Bitcoin Forum

I've been thinking and talking about this and wondering if I'm blowing its potential impact out of proportion.  What do you think?

I heard about it on the video of Tony Gallipi's talk in the Philadelphia Bitcoin Summit 2012 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=131256.0).

With the kind of folk flying Emirates*, whether we're talking about a few of them seeing its potential for moving their own money internationally cheaply, to integrate into their international trade businesses or simply seeing it as something worth bunging a tiny proportion of their immense wealth at 'on the off chance' that it goes somewhere, I see the odds of this not bringing substantial new interest and money, and thereby having a not insubstantial impact on price, as very small.

*If you want an idea of the clientele within the first few pages of ads there's one for precious metals.

Edit:  Link to article (http://issuu.com/motivatepublishing/docs/openskies_february_2013/search?q=effect) (I know dunand linked to it below but I thought I'd put one in the OP too)

And another thread discussing this article (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=139806.msg1489099#msg1489099)

Or help to fund ventures that will facilitate that in their region?

These nations have a lot of imported labor.   These immigrants send money home, sometimes making use of hawala, other times paying the high rates for transferring cash.

If these immigrants could acquire bitcoins easily in these regions, that would help with half of the equation.

The other half is a way for the recipients to spend the bitcoins received.

Both sides are needed, and still way below the level necessary.

Try to buy bitcoins there now.   Your options are a CashU prepaid card (bought with cash at a retail location, and redeemed through Bitcoin Nordic).   Or LocalBitcoins, one seller -- who charges quite a premium:
 - https://localbitcoins.com/country/ae

Then try to spend the bitcoins in Indonesia.   Perhaps the first use will be for paying the mobile phone subscription:
 - http://www.BitcoinWireless.com   <-- Still in limited availability beta.

http://content.emirates.com/ife/openskies/OpenSkiesFebruary2013.pdf

Cool, thank you for that link.

Thanks! The article is reasonably accurate as well, apart from the basic mistake of stating the block reward as BTC50 instead of BTC25.

Thanks for the link. Nice to see more and more good articles !

A well-balanced article.

now that is very cool.

Nice article - awful infographic on transactions.
I don't even get if it's trying to explain A is paying B or B paying A.   It doesn't explain Bitcoin transactions at all.

Yes I felt slightly retarded trying to figure out what the pic was telling me.

I'm sure the author knew what he was trying to achieve with that chart.
Look at the chart through the eyes of the uninitiated. Their immediate response will be "whatever, seems to be too complicated".

Yeah - but confusing the uninitiated is easy, without the extravagance of using nonsense.

This one is just bamboozling even if you do have some understanding of Bitcoin transactions.

Overall I'm happy with the article.  I think it's fantastic that it's there and that it's such a big feature and covers so many aspects.  I do get the impression the writer's failure to grasp the simplicity of transactions from a user perspective (recipient Bitcoin address, amount, send) made its use to be much more complicated than it actually is, for instance with a blockchain.info wallet and smartphone app.  And the infogaphic just exacerbated this.

Also, given the number of precious metals ads in the magazine I'm a little disappointed that there was no talk of Bitcoin in terms of its parallels with PMs and its potential as a store of value.  But all things considered it will be interesting to see if this has an impact on demand over the next few weeks/months.

I was told once people on average need to hear of something three times (ideally from three separate media/sources) before they remember it and take enough of an interest to act.  For many Emirates travelers it is likely to have been the first time they heard of Bitcoin but for some it may be the magic third.  Let's wait and see :)

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What would it cost us to pay for placing this article?

A back of the envelope estimate:

The price of a single full page advert in Open Skies is $14,000

There are six full pages of Bitcoin coverage.

The cost of paying for placement of the article would be on the order of $84000.

Not that you can even get six pages. (Double page spread is max.)

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The more interesting, but also more difficult question would be:

What's the value of this article? (Probably a hell of a lot more.)

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http://issuu.com/motivatepublishing/docs/open_skies_media_kit
http://www.motivatepublishing.com/mediakits/article.asp?categorycode=Mag&articlecode=ART00573

just to put Bitcoin alongside ads for oil companies, gold/silver dealers, Rolex, Arab Princes, Dubai Intl Boat Show, investment companies, Kuwaiti Office Bldg leasers, world travel agencies, diamond companies, Lamborghini dealers, intl banks, Mikura Pearls, etc. simply elevates Bitcoin's image a hundred fold.

Not to mention the fact that if you're reading a magazine on a plane, there's no possibility of two dozen trolls from reddit adding their negative comments to the article  :D

Cruise Line :-) CCL,RCL,NCLH

Check out page 9 after the yacht ads. This demographic being advertised to knows whats up and why they don't want other nosy people in their business.

you talking about the Virtual Offices?

No, that is rookie stuff. I am talking about the stuff by CMC on page 9.

??? That's page 7, not page 9.

So is this already on the planes as we type? Is this why we are seeing $20+ USD?

It's the february edition.

maybe it will be a good advertising here in this journal  ;D
http://issuu.com/luxurylife (http://issuu.com/luxurylife)