I would love to see small messages you use to promote and/or explain what bitcoins are and why the system is so amazing. Let me start it off with my two favorite promotional explenations ...
=> My first refrence is a adjusted version of a talk given by Yochai Benkler of Harvard Law School . This talk was not related to bitcoins but my mind linked it to the possibilities of bidcoins and it stuck. I think the best audience for this is business people and people with interest in markets and economics.
For the first time in hundreds of years we can freely perform and confirm reliable transactions without the expenses created by large institutions. This allows us to let more of our money work for us and less to cover the expenses associated with the institutions we used to use.
With bitcoins we hold in our hands the tools we need to break the link between a expensive institutions and the needs of people and corporations alike. With the tools at hand, we no longer need to rely on these institutions to perform and confirm long distance transactions and we no longer need to pay the cost associated with the institutions that have been doing this up till now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iffW_GWBQIU (Start: 47 Min, Quote: 50,04Min)
I would pick is from Rick Falkvinge of the Pirate party. The text below is a adjusted and compressed version of a talk he gave at the bitcoin conference in Europe. This one probably best kept for a more progressive and open public: friends, parents, geeks ...
For thousands of years there have been gate keepers that protect the status quo in our society, these gate keepers have come and gone as time passed on. In our current age we can find them in large institutions that not only handle interaction between humans but also regulate and limit them.
The function of a so called gate keeper is to controlling the flow of information and goods between the people. The general public usually looks at gate keeper as a obstacle they need to avoid or try to get around, the gate keepers them selfs usually believes the majority of humans are unable to decide what is best for them and that they are there to protect the best interest of all.
Usually this concept of gate keepers collides with the needs of both the people and the free market, they need 3 very basic things from a service, they need it to be cheap, fast and flexible. If a service provided by a gate keeper can be improved on at least two of these points it has a high chance of failing in the future.
A break down of gate keepers that have or are falling:
Spreading information and goods:
- Postal Service are expensive and slow > E-mail is cheap and fast
- Retail Stores are expensive and limiting > Online Shops are cheap and flexible.
Protecting information and goods:
- Copyright is expensive and limiting > Copyleft is Free and Flexible
Informing about events and goods:
- News - expensive, slow and limiting > Blogs, Youtube - Free and Fast and Flexible
Value of information and goods:
- Banks - expensive, slow and limiting > Bitcoins – Free, Fast and Flexible
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjmuPqkVwWc&feature=relmfuSo what do u use to pull outsiders over the bridge ?
