (http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/05/anarchy-at-the-libertarian-party-convent?nomobile=1)

Mmmm no, Bitcoin is a success with almost every transaction made with it. I have no idea how many transactions there have been, but if we count in blocks, that's currently about 178915 successes.

Nope. I have plenty of success getting friends, family, and coworkers, who haven't been tarnished by bad/over investments, to understand what Bitcoin is and how it works.

I think most people can understand that when a brick and mortar merchant register gets robbed, it's ok to still use cash.


Market looks pretty stable now. How about refreshing your bag of arguments?



Hmmm. Cash has the same problem. Better stop using it too.

If they do it in Vegas again I'll go, but I can't do it this year

Too bad because I live adjacent to the Red Rock

Your friends and family are not a large portion of the population that would be required for bitcoin to go "mainstream". Your friends and family would be an infinitesimal niche in comparison.



Most people rarely use cash anylonger. They mostly use either EFT/ACH, checks, or a debit/credit card. These, for the most part, protects them from fraud and theft and has controls as far as the funds in those accounts are concerned, and are quite often easily reversible in those cases.



I am not making arguments against bitcoin. I love bitcoin and believe in it. I am telling you what they think of bitcoin if they know about it and are not part of these forums or the bitcoins community. Absolutely the market looks stable NOW, but the damage has been done. Its how they PERCEIVE it that matters, and they percieve it negatively, as very risky, scammy, and that perception is part what prevents bitcoins from going mainstream.


again ... perception.... not my opinion of bitcoin but their perception of it.

They say, "... invisible money, made on a computer, based on absolutely nothing, irreversible transactions, hacking, theft, fraud, no regulation, no protection, with no oversight??? Sign me up! NOT ..."


all of which falls right in line with my post:


and

Yes, but not 300,000 Bitcoiners and their social network. and then their social networks, and so on, and so on. It will happen.

I think you're living in a first world country. I'd bet "most" people, in the context of the world, use cash.

There is a very limited number of people that had to live through that trough of disillusionment. We are now on the slope of enlightenment. The other 7 billion people on the planet that have not yet heard of Bitcoin have the benefit of jumping in on the Bitcoin pool when people can insightfully and logically relay the true state of the Bitcoin protocol - without the FUD caused by inflated expectations.


Again, of a relatively small community, many with a bad taste in their mouth from inflated expectations. There are 7 billion other people who will come to learn of Bitcoin, with the hindesight of our mistakes to more correctly evaluate it as a means of value storage and transfer.

you just made my argument for me.

again, I am all for bitcoins and I believe in it.

The majority does not...

businesses do not...

banks do not...

governments do not...

hopefully some day this will change.

you are preaching to the choir.

No, I successfully argued that each transaction made in Bitcoin is a tribute to the success of Bitcoin and NOT just that silk road is "the only success in Bitcoin".


That is the only logical, and nearly certain conclusion - not withstanding a catastrophic event like shutting down the Internet, or a meteor striking the earth and destroying civilization, of course. I say this because FUDsters can claim ponzi and silk road all day long, for now. But time may eventually reveal the security, functionality, and efficiency of Bitcoin as a store and transfer medium of value with benefits everyone will want to experience. And just as we've learned to keep safe from pickpockets, burglers, etc, information wants to be free, and we'll all eventually learn how to protect against Bitcoin fraud and ignorant mistakes.

you can wish in one hand and shit in the other .. see which one fills up first.

all your wanting and wishing does not change how they perceive bitcoin.

They wont adopt or accept it unless those perceptions change.

and currently they see bitcoin as a way to launder dirty money, buy drugs from silk road, get cheated, scammed, stolen from, defrauded, and the whole system they think is insecure from the market volatility right on down to the inecure exchanges, thefts that ocurred, lack of regulation, lack of a suitable transaction confirmation process, unprotected irreversible transactions, and everything else I mentioned.

I speak of reality .. the way it is NOW ... and the hurdles we need to surmount.

You speak of how you want it to be and dream and hope it will be.

This may be how YOU relay Bitcoin to your social circles, but I guarantee it's not how I represent Bitcoin. All the people that learn about Bitcoin from me have a very positive understanding of what it is, how it works, its vulnerabilities, mitigations, and history.

The reality is, there are a small number of people that hear the negative aspects of Bitcoin and say "no thanks" - yet there is a million more behind each one of those that have no opinion at all because they've never heard of it. If you really are a part of the choir, then you need to abandon this negative outlook and help the rest of us reach those 7 billion people before the genesis_blocks of the world do. Otherwise, no, you are not a part of the choir.

You must have reading comprehension problems. I never said I relay bitcoin in that light.

What I said was how the general public perceives it.



The small number of people are the ones making use of bitcoins. You, me, and everyone in this community. WE are the small number of people.

The vast majority of people who are not part of our community, but who HAVE heard of bitcoins perceive it exactly as I described in my previous posts.

I am a realist. I deal in truth and fact.

I do not alter reality to fit my hopes and dreams as you do.

It may very well turn out how we dream it to be concerning bitcoin, but that isnt our current reality.

Please realize the difference son.

And you're wrong... The general public, to the tune of about 7 billion people, have no idea or preconception about Bitcoin. They've never heard of it yet. A relatively small portion of people who know about Bitcoin have a bad taste in their mouth from bad judgement.





And the patronizing comments don't bother me... it's a common trait of people on the losing side of an argument.

your post is out of context and misrepresents. Read all my posts in this thread again. I am talking about the people who have heard of bitcoin and are not part of the bitcoin community. They perceive it exactly as I have stated.

Just because you dont agree with that perception does not mean its not reality.

Those perceptions are what we must combat to bring bitcoin mainstream.

Its not about what better or worse. What matters is perception. This is true in anything in life and business, else the world would be using non microsoft products, when most do. Ask yourself why. Perception.

LOL wat? Right. Once was plenty. Good day, sir.