Bitcoin Forum

What can community members do to contribute to Bitcoin's growth?  ???

I think best thing to do would be get them to use, rather than just telling people about it .
Tipping is a wonderful way, but most of the people tip within the reddit bitcoin community itself, which already has enough information about it .

Try to dispel some of the negative rep BTC has in general. Whenever I try to bring up bitcoin, I'm always hearing the same "I heard on the news that bitcoin is used for drugs and money laundering" and "Bitcoin is the currency for criminals"

As a community we need to work together to fight against this negative rep  :)

Hands down - this is the best way:

Print 100 $10 bitcoin paper wallets.  (this will actually cost you far less than $1000 in the end).

Make the paper wallet on a half sheet with the other half sheet dedicated to introduce bitcoin and wallets.  Further, include instructions how to set up a real wallet and to sweep the $10 into that wallet.  

Pass these out to people who don't know about bitcoin.  Most will not bother with learning about bitcoin.  For those, you'll be able to recover your $10 of bitcoin because you still have the private key for those wallets.  However, if people do discover bitcoin to the extent they are able to sweep your $10 into their private wallet, you never see that money again.  However, that person is now a bona-fide bitcoin user.  $10 per new user - a great investment.

 The community would be huge very fast if every bitcoin user today printed and passed out even 10 of these wallets.  ($100)

Can somebody please help design this 'Bitcoin introductory wallet' in agreement with the concept described above?  If we set up a nice standard, all us bitcoin pros can figure out how to fund some and send them to our friends.  

Whadda you say: good idea?

talk to the store managers in places you go to often, tell them you want to spend btc in their store.

use changetip and similar public apps to make public donations where people can see.

or, sponsor others taking initiatives (ahem, shameless self promo link incoming:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=931843.msg10247841#msg10247841)

Have their girlfriend's do webcam shows for Bitcoin.

JK.

#1 best way is to promote in social media... provide link to an exchange

Nothing.. just wait. Talk about Bitcoin to other people. Once you learn about it you are hooked, at least one person you tell you will be, and will tell to other people and so on.

Talk to people you know and let them know what BTC is, don't try to lure them in but try to make them understand the concept behind it, doesn't matter if you succeed or not.

Tell ppl what is bitcoin, how it works, make a merchant, store accept bitcoin, let investor invest and buy bitcoin.
So far bitcoin is grow I think we just wait and enjoy until bitcoin mainstream :D

Very good question.
In my opinion, one single person can't do much but many people together can do a lot.
Tell people around you about BTC.
Tell local merchants around you about BTC:
Introduce BTC in other forums, newsgroups...

Spend BTC and tell people about BTC.

Just use Bitcoin, you (or maybe.. 'they'?) can make a change to Bitcoin by using it. Downloading a wallet but not using is also helping Bitcoin.

Every bitcoiner have friends, most possibly is member of all cind of internet community so can help to spread the word. Also tipping on social media and donating to newcommers and bitcoiners with small amounts can help also. We can make btc very viral and speed up adoption. We all can help in lot of ways.

Tell your friends about it
don't just hoard, tell your friends about btc

 Use bitcoins to buy real, physical goods. Do more than just hoard or speculate

Send BTC as gifts to friends and children.
Encourage them buy things with it.

Spend money at Bitcoin businesses, and attend/host Meet Up events at Bitcoin venues--it incentivizes Bitcoin adoption. Also give to charities which accept Bitcoin--it improves our public image at the same time.

Depends on each one of us position on the community , Student or Employee or Retired etc...
Let's say he have a Fast food , the good way is to start accepting Bitcoin on your fast as payment method , or you can simply talk about it to your friends & family and give them some amount to start with why not  ::)

It has to be spent. I remember back when PayPal was introduced, people were SCARED. They didn't understand how it worked. But now it's the norm and I used it for all my online business payment transactions. I think the important thing is that it can be converted back to your local currency. If not spent, then it has to be transferred from user to user, converted to local currency, etc., until it becomes the normal. Eventually, people will be transferring and spending pure Bitcoin. But that will take a while to become the norm.

the answer is for people (and merchants) to use BTC as a preferred payment option. then the market can stabilize, in a good political/legal climate

Accept it as payment. That'll indirectly promote it. More people may search about it and use it. No more negative price drops.

Buy, hold and stfu :)

ACtually not only accept it as payment, but also not sel it aafter buying it . If they sell it, its actually worse for the price.

I agree..ppl r just a bit skeptical on BTC as they havent tried it yet..or had a chance to try it.. Once they doo..Im sure they will fall in love with it. :)

 
Annoy the local shopkeeper:
https://twitter.com/kenCode_de/status/559704841535373313
 

Keep telling people about bitcoin and why its important to be in control of your own money and freedom.  Giving that responsibility to others is costly to us all.

In such case I would try to open a bitcoin related company 

Talk about bitcoin with everyone you can. More businesses work with bitcoin the better.
Tip.
Organize donations from time to time for causes that also increase the visibility / awareness.
Make the community more help-oriented than scam/greed oriented (yeah, this is hard).
Learn from others, let others help this community, even if that would come from an alt ("shit?") coin.

This worked out well for dogecoin. It helped with the awareness a lot. Unfortunately it didn't help with the price.
But you have to ask yourself what you want: an asset with increasing price (hard to achieve by community alone) or a currency.

Use it! Regularly.

Each time you need to buy some goods or services, look for the merchant that accept bitcoin (of course if you're happy with the prices).

Many would choose just to hold. But that's not really the way to support bitcoin. Hold until when? Until the price goes up to $10k, then you'll dump it for $? Doesn't seem very supportive.

If you want to hold and support bitcoin at the same time, just pay with BTC instead of fiat and buy the BTC back. And if the merchant offers discount, you can buy back some more and increase your holding.

everything!, we, earlier or not adopters of BTC can do lot of things to made bitcoin grow up.

• Speak with friends and/or at the bar :P
• Speak about BTC at social networks
• Talk into a good way here on forum or just trying to improve the bitcoin chain with new ideas

all those things dont cost to you! and you spread it over the world.

I think asking to make it the preferred option is a lofty goal but just getting them to accept it is what we need. The bitcoin community is doing all it can to spread awareness and adoption but what we need is the rest of the world involved. I think this will happen but slowly over time. We just need patience and keep spreading the word.

Spreadin the word is all we can do. We cant pump the price, we cant make a church of bitcoin and brainwash people.. talk and wait its all we can do.

I think it's totally depends on us, each and everyone in the community. And the best way is social media to talk about bitcoin to other people.

I think the best way would to be to purchase Bitcoin, hold on to it and then talk to your real life friends about it, co workers, friends, family etc.  Get them involved to do the same. 

I have been introducing bitcoin since early 2012 to my friends, and created few articles on local social media. I am very happy, some of my friend keep using bitcoin till now.

I'll just echo what some others have said. Use BTC and tell retailers that they could have your business also if they accepted bitcoin. I have gotten several businesses to accept bitcoin because I wanted to shop there. I hold their hand a bit and volunteer to be their first BTC sale.  It's really not hard because they have ZERO downside in accepting them. All they need to do is set up an account at BitPay or Coinbase. It's free and any sales they get from BTC earn them an extra 3% without facing any market volatility. Even the businesses I helped that were skeptical at first love bitcoin once they see how easy it is.

You can do that!

Use it whenever possible even if it means using Gyft (http://www.gyft.com/) to buy a restaurant gift card the next time you eat out. You can always buy more to make up the difference (and, on Gyft, you get triple points for using Bitcoin). Tell entrepreneur friends about Bitcoin the next time they gripe to you about the cost of accepting credit cards. Tell the restaurant manager too if there seems to be some kind of confusion about the gift card.

I think the best thing you can do is to buy and spend bitcoins.  If you do this, bitcoin economy will thrive!  The spending is as important as the buying because it shows vendors who start accepting them that it's a useful thing for them.

The best thing ordinary men can do in order to help bitcoin is to stop selling BTC in panic now, don't loose confidence and tell others about it.
Don't spread negative rumors, try to explain your friends the value of BTC and that now is the perfect time to buy BTC, not to sell it.

The best thing is to spread awareness. I've found that people are placing negative stigmas on Bitcoin and its users. They need to be fully educated as to the positives of its function. Finding new and novel ways to use and integrate Bitcoin can also help it grow.

I agree..I try to educate ppl about BTC where ever I go.! I think it will become a huge factor if everyone in Btctalk does it.!

As Andreas said, talk about Bitcoin to 5 people, and at least 1 will be hooked for life. And the circle will continue.

I agree, I've heard a lot of misguided stories in the media recently about bitcoin and how it's going to die, how it sucks, how it's based on nothing.  These stories are miseducation that's being spread in the wake of a price fall.  It's true that someone needs to debunk these stories as much as possible.

Promote the usage of bitcoin.

Send BTC to a friend!

Once you can convince them into joining the community (AKA making a wallet and learning the usage, very hard in my experiences)

Take friends to Bitcoin-accepting venues and treat them (coffee, burgers, etc.) using Bitcoin as a payment method. They will see the whole process and surely want to ask questions.

For me, most important is to continue to believe in what bitcoin holds for our future. that means everything for an ordinary person.

You may wear a T-shirt with "I love bitcoin" printed on it, and go out a lot in trendy places.

Tell people to use bitcoin and bitcoin will be popular and growing

Best way is to get some new people to bitcoins , getting shops to accept bitcoin , though it can't be a individual's work
It won't be that easy

I do like your idea to a good extent but who would just giveaway 10$ And believe me if you go giving out 10$ like this , though people might not now but they will take it happily and this could cost you alot lot more

Hold.

that won't change anthing
That will be like a long-time investment

Every additional person holding increases the exchange value. Conversely if no one was willing to hold, it would have no value.

No no, that's not how it works. Hoarding your bitcoins won't increase the value. Buying more is what creates bigger buy demands, therefore pushing the price up. Holding on the other hand, has little to to contribution to the price. Unless what you mean is actually 'not selling'. Yeah, selling contributes to the price.

Individuals holding won't change a thing! we need to work as community

try to not play Ponzi/hyip very fast for a scam!

Helping each other & use bitcoin as currency
Tell people about bitcoin is the most important

Never promote/play scam

Always ask merchants if you pay in Bitcoin. That will eventually get around pretty fast.

Spread the good word. :D More and more companies are accepting btc as a way of payment, it's just a matter of time when it will be more known and commercialized.

Also, you can use the internet to find merchants local to you who accept bitcoins and use their business.  Then folks will see that accepting bitcoin brings in new customers.

That's a good one

exactly once, reduce the spread of reff negative. and never played hyip and ponzi :)

and because it will have an impact on the price of bitcoin, because scammers sell the results

I suppose it'll make them feel like there's a demand for it and could peak their interest, but I personally wouldn't have the balls or confidence to keep asking merchants who have either never heard of it or aren't interested. Hopefully they'll get on board over time but I think sadly for most they won't really care or be all that interested so it'd get frustrating and disheartening fast.

I didn't know there was any way to interpret "holding" other than "not selling". Perhaps your reality is different from mine...

Are you able to hold something you do not already possess?

I think a big market volume and many people buying and selling is actually better for bitcoin in the long run.  Short term holders can create weird bubbles.  I mean, eventually the speculators are going to sell and take profit.  What happens to the bitcoin ecosystem then?

You have to till the earth in the spring, plant them in the ground, give plenty of water (but not too much), sunlight and a little wind and then nature does the rest.

Just learn about cold storage and hoard them as much as you can, no need to do anything else.

http://themisescircle.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/bitcoinfeedbackloops.jpg
source: http://themisescircle.org/blog/2013/02/19/end-the-fed-hoard-bitcoins/ (http://themisescircle.org/blog/2013/02/19/end-the-fed-hoard-bitcoins/)

Just be true to bitcoin and love it :D
It'll grow eventually ;)

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If you're an ordinary man, and not a super powerful deity like Satoshi Nakamoto, then the best thing to do it is....use it.

Do you what you know best.  Transact it in it, spend it, send it, buy some more, sell things, spread the word...

Use https://www.changetip.com/ on social media, use https://purse.io/ or https://brawker.com/, use https://openbazaar.org/ when it finally launches.

These are just some of things a single man can do.

I think we have to make Bitcoin a political issue. We need to vote-out any politician who speaks against Bitcoin.

I agree, the ordinary man has no real power. The politicians have all the power.
So we need to control them!

Most important thing that ordinary people can do is actually use it. Save it, spend it, accept it as payment for goods and services.

They run a full node.

Earn and spend in bitcoins. As simple as that.

Earn bitcoins, spend bitcoins and tell everyone in hearing distance that they prefer to earn and spend bitcoins. And the rest will follow.

Its not simple to earn bitcoin unless you can do dollar cost average which means you have extra money every month.

Talk about Bitcoin to people along with trying to use it wherever we can will really help bitcoin grow as a whole.