Video: What Is Bitcoin? from weusecoins.com

[caveden]

The video already helped a non-libertarian-nor-geek close to me to better understand what was this bitcoin thing I've been publishing stuff about on facebook.

[Stefan Thomas]

That said, I will be pessimistic here and predict that this video will not go viral.

[...]

And all I hear is "Bitcoins are created at a limited rate" (I'm thinking: if it's decentralized, how can that possibly be enforced) then later I hear "a transaction is verified by a miner" (I'm thinking: how is it verified? if anyone can be a miner, what is that verification worth? why does it even need to be verified? [having just heard of the system, I will probably not immediately think of the problem of double-spending]).

I agree, but you can never plan for something to go viral - we're just trying to add to the pool of resources that make Bitcoin hip and interesting. The idea is that you can send the video to somebody and they'll be curious enough to read up on how Bitcoin works. You mention how all these questions are popping up in your head - that's exactly the effect we were looking for. If you neatly tie everything off, people will look at it, think it's cool and be on their way. If you raise more questions than you answer you get people to click through, read the website, read the wiki, try the client, post on their blog 20 reasons why Bitcoin is stupid - that's what you want!

Note that we recognize there is a need for longer, more explanatory videos. That's the number one thing we plan to invest in if we win the bounty.

[kiba]

I think weusecoins.com screwed up the steps. The getting started page for example tell you to get bitcoin from the facuet. How? I don't even have a wallet.

There's no reference to the bitcoin forum and the bitcoin software or a wallet service as far as I see.

You need a call to action item that is visible on the front page of your video.

[suntsu]

Very well done. It deserves a place on www.bitcoin.org and the bounty.

[stakhanov]

The link on reddit is rising fast! Don't hesitate to answer questions.

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/g9sdr/bitcoins_a_decentralized_and_anonymous_currency/

[Anonymous]

Very nicely done video, indeed. It's great to see this kind of quality work around the Bitcoin community.

That said, I will be pessimistic here and predict that this video will not go viral. Because it fails - in my opinion - to communicate the most important characteristic: that Bitcoin is a decentralized system. Sure, it's mentioned in the beginning, but that's more or less it. I mean, who is the target audience here? I think it's mostly early-adopter geeks. Average Joe won't trust his money to the Bitcoin system before all his friends do. So as a early-adopter geek I naturally want to understand how this thing works. And all I hear is "Bitcoins are created at a limited rate" (I'm thinking: if it's decentralized, how can that possibly be enforced) then later I hear "a transaction is verified by a miner" (I'm thinking: how is it verified? if anyone can be a miner, what is that verification worth? why does it even need to be verified? [having just heard of the system, I will probably not immediately think of the problem of double-spending]).

So in effect the video just claims in a number of pretty pictures that Bitcoin "is changing finance" and I'm left wondering: how does it work? Then I have to read the white paper or what? I'm sorry, this is the age of ADHD - I'm watching the video, because I don't want to read some technical paper.

I'm realizing that all this is very, very hard to communicate, so I can totally understand why they went for a more "simplified" route. I also don't really have a better way of explaining it in a short amount of time. But I think it's necessary for a video to go viral. It's the difference between "aha, ok, nice claims" and "wow, this is a brilliant concept, I need to forward this to my friends".

But I hope I can be proven wrong by having this video hit Reddit, Digg & Slashdot soon. ;-)

So far over 6000 views. Not too shabby .

 

[hugolp]

Is there an organized effort to add translated subtitles to the video? I volunteer myself to do the catalan and spanish translation, but it would make my life much easier if I could get the english subtitles (if they exists).

[Stefan Thomas]

Is there an organized effort to add translated subtitles to the video? I volunteer myself to do the catalan and spanish translation, but it would make my life much easier if I could get the english subtitles (if they exists).

Here you go: http://rapidshare.com/files/453964245/What_is_Bitcoin.srt

Note that the subtitles are ultra-fast, so when you translate: Use the shortest wording possible!

[CCCMikey]

It needs a more user-friendly client Is there a similar project actually going on for that? (Other than the Ubuntu one I just saw - that's a rather small market segment.)

Other than that, the video is great

[bitcoinex]

Can you provide video without english speech?

It will be useful for translations to another languages

[FreeMoney]

Is there an organized effort to add translated subtitles to the video? I volunteer myself to do the catalan and spanish translation, but it would make my life much easier if I could get the english subtitles (if they exists).

Here you go: http://rapidshare.com/files/453964245/What_is_Bitcoin.srt

Note that the subtitles are ultra-fast, so when you translate: Use the shortest wording possible!

I like the speed, but would it make sense to remove the audio and slow it down a little for foreign subs?

Would it be easy to release a version with no audio words, only sounds and let people try to re-dub in various languages? I imagine you have sound effects and speech on different tracks, yes?

[CCCMikey]

It's certainly more user friendly than the much earlier effort at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JwYL2HfS7s

5BTC for the first person to post the original SWF version since this one is a bit low res.

[hugolp]

Is there an organized effort to add translated subtitles to the video? I volunteer myself to do the catalan and spanish translation, but it would make my life much easier if I could get the english subtitles (if they exists).

Here you go: http://rapidshare.com/files/453964245/What_is_Bitcoin.srt

Note that the subtitles are ultra-fast, so when you translate: Use the shortest wording possible!

There you go:

Catalan: http://www.easy-share.com/1914371366/What_is_Bitcoin%20(cat).srt

Spanish: http://www.easy-share.com/1914371386/What_is_Bitcoin%20(es).srt

*I dont know how long they will be up in that free server, but if you have any problem just send me a private message and I will send them again.

[bitcoinex]

Russian srt (utf8)

[sirius]

Maybe link to instawallet.org should be added to the getting started page?

[Gavin Andresen]

Maybe link to instawallet.org should be added to the getting started page?

Nothing against jav, but I think instawallet needs a month or three of 'soak time' to give the scammers and script kiddies time to try to break it (and to see how jav reacts to the scammers and script kiddies trying to break it...).

[Dusty]

I made the Italian version of this great video, available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSUJqb33Sd8

It is dubbed, not simply subbed, that helps a lot the peple watching it, even if I find that it "runs" too fast, I would have preferred to describe things more slowly thus giving people more time to grasp all those new concepts.

Ideally it would be great to have it dubbed in all major languages

Can it be added to the italian part of the wiki or some important starting point?

Thanks

[grondilu]

I made the Italian version of this great video, available here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSUJqb33Sd8

It is dubbed, not simply subbed, that helps a lot the peple watching it, even if I find that it "runs" too fast, I would have preferred to describe things more slowly thus giving people more time to grasp all those new concepts.

Ideally it would be great to have it dubbed in all major languages

Can it be added to the italian part of the wiki or some important starting point?

Thanks

Well done.   However, this makes me realize how short is the english language, really.  You really seem to struggle to have your text fit in the time frame of the video.

[Dusty]

Well done.   However, this makes me realize how short is the english language, really.  You really seem to struggle to have your text fit in the time frame of the video.

Yes, it was my first dubbing and I'm certainly not a pro, and the dubbing was heavily edited to make it fit.

Italian is surely less concise than English, but I find also the English version a bit too fast.
Bitcoin is so radically different than every other currency that it's very difficult to grasp that concept in such a handful of seconds for the average (or not) guy, in my opinion.

I don't follow all the threads but it seemed that another version of the video is at work, and that would be wonderful :-)