Bitcoin vs Internet adoption. Bill Gates was trolled about Internet in 1995

[tranthidung]

First, let's watch this short video.

• Bill Gates Explains the Internet to Dave (1995) | Letterman

In the interview, Bill Gates was trolled about Internet capacity to handle a podcast, just a podcast, not a video, movies or livestream like we have nowadays.

In the first six years of the WWW (1990-1996), less than 1% of the world used the internet.

The internet’s adoption curve was marked by a really slow beginning when it was only interesting to tech experts. This is similar to the early days of Bitcoin. We can observe the growth of Bitcoin through its value as the number of holders increases the currency’s worth. Sixteen months after Bitcoin was created, its value was still at only $0.004.

(World Bank, Wells Fargo)

Born in doubt, the Internet changed the world entirely and I see some similaries and potentiallities of the Internet and Bitcoin. Now, let's read some more resources

• Can Crypto Match the Internet and Hit 5B Users?
• Internet vs Crypto Adoption: How Do Their Adoption Curves Compare?
• Internet vs. crypto adoption chart predicts 1 billion users by 2027
• You're still early: An objective look at Bitcoin adoption

Bitcoin has potential to make bigger impacts than the Internet.

Coming days will be very chaotic with SEC. and Bitcoin Spot ETFs but if you have bitcoins, spend time to read above and hold your bitcoin. Best has yet come, even without Bitcoin Spot ETF approvals, best has yet come, I repeat!

[Hewlet]

It's more of how much Bill Gate believed in the fact that the internet would become a reality and that it would have a global audience using it with time regardless of whatever opposition or trolling he received from the media. Now that the internet has become a must use for all thee media platform, would they refuse using it because they trolled it?

Same Is what is happening with bitcoin adoption around the globe. The fact that so many persons and nations have become so used to the fiat currency and the general banking system, they would feel that its not going to be a reality but with the increasing number of nations already accepting bitcoin in their country, it might only take few giant nations to accept it and some key persons to see the positive side of it and bring it to the audience and in no time it would become a global reality.

[legiteum]

And back then all of the "experts" said pen computing was going to be the next big thing and used arguments like this one to beat down detractors.

Bitcoin's price will either go up, or it will go down. What Bill Gates said 30 years ago doesn't matter.

It's more of how much Bill Gate believed in the fact that the internet would become a reality and that it would have a global audience using it with time regardless of whatever opposition or trolling he received from the media. Now that the internet has become a must use for all thee media platform, would they refuse using it because they trolled it?

Same Is what is happening with bitcoin adoption around the globe. The fact that so many persons and nations have become so used to the fiat currency and the general banking system, they would feel that its not going to be a reality but with the increasing number of nations already accepting bitcoin in their country, it might only take few giant nations to accept it and some key persons to see the positive side of it and bring it to the audience and in no time it would become a global reality.

Bitcoin is legal in the United States, and most other Western countries. What other countries are left?



 

[Die_empty]

Almost every new invention was highly criticised or talked down by sceptics, so it is not strange to see this historical information. Most people never thought that man could fly in the air with an aeroplane and whoever dreamt that submarines would ever be invented. Bitcoin was strange and it is also normal for people to underrate it. I might have been one of those people who would have called the early Bitcoiners dreamers and scammers because humans naturally repel change. The first Bitcoin conference had about one hundred participants which showed that people had no interest in it at the beginning. 


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5410991.0
But the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami attracted about 35,000 attendees and many others viewed the event through various electronic platforms. This a proof that Bitcoin's dominance in the global financial system is still at its infant stage because the future is bigger.     

[davis196]

The great difference between Bitcoin and the Internet is that Internet has enormous utility. The only utility of Bitcoin I can think of is the ability to act as a store of value(and a medium of exchange, but not many people are willing to pay with BTC every day).
Years ago, many crypto enthusiasts were confident that blockchain technology will be adopted in various different industries like healthcare, insurance, real estate, etc. Guess what, it didn't happen. Maybe the blockchain technology is simply a "glorified spreadsheet" just like the crypto haters keep saying.

[elevates]

Internet has been the main reason why Bitcoin is now more accessible to anyone using the internet. Every innovation always has a slow start and gradually it starts growing. Bitcoin had a slow start and after 2021 it became a cryptocurrency for its store value and it will remain the same. How many internet users would be able to afford and invest in Bitcoin is still unknown for the future. How many new users would get attracted to the internet is cannot be calculated for the future. Both are different and without the Internet, Bitcoin would not be as popular as it is now.

[tranthidung]

The first Bitcoin conference had about one hundred participants which showed that people had no interest in it at the beginning.  

The world first Bitcoin conference
Gavin Andresen talked about his opinion on Bitcoin Priorities. About this man, newbies can learn more about his contributions.

• Satoshi files: Gavin Andresen
• He run the first Bitcoin faucet
  
  • Get 5 free bitcoins from freebitcoins.appspot.com
  • http://web.archive.org/web/20100703032414/http://freebitcoins.appspot.com/
• He took over Bitcoin development after Satoshi's message that the founder will leave and move to other things soon.
• Gavin will visit the CIA to talk about Bitcoin

With Satoshi's blessing, and with great reluctance, I'm going to start doing more active project management for bitcoin.

But the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami attracted about 35,000 attendees and many others viewed the event through various electronic platforms. This a proof that Bitcoin's dominance in the global financial system is still at its infant stage because the future is bigger.    

It is another good evidence of Bitcoin adoption over years. It has been grown very exponentially within 15 years since 2009.

[Husires]

Comparing cryptocurrencies and the Internet is unreasonable because they differ in many basics. Comparing the Internet with something as centralized as CBDCs, not Bitcoin, which aims to be P2P E-money.
The Internet provides infrastructure, and the importance of the Internet comes from the importance of the applications that run on it, which is different for Bitcoin, whose value comes from Bitcoin in its entirety, in addition to additional value that comes from building on top of the Bitcoin network.
using the Internet may not be expensive, as each megabyte in the blockchain is very expensive.

[tabas]

Whilst I only think that these ETFs are significant because one is made actually for Bitcoin. But after analyzing and realizing why many people are having a different reaction than of those the ICO times, NFT days and meme coin craze. This is definitely like once in a lifetime moment for the entire community and Bitcoin itself. So with this reference, gold didn't have an etf but when it does, this what happened on it.

Gold market cap
Before ETF in 2004: $1 Trillion
After ETF in 2021: $11 Trillion

How much it will be with Bitcoin?  
Plus halving.

[kryptqnick]

I liked the video, I haven't seen it before.
The history of adoption of the Internet is interesting because it really was slow, and it did seem like it wasn't going to become a huge worldwide thing that it became. Bitcoin is revolutionary in the area of finance, and I think it might still gain a lot more attention and adoption than it currently has. But there are also fundamental problems like the number of transactions the network can handle per second, and the fees that rise when too many transactions are waiting for confirmation. Also, PCs and the Internet were way more universal than Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a currency, and while blockchain is a fairly universal underlying technology, it didn't become a major success in areas other than cryptos. So while there's hope and there are similarities, there are also major differences.

[Lucius]

The great difference between Bitcoin and the Internet is that Internet has enormous utility. The only utility of Bitcoin I can think of is the ability to act as a store of value(and a medium of exchange, but not many people are willing to pay with BTC every day).
~snip~

I have to agree with this, and I think I've already written it several times in similar topics - I think it's wrong to compare Bitcoin with the internet, even if it's an argument for some when it comes to putting in context the time it took for the internet to become something accessible to most people, with the same thing when it comes to Bitcoin.

I sincerely doubt that people will ever accept Bitcoin (especially as a currency) given that most governments in the world will never put Bitcoin ahead of their national currencies. If we exclude some countries with totalitarian-communist regimes, most of the free world has accepted the internet as something positive.

With Satoshi's blessing, and with great reluctance, I'm going to start doing more active project management for bitcoin.

It should not be forgotten that Gavin was one of those who in some way "protested" because of the way Satoshi made decisions and actually "demanded" to take over the matter. In those early days, Satoshi was not a favorite person and regardless of the reasons, he left because he no longer felt comfortable.

Besides, glorifying Gavin shouldn't be a one way street, this is the same guy who believed that CW Faketoshi was the real Satoshi. For someone who is supposedly very well versed in Bitcoin matters, it's really strange that he would fall for such a cheap trick.

[pinggoki]

And back then all of the "experts" said pen computing was going to be the next big thing and used arguments like this one to beat down detractors.

Bitcoin's price will either go up, or it will go down. What Bill Gates said 30 years ago doesn't matter.

That's because those people are too pragmatic to be able to grasp the idea that there's something big out there and that's just a normal thinking that someone's always disproven of their claims that this is the limit of something. Of course there's a bunch that's just don't have the belief but they don't matter in the grand scheme of things. I don't think it's going to go down in the future or break the floor it's created over the years, it will only go up because bitcoin adoption is a constant thing.

[Alpha Marine]

Bitcoin has potential to make bigger impacts than the Internet.

First of all, as much as I love Bitcoin and I want it to always grow, I highly doubt this. The potential of the internet cannot be estimated. We've not even used half the potential of the internet.
Without Bitcoin, there will be the Internet, but without the Internet, there would be no Bitcoin. The impact of the internet would be felt in everything in every part of the world including Bitcoin.

Secondly, the reports of new papers (big or small) cannot be always relied on. Not every of their news should be believed.
It is expected that a newspaper should be against the internet because they fear it will put them out of business.  So if they say (millions of people are abandoning the internet), it may not not be completely true.

[legiteum]

And back then all of the "experts" said pen computing was going to be the next big thing and used arguments like this one to beat down detractors.

Bitcoin's price will either go up, or it will go down. What Bill Gates said 30 years ago doesn't matter.

That's because those people are too pragmatic to be able to grasp the idea that there's something big out there and that's just a normal thinking that someone's always disproven of their claims that this is the limit of something. Of course there's a bunch that's just don't have the belief but they don't matter in the grand scheme of things. I don't think it's going to go down in the future or break the floor it's created over the years, it will only go up because bitcoin adoption is a constant thing.

What "bigness" are they supposed to grasp?

Also, what evidence do you have that Bitcoin adoption has increased over say the past few years? In another thread I asked the question about how we would know this, and most agreed that Bitcoin's structure makes it impossible to know how many people are using it, and what the trend is over time. Adoption could have gone down over the last year for all we know.

And Bitcoin "adoption" is limited to people holding it as a speculation instrument, so there's nothing inherently permanent about this adoption in any case.

[moneystery]

i agree with you that when bill gates first said that the internet would be booming in the next few years, people laughed at him, but seeing how the internet has become big now and almost all humans are dependent on it shows that how much the internet was underestimated at first has become very important now.

and that might happen to bitcoin, where many people underestimated it at first and thought that it was just an ordinary digital asset and would disappear in some time, but now it is big and will likely grow even more.

even though it is unstable for now, and people tend to see it as just a speculative asset, in the future it will probably be a digital asset that is traded and transacted by many people globally far more than now.

[OgNasty]

The similarities between the early days of the Internet and Bitcoin are quite staggering. It’s almost comical looking back at both now that they have become so commonplace. While the internet may be a little more commonly used and understood, there is no doubt in my mind that Bitcoin will continue to follow the same growth path.

[AnonBitCoiner]

This proves the saying that History always repeats itself. whatever happened with the Internet is happened with Bitcoin.
I don't think it is right to compare early days of internet with the current time of bitcoin. but yeah Bitcoin also faced the same type of rejection and was trolled by many people in its early days.

But I don't agree that Bitcoin can make bigger impact than Internet. Internet is a very very huge thing. Bitcoin is built on internet and running with the help of internet. they are completely different things. regardless of that they are both great invention.

[hatshepsut93]

In the first six years of the WWW (1990-1996), less than 1% of the world used the internet.

The internet’s adoption curve was marked by a really slow beginning when it was only interesting to tech experts. This is similar to the early days of Bitcoin. We can observe the growth of Bitcoin through its value as the number of holders increases the currency’s worth. Sixteen months after Bitcoin was created, its value was still at only $0.004.

(World Bank, Wells Fargo)

It may sound like the stupid masses were refusing to see Internets potential, but what actually happened is that the Internet was prohibitively expensive, the monthly subscription costed like $500 or $1,000 per month, which was way more in today's money; and the Internet was slow and not as full of organized content as it is today. If the Internet never progressed and stayed at that state, it would be very popular today.

So the actual analogy with Bitcoin is that Bitcoin won't get mass adoption unless transactions because nearly instant and with zero fees. Like what banks offer today.

[BlackHatCoiner]

So the actual analogy with Bitcoin is that Bitcoin won't get mass adoption unless transactions because nearly instant and with zero fees. Like what banks offer today.

This is where Internet distinguishes. There wasn't an alternative to the Internet back in the 90s, just as there wasn't an alternative to electricity. I'm very supportive, but truth be told, Bitcoin is mostly money; and history is full of money alternatives. The bet is that these particular properties, like denationalization and state separation of monetary policy will distinguish on the long term.

(By "bet", I mean the best case scenario for bitcoin. Losing that bet does not mean it stops being peer-to-peer electronic cash.)

[legiteum]

So the actual analogy with Bitcoin is that Bitcoin won't get mass adoption unless transactions because nearly instant and with zero fees. Like what banks offer today.

Indeed, for any new technology to break into a new market, you actually have to be even cheaper and even better than the entrenched competition.

Bitcoin isn't even within 10,000x on transaction speed and cost. Some other cryptos are marginally better, but they are still 1000x off the mark.

The blockchain architecture will never allow cryptocurrencies to get anywhere close to what they'd need to be to compete.

The great news is that none of this matters since people love to use cryptos as speculation instruments. Crypto prices have never been tied to wide adoption as a payment mechanism, and never will.