[MARKETING]Get ZeroHedge to publish an article about Bitcoin

[cypherdoc]

Lots of good ideas... Below is my take, which approaches the introduction of bitcoin from a macro-economic "the current system is broken" standpoint. I read zerohedge somewhat often, and I believe this fits very nicely with the existing economic consensus of the zerohedge crowd, and also has the benefit of not requiring an up-front in-depth explanation of bitcoin. Obviously there is A LOT to potentially convey about bitcoin; far too much for a single introductory article. Positioning bitcoin as the solution to the current broken fiat money system seems like the right approach to me. The ZH crowd should agree with the background thesis by default, and therefore be, at minimum, intrigued by the theoretical notion of bitcoin, hopefully enough to look into it further:

Better Money

As the world deals with $200 trillion in debt, with most "advanced" economies relying on a democracy-fiat system that represents a one-way mathematical function toward a debt spiral, it is obvious to many that our current worldwide money system is broken. The current run to US bonds is not a flight to "safety," but a flight to the current "lesser of evils." Politicians from Greece to the US promise more and more while allowing the free market to produce less and less. Rational people are seeing that the crash of '08 is a mere precursor to the ultimate and inevitable worldwide sovereign debt disaster. A better system is needed.

A better system starts with better money. Money that doesn't give election-cycle prioritizing politicians free reign to promise the world to the masses while delivering nothing but debt and inflation. Many advocate a return to the gold standard in order to tie politicians' hands, while others propose various revisions to the Fed and other central banks. However, as is often the case, the market itself has developed, and is increasingly embracing, a powerful solution that's growing from the bottom up: bitcoin.

Consider a monetary system that offers perfect information. A system that broadcasts its intentions to the world with mathematical perfection. A system whose formula cannot be manipulated by politicans (or anyone, for that matter), thereby eliminating the entire notion of monetary uncertainty. A system that offers what gold and other classical "hard money" offers: limited supply, divisibility, portability, homogeneity, recognizability, durability...but which is also fit for the modern electronic world where funds zip across the Internet and most money is simply an account entry "in the books."

Sound too good to be true? Perhaps. But while none of the world's debt problems have been solved and while Mr. Bernake contemplates buying up yet another round of Uncle Sam's bonds, the bitcoin experiment quietly grows, rejecting the entire theoretical basis of fiat currency and a politically-controlled elastic money supply.

Bitcoin is a decentralized, mathematically fixed-supply currency. Through its use of indisputable cryptography, it has made possible, for the first time in human history, a money supply that cannot be altered by any central authority. It is also fully designed for the modern electronic era. Sending funds internationally no longer requires a hefty wire-transfer fee, several hours (if not days), and transmission of sensitive identity and account information through an insecure electronic banking system. Senders and receivers of bitcoin can be anywhere in the world.  People can quickly, easily, securely, and psuedo-anonymously send bitcoin to each other over the Internet from myriad devices (computers, tablets, phones, etc). Bitcoin is how money should work in the modern economy.

The bitcoin experiment is young, and its future is unknown. But it doesn't take too much vision to see that, like the fledgling Internet of the late 1980s, it has the power to disrupt the status quo like few innovations before it. Control of money need not be in the hands of government. The Internet democratized and decentralized information. Bitcoin democratizes and decentralizes money.

this is by far the best of the three articles.   all discussions of Bitcoin need to be placed into the context of defining what exactly is the problem with the current global monetary system.  what we're going thru is a fiat currency crisis and this article articulates the problem clearly while proposing a new and revolutionary solution.

[Coinabul]

I've attempted to contact ZH's admin before. I was met with a lot of resistance and the word Buttcoin was mentioned a couple of times...

Good luck!

[Gabi]

+1, to me these "zerohedge" people seems a bunch of idiots

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

I've attempted to contact ZH's admin before. I was met with a lot of resistance and the word Buttcoin was mentioned a couple of times...

Good luck!

I guess if this happens, an alternative could be to write an article whose title and theme is about gold, but where Bitcoin is sneakily mentioned as supplementing gold.  E.g. "Physical Gold: Tricky Scenarios and Some Solutions" and then discuss ways to manage situations where gold comes up short, such as 1933-style confiscation, international payments, online micropayments, violations of safety deposit boxes, metal detectors, border crossings, etc and presenting various kinds of wealth storage/transport solutions in those scenarios including Bitcoins.  By the end of the article, the reader would draw his own conclusion that gold by itself wasn't sufficient, and he needed to consider getting himself some Bitcoins.

[Seal]

Looks like there was an article just posted on ZH about bitcoin!

[cypherdoc]

Looks like there was an article just posted on ZH about bitcoin!

i don't see it.

[unclescrooge]

I thought they would be more open considering they "apparently" understand the current system is broken.

But hey, it's some wall street guys after all, what did we expect :/

[TECSHARE]

If anyone is interested I have a contact at Intelhub. If you produce a decent instructional and PM it to me I will introduce it to them.

[molecular]

These goddamn metal-blockheads!

If they would think outside of their silver boxes for once, they would see the bitcoin light and buy in hordes.

Seriously, it's such a perfect fit for their frame of mind... yet they have such an aversion to anything that is "not real and tangible" (which can even be argued to be the case for bitcoin) that they just cannot, for the love of their lives, even consider bitcoin.

There seem to be exceptions, like Brother John F, who has been reporting on bitcoin and it's awesome features a couple of times in his show ("Silver Update" on youtube). Unfortunately he stopped doing it, because, I think, he received too much negative feedback from his viewers.

[deeplink]

These goddamn metal-blockheads!

If they would think outside of their silver boxes for once, they would see the bitcoin light and buy in hordes.

Seriously, it's such a perfect fit for their frame of mind... yet they have such an aversion to anything that is "not real and tangible" (which can even be argued to be the case for bitcoin) that they just cannot, for the love of their lives, even consider bitcoin.

There seem to be exceptions, like Brother John F, who has been reporting on bitcoin and it's awesome features a couple of times in his show ("Silver Update" on youtube). Unfortunately he stopped doing it, because, I think, he received too much negative feedback from his viewers.

I think they are no early-adopters. They will follow eventually on the crypto-currency bandwagon.

[molecular]

These goddamn metal-blockheads!

If they would think outside of their silver boxes for once, they would see the bitcoin light and buy in hordes.

Seriously, it's such a perfect fit for their frame of mind... yet they have such an aversion to anything that is "not real and tangible" (which can even be argued to be the case for bitcoin) that they just cannot, for the love of their lives, even consider bitcoin.

There seem to be exceptions, like Brother John F, who has been reporting on bitcoin and it's awesome features a couple of times in his show ("Silver Update" on youtube). Unfortunately he stopped doing it, because, I think, he received too much negative feedback from his viewers.

I think they are no early-adopters. They will follow eventually on the crypto-currency crypto-money bandwagon.

ftfy

[Roger_Murdock]

These goddamn metal-blockheads!

If they would think outside of their silver boxes for once, they would see the bitcoin light and buy in hordes.

Seriously, it's such a perfect fit for their frame of mind... yet they have such an aversion to anything that is "not real and tangible" (which can even be argued to be the case for bitcoin) that they just cannot, for the love of their lives, even consider bitcoin.

There seem to be exceptions, like Brother John F, who has been reporting on bitcoin and it's awesome features a couple of times in his show ("Silver Update" on youtube). Unfortunately he stopped doing it, because, I think, he received too much negative feedback from his viewers.

They're emotionally (and financially) invested in PM's. So even though Bitcoin is the enemy of fiat and should be seen as an ally a la "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Bitcoin also seems like the "enemy" of PM's. I think with this crowd, you need to present Bitcoin as a complement to PM's rather than a competitor. And I think that's totally fair. Bitcoin is so tiny now with such enormous potential upside that fiat skeptics / PM-bugs should at least consider taking a small position. If and when Bitcoin becomes big enough to steal significant market share from gold or silver, they won't care because their bitcoins will be worth so much. And if Bitcoin proves to be a flop, who cares if you only invested say 1% of your savings?

I mean, I can understand skepticism of the "it's new and it will probably fail" variety, but to be completely dismissive of Bitcoin? To not be at least a little excited about its revolutionary and disruptive potential? That I don't get.

[allthingsluxury]

This definitely would be huge, they generate a huge amount of traffic and a large amount of their viewer base is libertarian.

[acoindr]

These goddamn metal-blockheads!

If they would think outside of their silver boxes for once, they would see the bitcoin light and buy in hordes.

Seriously, it's such a perfect fit for their frame of mind... yet they have such an aversion to anything that is "not real and tangible" (which can even be argued to be the case for bitcoin) that they just cannot, for the love of their lives, even consider bitcoin.

There seem to be exceptions, like Brother John F, who has been reporting on bitcoin and it's awesome features a couple of times in his show ("Silver Update" on youtube). Unfortunately he stopped doing it, because, I think, he received too much negative feedback from his viewers.

They're emotionally (and financially) invested in PM's. So even though Bitcoin is the enemy of fiat and should be seen as an ally a la "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Bitcoin also seems like the "enemy" of PM's. I think with this crowd, you need to present Bitcoin as a complement to PM's rather than a competitor. And I think that's totally fair. Bitcoin is so tiny now with such enormous potential upside that fiat skeptics / PM-bugs should at least consider taking a small position. If and when Bitcoin becomes big enough to steal significant market share from gold or silver, they won't care because their bitcoins will be worth so much. And if Bitcoin proves to be a flop, who cares if you only invested say 1% of your savings?

I mean, I can understand skepticism of the "it's new and it will probably fail" variety, but to be completely dismissive of Bitcoin? To not be at least a little excited about its revolutionary and disruptive potential? That I don't get.

Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies won't steal market share away from precious metals. Not the way I see it. I'm writing a post that explains it.

I believe the world will return to gold as the primary store of value. Central banks around the world already hold it, and people worldwide continue to recognize gold's value even if it's not easily exchanged. Currently the world pegs everything against the dollar, which is the world's reserve currency. That is ending.

The dollar fiat is self-destructing, and will probably take most other fiat with it. It's an interesting time...

I say interesting because if fiat wasn't already self-destructing this revolutionary currency technology we're all a part of would soon likely do the job anyway. Fiat currency can't compete. It's a choice between currency which can be inflated and manipulated or currency, such as gold or bitcoins, which can't. So the timing is right on. Fiat will take a back seat or disappear altogether and gold and precious metals will take the lead.

The reason cryptocurrencies won't replace precious metals is their value will be volatile for many reasons which I'll explain in my post. People will, IMO, hold precious metals for their primary store of value and use cryptocurrencies to trade.

[molecular]

These goddamn metal-blockheads!

If they would think outside of their silver boxes for once, they would see the bitcoin light and buy in hordes.

Seriously, it's such a perfect fit for their frame of mind... yet they have such an aversion to anything that is "not real and tangible" (which can even be argued to be the case for bitcoin) that they just cannot, for the love of their lives, even consider bitcoin.

There seem to be exceptions, like Brother John F, who has been reporting on bitcoin and it's awesome features a couple of times in his show ("Silver Update" on youtube). Unfortunately he stopped doing it, because, I think, he received too much negative feedback from his viewers.

They're emotionally (and financially) invested in PM's. So even though Bitcoin is the enemy of fiat and should be seen as an ally a la "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Bitcoin also seems like the "enemy" of PM's. I think with this crowd, you need to present Bitcoin as a complement to PM's rather than a competitor. And I think that's totally fair. Bitcoin is so tiny now with such enormous potential upside that fiat skeptics / PM-bugs should at least consider taking a small position. If and when Bitcoin becomes big enough to steal significant market share from gold or silver, they won't care because their bitcoins will be worth so much. And if Bitcoin proves to be a flop, who cares if you only invested say 1% of your savings?

that's usually how I approach it: tell them I have gold and silver. Then tell them I also have bitcoin and suggest to put up to 5% into bitcoin.

[molecular]

These goddamn metal-blockheads!

If they would think outside of their silver boxes for once, they would see the bitcoin light and buy in hordes.

Seriously, it's such a perfect fit for their frame of mind... yet they have such an aversion to anything that is "not real and tangible" (which can even be argued to be the case for bitcoin) that they just cannot, for the love of their lives, even consider bitcoin.

There seem to be exceptions, like Brother John F, who has been reporting on bitcoin and it's awesome features a couple of times in his show ("Silver Update" on youtube). Unfortunately he stopped doing it, because, I think, he received too much negative feedback from his viewers.

They're emotionally (and financially) invested in PM's. So even though Bitcoin is the enemy of fiat and should be seen as an ally a la "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Bitcoin also seems like the "enemy" of PM's. I think with this crowd, you need to present Bitcoin as a complement to PM's rather than a competitor. And I think that's totally fair. Bitcoin is so tiny now with such enormous potential upside that fiat skeptics / PM-bugs should at least consider taking a small position. If and when Bitcoin becomes big enough to steal significant market share from gold or silver, they won't care because their bitcoins will be worth so much. And if Bitcoin proves to be a flop, who cares if you only invested say 1% of your savings?

I mean, I can understand skepticism of the "it's new and it will probably fail" variety, but to be completely dismissive of Bitcoin? To not be at least a little excited about its revolutionary and disruptive potential? That I don't get.

Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies won't steal market share away from precious metals. Not the way I see it. I'm writing a post that explains it.

I believe the world will return to gold as the primary store of value. Central banks around the world already hold it, and people worldwide continue to recognize gold's value even if it's not easily exchanged. Currently the world pegs everything against the dollar, which is the world's reserve currency. That is ending.

The dollar fiat is self-destructing, and will probably take most other fiat with it. It's an interesting time...

I say interesting because if fiat wasn't already self-destructing this revolutionary currency technology we're all a part of would soon likely do the job anyway. Fiat currency can't compete. It's a choice between currency which can be inflated and manipulated or currency, such as gold or bitcoins, which can't. So the timing is right on. Fiat will take a back seat or disappear altogether and gold and precious metals will take the lead.

The reason cryptocurrencies won't replace precious metals is their value will be volatile for many reasons which I'll explain in my post. People will, IMO, hold precious metals for their primary store of value and use cryptocurrencies to trade.

I would like to read that post and join the discussion, please point us here to it once you posted.

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

Well, it has now kinda happened.  Indirect humorous Bitcoin article on ZH, covering ECB report.  Surprisingly neutral (or perhaps even positive) Bitcoin mentions, as opposed to past dismissive & skeptical tone:

ZeroHedge: Friday Humor: The ECB Explains What A Ponzi Scheme Is; Awkward Silence Follows
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=122131.0

[elendir]

Awesome, it's on!

[Coinabul]

Well, it has now kinda happened.  Indirect humorous Bitcoin article on ZH, covering ECB report.  Surprisingly neutral (or perhaps even positive) Bitcoin mentions, as opposed to past dismissive & skeptical tone:

ZeroHedge: Friday Humor: The ECB Explains What A Ponzi Scheme Is; Awkward Silence Follows
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=122131.0

"Bash Bitcoin Boondoggle"

It's more of a bash against conventional banks.

[marcus_of_augustus]

The enemy of our enemy is our friend .... ECB bashing bitcoin just made us some valuable allies I think.