Open letter to Russell Brand, asking him to join the bitcoin revolution

[Anon136]

this is relevant i think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2STUU3M4U3Y

[sdczen]

this is relevant i think https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2STUU3M4U3Y

Definitely relevant, thank you for sharing.

[adnanabbas]

Im not really a fan of Brand, but in that interview he made me think, got to give it to him, he had some good points

[steeev]

While Brand may be useful for exposure, anyone from the UK will be as aware as i am that for all his spiritual schtick, Brand is as much of a middle class stage-school lefty as he ever was... his courting of David Icke more recently gives him a 'currency' for his career... one which has seen him go from being a failed tv actor, to an all front, not funny 'comedian', to his present position as a failed 'movie star'...
This might read as harsh, or whatever, but this guys vacuous and trite take on the world is always peppered with 6th form schoolboy 'redistribution' , 'the govt must take care of people' stuff ... with Brand you'll get some publicity, but cheesy (to say the least) association...

[steeev]

oh, and i just watched the Max Keiser shout out to Brand... it's worth mentioning that Keiser seems to have a curious fondness for one George Galloway.. and the less said about him, the better... maybe Max should be a bit more discerning....

[BitDreams]

Parallel thinking! When I saw that video I instantly went to Mr Brand's web site and linked him the article from Bitcoin Magazine's article by V Buterin, Decentralized Autonomous Corporation.

I would wager that Russell has dozens if not hundreds of email introducing him to Bitcoin by now. Let's kick back and see how he responds. If you happen across this Russell - when you complain and someone delivers you a solution to your complaints, either start solving or stop complaining. What's it going to be?

[ANiceJewishBoy]

The first step is removing the jargon, the next step is creating systems where non-technical minds can earn coins. (ex: Devcoin, which you can earn for writing on Devtome, and literally 90% of the blocks generated go straight to the writers as the miners mine them, not a pre-mine coin... Why are there not more coins like this?) More people would come to Bitcoin if they could get them.

[vesperwillow]

More people would use altcoins if it was as simple as any other transaction these days, like swiping a card. It's not quite that simple for a lot of the non-techs out there. Some folks to this day avoid paypal even, and that's among the easiest systems out there.

If you could make a front end system for the 'general masses' which was super-dumbified-down, then you'd have a rush of people getting into at least using it for transactions.

[Bullionado]

His best investment would be to endorse this currency in the main stream media. This would be more than enough for now.

[sdczen]

His best investment would be to endorse this currency in the main stream media. This would be more than enough for now.

This would go a long way for sure.   

[franky1]

Why doesn't Russell Brand start this revolution by donating his multimillion pound fortune towards erasing wealth disparity?

Oh yeah, because he's a hypocritical moron.

donating his fortune towards erasing the wealth disparity...... that sentance  made me laugh, here is why

even if 1 trillion government bank notes flew out of the rooftops of offices and rained down onto the public streets for anyone to pick up. the majority would still end up going to the rich.
even if 1 trillion government bank notes were equally divided and put into bank accounts of only the people that had less then a months salary at minimum wage saved up. it would eventually all flow back to the rich.

put short if only 500, million people were poor thats like £$2000 for each person instantly appearing in their bank. what happens, firstly social security/government benefits wil see the person has received an income and stop the benefits for a few weeks, thats maybe £$200-£$400  of food, bills and rent costs that the 'poor' person has to deduct from the win-fall. then they most likey think what can they spend the other £$1600 on that they havnt in a while.. a vacation..

so now the money is back in government hands (government housing) its in the elite richlists hands (walmart)(richard branson(virgin holidays).

now the second part of what made me laugh.

during RB's non sober days he use to not pay taxes and instead put his money into local bars (helping local economy/business) and other 'on the street' places which were not all part of the elite richlist.. so not so hypocritical, if you actually knew much about the guy.. and yes he use to party alot giving friends and family money as i he didnt care about it. helping them out

when was the last time anyone reading this blew £$100,000 on their family and friends in one night?

[franky1]

More people would use altcoins if it was as simple as any other transaction these days, like swiping a card. It's not quite that simple for a lot of the non-techs out there. Some folks to this day avoid paypal even, and that's among the easiest systems out there.

If you could make a front end system for the 'general masses' which was super-dumbified-down, then you'd have a rush of people getting into at least using it for transactions.

totally agree, although there are App's in the works, after thinking about it, the 'silver' generation (granny) still prefer paper or plastic

[ANiceJewishBoy]

Another thing.

No one is going to show the bitcoin community love as long as greedy hoarders are the face of it. That needs to change, and everyone will make an episode about bitcoin.

No one wants to tell everyone watching TV to go talk to a bunch of assholes (the current bitcoin community).

[CurbsideProphet]

Brand is pretty notorious for being hard to work with and a general asshole to most people.  He wouldn't be at the top of my list at people to contact but any support is good support I suppose.  Thanks for getting proactive.

[vesperwillow]

More people would use altcoins if it was as simple as any other transaction these days, like swiping a card. It's not quite that simple for a lot of the non-techs out there. Some folks to this day avoid paypal even, and that's among the easiest systems out there.

If you could make a front end system for the 'general masses' which was super-dumbified-down, then you'd have a rush of people getting into at least using it for transactions.

totally agree, although there are App's in the works, after thinking about it, the 'silver' generation (granny) still prefer paper or plastic

Yeah.. if you could make it as easy as 'do i use my visa, my bank card, my paypal, or my bitcoin card..' then you'll be golden. Until that point, I picture cryptcoin transactions as something similar to the first few days of PayPal.. lots of potential awesome, but it has a long way to go before there's spread adoption.

Another thing.

No one is going to show the bitcoin community love as long as greedy hoarders are the face of it. That needs to change, and everyone will make an episode about bitcoin.

No one wants to tell everyone watching TV to go talk to a bunch of assholes (the current bitcoin community).

What would help get around this, like I said above, is if it were simply easier to pay with--because the coins will then go to merchants and get in their hands that way. It will spread slowly.

Get some sort of simple interface going, especially for multiple coins, which a merchant can adopt, and you'll see the embers start to pop up.

What would be even more amazing is if a central online merchant or retailer, Amazon comes to mind, were to allow cryptcoin payments.. oh my gosh, could you imagine how awesome that would be? Overnight there would be a surge.

And a huge jump in the value of BTC. This is what I hope for, because if the value skyrockets much quicker than difficulty, then the "no ROI ever" troll will be put into a box, at least for a short while.

[ANiceJewishBoy]

Another thing.

No one is going to show the bitcoin community love as long as greedy hoarders are the face of it. That needs to change, and everyone will make an episode about bitcoin.

No one wants to tell everyone watching TV to go talk to a bunch of assholes (the current bitcoin community).

What would help get around this, like I said above, is if it were simply easier to pay with--because the coins will then go to merchants and get in their hands that way. It will spread slowly.

Get some sort of simple interface going, especially for multiple coins, which a merchant can adopt, and you'll see the embers start to pop up.

What would be even more amazing is if a central online merchant or retailer, Amazon comes to mind, were to allow cryptcoin payments.. oh my gosh, could you imagine how awesome that would be? Overnight there would be a surge.

And a huge jump in the value of BTC. This is what I hope for, because if the value skyrockets much quicker than difficulty, then the "no ROI ever" troll will be put into a box, at least for a short while.

I mean, how much easier can payment be than copying and pasting a wallet address?

Everyone is focusing on the wrong things. The problem is NOT that people are having trouble spending their coins. The problem is THEY DO NOT HAVE COINS. We need to appeal to everyone from a 60 year old gold hoarder, to a 13 year old Justin Beiber fan. And we just have soo much left to do before that is possible. Why can't a kid that is not old enough to get a job, hop on a computer and earn coins? Devtome is the only way I see that people can earn an amount of coins that could be considered a job.

We need to look at how valuable alt coins can be, and how stupid they are right now. Altcoins get made for NO REASON, people literally make them for fun (but I hardly consider coding and mining fun) and mining then get mad at anyone that isn't techy enough to mine.

We need at least TEN coins that are like devcoin. Coins that are x% mining x% art or development.

Ex:
Devcoin is a coin where 90% of the coins that come out of a block, get generated to writers instead of miners. And it is merge mined with bitcoin, so that miners are not getting the short end of the stick.

This allows for an entirely new coin base. Now there is not just techs, but writers that have extensive knowledge about coins... Imagine if we had a coin that promoted the creation of videos, or the taking of pictures? We would see not only a flood of bitcoin recognition due to the media being produced by coiners, but we would see a spike in bitcoin purchases because struggling artists will be getting coins that they can spend on bitcoins.

Everyone knows about bitcoin (or has at least heard the word), now we just need to make it available to everyone.

[vesperwillow]

Who wants something they can't use? That's the point I make.

You can use gold and other forms of payment in the US, you don't have to use the Reserve Note (dollar). Yet--how many retailers and merchants can take gold or other items in place of the dollar? Practically none. Similar issue with online payments, unless it's a vetted and well-known industry standard, few online systems will employ it simply because it's not easy to do.

I agree, scanning a qr code is stupid easy, and I love transacting with cryptocurrencies. But tell a grandpa or any of the other folks you mentioned to go buy bitcoins, and I bet you'll get the question "what do I use it for, can I get gas with it, how do I buy stuff from stores online with it".

Again, people will want it when they find uses for it--easy uses.

Otherwise you're just pushing gold/silver/diamonds/bullets on people and telling them it's amazing to use for transactions. They simply won't be interested...kinda how the situation is right now.

Edit: Also, everyone has not heard about bitcoin or alternatives, nor what it's about, or how they can use it. That's silly to propose. I'm fairly well versed in the IT world, and despite hearing about bitcoin since its inception and how it could be used for transactions, none of it caught my eye until recently. Many other IT folk I've talked to haven't even heard of it.

[vesperwillow]

Also, I do like the idea of coins for a purpose as you mentioned, with a single main 'line' of coins for all purposes (bitcoin for example). Value is derived from purpose and use typically, so take altcoins and give them particular purposes, and you'll have inherint value.

[ANiceJewishBoy]

Who wants something they can't use? That's the point I make.

You can use gold and other forms of payment in the US, you don't have to use the Reserve Note (dollar). Yet--how many retailers and merchants can take gold or other items in place of the dollar? Practically none. Similar issue with online payments, unless it's a vetted and well-known industry standard, few online systems will employ it simply because it's not easy to do.

I agree, scanning a qr code is stupid easy, and I love transacting with cryptocurrencies. But tell a grandpa or any of the other folks you mentioned to go buy bitcoins, and I bet you'll get the question "what do I use it for, can I get gas with it, how do I buy stuff from stores online with it".

Again, people will want it when they find uses for it--easy uses.

Otherwise you're just pushing gold/silver/diamonds/bullets on people and telling them it's amazing to use for transactions. They simply won't be interested...kinda how the situation is right now.

Edit: Also, everyone has not heard about bitcoin or alternatives, nor what it's about, or how they can use it. That's silly to propose. I'm fairly well versed in the IT world, and despite hearing about bitcoin since its inception and how it could be used for transactions, none of it caught my eye until recently. Many other IT folk I've talked to haven't even heard of it.

Bitpay just needs competition, and we would see an "arms race" that would bring about all those changes. But someone needs to step up as the competitor, which would cost quite a bit.

I know that everyone has not heard EVERYTHING about bitcoin, that is why I specified that they have "heard the word bitcoin" in parenthesis.

[ANiceJewishBoy]

Also, I do like the idea of coins for a purpose as you mentioned, with a single main 'line' of coins for all purposes (bitcoin for example). Value is derived from purpose and use typically, so take altcoins and give them particular purposes, and you'll have inherint value.

Exactly. Make altcoins the "gate way drug" of bitcoin.