Nobody owns any bitcoin (well basically nobody!)

[DolanDuck]

I don't know if we are still innovators or early adopters, but I know we all will have large amounts of money in the near future.

[piramida]

I don't know if we are still innovators or early adopters, but I know we all will have large amounts of money in the near future.

No, we will have exactly the same amounts of money. Because bitcoin *is* money. And you are thinking that you will have alot of fiats - who cares? Like dreaming of having alot of  dirt.

[TERA]

No, bitcoin is not a suitable measure of wealth (and neither is fiat), but maybe the amount of wheat, oil, or real estate that you can buy.

[Torque]

"600 bucks for a currency. Are you kidding me? I'd rather buy the latest smartphone." These are the words of my gym buddy.

That'll be the slow adopter guy that finally buys some in like 2017, when it is completely safe, secure, easy to use, talked about constantly on the news worldwide, and every friend, family member, financial institution, and favorite merchant in his neighborhood is doing the "bitcoin thing" because it's the new cool and accepted thing everwhere.  And by then it'll be like $50K/btc and fairly stable, but he'll finally have that "aha!" moment that he can buy a small fraction of it to quickly and easily purchase coffee or dinner with.  

People thought I was an out-of-my-mind uncool geek when I was sporting a Palm Treo 650 smartphone back in 2005 (yeah, the clunky looking one with the stubby antenna).  Some guys and especially women used to say that it was ridiculously big and uncool looking, and that having useful apps on your phone was stupid.  Now EVERYBODY including women has a smartphone or phablet that is actually way bigger and more obnoxious than the clunky Palm phone I used to have, go figure.

[Skele]

"600 bucks for a currency. Are you kidding me? I'd rather buy the latest smartphone." These are the words of my gym buddy.

That'll be the slow adopter guy that finally buys some in like 2017, when it is completely safe, secure, easy to use, talked about constantly on the news worldwide, and every friend, family member, financial institution, and favorite merchant in his neighborhood is doing the "bitcoin thing" because it's the new cool and accepted thing everwhere.  And it'll be like $50K/btc, but he'll finally have that "aha!" moment that he can buy a small fraction of it to quickly and easily purchase coffee or dinner with.  

People thought I was an out-of-my-mind uncool geek when I was sporting a Palm Treo 650 smartphone back in 2005 (yeah, the clunky looking one with the stubby antenna).  Some guys and especially women used to say that it was ridiculously big and uncool looking, and that having useful apps on your phone was stupid.  Now EVERYBODY including women has a smartphone or phablet that is actually bigger than the clunky Palm phone I used to have, go figure.

Well thats why we should start talking in mBTCs, like rpitelia, you should talk with your friend hey, i just have 1500 mbtcs.. you should buy some, the price is really cheap, 0.660 usd for one. Talking like this i think he wouldnt even ask whats a mbtc, he will just think its the same bitcoin all are talking.

[dannyspk]

"600 bucks for a currency. Are you kidding me? I'd rather buy the latest smartphone." These are the words of my gym buddy.

That'll be the slow adopter guy that finally buys some in like 2017, when it is completely safe, secure, easy to use, talked about constantly on the news worldwide, and every friend, family member, financial institution, and favorite merchant in his neighborhood is doing the "bitcoin thing" because it's the new cool and accepted thing everwhere.  And by then it'll be like $50K/btc and fairly stable, but he'll finally have that "aha!" moment that he can buy a small fraction of it to quickly and easily purchase coffee or dinner with.  

People thought I was an out-of-my-mind uncool geek when I was sporting a Palm Treo 650 smartphone back in 2005 (yeah, the clunky looking one with the stubby antenna).  Some guys and especially women used to say that it was ridiculously big and uncool looking, and that having useful apps on your phone was stupid.  Now EVERYBODY including women has a smartphone or phablet that is actually way bigger and more obnoxious than the clunky Palm phone I used to have, go figure.

They were probably young kids. I don't take them seriously. It's good to know that our kind will always be a minority.

[BittBurger]

How about this:

Bitcoin adoption isn't going to happen as people buying Bitcoin.

Its going to happen as Bitcoin becomes the backbone to countless money transfer and payment systems. 

Maybe?

[10c]

Many people have heard of it by now, but are not ready to jump aboard. They are all curious and want to know how many you have and if you're a 'bitcoin milionaire'. Most of the responses I get are that they are thinking it'll either collapse an other 60% or think it's a (piramide) scam.

For the moment the tech is not easy enough for them to understand and trust. so the adoption goes slowly it'll gain momentum in time as more and more people start to read and get used to seeing btc listed on more and more sites along with pp and visa when they checkout.

Once the first major retailer will accept btc, we'll be on the vertical of the s-curve in no time

[Wilhelm]

Let's just hope everyone finally starts buying.

Let's rather do something, or say something. I mentioned Bitcoin a couple of times to my co-workers, bought a Bitcoin T-shirt, now one of them owns one bitcoin. It's kind of not much, and it took some time to get the guy interested, but it's still something.

I was told by a colleague about bitcoin. I started mining some for the fun of it.
Another colleague wanted to get in. Eventually nobody got in (incl. the guy that told me about it).
When the bubble came I had a few BTC and other colleagues wanted in.
I explained the fact that it is high-risk and uncertain.

Now about 5 colleagues of a team of 25 own BTC (>1BTC).

So yes there is adoption but most see long term financial benfits or find trading fun to do.

(This is in Europe btw)

[nickenburg]

Most people don't own gold either and even the fiat savings of the average person is pathetically low - most are in debt.

Yeh most normal people never invest, that's why they stay so poor they work all day and spend all the money on the weekend on alcohol.
Like the richest people of america also own alot of stocks, bonds and other investments, they will let there money work for them.

It's pretty interesting to hear we are still the early adopters of bitcoin, and we havent seen the real crazy acceptance yet.
Im still telling my friends about Bitcoin when I can, and I will keep doing that.
Because it's still early, and im gettin the impression that most people think they are one of the late adopters.
And bitcoin is not going up anymore, because 400-1000 per bitcoin is still alot of money for most people, and they probably think it cant go alot higher.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Same here...i met 1, one single person who owns few coins!

I went to a bitcoin meetup on average it was more like 90% of people who owned coins
That said on an average day you will not find anyone with the exception of your friends that you convinced to use it
Then 5 to 10 % adoption hehe

[rogerwilco]

One of my coworkers mines alts and swaps for BTC. Last I talked to him he had about 0.4 BTC, all from mining.

Another coworker played around on BTC-e for awhile. Unfortunately I think he was hitting somewhere near the top of the bubble, and I think has about 0.1 BTC or around that value in alts.

A third coworker claims one of his friends had around 30 BTC back when they were cheap, but from the way it sounds he blew them on the Silk Road.

And of course I have some coins and am a firm believer in the protocol.

[Siegfried]

As I was on the flight home from a recent Bitcoin conference, there was a middle-aged man sitting next to me reading and taking notes on the score of Wagner's opera Siegfried (seriously). I was very intrigued, so I struck up a conversation with him. It turns out he is an orchestra conductor who was on his way to prepare an orchestra for a September performance of Siegfried. I told him about my involvement with Bitcoin, and to my surprise, he already knew a decent amount about it, although he does not own any yet. I told him that I hope soon I will be able to buy my orchestra/opera tickets with Bitcoin.

[zimmah]

Agreed.

The Netherlands is a small country. 17 million residents or so. Most Americans wouldn't even be able to find it on a map, most likely. And yet, there's hardly enough bitcoins to have each person in the Netherlands have 1 bitcoin. And that's just one of the many countries in the world, and a small one at that.

World of warcraft has more players than there are bitcoins.

We are all VERY early investors. Whatever the price is now, it is very low. And it will increase by at least another 100 times. But don't be surprised if it rises another 1000 to 10000 times. And I'm not talking about "in the next 50 years, or even 20", no, I'm talking  about in the next 5 years, max.

[zimmah]

I think there's a reason why early adopters are called early adopters. Except the financial gurus, whoever sees an opportunity earlier than everyone deserves to get rich IMO. And come on, who are we really kidding? "600 bucks for a currency. Are you kidding me? I'd rather buy the latest smartphone." These are the words of my gym buddy.

The thing they don't realia is they are not SPENDING money on bitcoin. They are INVESTING. That's a huge difference.

When you 'buy' bitcoins (or more correctly, exchange for bitcoin) you don't lose money, you only exchanged to some different currency.

It's like exchanging euros for dollars. You didnt spend your euros and you can still buy the phone with dollars.

People need to realize this.

[johnyj]

The problem is, from speculation point of view, people are thinking about the unfairness of early adopters and would rather skip to join the bitcoin game since early adopters are already sitting on tons of coins and want to profit from the late adopters

This is the same reason people resist to buy high priced stock/gold/house etc... unless there is a real consensus that the current price is fair and there is a real demand for it

[Tugbit]

Since about a year, i told my brother in law (website designer) several times about btc.

I bought my first batch in may 2013, second batch in november 2013, third batch may 15 2014, just sold some fractions of btc to test exchange processing and transfer time.

Last april on a family reunion i asked him if he looked into btc, he said btc was passé already.....

You can lead a horse to water.....

Edit to add:  other people i told about btc had no spare money to buy in, new kitchen, just bought an appartment, car  etc etc....

I consider myself lucky to be debt free.
I was saving money to buy a BMW X5 but once I had the money I just could not "waste" it all on a car....

Instead I bought a second hand Mercedes E280 and used the surplus money to buy btc. Never ever regretted this.   

[rocks]

Early yes, but unlike Berkshire which had a charismatic leader, btc has no recognizable face
This makes it hard for slightly less technical folks to trust the ecosystem

Do all the kiddies and their parents use Facebook because of Zuckerberg? No. They use Facebook because it is easy and everyone else uses it (ecosystem).

People will use Bitcoin when it is easy to use and everyone around them uses it, a leader does not matter.

[ampere9765]

Once bitcoin is integrated into prominent payment systems/financial infrastructure, this growth is going to really snowball. Give it time.

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Many people have heard of it by now, but are not ready to jump aboard. They are all curious and want to know how many you have and if you're a 'bitcoin milionaire'. Most of the responses I get are that they are thinking it'll either collapse an other 60% or think it's a (piramide) scam.

For the moment the tech is not easy enough for them to understand and trust. so the adoption goes slowly it'll gain momentum in time as more and more people start to read and get used to seeing btc listed on more and more sites along with pp and visa when they checkout.

Once the first major retailer will accept btc, we'll be on the vertical of the s-curve in no time

My experience as well, some are interested, but most think it's too risky.