Promoting Bitcoin outside of the tech and anarchist communities

[TheMarketAnarchist]

I've been involved in Bitcoin for a little over a year now. For me, one of the main reasons I got involved is because I did a fairly detailed study of the Federal Reserve and fiat currency and got the shit scared out of me by what I saw. For me, an alternative currency was a no brainer as I'd already been sporadically using gold and silver in limited trades for a few years. But Bitcoin really grabbed me. It excited both my geek side and my anarchist side and finally gave me reason to believe that something had a good chance of replacing (or at least competing with) fiat.

But I'm not everyone and neither are you. The people on this forum and in the Bitcoin community tend to be more tech savvy and more economically savvy than the average person. We understand the currency and the need for it from both a technical and social side. For us, it's a no-brainer. For everyone else, it's a potential giant scam.

I'd like to start a discussion on ways that we can move Bitcoin into the 'regular' world. I'm not talking about the normal 'just talk to family and friends about it' type discussion, but more concrete discussions along with maybe a little strategy. I don't believe 'just talking to family and friends' about Bitcoin will ever get it over the top. There has to be a coordinate effort by the community if that's going to happen. That's what I'd like this discussion to be about.

So what are some of your thoughts on where to start?

Thanks,
TMA

[Rockford99]

Once more sites accept BTC - even for trinkets, the transactions demand will increase.  I think most of the reluctance/skepticism is based on ignorance.  If people knew how to encrypt and save their wallet.dat file, a lot of hesitancy could be overcome.

My cohort of friends includes a lot a savvy monetary economists, fed skeptics and sound-money/hard-money types.  Very few of them are now aware of bitcoins.  That is why I'm so bullish.

The fact that costless transactions and very low-denomination transactions are viable with bitcoin should be publicized better.  I think this element would lay the foundation of acceptance, that would grow into larger ticket transactions once people got more comfortable and accustomed to BTC

[tucenaber]

God knows I'm not a marketer, but I think mainstream adption as a concrete goal is too ambitious, as well as too nebulous. Start with niche markets that you know and expand from there.

Since I am convinced that the western economies will go through some very difficult times in the coming years, my hope is that bitcoins will position itself as an alternative when governments start setting up capital controls, raising taxes, and especially inflating. So my focus is on attracting the (hopefully) growing number of people wanting to escape in some sense governmet intervention.

That is my focus and my goal. Others disagree of course

[mokimarket]

I think once people are confident that they can use bitcoins to purchase actual goods than you will see the demand pick up again. My site (MokiMarket.com) is the only penny auctions site that accepts bitcoins.

Ironically bitcoin is the ideal currency for penny auction owners due to very small denomination transactions (most of my auctions sell for for pennies up to a few dollars on rare occassions) and very high rates of chargebacks.

[TurtleBay]

But I'm not everyone and neither are you. The people on this forum and in the Bitcoin community tend to be more tech savvy and more economically savvy than the average person. We understand the currency and the need for it from both a technical and social side. For us, it's a no-brainer. For everyone else, it's a potential giant scam.

I challenge you assertion that people in the Bitcoin forum are better economists than others.  The Bitcoin systems leans heavily on Austrian economics to justify the fact that the supply of Bitcoins is non-elastic which leads to price instability and deflation if Bitcoin is widely adopted.  Austrian economics is outside of the mainstream approach because it has a lot of identifiable flaws (look at the hoarding of hard money during the great depression).  Bitcoin advocates reject out of hand the ideas of monetarists, classical economists, neoclassical economists, Kenesian economists who believe that a stable currency and conter-cyclical monetary policy has a positive effect on economic growth.

[Stn]

At the current moment it is easier to convert those folks to geeks or anarchists and they will pick Butcoin by themselves. Rather then to promote Bitcoin directly.