Bitcoin Holders Must Prepare For Mass Adoption

[pa]

Looking at the "penetration" of bitcoin by country, I'm surprised at how low Japan is on the list. I would think that the technophilic home country of MtGox would find the Bitcoin story interesting, especially given that it was created by "Satoshi Nakamoto."

And the new quantitative easing (money-printing) policy of Abe's government should give Japanese a strong incentive to look into hedges against inflation, such as Bitcoin.

[Malawi]

Looking at the "penetration" of bitcoin by country, I'm surprised at how low Japan is on the list. I would think that the technophilic home country of MtGox would find the Bitcoin story interesting, especially given that it was created by "Satoshi Nakamoto."

And the new quantitative easing (money-printing) policy of Abe's government should give Japanese a strong incentive to look into hedges against inflation, such as Bitcoin.

Not to mention that MtGox is located in Japan. Maybee it's because many live in small apartments where a noisy mining rig would be quite disturbing.

[rpietila]

4,97   Finland
4,73   Sweden
4,38   Netherlands
3,91   Estonia
3,81   Norway

I am from Finland, and I have operations in Estonia, and sell to Sweden and Norway. (Also visit Netherlands perhaps 1/yr). Because of my influence that started in Finland long before my coming to Bitcointalk, Finns have bought about 20,000BTC more than they would otherwise have done. That is not bad considering that it is about 1-2% of the world's mine supply of the period, Finland accounts for 0.1% of the world's population, and there are other bitcoin proponents in Finland whose influence is not accounted for in the number. (In fact, some Finnish bitcoin circles are antagonistic towards me, as they regard me as a newbie because of my low tech skills.)

Without these early adopters, I would not have heard about Bitcoin. I truly felt like an old fart, all of 2010-2011, as there was a lively Bitcoin scene partly attached to our superfood- precious metals scene, while personally I felt that Bitcoin was too geeky. After a quite in-depth understanding of what Bitcoin is, it took me more than 12 months to invest. I could not have heard about it, were it not for the early adopters, and needless to say, now it is too late to wait for 12 months if you only now hear of it. Bitcoin is going to the moon and back in 12 months.

I have btw never loaded Bitcoin-qt so me and my clients are wholly under the radar of that list  

[Jeweller]

Looking at the "penetration" of bitcoin by country, I'm surprised at how low Japan is on the list. I would think that the technophilic home country of MtGox would find the Bitcoin story interesting, especially given that it was created by "Satoshi Nakamoto."

And the new quantitative easing (money-printing) policy of Abe's government should give Japanese a strong incentive to look into hedges against inflation, such as Bitcoin.

Not to mention that MtGox is located in Japan. Maybe it's because many live in small apartments where a noisy mining rig would be quite disturbing.

It is quite perplexing.  I really don't think it's because of small apartments.  It's mainly because nobody here has ever heard of it.  The JPY market on MtGox has extremely low volume, despite the fact that it's very fast and easy to get yen onto MtGox.

The other weird thing is that foreign exchange trading works as a de facto legal gambling industry here.  I don't have any good figures for the popularity, but in subways / trains / TV there are countless ads for FX trading platforms.  Mostly JPY / USD / EUR I guess.  Not sure if you actually get to take delivery or if it's more of a derivative like the CFD stuff which seems more popular in the EU.

But yeah.  No bitcoin awareness in Japan, no media, nothing.  Who knows why.  Might be that people are pretty old & conservative; I wouldn't expect my grandparents, nor Warren Buffet, nor most Japanese elderly people to understand bitcoin.

[Anenome5]

It is big news, yes, but not 300k by the end of the year news. That would mean that bitcoins has a market cap of 330 trillion. That's not delusional, its funny lol.

The math works out to only about $3 trillion, actually. World currency estimate is around $60 trillion+. So, it's plausible actually if a world bitcoin-rush were triggered to see that number.

I don't doubt we'll see a bitcoin rush at some point, the incentives are too great. First people in win big. It's self-reinforcing. But it might be more like in two decades from now rather than end of the year

[Bitcoinpro]

I even deleted some posts of people who just told me they liked the thread, not because I don't appreciate their feedback, just trying to keep the discussion readable and the page count down. Malawi's latest post will obviously not be deleted cuz he offers a point in the discussion. Feel free to do the same.
-- Just so you know, I might end up deleting your last post and my response to it.

But the post where I pointed out your tinfoil-view of the world in your opening posts were deleted.....

Give me your reasons that my point of view is on par with wearing a tin-foil hat and I will be happy to leave it up.

You are exaggerating the importance of BTC and that CCTV airing way to much.

Also you highly exaggerated the censorship of non-political stuff in China. This is viewed as an economic subject and are not censored in the same way. I'm pretty sure there have been plenty of programs about stocks that skyrockets etc.

And last but not least - you think the US government is shitting their pants because of that 1/2 hrs show and fears that BTC is going to make the dollar more or less obsolete.

have you seen the new zealand yt video

[WilderedB]

why video? Link it?

[Stunna]

The more, the merrier!

[spartacus_]

I am ready for mass adoption.
 

[Malawi]

I even deleted some posts of people who just told me they liked the thread, not because I don't appreciate their feedback, just trying to keep the discussion readable and the page count down. Malawi's latest post will obviously not be deleted cuz he offers a point in the discussion. Feel free to do the same.
-- Just so you know, I might end up deleting your last post and my response to it.

But the post where I pointed out your tinfoil-view of the world in your opening posts were deleted.....

Give me your reasons that my point of view is on par with wearing a tin-foil hat and I will be happy to leave it up.

You are exaggerating the importance of BTC and that CCTV airing way to much.

Also you highly exaggerated the censorship of non-political stuff in China. This is viewed as an economic subject and are not censored in the same way. I'm pretty sure there have been plenty of programs about stocks that skyrockets etc.

And last but not least - you think the US government is shitting their pants because of that 1/2 hrs show and fears that BTC is going to make the dollar more or less obsolete.

have you seen the new zealand yt video

Yes. and they are ignorant/clueless. Still - it only proves my point, BTC is not seen as some kind of a threat.

[MAbtc]

Was there even a modicum of evidence offered here? Or is this more wishful thinking? TIA

[jinni]

4,97   Finland
4,73   Sweden
4,38   Netherlands
3,91   Estonia
3,81   Norway

I didn't do Iceland, which figures out to 4,88.

[wachtwoord]

4,97   Finland
4,73   Sweden
4,38   Netherlands
3,91   Estonia
3,81   Norway

I didn't do Iceland, which figures out to 4,88.

Iceland, the only country worldwide I know of that did the right thing in the entire banking crisis: They let their banks default. Go Iceland!

[jinni]

Was there even a modicum of evidence offered here? Or is this more wishful thinking? TIA

There is evidence of a strategic fundamental shift. A country which has a lot of interest in seeing Bitcoin succeed has tacitly approved of it. This country also happens to be the world's most populous and the second biggest economy in the world.

Still Bitcoin won't have any real geopolitical importance until we see a $1 trillion+ market cap. But before that time comes, it is very interesting to see how the different global players react to it.

[Equality]

well we are screwed. due to the Chinese currency manipulation if an American can mine bitcoins for a profit at $100 a bitcoin, a Chinese can mine bitcoins for a profit at $50 a bitcoin assuming he pays the same price for electricity as the American. this is probably exaggerated but you get my point. considering we can mine bitcoins for a profit, a Chinese can become rich mining these shits right now. considering there are over a billion Chinese they have the potential to cause the difficulty to skyrocket and drive profitability into the ground if enough people start getting into bitcoin. this could force everyone else out of the market as far as mining goes due to the currency manipulation.

notice the difference in economic policy between the US and China? the Chinese see a brand new industry and growth market in digital currencies. they saw that western countries are cornering the market so they ran this story on state run TV to get the Chinese people to start adopting bitcoin. while western governments say nothing but bad things about bitcoin and try to drive people away from it. they see it as a threat to the old banks and try to destroy it. crony capitalism at its finest. while the evil rich people who control China see the economics of it, it's a new booming industry and a growth market. they want China to control it and corner the market on it. this is exactly why China's economy is growing so rapidly and quickly becoming the largest economy in the world and why western economies are either stagnant or shrinking. similar to solar panels, the Chinese see it as a growth market and are trying to have China corner the market on it. while in America they see solar power as a threat to the old coal industry and try to destroy it. while America is only concerned with protecting the old banking and coal industries, which destroys the economy. China is only concerned with economic growth. which is better? if earth continues on its current path and no major events disrupt civilization then China will definitely become the most powerful nation in the world in the coming decades. the country with the largest economy is always the most powerful country in the world and China will have the largest economy in the world soon. i would say advantage: China.

as America weakens under corruption and crony capitalism (fascism?), China strengthens under it's form of communism.

BTW i'm not saying that the Chinese government is good, it's not, it's simply better for gaining power. notice how i didn't say America is a democracy, i think it's actually fascist. real democracy and direct democracy is good for gaining economic power too and better than what the Chinese government calls communism.

then again i could be wrong and they simply want to use bitcoin as a weapon against the USD.

[takagari]

Very interesting, Here's hoping

[bitcool]

It is quite perplexing.  I really don't think it's because of small apartments.  It's mainly because nobody here has ever heard of it.  The JPY market on MtGox has extremely low volume, despite the fact that it's very fast and easy to get yen onto MtGox.

The other weird thing is that foreign exchange trading works as a de facto legal gambling industry here.  I don't have any good figures for the popularity, but in subways / trains / TV there are countless ads for FX trading platforms.  Mostly JPY / USD / EUR I guess.  Not sure if you actually get to take delivery or if it's more of a derivative like the CFD stuff which seems more popular in the EU.

But yeah.  No bitcoin awareness in Japan, no media, nothing.  Who knows why.  Might be that people are pretty old & conservative; I wouldn't expect my grandparents, nor Warren Buffet, nor most Japanese elderly people to understand bitcoin.

Is there any great thinker or philosopher coming out from Japan ? Michio kaku doesn't count as he grew up in the states.

Individualism  seems to be a rare commodity there .

[bobdude17]

There's a few different topics addressed in this post but I wanted to comment on the security issue. Anyone who thinks that having instant access to a huge some of money that is easily transferable and pretty much untraceable wouldn't make you a target for violent criminals is being pretty naive. In 'first world' countries such as USA or UK people will commit violent armed robberies in broad daylight in banks for possible rewards of tens of thousands of dollars. They would definitely prefer to rob less well protected individuals for greater sums. It's not only South America where things like this occur.
 I mentioned this in the 'how many bitcoins have you got' thread and suggested a time delay wallet similar to the safes in banks. On reflection this might just result in you being held by the violent criminals for even longer, making the whole experience of losing all your money even more unpleasant.

 There is one possible solution. You ask a trusted third party such as a lawyer to generate a secret key unknown to you. You generate your own secret key. A bitcoin address is formed that needs both keys to be known to open it (this is easily done) and you transfer your bitcoins to this address. The lawyer cannot access these bitcoins.
 Then in order to access your bitcoins you have to go to your lawyers office and sign a release form and you are given the other key.
 But please ensure that all of the violent criminals are aware that you have done this.

 Alternatively spend all of your bitcoins and your fiat as soon as you get it. I use this method and it works fine.

That would work. I do tend to think that a lot of Bitcoin holders will want to keep their private keys in a bank/vault. It is a concept that most people comfortable/used to. Would be interesting if banks just started printing off banknotes backed by Bitcoin.

notice the difference in economic policy between the US and China? the Chinese see a brand new industry and growth market in digital currencies. they saw that western countries are cornering the market so they ran this story on state run TV to get the Chinese people to start adopting bitcoin. while western governments say nothing but bad things about bitcoin and try to drive people away from it. they see it as a threat to the old banks and try to destroy it. crony capitalism at its finest.

It really is quite illuminating. Makes me think of this article.
http://lewrockwell.com/rosenberg/rosenberg-p17.1.html

[jamesgarfield]

While I do think I grasp the overall idea planned by the designer(s), I can't help but thinking he might be wrong. There is a very good possibility society could slip into the sort of communal economic utopia that he had envisioned, but I think human nature will be expressed despite the fairness of the monetary system. There will be people with more and people with less, and people with more will have more power and options to tempt those with less. And should such a utopia be established, I have my doubts about the peace lasting after the first generation lives and dies.

I know where you are going with this, and I see it to be probable as well, but I just don't think it will hold. You are definitely correct that people will be awestruck by the first wave of developments.

[bobdude17]

You're quoting me, without quotes, as a reply? I'm confused.