Bitcoin’s Image Problem
I know manias. I’ve seen them again and again – hordes of people find out about a product or idea, back it with all their might, and are angry when anyone refuses to genuflect to their sacred cow. It happened to Notion Ink, it happens to Apple, it happens to Blackberry, and it happened in the vaccine autism scare, in the truthers, and in countless other subcultures who manifest their undying love with endless devotion and unremitting anger. “Beliefs make history, especially when they are wrong,” said historian Will Durant. “It is for errors that men have most nobly died.”
Bitcoin is on the verge of being wrong.
To be clear, I’m a BTC fan. I understand the value of the system as a .zip file for wealth. An unmonitored, seamless, and international transaction system is the future and, in the end, it will become part of the status quo. But Bitcoin has an image problem. Its followers see themselves as freedom fighters, attacking outsiders with vengeance and talking up their own accomplishments in the language of the already victorious. Forums like /r/bitcoin on Reddit are endlessly effusive, crowing that this cafe is accepting bitcoin and this dentist is filling cavities for bitcoin. These slight wins are literally meaningless, as important to the future of bitcoin as their decision to stock a certain type of Roma syrup. These incremental hoots make it seem like bitcoin is growing. It isn’t, at least not in a global sense. These new wins are simply PR ploys and the bitcoins exchanged are immediately converted into fiat currency.
http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/29/bitcoins-image-problem/
