THIS is Why Bitcoin Has and Will Gain Support and Popularity

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Hey my early adopter friends. Let me assume for a second that you like I believe that Bitcoin is the greatest invention of our recent time and it is in our best interest and the interest of the whole world to get a critical mass of people use it and support it.

I think we're already doing a pretty good job of it but I also think there's a lot of room to grow. And in that spirit I was hoping you'd sacrifice 18min and watch the following presentation:

Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

Thank you for your time.

You linked. I followed. Deserves a bump.

T-Shirt idea:

            Ask Me

        Why Bitcoins?

(insert Bitcoin image here)

I posted the above then moved on only to come back to this a few minutes later to write this: Hell with a t-shirt. How about a tattoo? And parade yourself in Sturgis, SD.

[qikaifu]

we shall wait until a faithful bitcoin adopter go to the public and tell people "why bitcoin". That man will be refereed as a leader.

[PseudoCode]

Still thinking about it..   Perhaps an even simpler tagline would be good.


Why Bitcoin ?

Because its your money, not The Banks.
Take complete control of your cash - Use Bitcoins


or even

Why use Bitcoins ? - Because it is Unstoppable Money

Ok, I'll shutup now.  

[DrYe5]

"Nobody" will want bitcoin until they don't want the dollar or whatever other currency. If Greece goes bad, or the US banks release the infinite money they got through TARP (up to China), then we'll see.

[abednego]

Thanks for sharing this... it was truly inspiring.  This gives me more confidence in my vision to bring Bitcoin to the mainstream.  I have known for weeks while making my "How" to do "What" business plans that was my "Why"   

[peach]

Yeah I thought it was so applicable to everything going on with Bitcoin, it was uncanny.

Edit: My thread was merged with an old threat and retained its new title...confusing and a little disagreeable. Meh.

[Alex Thornton]

Great segment. Definitely worth the 18 min.

[bitcon]

there needs to be a grass roots movement to hit the streets and pass out flyers at political rallies or demonstrations, so more people can get involved with bitcoin.  We need someone in here that is good with photoshop to make flyers available to all users to print and handout on the streets with a weblink giving more info about bitcoin and how it will change the world.

[m0w3r]

Bitcoin's potential to "change the world" makes Apple look like a pathetic seller of mundane slave-labor-produced electronics.

[bitcool]

Not a big fan of Apple, never stood in line to buy iStuff. So the opposite side of "Why" is "Why NOT to".

I guess I just found out why Bitcoin has caused such polarized reactions.

[datguywhowanders]

Wow. I'm really glad I watched that video.

Makes me wanna do SOMETHING for bitcoin like right now, it may be time to get serious folks.

[AtlasONo]

It is imperative that "Why Bitcoin?" steer well clear of any crazy political bias, conspiracy theory, etc.

[dennis_sweden]

Btc purchases should be a few percentages cheaper due to lower processing costs. So: Why Bitcoin? Imagine saving 3% off from every deal you make from Bitcoin affiliated stores. Yes - that is correct, you pay 3% less than when paying with your credit card. An average consumer spends (insert correct amount) X USD every year on online shopping, by using Bitcoin you save X USD each year, money that you can spend on your loved ones, home improvement, or paying off that credit card debt.

This message is intended for "sheeple" wherever they may be, not rational, critical thinking humans. (sheeple are more abundant)

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Edit: My thread was merged with an old threat and retained its new title...confusing and a little disagreeable. Meh.

Thread merging is probably one of the worst ideas that ever has hit forums.  It confuses anyone who has replied basically.  If it doesn't done right when a second thread starts, the second thread just needs to forward/link to the original post.  Or not, I don't know smf functionality.

I'm probably the one that caused the merging of these two treads due to commenting on an earlier one, thereby bumping it up. I'm sorry if my judgement was in error. With apologies to South Park, I've learned something today: I didn't know that treads could be merged (no opinion on if it's a good or bad idea). Nonetheless, I feel (I BELIEVE) this is an important topic.

A couple post ago, I expressed that Bitcoin needed a "Wonder" moment. I now firmly believe it needs a "Why" moment. All day (not an exaggeration) I've racked my brain, brainstormin' to the nth degree, to offer up some kind of solution. I hit upon a few nice ideas, but nothing compared  to this: Federal Reserve allows higher debit card fees (just saw on my homepage--Google News--within the last hour) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c655af12-a2a7-11e0-83fc-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1QivmbeP0   Could this be the "Why"? Or, at the very least, one of the "Whys"?

[datguywhowanders]

I believe the "Why?" should be that it's your money. You own it. You should control it. Everything else is just how and what.

[XonX]

Why bitcoin?
Because it's more currency than anything else in this world.
Money is just a bunch of virtual numbers, that have some meaning just because we agree that they have it. It is there for convenience only and depends on peoples agreement more than any other backing up. That is why money is made by everyone.
Look in your purse. What do you see? It's just colored paper and round pieces of metal. It is only your trust and belief, that turns that paper and metal into dollars or euros or whatever currency you use.
So why bitcoin?
Because every other currency is an agreement that is being imposed on you. You have to roll with it, weather you like it or not. With bitcoin it is up to you to accept or decline the agreement. It is up to you to determine the value of them, as opposed to centralized systems, where you have to go with decisions made for you.
With bitcoin you are recognized as a part of the agreement and because of that, you are treated as an equal among equals.

Tagline: Bitcoin - money as it should be.

[enmaku]

Bookmarked this when I first saw the post, just got the chance to watch it this morning. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

Since others are posting their "inside out" spiel, here's mine:

Why bitcoin? Hell, why dollars?

If there's one thing I despise, it's being lied to, having the wool pulled over my eyes. So when my government tells me that their money has value and that we measure the value of things with their money I get angry. You see, money has no value other than what we agree it has - we aren't measuring the worth of a house or a car by how many dollars it costs, rather we're measuring the worth of a dollar by saying how many of them equals a house or a car. THINGS have value, TIME has value, money is just a system that makes it easier to exchange them; and it's a poor one, at that.

Money as we know it is broken. The simple act of buying a candy bar at the corner store should involve two people: me and the merchant. If I pay with cash, in person that's exactly how it works, but the moment I break out a credit card... Now there are middlemen - LOTS of middlemen - the merchant service company the store owner works with, both banks involved, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc. They probably have hardware or software that they're paying a support contract on, hell half of this stuff you can't even BUY, you *have* to RENT it. Somewhere in all these per-transaction fees, monthly fees, support costs, warranty costs and hardware costs the merchant loses a substantial percentage of the "dollars" I've sent him and has to mark up my candy bar to pay for it all. If this sounds like a pile of horse manure to you, that's because it is. If it sounds like the kind of absurdity designed for banks to profit at the expense of the public, that's because it is. If it sounds like technology designed in the 1970s being pushed far past its proper end-of-life... THAT'S. BECAUSE. IT. IS.

It's the 21st century now and it's time our money caught up with our lifestyles. We live in a post-scarcity world where almost everything is data: data can be shuffled about, reproduced a million times and NEVER lose a single bit of clarity - and all for costs that typically round down to zero. Banks hold hardly any paper money these days, it's all data and it costs nearly NOTHING to shuffle that data around. Why on earth should I pay 3% plus 12 cents for a bank somewhere to change one record in a database? It's on par with charging $20 for a CD that costs 14 cents to reproduce, including packaging - and have you noticed that almost no one buys CDs any more?

Bitcoin is digital money as it was meant to be. Bitcoin is digital cash - no absurd transaction fees for making one change in a database, highly secure, entirely digital, relatively anonymous and completely decentralized. I could ramble for hours about the technicalities, but that's not really what's important, is it? You don't want a pile of jargon, merchants don't want a pile of jargon, the two of you just want to exchange money safely and securely and with as few middlemen as possible, and bitcoin has that by the gallon. More than that it doesn't lie to you. Bitcoin doesn't claim to be worth anything, it has no intrinsic value and everyone involved knows it, admits it openly. It's worth what the market says it's worth and we all admit that things are worth bitcoins, not the other way around. Bitcoin admits its youth, admits that it will make mistakes and admits that some of those mistakes can't be fixed. When is the last time your bank or your government was that honest?

[BkkCoins]

Why BitCoin?

Because we don't need Banks!

[w1R903]

This is a great video.  Think of how pertinent it is to Bitcoin, particularly at the 11-12 minute mark!  What are we doing to push the adoption rate past the 15% barrier?

I just ordered the domain name whybitcoin.org  

I intend to put it up as a not-for-profit community Bitcoin promotion site, with the central idea of Simon Sinek's video as the driving force behind the site.  I really like the spiels I've read of this thread.  Perhaps we can put up pseudocode's copy as the leading text (with permission, of course), then expand into some of the other promotional writings, like tymothy's.  If someone makes a video based on the "why" of Bitcoin, I'd love to embed it.

Also, I'll make personalized whybitcoin.org addresses available to the first 5 people to PM me (part of the domain name deal).  No charge for the e-mail addresses to the first five takers, but a small Bitcoin donation to cover my expenses (which are minimal) would be welcome.

If any graphic designers have ideas on how to design this site, please post it on this thread.  I can't guarantee I'll use them, but I'd love to see your ideas.



 

[w1R903]

Also, if the forum user who sells t-shirts comes up with a "Why Bitcoin...Ask Me" t-shirt for sale, I'll be happy to advertise it on whybitcoin.org