This is the biggest reason stopping general public from converting to bitcoin.

[gabriella]

it is the psychology that, everyone knows if bitcoin becomes mainstream it will make all the early adopters very rich.

so now the general public learns of bitcoin, he is reluctant to support it and put his money in it because he does not want to help those "computer nerds who do no work" get hugely rich.

it is the same psychology that, no one likes a trust fund kid. everyone is prejudiced against him for just being lucky, who get to taste all the finer things in life that other people have to work very hard for their entire lives just to attain.

i know this line of thinking is irrational because "what does other people getting rich have to do with you using bitcoins?", but humans are irrational and they are naturally jealous, especially against people who seemingly win without doing any work.

so now john doe adopts a defense mechanism and simply dismiss bitcoin as another tulip mania and wish it to blow up and go away, as he slogs through another hellish day commuting to a 27k/yr corporate job he hates.

[wumpus]

so now the general public learns of bitcoin, he is reluctant to support it and put his money in it because he does not want to help those "computer nerds who do no work" get hugely rich.

So where are all those computer nerds that do no work?
Sure, there have been some stories of people that bought in 2009-2010 and recently discovered their wallets again and instantly sold, lottery-style.
But a lot also stayed around and help build the community, promoted it to merchants, or developed client code or infrastructure. Without them, no one would know of Bitcoin in the first place and it would still be some obscure project on sourceforge.

Isn't it more comparable to startup founders that make a good buck in the IPO than lucky trust fund kids?

[bryant.coleman]

I don't think that is the case. No one cares whether someone else hits a jackpot or not.

On the other hand, I found the hacking / stealing issue scaring most people away from BTCs.

I am a strong proponent of the digital currency and I have talked to hundreds of people trying to persuade them to give Bitcoin a try. It is a thankless job.. and only a handful have put their faith behind BTC. My success rate is around 3-4%. But It could have been 10%, if there was no hacking / stealing. A lot of people told me that they will not keep BTCs with them as long as the wallets are not completely safe from stealing / hacking. I tried to convince them by saying that by using paperwallet / 2FA.etc they could avoid the theft, but those options seemed too hi-fi for them.

[Coinbanker]

I live in landlocked small country, there's no paypal, visa master card merchants and okpay, dwollas allowed.
Only existing option is wire transfer of banks which robs 10% of each money transfers coming from abroad.

bitcoin is important for us, i think it doesn't matter who was early adopter since its liberating people from financial blockade.

[zimmah]

I live in landlocked small country, there's no paypal, visa master card merchants and okpay, dwollas allowed.
Only existing option is wire transfer of banks which robs 10% of each money transfers coming from abroad.

bitcoin is important for us, i think it doesn't matter who was early adopter since its liberating people from financial blockade.

Exactly, THIS is what bitcoin is designed for, a currency Without limits. It was not meent as an investment. A lot of people Sem to forgot this. We should advertise it as a currency and make apps or something to make it easy for the general public to use it.

[herzmeister]

people buy Apple products like crazy even if they didn't invest in the late 90ies in Apple stock and got filthy rich

[jballs]

it is the psychology that, everyone knows if bitcoin becomes mainstream it will make all the early adopters very rich.

so now the general public learns of bitcoin, he is reluctant to support it and put his money in it because he does not want to help those "computer nerds who do no work" get hugely rich.

it is the same psychology that, no one likes a trust fund kid. everyone is prejudiced against him for just being lucky, who get to taste all the finer things in life that other people have to work very hard for their entire lives just to attain.

No one likes trust fund kids because they are self absorbed insecure a-holes (exceptions, but that is the norm). They will on the one hand always suspect you only like them because they have money while on the other hand always reveal their money is more important to them than you.

It's a tough life in a lot of ways. I have never envied trust fund kids. I have always envied the self made and worked hard to be among them.
I think very few people are truly envious of trust fund kids.

The masses will adopt bitcoin because it's awesome.

The biggest real drawback at the moment is nobody who has them will spend them. The bitcoin economy is at a standstill until price flattens. Growing pains...

[TKeenan]

so now the general public learns of bitcoin, he is reluctant to support it and put his money in it because he does not want to help those "computer nerds who do no work" get hugely rich.

But what if bitcoin has wonderful functionality and offers to improve the lives of that same general public?  Will the general public fight the urge to use this wonderful functionality and forgo all those benefits - just so they can really stick it to those damn computer nerds?  Will the general public stand their ground saying: 'I don't care how useful it is, I am not going to use it'. 

lol - you've got funny outlook for the general public!

[niothor]

PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop feeding a known troll on this board!!!!

Look at it's previous posts!

[Badonkadonk]

PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop feeding a known troll on this board!!!!

Look at it's previous posts!

but its so much fun 

[niothor]

PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop feeding a known troll on this board!!!!

Look at it's previous posts!

but its so much fun 

Only if you feed them with a shovel!

[Badonkadonk]

PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop feeding a known troll on this board!!!!

Look at it's previous posts!

but its so much fun 

Only if you feed them with a shovel!

trolls are good for entertainment when you are bored and cant find anything to do, put the shovel down and get some popcorn! 

[Bitcoinpro]

[Badonkadonk]

omg its staring in to my soul and eating it! get it away! GET IT AWAY!

[beetcoin]

there are many unintelligent people on this board, so how do we know if this guy is genuine or not? i'd say we don't.

[niothor]

there are many unintelligent people on this board, so how do we know if this guy is genuine or not? i'd say we don't.

By checking his post history?

[zimmah]

there are many unintelligent people on this board, so how do we know if this guy is genuine or not? i'd say we don't.

By checking his post history?

discuss the topic, not the person.

[rikkejohn]

People won't adopt bitcoin because (1) there is no institutional or legal backup to the currency; and (2) the price fluctuates wildly because of speculation (we could be in a situation now where some people will lose $100k or whatever after investing at a price that to me is wildly unsustainable)

You could add another small reason: it is slow and not ideal in a world in which transactions are often instant (debit, credit card). But crypto in general can be fast so no reason to be hung up on that.

It's a kind of wild west currency, no rules, big players controlling the market, pump and dumps, and lots of fun.

But Granny won't be having any of it.

I'd love to get an insight into how the market really works, the exchanges, the big players, how organised the pumps are.

Quite fascinating.

[natd]

 The main reason is because  the exchange rate is not steady. Nobody cares if acceptance woul make anyone rich, as long as  it's useful and it has value. Otherwise people wouldn't buy Trump's properties

[Desensitizer]

Although I sense a trollish nature in the OP's original post I think that hurdles to mainstream adoption is an important topic to be discussed amongst the bitcoin community as it directly relates to the advancement of bitcoins as a whole. I know from my personal experience what seems to be the biggest hurdle amongst my friends that keeps them out of the bitcoin community is the difficulty posed in acquiring them. You can't simply Paypal or credit card the amount of bitcoins you want, you have to do complicated fee-heavy stuff like wire transfers or other currency conversions then go on marketplaces in order to safely get the customizable amount of coin you want.  I find it rather cumbersome also, but I mine bitcoins and acquire them in other ways so I myself am not too concerned.