I think this forum is suitable to post this.
Due to the recent events with Paxum shutting down bitcoin related transfers, and trouble with Mastercard and certain banks, for me this only makes me want to talk bitcoins case even more strongly.
I think a lot of the resistance to bitcoin is caused by lack of education, that some people simply don't understand the bitcoin technology. Also there's also some people seeing bitcoin as a directed threat to their business, like PayPal.
A lot of people will not work with bitcoin businesses, because someone further up the 'food chain' is sceptical. A lot of people have the 'wait and see attitude'. And a lot of merchants are hesitant to accept bitcoin, because they'll wait to see if 'it gets more accepted' and 'if more merchants will accept it'.
Some people make changes happen, while others look at these changes happening.
So... for bitcoin to succeed, it's important that everyone that thinks bitcoin has a future, works to make it happen. I don't think we should be overly pushy or 'religious' about it, but when we have the chance, we should mention bitcoin. Probably most people won't react to it, but if they start hearing it often enough, they may be interested and seek out information to learn more about it.
And who knows, maybe in a few years, bitcoin is as usual and normal as the EURO and DOLLAR is today.
I am obviously a person that embrace personal freedom and privacy, and I honestly believe that individuals should be free to manage their own finances without banks and card companies taking expensive fees.
We must be aware though, that bitcoin is a disruptive technology, and if it grows very big, it can change the world. It's a long road to work for that to happen, but the possibility is there.
I see a lot of negative press and misconceptions about bitcoins, particularily the fact that it can be used for criminal purposes. Like every group of people, the bitcoin community is diverse, and although I'm sure most people in this community use bitcoin for legal stuff, there's bound to be some that use it for illegal stuff, just like there's people using the DOLLAR or the EURO for illegal stuff.
The classical thinking, and the excuse for not accepting bitcoin many places is: "There's no central control of it, no authority and no government backing it".
From a pure business perspective where a business is bound to the rules, regulations and have to answer to their board and share holders, it's understandable that they classify bitcoin as 'high risk'. But we've seen both fiat systems collapse and we've seen banks collapse as well, so I think it boils down to habitual thinking, the fear of something that's new.
The Internet changed the world, and I do honestly believe that bitcoin also can change the world, with large impacts for the banking industry.
But bitcoin is still an experiment, and it's yet to see how everything turns out.
So far it's been incredibly recilent, and even if services have been hacked, the protocol itself haven't.
If everyone interested in bitcoin throws the word bitcoin around just as if was 'dollar' or 'euro', people will start to take notice.
Eventually some big company will start accepting bitcoin. Imagine a big company doing hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly turnover starting to accept bitcoin, then they would simply be too big to ignore for their partners.
What would be cool was if some eccentric billionaire, like Richard Branson decided that one of his companies would accept bitcoin, and if VISA or other partners complained, he's just say: "Well, if you ask us to stop accepting bitcoin, we will stop accepting VISA". That's probably more of a dream right now than reality, but an interesting idea nontheless.
If some really rich people noticed bitcoin and wanted to contribute, it could really have a big impact.
Most of us really don't have this kind of financial resources, but if we just have one friend starting to use bitcoin, helping someone online with bitcon questions, or creating a bitcoin service or helping out with development or documentation, or some other contributions, everything does help.
So in perhaps 10 years, bitcoin has become mainstream, there are services accepting bitcoin everywhere, or it crashed,faded or was replaced by something else. In fact we don't know how things will turn out, but at this point I think we all should fight, and when there's resistance, personally I get motivated to fight even more, and not to give in.
It's my general impression that bitcoin is growing and that new services are coming all the time. Perhaps it's the growth that's the reason for what we see happening now. Obviously if the bitcon business was so small it was hardly noticable, I guess nobody would care. But it is noticable, there are millions of dollars being moved into bitcoin related business, and banks and payment processors are noticing this.
It's interesting times for sure, and let's work to make bitcoin be a success.
