Barriers to introducing people to bitcoin

[fivemileshigh]

I have not had much success introducing people to bitcoin. I thought a good awareness of fiat currency inflation combine with some medium IT skill would be enough, but alas, no. Do you guys have any experiences?

[Fizzgig]

About 6 close family and friends who agree with me on almost everything all own exactly 0 bitcoins...and no gold/silver either. At least they aren't religious.

[Scott J]

I have managed to get a close friend to invest a little. He took some convincing, but he has doubled his money already so he's quite happy. My mum also invested a tiny bit and she is up 50% 

On the whole though, most people I've spoken to try to warn me that the whole thing could be a scam. I mention the word decentralised and they just look at me funny!

Leaving my Bitcoin magazine lying around is a good conversation starter and seeing something in print adds legitimacy.
 

[Topazan]

On the whole though, most people I've spoken to try to warn me that the whole thing could be a scam. I mention the word decentralised and they just look at me funny!

Yeah, I know what you mean.

Actually, I can usually get peoples' attention pretty easily just by mentioning how much my initial investment has grown.  I haven't convinced anyone else to buy BTC as far as I know, but I'm not sure if I want to.

I'm starting to think we have too much speculation and not enough business.

[cbeast]

Educating the market is very expensive. The fact is, you really can't because most people don't even have a good understanding of their lifelong professions. They are intentionally ignorant and quite proud of that fact. Don't bother. Just use your knowledge and understanding of Bitcoin technology to create magical products for the blissful majority to consume. Future generations will thank you even if you feel unappreciated now.

[Brunic]

People don't know shit about finances or computers.

Imagine how fearful it is to combine the two together. 

[myrkul]

People don't know shit about finances or computers.

Imagine how fearful it is to combine the two together. 

Magic computer money.

[Bjork]

All I had to do was show them silk road and they wanted some coins 

[nevafuse]

I don't think i've convinced a single person that bitcoin is the currency of the future.  Then again, I'm a horrible salesman.  

To start off, it is really difficult to explain.  It took me a long time to understand the protocol & I'm still learning new things everyday.  Most of these people don't even know how bittorrent works, so there's a huge knowledge barrier.  And some even use bittorrent, so I guess knowing how it works isn't 100% necessary.  I doubt most of them know much about the Federal Reserve.  I'm convinced that if we build it easy enough, people will come.

Beyond understanding it is justifying its benefits.  I personally think the main reasons to join bitcoin are tax evasion, silkroad, and some speculation.  And based on the poll I conducted previously, even people using bitcoin aren't 100% onboard with the tax evasion part.  I even tried to hype up silkroad but was told it was too risky from a guy that used to have his drugs shipped to him.  At first, I tried to talk about how much bitcoin was rising in value, but that still didn't get any takers.  And it definitely didn't help when I told them about the crash last year.

To sum it up, bitcoin is new & complicated.  There are still several hurtles to overcome.  Some people aren't going to be convinced until walmart or mcdonalds starts accepting & paying in bitcoins.  There's definitely a huge chicken & egg issue, but I think it is progressing at a reasonable pace.  Changing money is a tough sell no matter how easy or complicated the solution may be.

[DublinBrian]

If someone thinks you are trying to sell them something, the barriers go up in their mind. Its better to just mention bitcoin in passing and wait for them to question you further about it.

However, individuals are less important than businesses. Its much much more important to get businesses to accept BTC, rather than individuals. Theres a severe shortage of businesses accepting BTC payments. When the businesses offer it as a payment option, the consumers will naturally follow.

We need to target merchants. Im not sure how we do that. I think one potential avenue is to target merchants who cant accept credit cards. Many of these business owners have bad credit history and maybe large debts. Bitcoin might appeal to their dislike of banks.

[Gabi]

We don't need to convince anyone, first because often this just fail since it seems we are trying to scam them for our interest, second because well, we are not selling a product, if they need bitcoin then they will use it even if we don't try to convince them

[Comodore]

So far I've convinced 4 of my mates to buy Bitcoins.

Really good achievement. Grats!

I am just convincing one of my friends

[interlagos]

I have managed to get a close friend to invest a little. He took some convincing, but he has doubled his money already so he's quite happy. My mum also invested a tiny bit and she is up 50% 

On the whole though, most people I've spoken to try to warn me that the whole thing could be a scam. I mention the word decentralised and they just look at me funny!

I figured we better use more commonly known terms instead of technical ones, something like:
Bitcoin - first independent global Internet currency!

Also I convinced one guy by sending him link to the "American Dream" YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPWH5TlbloU

But sometimes it's better talk pure business instead of being antagonistic towards something.
If you're talking to an online store highlight small fee, worldwide use and no chargebacks.

My 2 bit cents.