Is the world too dumb for Bitcoins?

[mercilesssuggy]

Anyone reading this post has an IQ higher than the average person.

What makes me say that? Well, the average person in England for example reads The Sun which we know due to the popularity of the paper.

Unfortunately, as us intelligent Brits know, The Sun is a sad perspective of news. One of todays top stories:
"70 year old man's escort is son's girlfriend".

Equally, last week, I was at my girlfriends cousins house. He has 4 daughters ranging from 6 to 12 - He's an intelligent investor, very wealthy, but had no idea there were parental controls on the iphones/ipads he's given to his daughters and didn't know about the dangers online *sigh*.

We live in a non technical world where most people aren't technical, but those who are technical tend to be more successful these days...

The bad news, is for BTC to become the type of global currency we want it to be, the world needs to embrace it. In a world where our laws don't embrace international crime over the web, how are people going to ever want to explore something they simply don't understand?

I feel Bitcoin has a major problem and one that can't be solved for a generation or two, and that's to do with intelligence and understanding.

I invested at $1k - As a technical person, I'd been following the rise and can see the long term sustainability and benefits of BTC. If everyone around me non technical who also started hearing about it invested, that price would be $10k+, but I can't see it achieving high limits due to the reasons stated. I now worry we'll see the price lower long term as the world moves away from it..

Thoughts?

[1713419201]

1713419201

[1713419201]

1713419201

[FierceRadish]

Yes. But they were once too dumb for the internet.

[Lloydie]

Same thing with the Internet in the early days. Bitcoin will come up with solutions for non tech people within the next 12 to 36 months. One of these innovations will become popular with the masses. In any event there are people already working on the distribution of digital currency issue.

[RodeoX]

Yes. But they were once too dumb for the internet.

That's exactly what jumped to my mind. People use the Internet every day but have no clue about the TCP/IP protocol. All the Internet code is now hidden under click here buttons. That will happen to bitcoin as well. So, yes I'm too dumb for bitcoin but smart people are making it easier for me all the time.

[kkaspar]

Anyone reading this post has an IQ higher than the average person.

What makes me say that? Well, the average person in England for example reads The Sun which we know due to the popularity of the paper.

Unfortunately, as us intelligent Brits know, The Sun is a sad perspective of news. One of todays top stories:
"70 year old man's escort is son's girlfriend".

Equally, last week, I was at my girlfriends cousins house. He has 4 daughters ranging from 6 to 12 - He's an intelligent investor, very wealthy, but had no idea there were parental controls on the iphones/ipads he's given to his daughters and didn't know about the dangers online *sigh*.

We live in a non technical world where most people aren't technical, but those who are technical tend to be more successful these days...

The bad news, is for BTC to become the type of global currency we want it to be, the world needs to embrace it. In a world where our laws don't embrace international crime over the web, how are people going to ever want to explore something they simply don't understand?

I feel Bitcoin has a major problem and one that can't be solved for a generation or two, and that's to do with intelligence and understanding.

I invested at $1k - As a technical person, I'd been following the rise and can see the long term sustainability and benefits of BTC. If everyone around me non technical who also started hearing about it invested, that price would be $10k+, but I can't see it achieving high limits due to the reasons stated. I now worry we'll see the price lower long term as the world moves away from it..

Thoughts?

People may miss the technical aspects of bitcoin, but most can see the financial aspects and understand that playing bitcoin is a high risk gamble. It doesn't make people dumb, that they don't like to gamble to fill the pockets of the earlier adopters.

[Torque]

I think you guys are missing the OP's point entirely.  

IMO it's not about bitcoin being easier to use, it's about the ignorant and stupid masses that seem to want to panic sell every single day/week there is an "OMG, Mt Gox!", "OMG they found Satoshi!", "OMG ancient coins on the move!"

If the gullible masses are so easily to manipulate to dump coins by the mass Media (who works directly for the Corptocracy, who in turn is in bed with the politicians, the banks and the WS sharks), then what makes the future of Bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) any different than it is today?  It's not like negative Media about bitcoin will just stop in 5 years.

[Automatic]

Yes. But they were once too dumb for the internet.

They still are, the amount of times people have asked me "What's my password?", "Where's the login page?", or, "Is it a virus?" is insane.

[Ekaros]

People may miss the technical aspects of bitcoin, but most can see the financial aspects and understand that playing bitcoin is a high risk gamble. It doesn't make people dumb, that they don't like to gamble to fill the pockets of the earlier adopters.

Yes, to gamble to fill pockets of early adopters, or to consider that there could be other games which  probably end up winning...

[mercilesssuggy]

Yes. But they were once too dumb for the internet.

They still are, the amount of times people have asked me "What's my password?", "Where's the login page?", or, "Is it a virus?" is insane.

My point exactly..

People don't think using the internet is a risk because it doesn't cost them anything, when in reality by not taking security precautions they risk identity theft and all sorts of other frauds.

With Bitcoins, like the internet, people won't understand the risks, but because it requires trading their cash for BTC, why would they ever do it without understanding???

I fear intelligence will be the biggest wall for BTC, and one that can be overcome, but not in this generation Our kids will love BTC though!

[kkaspar]

I think you guys are missing the OP's point entirely.  

IMO it's not about bitcoin being easier to use, it's about the ignorant and stupid masses that seem to want to panic sell every single day/week there is an "OMG, Mt Gox!", "OMG they found Satoshi!", "OMG ancient coins on the move!"

If the gullible masses are so easily to manipulate to dump coins by the mass Media (who works directly for the Corptocracy, who in turn is in bed with the politicians, the banks and the WS sharks), then what makes the future of Bitcoin (or any cryptocurrency) any different than it is today?  It's not like negative Media about bitcoin will just stop in 5 years.

If there are tons of people who buy without any solid reason, then you can be sure, that there are also people who sell without any solid reason. For instance people actually cried "this is the bottom, now we are going back up", after one of the biggest exchanges probably lost all of their customers funds. So, they actually thought that it is positive news that confidence to the entire market system got a painful hit.
The bitcoin market is a gamble most of the time, because people can't comprehend what is important and what is not. The price can actually go up, when it should go down and vice versa.

[Ibian]

Yes, but they are greedy enough for it.

[ibminer]

Yes. But they were once too dumb for the internet.

They still are, the amount of times people have asked me "What's my password?", "Where's the login page?", or, "Is it a virus?" is insane.

People are too stupid to use the internet:   Create AOL
... AOL got them online... but they are still too stupid.
make phones smarter... try to improve something they already use... ahh they are still too stupid, create a tablet... give them little icons to push a finger on to get to the internet.

It is a never ending battle to dumb down advanced technologies for everyone, but we're getting closer.

 

[BitOnyx]

Average means 50% to 50%. So half of population is smarter then average and half of population is dumber. Still intelligence is thing difficult to describe. It is main reason why IQ doesn't measure intelligence. IQ tests measure level of ones skill at writing the test. If you even would say average level is rather low, do you determine yourself also lower, or maybe not high enough to rise average higher.

When it comes to The Sun, compare UK population to sells of the Sun. Also being misinformed dean't mean someone is stupid.

[Dragonkiller]

People are stupid. People are irresponsible. The middleman (banks) will always exist because he provides a service for these people.

The general public will not go and put their life savings on a piece of paper with no recourse even if they understand the technology (which is still a pretty big if). I assume this is what companies like Circle are working on.

The role I see for bitcoin is as an underlying protocol used by banks etc to settle transactions between themselves. It is not designed for use by average consumers directly (at least not without layers built on top of it).

I also see it remaining as an uncorrelated asset among other things. Bitcoin is not really a currency; it is an asset that can be very easily transferred.

[mercilesssuggy]

When it comes to The Sun, compare UK population to sells of the Sun. Also being misinformed dean't mean someone is stupid.

I agree with that statement, but at the same time, if you saw someone pay money to buy and read The Sun, what would it tell you about that person?

Not many people read both The Sun & The Financial Telegraph for example...

Saying that, even readers of the FT aren't generally that technical as teccies will simply use the web! Hey ho.

[piramida]

"70 year old man's escort is son's girlfriend".

more details please?

As for your question, two things - why did you only invest at 1k if you say you are technical? Sure everybody heard about bitcoin the first time in 2012, just that most people dismissed it as non-practical. Hence stupid, won't understand the brightest idea unless pushed into it forcefully by greed. Did this mistake myself, in 2009. And second - why do you care what the price is? It's amazingly well at 500. One day it will be worth more, but you can build services on bitcoin network regardless of the price. Ignore the price for several years, or end up like all the greedy ones who buy high, sell low, then curse bitcoin for years

So yes, people are stupid, all of them.

[mercilesssuggy]

"70 year old man's escort is son's girlfriend".

more details please?

As for your question, two things - why did you only invest at 1k if you say you are technical? Sure everybody heard about bitcoin the first time in 2012, just that most people dismissed it as non-practical. Hence stupid, won't understand the brightest idea unless pushed into it forcefully by greed. Did this mistake myself, in 2009. And second - why do you care what the price is? It's amazingly well at 500. One day it will be worth more, but you can build services on bitcoin network regardless of the price. Ignore the price for several years, or end up like all the greedy ones who buy high, sell low, then curse bitcoin for years

So yes, people are stupid, all of them.

1) I actually invested when the price was $100. Unfortunately, the money I used to invest disappeared when transferring to Bitstamp. 6 months later, and after threatening Bitstamp with court action, it finally got recovered. The issue was put down to being lost in the international banking system. I didn't have any other money to use during the investment and in that time, the price sky rocketed. I was VERY angry, very upset, but there was nothing I could do. The choice was either to decide not to invest at $1k or to invest.. I wanted to be part of it so decided to invest. And then all the crap started happening
2) I didn't invest to make a quick buck so don't mind that the price is lower.. though I am started to get concerned it won't even ever recover!
3) http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/5492825/man-hires-escort-who-turns-out-to-be-sons-girlfriend.html is the original article, but if you don't want to pay to read it (which I haven't), apparently it's now been copied on other media sites:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italian-pensioner-hires-an-escort-who-turns-out-to-be-his-sons-girlfriend-9176530.html

[pioter]

Anyone reading this post has an IQ higher than the average person.

danke , u make me smart

[BitChick]

Who has seen the movie "Idiocracy?"  That movie is funny on so many levels but in a way shows the direction our society is going.

That said, I think that someone can be "dumb" but still be "wise."  Someone can be "brilliant" yet be a "fool."

For example (please don't take offense at this) but a really intelligent person could have seen the value in Bitcoin, mined for coins early on, then let them sit on Mt. Gox without worrying about the fact that there were problems there.

Or, a really "dumb" person could be wise enough to listen to her "smarter" husband and take the small amount of coins off the exchange before it went down (using my own personal story here).

This carries out in other areas of life too.  I see intelligent people make foolish choices in relationships and "dumb" people are loyal and have long lasting relationships and so on.

But all that said, there will need to be simpler ways for Bitcoin to be used for the "normal" world to get involved.  Security measures will need to be built in automatically and ease of use will be a major factor in how widely Bitcoin is adopted by the masses.

[philip2000uk]

too dumb for anything but what the tv spits out in uk anyway