Does the general public know they can buy fractions of Bitcoin?

[BittBurger]

What's really odd is that most people posting agree that the public feel you can only buy whole Bitcoins yet the poll suggests the opposite.

Does everyone who voted no not want to discuss?

?

The poll asks if people know they can buy in fractions.

Most say no ... people don't know they can buy in fractions.

Therefore.... they agree ... the public thinks they can only buy in whole Bitcoins.

The poll does not suggest the opposite.

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[Inedible]

Maybe exchanges should start showing prices both in BTC and mBTC side by side so new buyers (and the media?) get a clearer picture?

Right now on Bitstamp it just says "Bitcoin price: $437"

What if it said "1 Bitcoin: $437 - 1 mBitcoin: $0.437"

Or something similar.

I've been screaming for this to happen ever since I set my Bitcoin-Qt wallet to mBTC display, what, oh, a few days ago. But I'm not the one in control of the exchanges, chart interfaces, etc.

I was going to use this thread as part 1 of three.

Poll 1: Does the public know they can buy fractions?
Poll 2: What should be the smaller denomination? (I know this has been done to death but it would be to see what should be adopted rather than the merits)
Thread 3: The public doesn't know/understand the divisibility of Bitcoin. Let's get exchanges denominated in units of Poll 2.

[Inedible]

What's really odd is that most people posting agree that the public feel you can only buy whole Bitcoins yet the poll suggests the opposite.

Does everyone who voted no not want to discuss?

?

The poll asks if people know they can buy in fractions.

Most say no ... people don't know they can buy in fractions.

Therefore.... they agree ... the public thinks they can only buy in whole Bitcoins.

The poll does not suggest the opposite.

I edited it as soon as it was posted. You must have seen it before I managed to edit

[BittBurger]

Maybe im retarded, but what?

Right now it says:  "Question:    Does the general public know they can buy fractions of Bitcoin?"

Most say "No......................"

Therefore .... people think the public only knows about whole bitcoins.

What am I missing here?

[franky1]

if i go into a fruit and veg shop, i know i can buy a bunch of bananas joined together, or a single banana. but most people are used to buying bananas in bunches and pricing bananas in bunches.

so if i seen a bunch of banana's priced up as $470 i for one would think twice about buying the bunch, and then would either not bother to work out how many individual banana's were in my budget. or i would question, do i really need banana's in my life right now, before working out how much banana i can get for my budget

[Coinseeker]

1.  The general public does not care.  Bitcoin offers them no advantages over government fiat money and debit cards, so it's not viewed as a currency.
2.  It's viewed like a stock and it's really only purchased for speculation and thus, it's not about fractions, it's about how much one can afford to invest.  

At the moment I would say that this is my opinion on this. That and with all of the news about Silk Road and such, I doubt Bitcoin is viewed as a legitimate, legal currency by the general public, making them not want to buy it at all. I personally think that in a few years they will have caught on to Bitcoins, but as if they were stocks.

That's not the point of this thread. It's simply if the general public believes they can buy only whole Bitcoins, in which case it's a barrier to adoption.

Then there is no need for any conversation at all.  Just post the poll, everybody answers yes or no and we all move along.  If you're not interested in opinions on root causes, then you're not really interested in solving barrier to adoption issues, in which case, you're just wasting everyones time with this thread, especially your own.

[kwest]

I just sent the suggestion to Bitstamp with a link to this thread as well. Worth a shot.

[Inedible]

Then there is no need for any conversation at all.  Just post the poll, everybody answers yes or no and we all move along.  If you're not interested in opinions on root causes, then you're not really interested in solving barrier to adoption issues, in which case, you're just wasting everyones time with this thread, especially your own.

You've really not understood the reason for this thread.

The root cause is simple ignorance. It's not something you can change easily or without a massive budget for educating.

There's plenty of room for discussion - just not regarding things that have been rehashed over and over.

Also, this is a three part thread so I can't see how you'd know if this is a waste of time yet. However, if you're here to make yourself look smart or if you feel you're above it all then there's nothing I can do about that. Feel free to make yourself feel better.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Do people owning ten dollar bills look for things that cost exactly ten dollars, or do they know as a fact that they can purchase something cheaper and receive change. If they believe bitcoins work like the former, then it's ONLY purpose is to buy and sell them, having no other uses. There is no way in hell that they should be thinking otherwise if they know that things can be purchased with bitcoins, hence change, read less than a whole bitcoin, is returned if the purchase price is less than a full bitcoin.

[Inedible]

Do people owning ten dollar bills look for things that cost exactly ten dollars, or do they know as a fact that they can purchase something cheaper and receive change. If they believe bitcoins work like the former, then it's ONLY purpose is to buy and sell them, having no other uses. There is no way in hell that they should be thinking otherwise if they know that things can be purchased with bitcoins, hence change, read less than a whole bitcoin, is returned if the purchase price is less than a full bitcoin.

I think if they reasoned it out then they'd come to the conclusion that they must be able to buy in fractions but I suspect they don't give it enough thought and just get put off.

[raspcoin]

Do people owning ten dollar bills look for things that cost exactly ten dollars, or do they know as a fact that they can purchase something cheaper and receive change. If they believe bitcoins work like the former, then it's ONLY purpose is to buy and sell them, having no other uses. There is no way in hell that they should be thinking otherwise if they know that things can be purchased with bitcoins, hence change, read less than a whole bitcoin, is returned if the purchase price is less than a full bitcoin.

Replace dollars by cents in your analogy and you get the picture.

[dominicwin]

I was just thinking about this today. I am pretty sure those brand new to Bitcoin, especially the ones calling into talk radio think Bitcoin is in denominations of 1 BTC and don't know 0.00001 is also BTC lol.

[Trance]

First of all, this is NOT a discussion about the unit in which Bitcoin should now be denominated in. That's been discussed to death.

What I'd like to know is if people are thinking "that's too expensive - I can't afford to buy in".

Traditionally, stocks can only be purchased in whole units.

Although Bitcoin isn't a stock, the perception is that it can only be bought in whole units.

Agree/Disagree?

Of course not! The general public barely knows about the possibilities of crytpocurrency to begin with, it would take a shocker like Paypal accepting BTC / Cryptocurrency for US citizens to really get out of the cognitive dissonance the most are stuck in and realize its potentials in the near future, for sure within the next 100 years there most likely will be a one world primary currency (imo something anonymous / safe if utilized right like BTC / altcoins is groundbreaking)

[niothor]

Your question is about "General Public".
General Public  - NO. From the 10% that heard about bitcoin on the news , 99% forgot the second day.

If you asked about people who taught about buying bitcoin but never actually looked at the process I say....NO.

You have to remember that from hearing about something till actually thinking of buying and researching about it is a long process.
And humans tend to be lazy.

[dominicwin]

Does anyone here listen to the Clark Howard show on news radio? They had callers asking if bitcoin was legitimate. I think the general public and especially the not so connected people to innovation through technology are still not completely aware of bitcoin and what it is. I think we will see that soon and those deep "old money" pockets I believe will get into bitcoin. They definitely don't understand the fractions of a bitcoin at all let alone bitcoin itself.

I'm actually doing a consult with 3 local financial advisors and teaching them a course on bitcoin so they can talk to their network of financial advisors and in the end spread the word to their clients for a new opportunity to diversify their investment portfolio with a full seminar with the whole group.

Actually I think I am going to make a thread about this going into it further.

[seafarer124]

I always say to people just buy what you can afford, 100/500/1,000 dollars/pounds etc or whatever. Example: you will get 1.5/2.6/5.7btc.

Also, the higher the price of BTC the smaller percentage of one BTC is needed to spend, preserving your total coins.

[OldGeek]

The root cause is simple ignorance. . . .

True.  And if what I hear when I discuss BTC is true, then you need to add apathy.  At least in the US.

/Frank

[Pente]

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[Coinseeker]

You've really not understood the reason for this thread.

The root cause is simple ignorance. It's not something you can change easily or without a massive budget for educating.

There's plenty of room for discussion - just not regarding things that have been rehashed over and over.

Also, this is a three part thread so I can't see how you'd know if this is a waste of time yet. However, if you're here to make yourself look smart or if you feel you're above it all then there's nothing I can do about that. Feel free to make yourself feel better.

So you're suggesting if the general public just KNEW they could buy fractional amounts, they would?  Delusional.  The root cause IS simple and it's that the general public doesn't care about Bitcoin.  Not in wholes, halves or fractions.  Why, because it's useless to them.  So yes, you can push your totally original thread   of getting the exchanges to denominate Bitcoin in fractional amounts.  So glad you thought of that, as I've never seen a thread like that before.  And news flash, you can already buy fractions of Bitcoin's on every exchange I've ever used.  If you want to spend $100, you're likely to get a fractional amount, by default.  It's not rocket science.  You just type in how much you want to spend.  

[Deafboy]

I was absolutely shocked after I discovered that some well educated people working in IT thought bitcoin isn't devisible. I wasn't taking this psychological "coin" aspect seriously in the past, but now I am pissed every time I see the animated spinning coin on the TV screen.