What does the Bitcoin need the most now?

[ThePiachu]

What do you all think is the area in the Bitcoin community that needs the most help right now? That is, if I had some money and/or man-hours to sink into something, what should I use those resources towards that would benefit the community the most? Should I help with the main client, develop my own client, pool, exchange, trade, store, or perhaps introduce new people to the concept that is Bitcoin?

[malevolent]

introduce new people to the concept that is Bitcoin?

Yes.
Big people.
And big companies.

But it mightn't be easy.

[cbeast]

introduce new people to the concept that is Bitcoin?

Or even just give away what you can afford to people in the form of paper keys, smartphone apps, or whatever is easy for you. Show them how easy bitcoin is to use. Show them how secure bitcoin is.

[the joint]

introduce new people to the concept that is Bitcoin?

Yes.
Big people.
And big companies.

But it mightn't be easy.

Actually,  I think too big of a company right now would be horrible for Bitcoin.  Watch them adopt it and eat up 50% of the market.

I think #1 issue is insurance.

[cbeast]

introduce new people to the concept that is Bitcoin?

Yes.
Big people.
And big companies.

But it mightn't be easy.

Actually,  I think too big of a company right now would be horrible for Bitcoin.  Watch them adopt it and eat up 50% of the market.

I think #1 issue is insurance.

If they tried, the price would shoot up too fast.

[ThePiachu]

I think an important issue is turning more of the Bitcoin community from working on Bitcoin-centered solutions (clients on different platforms, new websites to manage bitcoins and calculate earnings, etc.) to working on growing the amount of business to accept Bitcoins. The infrastructure seems to be pretty stable, there are a lot of steady miners hashing it away, but you can't buy all that much with Bitcoins.

[Jalum]

It needs people to genuinely care about it and use it as a currency, and not as a get rich quick scheme.  Right now everyone here just wants a massive influx of users so their own wealth skyrockets long enough for them to cash back out into worthless fiat dollars.  See Atlas' lamentations about how low the price is and how we should be doing everything possible to "spread the word".

The reality is that if you get a massive amount of people to buy bitcoins, you'll just have a lot more registered users here all asking the same questions you are: what do we do with our bitcoins?  They're cumbersome to manage, expensive to transact with, and they're a beacon for scammers of all shapes and sizes.  This is to say nothing of the USD/BTC volatility which makes serious vendors laugh at the idea of accepting them.

[jwzguy]

Mainly we need solid and financially reasonable merchant services. Supposedly there are a lot of people working on this. But I haven't seen anything I can sell to businesses yet.

[cbeast]

At the price it is, we can afford to give away bitcents to LOTS of people. We tell them what it is and it's potential. Bitcoin will become collectable. The more collectable it becomes, the more valuable it becomes. As it grows in value, people will begin to trade bitcoin for goods or other currencies. Vendors will adapt to accepting bitcoin. Rinse. Repeat. QED

[BitcoinPorn]

Make these forums official again so when people reference the "Bitcoin Community" it can actually have a definite meaning.

Or take down the link to the Bitcoin Stack Exchange and that Google search link on the front page of http://bitcoin.org and point to this page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin:Community_portal

[cbeast]

Make these forums official again so when people reference the "Bitcoin Community" it can actually have a definite meaning.

Or take down the link to the Bitcoin Stack Exchange and that Google search link on the front page of http://bitcoin.org and point to this page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin:Community_portal

^10

[edd]

There needs to be a wider variety of goods and services available for bitcoins at rates that are at least as good as other currencies. One of the main attractions for me when I first heard about bitcoins was the elimination of the need to pay credit card companies or Paypal to accept money electronically - that's a huge savings for any merchant and it should be passed along to the customer.

[ThePiachu]

At the price it is, we can afford to give away bitcents to LOTS of people. We tell them what it is and it's potential. Bitcoin will become collectable. The more collectable it becomes, the more valuable it becomes. As it grows in value, people will begin to trade bitcoin for goods or other currencies. Vendors will adapt to accepting bitcoin. Rinse. Repeat. QED

Hmm, this would be an interesting idea - set up some fund, get some people from the community involved in donating some coins, and then sending some coins in form of QR-codes to some charities, computer-related internet celebrities, or other things that would get the community some good publicity and exposure.

[evoorhees]

Mainly we need solid and financially reasonable merchant services. Supposedly there are a lot of people working on this. But I haven't seen anything I can sell to businesses yet.

Bit-pay.com

[Meni Rosenfeld]

Education / information resources. Currently someone who learns about Bitcoin can't get clean, concise, accurate information. The wiki might be the proper venue for this but currently leaves a lot to be desired.

[JeffK]

A good PR campaign. Preferably not one run by any of the people on the forums who want to or think they are qualified to run one.

[Rassah]

Get an official letterhead from a large, well known company (Amazon? Apple? Facebook? eBay?), write up an "internal memo" referring to how they are supposedly setting up their retail servers to work with Bitcoin and plan to accept Bitcoin soon, and secretly "leak" it to a bunch of newspapers, as if it's coming from someone deep within the company, but the information is supposed to be kept secret and will likely be denied.
Then sit back and watch the firestorm as papers and magazines publish about the leak and the company scrambles to deny it, despite the "leak" implying they would, anyway. With a large enough company this may generate quite a lot of publicity, and, if they are forced to look into what the heck it is, may even convince them to accept Bitcoin after all.
This would have to be done by an expert troll tough, way beyond my capabilities.

[Explodicle]

I'm starting to think we should focus more on bounties:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Active_Bounties
Both offering them and completing them.

I'll blame myself first, I've been all talk and no actual work.

[ThePiachu]

I'm starting to think we should focus more on bounties:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Active_Bounties
Both offering them and completing them.

I'll blame myself first, I've been all talk and no actual work.

Hmm, almost all of the bounty links seem not to be working...

[jwzguy]

Mainly we need solid and financially reasonable merchant services. Supposedly there are a lot of people working on this. But I haven't seen anything I can sell to businesses yet.

Bit-pay.com

It's impossible to tell what part of their services are launched and what part are "coming soon", and from what I've heard their rates aren't very attractive. Their website needs a lot of work.