Why would an average person actually choose to use Bitcoin?

[Rassah]

That is a question that I come across quite often. For example,

I understand all the ideological reasons for why someone might want to choose Bitcoin. Most of them are fairly crazy, but at least they're there. What I don't get are the practical benefits, why an average person would actually choose to use them. If you aren't worried about the government or the banks or planning to get rich quickly 2140, then what can Bitcoin actually do for you? That's the part that nobody has really managed to explain so far in any of the threads, at least as far as I can remember.

To be fair, we understand the currency, it's inner workings, and thus its potential quite well, but while we profess how great it is, with $'s and stars in our eyes, we likely forget that the people we are talking to don't know or understand everything that we do. So, I think we should come up with some examples that answer the question of "why would an average person care" (or re-paste them from older necro threads). Here are some of mine:

1) It lets you send money overseas cheaper than using a bank wire (FIAT > BTC > BTC > FIAT has way better fees and exchange rates than bank wire, Western Union, etc).

2) It lets anyone open a virtual bank account without needing access to a physical bank. For example, some banks charge fees and require minimum balances for accounts, which may be prohibitively expensive. Some areas around the world don't even have banks other than in far away big cities. And in some cases, it's easier to just create a new Bitcoin wallet to store money in, than it is to drive down to a bank, fill out forms, come up with profs of ID, wait days for them to be verified, and another week for your account to actually be ready to use (especially if you're looking for a small business account).

3) It lets you accept payments online easily and way cheaper than with VISA, PayPal, or other such services. Heck, you can even just get a bitcoin address from MtGox or any other exchange, set up your account to instantly exchange any received BTC for local currency, and you're done.

4) It lets you accept payments over e-mail or any other service that can transmit text (even photos, as seen on girlsgonebitcoin). Some sellers may not have the means to build a website, but can still send out an invoice, asking to send payments to a specific address. (i.e. someone living in a poor country who only has access to an internet cafe, or someone who just doesn't have web skills).

5) It lets you accept tips or donations using any website. You can upload videos to YouTube, photos to Flickr, posts to a blog, music to Soundcloud, art to Deviantart, or comic strips to GoComics, and to accept donations all you need is to include a string of text in the description. No need to set up any money-accepting plugins, set up any bank or financial accounts, or rely on features provided by the service being used.

5) It lets you send money to places where PalPal or other money transmitting services are blocked, for example Russia or India, and is much cheaper for sending money to family in other countries. Even if that country they can't send money to is US, as in the example of the parents in Iran sending $2,000 to their college student son living here.

6) It lets you send huge sums of money overseas quickly and cheaply. If you were in US and you needed to pay $1,000,000 for a shipment from China, using normal methods of wiring money would take two or more weeks, and will cost more than $25,000 for the transaction. With Bitcoin, it takes a few hours, and costs $12,000 or less.

7) It lets you send micropayments better than anything else out there. It's easy and practically free to send $0.01 to anyone else using BTC, but would cost about $0.25 for just the fee to use the USD/EUR system. Any micropayment system that uses USD/EUR would have to sit on top of a larger system that stores all the money in a single large account, and all micropayments would have to be done as accounting entries within that account, instead of money actually moving around (i.e. you have to fund the system with a large payment, do your micropayment transactions, and withdraw when your fund is big enough again). This means micropayments using USD/EUR are restricted to only within specific services (i.e. your pre-paid micropayments fund that you use to pay for news articles can only be used within that news website)

8) It lets you create programs and services with their own bank accounts (the software stores value, as opposed to value always being linked to a real world person and a real world outside-the-service bank account). The Reddit tipbot is an excellent example of this, and would be impossible with USD/EUR, since to build it using FIAT, someone would have to open a real world bank account under their name (with all the forms, proofs of ID, etc), set it up to accept money transfers from others using PayPal, VISA, or something else, which will charge fees, have nasty exchange rates, have to keep to strict AML regulations, and be restricted to certain specific countries. Plus it would have all the micropayment issues mentioned above. With Bitcoin, all the "banking" is done with software, requiring no permissions, and no single programmer's name has to be linked with any bank accounts.

9) It lets you instantly fund USD/EUR based accounts around the world. The small LLC I started up keeps a BTC cash account for minor business expenses, and my business partners around the world will have Bitcoin funded VISA debit cards (as soon as Bitinstant releases them). That way, all the money is stored safely in the business vault, and if they need to pay for any business expenses, no matter where they are on the planet, or what their home currency is, I can fund their cards from home within 10 minutes. That's impossible with ACH, wires, or whatever else is out there.

10) It lets you link a payment account to a contract using address signing. For example, Person A agrees to buy Person B's debt. They write up an agreement contract, and instead of signing it with PGP keys, they sign it with A's and B's bitcoin addresses. Then money is sent from Address A to Address B, and any repayments are sent from Address B to Address A. That way, Person B can't claim that they never received the money, and Person A can't claim that they are still owed more than they really are, since all transactions are publicly verifiable on the block chain using the very addresses that were used to sign the contract. There is no need for any legal disputes of who owes what, since the blockchain keeps both parties honest (I actually did this already).


If you can think of anything else, please add it to the list.

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[foggyb]

Bitcoin lets you store any amount of money offline where no one can ever access it but you, utilizing nothing but a pass-phrase stored in your memory. It is retrievable at any time, any place with internet access.

[nobbynobbynoob]

Bitcoin can provide a private, inflation-proof investment without having to be in possession of physical gold or silver.

[Rassah]

Bitcoin lets you store any amount of money offline where no one can ever access it but you, utilizing nothing but a pass-phrase stored in your memory. It is retrievable at any time, any place with internet access.

^^ Not useful for "average person," because even though you can retrieve it, you can't really use it in a lot of places, and have to go through an exchange to convert it to local currency. VISA still beats Bitcoin in this.
For the answers here, think "What can someone do with Bitcoin that they can't already easily do with something else."

Storing money offline and retrieving it elsewhere with internet access IS useful for people traveling in and out of restrictive regimes that ban transporting currency across the border (Back when we left USSR, the max anyone was allowed to carry across the border was $300. Imagine, a family with two kids, moving to US, only allowed to bring $300 with them. There are still countries like that, sadly)

[repentance]

Storing money offline and retrieving it elsewhere with internet access IS useful for people traveling in and out of restrictive regimes that ban transporting currency across the border (Back when we left USSR, the max anyone was allowed to carry across the border was $300. Imagine, a family with two kids, moving to US, only allowed to bring $300 with them. There are still countries like that, sadly)

It's not just restrictions on transporting physical currency, either.  Some South American countries, for instance, limit how much you can spend in USD each year - effectively limiting the ability of their citizens to purchase online from the US.

The big question is how Joe Average in a restrictive regime is going to acquire BTC in the first place.

[nobbynobbynoob]

The big question is how Joe Average in a restrictive regime is going to acquire BTC in the first place.

Foreign tourists might not mind trading a few BTC for local currency. I've heard this is already happening a little bit in Argentina. Bitcoin will take off there at some point; they need it even more than most of us do.

[Rassah]

Thanks repentance, I just remembered another two

*) Being able to shop for web services around the world instead of just your own country. Being in the US, I would be restricted to registering domain names and buying VPS services to USD-taking companies here in the states. But now that a lot of web service places are taking BTC, I was able to shop around and buy from a cheaper place that's not even in my country.

*) Usenet, an internet discussion and bulletin board system that has existed since the 80's, has recently had a lot of pressure put on it by VISA, PayPal, and other such financial services, being effectively banned from accepting payments, because it hosts copyrighted materials as well as general web discussions. Now the only way to buy NTTP access in a lot of places is to use Bitcoin. Now, granted, not a lot of "average joes" use NTTP, but I'm sure there are plenty of old neckbeards who still have fond memories of the service and rely on it for their discussions.

Then, of course, there's any other service that has had a run-in with financial restrictions because the politics of one country don't agree with them. Like Wikileaks for example.

[foggyb]

Bitcoin lets you store any amount of money offline where no one can ever access it but you, utilizing nothing but a pass-phrase stored in your memory. It is retrievable at any time, any place with internet access.

^^ Not useful for "average person," because even though you can retrieve it, you can't really use it in a lot of places, and have to go through an exchange to convert it to local currency. VISA still beats Bitcoin in this.
For the answers here, think "What can someone do with Bitcoin that they can't already easily do with something else."

Storing money offline and retrieving it elsewhere with internet access IS useful for people traveling in and out of restrictive regimes that ban transporting currency across the border (Back when we left USSR, the max anyone was allowed to carry across the border was $300. Imagine, a family with two kids, moving to US, only allowed to bring $300 with them. There are still countries like that, sadly)

People don't necessarily want to convert their long-term savings into local currency, and if they do, bitcoin is a universal currency. It doesn't need to be localized in order to be useful. I wish people would stop treating bitcoin like its a sovereign nation that you need to be a citizen of.

Given some time, your comments in 1st paragraph will no longer be true. I'd say in 3-5 years.

[Rudd-O]

To me, the biggest reason is simply because it's a powerful hedge against inflation.

[kwukduck]

Bitcoin lets you store any amount of money offline where no one can ever access it but you, utilizing nothing but a pass-phrase stored in your memory. It is retrievable at any time, any place with internet access.

And the next day your money has halved... or doubled...
But 'average'  people will never risk that.

[kjlimo]

This may be a very simple idea, but I think it's cool to be involved with something global.

Perhaps an average joe can think of this as a great easy way to diversify some investment portfolio into a global investment -tied to not only local city or country business, but a global project.

[payb.tc]

my guess is that even the 'average' person would be up for a bit of tax evasion.

[foggyb]

And the next day your money has halved... or doubled...
But 'average'  people will never risk that.

That is not going to happen. Bitcoin price will not double or halve in a single day barring some sort of horrible disaster. Like a crash in the USD.

A bitcoin rainy day fund is risk mitigation tool. But i do see your point. The average person isn't that prepared.

[kwukduck]

And the next day your money has halved... or doubled...
But 'average'  people will never risk that.

That is not going to happen. Bitcoin price will not double or halve in a single day barring some sort of horrible disaster. Like a crash in the USD.

A bitcoin rainy day fund is risk mitigation tool. But i do see your point. The average person isn't that prepared.

Maybe not, but if Pirate or some other guy with huge funds decides to become a (multi)millionaire (or just dump a shtload for the fun of it) you'll see it will have a huge impact on the value.

There's still a HUGE amount of bitcoins in the hands of a few people that completely control the market in essence.
Hopefully these coins are slowly being spread out while the economy is growing, but you never know...

[Raize]

I think the biggest benefit of Bitcoin I've seen is replacing Western Union for International transfers for folks in your local community. It does take a while to get used to, but when people want to send money back home to family, if they can queue it up so that you do your transfer at the same time a trustworthy person in another country does it, you can pretty much provide them with instant money at a fraction of the cost. You don't make much, but when scores of families are doing these transactions, it adds up. Plus you get to feel good about saving them money.

[Rassah]

To me, the biggest reason is simply because it's a powerful hedge against inflation.

From my short-but-few years as a personal financial adviser, and the years I've deal with that on the sidelines since, I would say that the average Joe doesn't even know about inflation, let alone understand it or want to hedge against it. Most people out there just get a paycheck direct-deposited into their account, use their debit card until their bank balance runs out, and wait until the next paycheck comes in. That's about the extent of their financial knowledge, and not only do they not know anything more, they don't care to know. That's why we keep having statistics with depressing results, such as: the average 54 year old has $30,000 in savings, 60% or so of those reaching retirement age have less than $100k in savings, and of all retirees, only 5% retire with enough to maintain their standard of living, and a full 25% to 30% end up needing to work after retirement to make ends meet.  People just don't care until it's too late, and warning them about it or offering to help only makes them more guarded and defensive. But that's a discussion for another topic.

[Rudd-O]

Those stats are depressing, my man. 

[Daily Anarchist]

I think a lot of Bitcoin's power will be(is already? Silk Road) offering goods and services that are only available with Bitcoins.

I'm working on getting to the point where I will demand Bitcoin, and only Bitcoin, as payment for my goods and services. Eventually, I will get to the point where if they want me as a customer, they better offer Bitcoin as a payment option.

[greyhawk]

I'm working on getting to the point where I will demand Bitcoin, and only Bitcoin, as payment for my goods and services.

You should contact vite. He runs a BTC restaurant.

[Polvos]

- Bitcoin allows you to prove address ownership even keeping your anonimity intact. That's impossible with banking accounts.

- Every goldbug knows that you have to pay about a 10% of your gold savings in security. Bitcoin downs this security expense to almost 0.

- Bitcoin usually don't go off a metal detector in an airport.

- When someone accepts payments with gold or fiat money, he needs to test counterfeiting in all bills, gold ingots or gold coins transfered. When someone accepts Bitcoin knows that every coin accepted has been counterfeit tested by all the miners in the network. The counterfeit test has been done, it's secure and cheap.

[Lethn]

To me, the biggest reason is simply because it's a powerful hedge against inflation.

+1

I can see myself buying gold and silver with it eventually for my work because otherwise in the pound it will be too expensive, I need to find someone who can cut it into sheets for me though.

[goodbc]

...

6) It lets you send huge sums of money overseas quickly and cheaply. If you were in US and you needed to pay $1,000,000 for a shipment from China, using normal methods of wiring money would take two or more weeks, and will cost more than $25,000 for the transaction. With Bitcoin, it takes a few hours, and costs $12,000 or less.

...

Average person don't transfer 1 mil for a shipment from China, but even if - using bitcoin the fee is nowhere near $12.000!!!

For example:
http://blockchain.info/tx/ed2efa807c4d33a0ca6d15aab5e608ac624a30039965b508063c8baf9d9e8ecc

Let's not scare average person with such high fees allegations 

[Yuhfhrh]

...

6) It lets you send huge sums of money overseas quickly and cheaply. If you were in US and you needed to pay $1,000,000 for a shipment from China, using normal methods of wiring money would take two or more weeks, and will cost more than $25,000 for the transaction. With Bitcoin, it takes a few hours, and costs $12,000 or less.

...

Average person don't transfer 1 mil for a shipment from China, but even if - using bitcoin the fee is nowhere near $12.000!!!

For example:
http://blockchain.info/tx/ed2efa807c4d33a0ca6d15aab5e608ac624a30039965b508063c8baf9d9e8ecc

Let's not scare average person with such high fees allegations 

I think he was referring to the fee of buying and selling on an exchange.

[Mike Hearn]

The contracts features of Bitcoin give it a series of uses that existing financial systems can't handle. I've done a lot of research into these unused capabilities, because I believe building "killer apps" is the best way to increase Bitcoin usage. Otherwise, we do indeed face the obvious starting problem of "this doesn't solve any problem I actually have".

For example, in my conference talk I mentioned a P2P network for building assurance contracts that pay for web page translations. This is the kind of thing you really can't do with cards, but if it was sufficiently useful to people, they'd acquire Bitcoins just in order to use that network. Micropayments and other things offer a wide variety of possibilities for building killer apps.

[kjlimo]

...

6) It lets you send huge sums of money overseas quickly and cheaply. If you were in US and you needed to pay $1,000,000 for a shipment from China, using normal methods of wiring money would take two or more weeks, and will cost more than $25,000 for the transaction. With Bitcoin, it takes a few hours, and costs $12,000 or less.

...

Average person don't transfer 1 mil for a shipment from China, but even if - using bitcoin the fee is nowhere near $12.000!!!

For example:
http://blockchain.info/tx/ed2efa807c4d33a0ca6d15aab5e608ac624a30039965b508063c8baf9d9e8ecc

Let's not scare average person with such high fees allegations 

I think he was referring to the fee of buying and selling on an exchange.

Exactly, someday when we all recognize bitcoins for business transactions, the "fee" could be near zero.

However, for now we should focus on ways for businesses to use bitcoin but not need to hold it on their books... for now!

So for now, it looks like Rassah has a great business case for international transfers reducing fees even when buying bitcoin, transferring it and then converting back to local fiat.

The only logistical issue here is that this is more than the average daily exchange volume for now.  So the company would need to contract with another third party to secure that many bitcoin for a set price, to ensure reduced transaction risk.

However, with banks getting into the mix, we may be only a few months away from this becoming reality.

Not sure how this can reduce the 25k fee currently referenced, b/c I don't know why it costs that much.  Perhaos our French bankers can explain and help find a way to use bitcoin to increase their bottom line.

I'm gonna guess (or hope) they are one step ahead of us on this issue... time to buy some more bitcoins

[franky1]

1) It lets you send money overseas cheaper than using a bank wire (FIAT > BTC > BTC > FIAT has way better fees and exchange rates than bank wire, Western Union, etc).

not quite. to transfer from cash to BTC is predominantly done using bank transfers or moneygram/ukash and other methods which have fees. unless your cash > btc > cash is done using localbitcoins with someone face to face. which is usually costing you fuel to meet them and their inflated prices to be in their benefit to sell/buy with you.

6) It lets you send huge sums of money overseas quickly and cheaply. If you were in US and you needed to pay $1,000,000 for a shipment from China, using normal methods of wiring money would take two or more weeks, and will cost more than $25,000 for the transaction. With Bitcoin, it takes a few hours, and costs $12,000 or less.

i agree with the speed of transmission BUT try finding a trust vendor to convert cash to BTC at either end for that amount. also considering point 1's reply i gave. meeting a stranger to swap your briefcase of $1million in cash for BTC.. and then the chinese swapping the BTC for 6 million yuan. plus each side wont hand over their brief cases /BTC for $6k each

i wont reply about each of the other points but all in all the possibilities are there.. but its not quite everyday practice.. bitcoin needs to grow a bit more for most of these examples to work fluidly

also the
http://blockchain.info/tx/ed2efa807c4d33a0ca6d15aab5e608ac624a30039965b508063c8baf9d9e8ecc
is not someone transmitting funds from one person to another.. thats silkroad mixing its funds to hide it from prying eyes.. hopefully blockchain.info will remove the "pirate booty" tag from the 1dky address now its been confirmed to be silkroad

[meanig]

Bitcoin allows people to separate their wealth from their identity. Very useful for someone who likes to keep a low profile.

[Rassah]

Lowest bank transfer fee found for large money transfers: 2.5%. Most average 3% and up. No mention of how fair the exchange rates are, or if they ding you on that too.

$1,000,000 * 2.5% = $25,000
Buy/Sell BTC is about 0.5% to 0.6%, so 0.6% * 2 = 1.2%
$1,000,000 * 1.2% = $12,000
True, the volume may be low, which means you would have to buy and sell over a few days. Hopefully, the huge purchase at one end will drive the price up, and the arbitrage bots will ramp the prices on other exchanges up as well, just in time for you to sell back down to the same price.
Yes, there are still exchange rate risks, but it's getting way better.

[johnyj]

A bank allow it's customers to exchange BTC with local currency, average joe only understand a bank

[Rassah]

to transfer from cash to BTC is predominantly done using bank transfers or moneygram/ukash and other methods which have fees. unless your cash > btc > cash is done using localbitcoins with someone face to face. which is usually costing you fuel to meet them and their inflated prices to be in their benefit to sell/buy with you.

For US users, Dwolla > MtGox is 25¢, and ING > Bitfloor is free. For European users there are free SEPA transfers. I'll grant that there are fees for other services, and some countries may be restricted to fee-only methods (anyone know what it's like in China?). And yes, hopefully it will expand and improve.

[niko]

I paid for a few things and services online through Bitcoin network. Each and every time it was faster and simpler than going through Visa, MasterCard, or PayPal. Also, I've been using Bitcoin to transfer value internationally; a bit convoluted (two exchanges in two countries), but it happens to be cheaper than international wire/bank exchange, or bank exchange/mailing a certified check, or WU. I've got no ideological reasons to use coins, it's simply a great and interesting technology.

[GernMiester]

blah blah blah,  its simple, they wont use it.. BTC is far and above the average person.

GPU's pushed it away, then FPGA pushes it farther away, and ASIC, well that's the nail in the coffin for the average Joe.
Trusting your BTC to any website is sheer stupidity and all the thefts prove it.. Explaining BTC to the average guys is futile, they don't get it and don't care to. Managaing a wallet is way to hard for most since they are not even technical enough to even understand how and why you update Adobe, Java, AV, and Windows and ask why its been asking for months and months or answer I dont know what it is and was afraid to install. GOOGLE IT YOU MORONS, OMG!!!! anyway....

Read a thread or two with CKolivas, Tycho, Slush, Great, Inaba, Eleuthria, Juke-Jr, (the list goes on) and other pool ops talking and you will see that it takes a significant amount of intelligence, wisdom (Int and Wis are not the same and not interchangeable) and time to make it all happen. Then the lurkers I see, like JoelKatz, who come forth with blinding reason and logic and back to quietly watching from above.. These are not the thoughts of average folks with IQ in the high 80's and 90's.

I bet the average IQ of the BTC developers is closer to 120-125+ and the average users IQ is at or above 100. There are always exceptions to the rule, some site/pool ops are idiots, but as it stands, BTC is just too smart for joe average.

If you need to ask how to setup a miner and cant figure it out from the thousands of posts and documents your the idiot group.
If your not testing something or using it to learn and you just setup or are asking about how to setup a GPU rig or use CPU's you are in that idiot group as well.  My favorite is stupid question - What power supply will power my x number of HDXXXX cards?
Really,,,,,,, REALLY??? Its called addition, figure it out stupid!

[2_Thumbs_Up]

To me, the biggest reason is simply because it's a powerful hedge against inflation.

From my short-but-few years as a personal financial adviser, and the years I've deal with that on the sidelines since, I would say that the average Joe doesn't even know about inflation, let alone understand it or want to hedge against it. Most people out there just get a paycheck direct-deposited into their account, use their debit card until their bank balance runs out, and wait until the next paycheck comes in. That's about the extent of their financial knowledge, and not only do they not know anything more, they don't care to know. That's why we keep having statistics with depressing results, such as: the average 54 year old has $30,000 in savings, 60% or so of those reaching retirement age have less than $100k in savings, and of all retirees, only 5% retire with enough to maintain their standard of living, and a full 25% to 30% end up needing to work after retirement to make ends meet.  People just don't care until it's too late, and warning them about it or offering to help only makes them more guarded and defensive. But that's a discussion for another topic.

Average Joe doesn't care about monetary theory. He cares about his daily life and bases hid decisions mainly on his own experiences. More importantly, he has never experienced deflation, at most heard about it, but once he does he will love it.

I believe that anyone who deals with bitcoins on a regular or semi-regular basis will sooner or later realize that they would have been better of if more of their wealth was in bitcoins, and less in fiat. Sure, fluctuations in price will counter this somewhat, but in the long run fiat will inflate, while bitcoin will not. And this is huge. It doesn't matter if you are buying and selling drugs on Silk Road, trading virtual goods on oggr, or are simply accepting bitcoins as a secondary payment option through bitpay. The realization that all unnecessary bitcoin to fiat transaction has been a mistake will come sooner or later.

[Gabi]

GPU's pushed it away, then FPGA pushes it farther away, and ASIC, well that's the nail in the coffin for the average Joe.

Lolwut why the average Joe should care about mining? Seriously, do you care how gold is mined?

[Chief Satangkai]

For me its the technology itself and the idea of decentralization combined with the degree of anonymity that
really are the selling points!  Being able to do anonymous trading is an important factor. Thats why there
must be cheap and easy ways for the average Joe to instantly acquire BTC. Most people i know are too
lazy to go through an exchange...   

[Rassah]

Most people i know are too lazy to go through an exchange...   

I've sold about $4,000 worth through localbitcoins.com already, much of it to people who were not very familiar with it. The time waiting for a confirmation is usually spent with them asking questions and me explaining how it works. They are typically return customers, since once they find out that it's as easy as stopping by a local fast food joint with some cash, they don't consider Bitcoin to be too much of a hassle for whatever they used it for. And they can go home and use it that same evening. (BTW, the fee I charge means I generally just break even)

[edd]

There are two examples I like to use when praising Bitcoin:

1) I belong to another forum where some of us have bonded quite closely for having only met online. A few months before I came across Bitcoin, a forum member fell on hard times. Via private messages, some of us passed the virtual hat, as it were, and collected some money to help him out. Since members were located in Australia, Scotland, and the UK, as well as the US, everyone contributed to my PayPal account and I covered the fees as part of my share. If only we had known about Bitcoin at the time! Our friend would have received at least an additional $20 or so (it's been so long, I can't really remember off the top of my head) that enriched PayPal, instead.

2) I've had quite a bit of graphic work done for me since I started my online projects. Fortunately, I met a very talented artist located in England who understands my visions and always produces top notch work. He always responds to my emails in a timely manner, and almost invariably is able to produce a finished product by the next day. He also accepts bitcoins as payment. This means that the time elapsed from my initial email request to him receiving confirmed, irreversible payment for a job well done is often less than 48 hours. How often does that happen between individuals living almost five thousand miles apart?

[FreeMoney]

1) It lets you send money overseas cheaper than using a bank wire (FIAT > BTC > BTC > FIAT has way better fees and exchange rates than bank wire, Western Union, etc).

not quite. to transfer from cash to BTC is predominantly done using bank transfers or moneygram/ukash and other methods which have fees. unless your cash > btc > cash is done using localbitcoins with someone face to face. which is usually costing you fuel to meet them and their inflated prices to be in their benefit to sell/buy with you.

6) It lets you send huge sums of money overseas quickly and cheaply. If you were in US and you needed to pay $1,000,000 for a shipment from China, using normal methods of wiring money would take two or more weeks, and will cost more than $25,000 for the transaction. With Bitcoin, it takes a few hours, and costs $12,000 or less.

i agree with the speed of transmission BUT try finding a trust vendor to convert cash to BTC at either end for that amount. also considering point 1's reply i gave. meeting a stranger to swap your briefcase of $1million in cash for BTC.. and then the chinese swapping the BTC for 6 million yuan. plus each side wont hand over their brief cases /BTC for $6k each

i wont reply about each of the other points but all in all the possibilities are there.. but its not quite everyday practice.. bitcoin needs to grow a bit more for most of these examples to work fluidly

also the
http://blockchain.info/tx/ed2efa807c4d33a0ca6d15aab5e608ac624a30039965b508063c8baf9d9e8ecc
is not someone transmitting funds from one person to another.. thats silkroad mixing its funds to hide it from prying eyes.. hopefully blockchain.info will remove the "pirate booty" tag from the 1dky address now its been confirmed to be silkroad

I enjoy where this thread headed. The average person won't use bitcoin because the suitcase-of-1M-to-btc-fees are still too high.

[Justin00]

just out of curiosity... besides the people who are keeping BTC for investment purposes, what type of items do you think the average person is buying ?

Most people i know are too lazy to go through an exchange...   

I've sold about $4,000 worth through localbitcoins.com already, much of it to people who were not very familiar with it. The time waiting for a confirmation is usually spent with them asking questions and me explaining how it works. They are typically return customers, since once they find out that it's as easy as stopping by a local fast food joint with some cash, they don't consider Bitcoin to be too much of a hassle for whatever they used it for. And they can go home and use it that same evening. (BTW, the fee I charge means I generally just break even)

[2_Thumbs_Up]

just out of curiosity... besides the people who are keeping BTC for investment purposes, what type of items do you think the average person is buying ?

Most people i know are too lazy to go through an exchange...  

I've sold about $4,000 worth through localbitcoins.com already, much of it to people who were not very familiar with it. The time waiting for a confirmation is usually spent with them asking questions and me explaining how it works. They are typically return customers, since once they find out that it's as easy as stopping by a local fast food joint with some cash, they don't consider Bitcoin to be too much of a hassle for whatever they used it for. And they can go home and use it that same evening. (BTW, the fee I charge means I generally just break even)

Drugs. That's pretty much the only reason for a non-enthusiast to go through the hassle of getting Bitcoins right now.

[Rob E]

An " average " person  wouldn't use bitcoin because they wouldn't know what it means .. Your'e aiming at the wrong level wrong target " Average " people are just that average they do average things think average thoughts do average things live average lives .. they are half done .. Bit coin is not for * Average* people  .. just like the start of a revolution's isn't  for * average* people ..

[Rudd-O]

Exactly.  "Average" people get killed or gulag'd in standard revolutions, and get left behind in peaceful ones.

[Rassah]

just out of curiosity... besides the people who are keeping BTC for investment purposes, what type of items do you think the average person is buying ?

Of the ones I meet, I have no idea. All have been young, and some are tech savy, some are not. If I was to guess, I'd say drugs, BitTorrent/Usenet access, VPNs, or just play money. My friend buys a few from me every couple of months for Usenet access, too. I'm guessing most are just investing (I've had people buy $500 at a time, which is either some really fancy coke, or just stashing money). I don't ask who they are or what they will use it for, since I don't expect they would be honest, and I'd rather know as little as possible.

[Anon136]

i cant believe no one has said it yet. bitcoin actually simplifies gambling for a lot of people even average people and boy do average people love to gamble.

[Grecoin]

The average joe, even the one heard about bitcoin, will not try it immediately. This can not happen over night.

People had strong doubts about using credit cards in the beginning as well and even now older people still do.

This is where the community needs to work, training and coaching. Coaching family, consulting friends, involving everyone.

The training of the masses is the hardest step at the moment since the technology is already here.

Only when people understand its benefits and know how to use it at the same time, bitcoin will stop being this 'geeky' currency.