Bitcoin Forum

Isn't this ridiculous? Do an experiment: Go out and ask 10 people if they know what Bitcoin is, then out of these people tell me how many knew what Bitcoin was. Im pretty sure not even 1 will know what Bitcoin is. At least I personally tried it and out of 20 random person, not a single person knew what Bitcoin was! Give me a break with the adoption thing, we are all still early adopters! poor early adopters compared to 2009-2011 early adopters... but still early adopters  :-[

None of the IT guys I know own any bitcoins yet.  That should tell you something.  I think we're still in the AOL days of the internet here.

I have to agree that we are still early adopters.

If you ask 1000 random people in the street if they own BTC you would be lucky to find 1 or 2 that do.

Yeah, definitely early adopters until BTC to USD hits a four digit mark

I don't think "maximum exposure" level is the issue. Of all the people I know, only two have ever heard of bitcoin. And the both said the same thing, "it's used by crooks".
The problem is how bitcoin is viewed by the general public. There has been a lot of bad press, you know.

I must have a diluted sample, because among college students around 40% know what I am talking about if I mention BTC. Though, it is 'the age of the internet', I'm sure we have a long way to go

Yeah well, people tend to exxagerate everything with what they think is right. I know many people working/studying in IT and they surely know about Bitcoin, but don't own anything because they don't understand market fluctuations and I don't care to explain them: "do your own research if you're interested" is often my answer. Then again I was surprised to see even people who are in different fields don't make strange faces when I mention just the word "bitcoin" so I guess many at least heard about it.

In the US, more than 50% of consumers have heard about bitcoin. Still, the majority – 65% – said they are unlikely to buy the currency.

http://www.coindesk.com/real-world-problems-bitcoin-actually-solve-right-now/

Exactly... 90% people still unaware of Bitcoin....

How about zero exposure. Bitcoin has years to go before it gets noticed by the masses.

My mother have heard about the internet 20 years ago. Yet she started using it only a year ago because her smartphone is always online...

The people who make these claims are likely the ones who have been attacking Bitcoin from the beginning, they're trying to come up with more and more excuses and spins to try and scare people away from it. Even though people aren't generally that interested in it yet, they're clearly not believing the bullshit spin by media outlets, calling us all drug dealers, terrorists and paedophiles isn't working so now they're going to be coming up with new labels for us.

AOL?

That's mid 90's at the oldest?

No way that we're that far along yet.

This is more like the mid to late 80's when the first .com domains were being registered.

At best, we might be in the Prodigy days of the internet.

thats pretty early  :D



@ topic

because some people dont understand a shit about it

I suppose a lot of people have been exposed to the word 'bitcoin' via news. But it takes repeated exposures to start regarding it as something that might be worth looking into.

Because the media keeps reporting that the Bitcoin "bubble" has "burst"

Because some people are short-sighted, and others are just plain stupid.

We still in early adopters
But, already from in-development to alpha  :)

When we reach final stage, most people will know bitcoin  :D

Thats untrue.  I know because I tell a ton of different people about bitcoin and since March, I've noticed more people will give me an 'inside nod' or chuckle about bitcoin when I mention it for the first time.  I remember telling someone randomly about bitcoin and he was like "oh yea I'm looking at buying a rig right now, Im glad you mentioned it now I can ask you questions!"

So yea, I suppose it also depends on the area you live in but if you have an urban area I would venture to guess that maybe 70 of those 1000 people know about bitcoin on a casual level and that maybe 200 of them have heard the word but don't know much more about it.

Correct, I would even suggest that in US and Europe half of people have briefly heard about it and know its some form of digital money.

Bitcoin suffers from the same problem as the early internet because its so new and different that simply being aware of it isn't enough to know about it.
Most people have misunderstandings which prevent them from using and adopting bitcoin. This will change in time. I have flipped people personally from ridiculing bitcoin to accepting it for their small business.

My percentages are higher. While heading to the LV conference last December, I stopped at a Wikieup, AZ, service station to fill up with fresh Java - leaded - and an early evening snack. All three women working there knew of Bitcoin to one degree or another.

On the way home, I stopped at a small cafe in Nebraska in a very small town near the interstate exit, again for leaded Java. The young gal wasn't that versed in Bitcoin, but stated that her sister was a big fan of it and this forum. She then asked for my autograph to give to her sister as a birthday present.

the price is gonna go up every 4 years.  with a period of flat, followed by a rally.  Edison Style!

Everyone I know that has any sort of intelligence know about bitcoin. Why? Because I've told them. I frequently comment on politics in casual conversation, and any time I've got someone who can obviously reason, I divert to economics/currency issues, and bring up bitcoin. Most have heard about it already, but know nothing about it. I usually tell them something like "It's like emailing money, but there is no central bank, corporation, or government controlling it." Pretty much everyone hates one of the three. Their questions direct the conversation after that. It get's easier to more you talk about it. At first it was hard to answer questions eloquently. I've got 7 people who are holding bitcoins now, that weren't when I talked to them. Two years ago there was 0, and even friends that were well versed in economics, monetary policy, and markets were unaware of bitcoin. We're up at least 50x since then, but it's still a very insignificant figure.

I know people who thought mining was "generating free money" hahaha

Bitcoin still has not reached its maximum exposure level yet. You will know it when people around the world keeps their savings in bitcoin or invest in altcoins. People on the street still do not know much about bitcoin yet.

Not gonna but MIGHT (it "should"). Thats the reason people are buying in. But its speculative theory.

There is enough momentum and enough of us old timers that are committed to Bitcoin that we aren't dependent upon new adoption as we will drag bitcoin to greater values by divesting our own Fiat to fulfill our aspirations. Growing the market-share is merely a perk.

This is going to happen notwithstanding the fly by night speculators or detractors.

This is extremely UNREALISTIC. More like 20%. Just test it yourself, ask random people and they have no fucking idea what Bitcoin is at all.

Asking random people isn't carrying out a scientific study