How do you introduce Bitcoin to people without digital literacy?

[Lida93]

I have these friends which perhaps I refer to as "economic friends" of  mine, perhaps may be due to how out paths crossed. we met few years back when I had a work to be done and was in search of persons with the right skills to deliver such service within a framed period, and since then we have had a warm friendly relativeness.
Unknown to me that the few moments  these guys have being paying me some visits  at my workplace or home
they had at different intervals observed how am always spending some part of my day on a daily on the bitcointalk forum to either just read other users threads, make comments if necessary or at times create a thread of mine.

And so have developed interest and had asked me to introduce to them what's it's all about and that they would want to get involved too, of which I was glad to see them show some interest but the challenge am having about the whole stuff is that they don't have digital literacy not even a foundation I can build on, as they are just these local craft skilled workers who have only but engaged almost all their life into their area of skill.

For days now, I have exhaustively given explanations to them about what the forum is all about and how it works. Even clearly establishing to them to the extent I know about Bitcoin currency and how the system operates but seems like I was speaking to them in a different language, one that's confusing entirely. And I currently don't know any means to use in explaining to them what I know.

Based on the idea of bringing Bitcoin awareness to everyone's doorstep so as to  encourage popular and widespread a acceptance, I then felt the need to bring this challenge am facing to the forum, so maybe other users can proffer ways or possible strategies someone like me can employ to explicitly educate to the understanding of these friends of mine that have no digital literacy but have developed interest to know what I know

For it's currently giving me a lot of concern!

[mocacinno]

Over the years, i've given up on explaining technical stuff to non-technical users that basically just want to use a technology.

It's no use to explain to somebody how (for example) firefox is open source, and show them how you can patch said code and compile it... they just want a browser to look at [insert url here].
In my IRL job, i'm pretty sure not even the developers or power users know what OS their SAP instance is running on, let alone which relational database. They just don't care.. They want to start their pre-configured developement environment and start writing code, they don't care if SLES 15 SP3 is end of support in x months, or that hana 2.00.62.00 contains a bug and needs to be upgraded to 2.00.63.00. If they come to me, it's because their development tools showed an error, or their code compiles to slow, and they want me to fix it without telling them what i'm fixing, or why i'm fixing something.


Same with bitcoin: if your friends are interested in crypto, it's very possible they're interested in USING it, not in the technical background. In this case, i'd just explain them the difference between a custodial and non-custodial wallet, explain them they can never ever give away their recovery seed or private key, make sure they have a safe setup, explain to them that transactions are irreversible and they cannot invest money they're not willing to lose... And that's about it (i guess).

If they are interested in the technical background, i'd probably guide them to a beginners book or simple youtube video instead of trying to re-invent the wheel. Very smart people have invested tons of their time to write good books and make informative videos... No need to re-iterate stuff they have already presented in a newbie-friendly way.
Once they're on board with using crypto and they've read a couple of books/watched a couple of videos, they can always come to you with very specific questions.

[Igurugwu]

I faced this challenge when i was new to the crypto space, but if these your friend don't have basic standard education it will be a bit difficult.

they have sharpen their knowledge first. they have to start from the beginning acquiring knowledge of the internet and how the internet works.

to me that's the basic foundation. a new born baby starts with milk before solid foods are introduce later on.  

[dimonstration]

You should not introduce Bitcoin if they are not interested at all unless they are the one who approached to you about it because you can’t convert a person to have interests in Bitcoin if they don’t like this kind of stuff. I have many friends but no one becomes interested on Bitcoin because if technology but rather in the amount of profit I get on it. Now I’m regretful for telling them about Bitcoin because loss a pot of many due to bad investment which I don’t have any control.

I mean if you will introduce pd Bitcoin, Make the people will become interested on its technology and not the profitability because you will just produced cancer in Bitcoin market that talking all about price and react on every fud which typically you can always see on social media like Twitter. They are the product of the wrong teaching about Bitcoin,

[pooya87]

The first thing you need to tell such people is that since they already don't understand all other things they use on a daily basis (from their smart phones and all the apps on it to their credit cards and the complicated banking system) they also don't need to know the technical aspects of bitcoin.
Stick only to the basics, learning about bitcoin should be just like learning about how to work with a computer or a smart phone for the first time. You don't know what code is being executed on your device's CPU or how it is executed, so you also don't know what happens behind the scene when you click the "send" button in your bitcoin wallet or how mining works, etc.

[NeuroticFish]

And so have developed interest and had asked me to introduce to them what's it's all about and that they would want to get involved too, of which I was glad to see them show some interest but the challenge am having about the whole stuff is that they don't have digital literacy not even a foundation I can build on, as they are just these local craft skilled workers who have only but engaged almost all their life into their area of skill.

I've met completely un-technical people who were asking even questions like "how are the bitcoins created" and "what makes them safe" which are somewhat beyond the shallow "I want to use Bitcoin, I want to earn from bitcoin" typology usually expected from newcomers.

So I'll come with something else: explain them what you can and how you can and when you get to parts you find difficult... just ask in Beginners & Help. You should get all levels of answers, some technical some not. (of course, you should search first if that question was already asked, to avoid some harsh answers too). They've already seen you using the forum, let's use it for their benefit too.

[mocacinno]

You should not introduce Bitcoin if they are not interested at all unless they are the one who approached to you about it because you can’t convert a person to have interests in Bitcoin if they don’t like this kind of stuff. I have many friends but no one becomes interested on Bitcoin because if technology but rather in the amount of profit I get on it. Now I’m regretful for telling them about Bitcoin because loss a pot of many due to bad investment which I don’t have any control.

I mean if you will introduce pd Bitcoin, Make the people will become interested on its technology and not the profitability because you will just produced cancer in Bitcoin market that talking all about price and react on every fud which typically you can always see on social media like Twitter. They are the product of the wrong teaching about Bitcoin,

I know the feeling... I regret telling one of my (technical) colleagues about my bitcoin hobby. Every time the local newspaper prints an article on how bitcoin's price is going down, he just comes to my desk with a big smirk on his face telling me my "magic internet money" is based on thin air and i'll lose every penny i invested (if the prices rise he just keeps quiet).

So far, i guess about ~20 ish of my friends, family members and collegues know i'm a crypto user (which isn't to bad since i've been in the community for ~8 years and i've switched jobs and citys during this time). Except from the one collegue who is jealous of the fact that i've made some profit and is constantly repeating every bad news article he reads (ignoring all other articles about crypto), nobody has ever shown any intrest.... and that's ok....

[bussybuddy]

Years ago, they thought I was insane for just hanging out all day. I sit at my computer and refuse to go to work, and I really don't want to reveal my work to anyone, even if they are close. Then when they see that I'm rich enough to buy a lot of things and they admire me, they want to know why I got it, and it still seems a bit of a skepticism because they don't know what I'm doing to earn it. They are still curious that I can be richer than them, and they do not accept my learning to become happy. People always take pride in their small knowledge and look at other small things as if they are big. I sometimes wonder if in each of our lives that need a change that is not directed toward learning, it will be difficult to enter into the things that we dream of.

[fiulpro]

Comparing Bitcoins with any asset works, telling them how the stocks are very similar but bitcoins is not controlled by anyone else, ofcourse they whales do have some amount of control but they can only put the price up and down by a margin since majority of holders are Honestly not keen on selling their bitcoins that soon. People like Mr. Satoshi are indeed not ever going to sell their coins and we also know a lot of dead wallets as well. Therefore explaining them demand and supply works, explaining them how it is affected by news and why it is a better option when compared to traditional assets usually comes with loads of questions but at the end of you can answer them positively you can successfully get a new trader/ holder.

[darkangel11]

Some people are just beyond help. I know old guys who don't even own a smartphone. They don't use the Internet, they don't even have an online bank account.
It's about a number of steps a person has to take. If it's 1 step from using an online account to using an online wallet - most people can do it. The more steps they have to take in between the harder it becomes.

[lovesmayfamilis]

If your friends are familiar with the internet and are experienced users, it will be easier than starting from scratch. But everything needs to be done step by step. For starters, they need to be able to surf the net and tell them about internet safety.

Then invite them to the forum if you write that they are interested in it. Teach them the rules and let them communicate with everyone on the forum. Practice is always better than theory. Everything takes time.

And only after everyone has matured, having read the information on the forum, and having received help from you, will people be able to approach the practice of bitcoin. In my opinion, these are very cautious, not hasty steps. By asking your friends, you will understand that people understand how to ask and about what I think many here on the forum will also be happy to help your friends plunge into the world of cryptography.

The main thing is not to rush.

[ranochigo]

There is no point of explaining and teaching them beyond what is necessary. If they are technologically illiterate to the point which they can't even use Paypal, Venmo then you would have to teach them those first.

Having to use or adopt Bitcoin does not necessarily mean that you have to understand all the nitty gritty details and it definitely doesn't mean that they would have to engage in any conversations about Bitcoin within the forum either. So long as there is an application that allows them to use Bitcoin like Paypal or basically any other payment processor, then they would be fine. There is little interest in the general population beyond how to use it.

[ethereumhunter]

I find it very difficult to explain to people who have no interest in bitcoin or are at least curious about what bitcoin is. They will not open their minds to accept new things because it may confuse them even though we have tried to simplify the explanation. Maybe if they are interested in bitcoin, it will be easy to start explaining it to them.

As for your problem, I think you can explain bitcoin in terms of investment and I think people will immediately think that investing is just a matter of holding on for a while. From here, you can give further explanations to buy at a low price and keep it and only sell it when the price increases high.

[8rch7]

It's very difficult to introduce bitcoin to those who don't want to learn and don't like using smartphones and the internet, even they are difficult for us to talk to about bitcoin and the crypto world, because they are always proud of the results of their hard work, I've tried to convince them about the world of bitcoin and show the results that I have gotten while playing bitcoin, but they still don't want to learn, there are also friends who want to learn but they want instant results, when they don't find the results of what they have learned, they finally come out and no longer want to learn about bitcoin, because if we learn about the world of bitcoin we must be patient and should not despair.

[xSkylarx]

For days now, I have exhaustively given explanations to them about what the forum is all about and how it works. Even clearly establishing to them to the extent I know about Bitcoin currency and how the system operates but seems like I was speaking to them in a different language, one that's confusing entirely. And I currently don't know any means to use in explaining to them what I know.

This is what i've experienced when I was at college when my classmates are asking me how do I earn from this bitcoin stuff and this forum. No matter how hard or how simple I explain to them, they still don't understand it because they are not really interested about what is bitcoin. They are only interested on the "earning" part. What I did was I only give them the answer they want, no further explanation anymore until they stopped asking me about it.

If they are really interested about learning bitcoin, they will research it themselves about the technical stuff and will only ask about your personal experiences with it so they can learn from you.

[OcTradism]

Start with decentralization of Bitcoin
Bitnodes: https://bitnodes.io/nodes/live-map/
Bitcoin Mining map: https://ccaf.io/cbeci/mining_map

Continue with its Controlled supply

Teach them the importance of owning a key of your coin. With banks, you don't own your money. Banks and governments own it. They can credit it to your account or reject to credit it to your account. They can freeze your bank account and steal your money.

[BlackHatCoiner]

I just give them a few masterpieces-articles to read, such as:

• https://learnmeabitcoin.com/
• https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page
• https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information/getting-started.html
• https://bitcoin.org/en/how-it-works

Except from the one collegue who is jealous of the fact that i've made some profit and is constantly repeating every bad news article he reads

That sounds horrible. I'd get rid of him and his toxicity the soonest possible. I've stopped enduring no-coiners, and it has been a great decision so far.

[Solosanz]

Most of people already heard about a word of Bitcoin especially they have cellphone and internet access, if they still not know Bitcoin at basic and didn't ever buy Bitcoin, then it's their choice of not knowing Bitcoin. What's the advantages if I teach Bitcoin to random person? only encourage more people to buy Bitcoin and help mass adoption. Then what the disadvantages that I would get in the future? It's too many e.g. blackmailed, $5 wrench attack, begged, etc etc.

Why should I risking my privacy and my life for this only?

[Danydee]

Based on the idea of bringing Bitcoin awareness to everyone's doorstep so as to  encourage popular and widespread a acceptance

 Tell them just that there is no bank/governance that can take control over their funds!!  

Except from the one collegue who is jealous of the fact that i've made some profit and is constantly repeating every bad news article he reads (ignoring all other articles about crypto),

 The kind that if you tell him about bitcoin he say that the time for it was in 2013 !  

[Leviathan.007]

Interesting question and this rally happen to me a few years ago when I was trying to explain bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to my old uncle, he had no information about bitcoin and no information about the new technologies I tried so hard to explain him everything very simple but I failed and I the end he reacted just like warren buffet he told me bitcoin worth nothing. So, in my own idea for some people, it's hard to understand bitcoin because they have no knowledge about it.