How to Turn Bitcoin Into the Top Payment Network and the Currency of the Future

[Rassah]

I have mentioned this on this forum before:

BlackBerry captured the business PDA market by advertising their devices as pagers capable of sending longer page texts, not as the first portable wireless e-mail devices that they actually were, because back in the 90's, "WTF is an e-mail?"

TiVo advertised their devices as revolutionary digital video recorders with hard drives, that revolutionize the way we watch TV by recording things digitally, and allowing us to timeshift live programming. TiVo has pretty much always been near dead because, "WTF is a digital video recorder with timeshift?" Had they advertised themselves as a digital VCR you didn't need to rewind, things may very likely have been different.

This is a marketing and development lesson that Bitcoin MUST heed if it wants any chance at addoption.

(Thank you UMCP MBA program for this, and many other insights)

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[Rassah]

So what do we use that people already know? Are you saying Bitcoin should be marketed as the currency of choice for drug dealers that you can buy coffee with too?

BTW: How was your meet-up with Atlas yesterday? I’m only asking this to see if he will lock this thread too!

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64951.0  ROTFL

Simple swipes. Same as credit cards. Even actual credit cards that are loaded with Bitcoin and charge the same fees to begin with if we must. People will accept the familiar with revolutionary backbone they don't have to think about way easier than a totally new paradigm change. That's why I was thinking just a dumb swipable keyfob, or even a visa loaded with Bitcoin on some centralised bank service (wasn't MtGox planning on having VISA card?) instead of smartphones or smart cards with keypads and screens.

As for the chat, we just talked about how stuff is going. I was mainly interested in how he was doing, how his school was going (he just finished high school), whether he was doing ok (didn't seem to have emotional issues), and stuff like that, followed by some "where are you from" when he heard my accent, and some reminiscing on old forum discussions. Normal people stuff.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I am not aware of many homeless people that have merchant accounts!

With smartphones, homeless magazine vendors to become citizen journalists

Homeless people in the U.K. who sell an entertainment magazine called The Big Issue will soon receive smartphones in an effort to turn them into citizen journalists. The Press Gazette reports, “The vendors will be encouraged to blog and use social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook to capture and upload images and audio, according to Big Issue founder John Bird.” Vendors buy the weekly magazines for £1 and sell them for £2; the charity hopes the income will help them get off the streets. Bird notes that the vendors are uniquely suited to be newsgatherers because they “stand on streets up and down the country come rain or shine.”

[Jointops420]

I am sort of homeless, I live in a shipping container on 400acres with a PC 5x6950's a laptop and a smart phone, go figure. Smart phones will be a dime a dozen soon enough.
Reading somewhere on advertising they stated that phone companies are not selling copper cables capable of many things but the ability to have emotional contact with friends and families. Maybe theres to much emphasis put on the tech side of bitcoin rather than what it can do for peoples lives so they must have it. Just an unedumacated thought.

[goodlord666]

Just to throw this in:

multibit.org has an excellent presentation. The choice of words, an introduction that boils down to the very essentials of what bitcoins and a wallet are.

[hashman]

What is the currency of choice for drug dealers that you can buy coffee with too[/i]?

Is it now the Euro?  I'm guessing the Euro.  There are some caffeine addicted motherfuckers out there stuck with € to unload and I bet they pay a healthy premium on other drugs too. 

 

[Rassah]

I remember, MtGox was planning on that. I wonder what happened. I guess that makes sense. But who would make and distribute the keyfob?

Well, I looked up the prices for some of the components, and they would be extremely cheap to make. Something like $2 for the NFC chip and $5 to $10 for the processor and memory. Whole device may end up costing less than $15, and that's for buying parts one at a time. Downside is that it would still need NFC terminals at cash registers, and until Google Wallet propagates their system, that won't go anywhere. I see RFID readers on card swipe terminals everywhere now, but I suspect they are receive only, and the keyfob would require receiving a transaction to sign.
As for Gox, maybe once they get their financial licences, it'll be easier for them to get VISAs

Disappointing! I was hoping you might get an insight as to why he wants to be a Bitcoin teenaged groupie. He seems to really like being here. I can’t really understand why. I don’t really even love being here but I’ve invested so much I’m afraid that If I don’t check into the forum daily I'll miss something that costs me a bunch of money. He would have so much more fun here if he would just interject something once in a while instead of starting threads that end in “You're Welcome.”

I think he's just an entrepreneurial type. I fully understand, since although I'm still doing the 9 to 5, I also have a lot of ideas and really want to go out there to try them out. Bitcoin is so new and unexplored that there still are a lot of possibilities in it. Look at Gox; it started as a magic the gathering card exchange running on a single computer in some guy's basement, and is now an international business with over $10,000,000 in annual revenue. I'm very certain that Bitcoin still has a lot of similar opportunities. As for the other stuff, how else do you learn if not by asking questions and bouncing ideas off of others? I actually find his posts wildly entertaining, since even if what he says is completely bonkers, it starts a discussion, and people who point out mistakes in the idea still end up teaching me things I likely wouldn't have even thought of myself.

[Ten98]

You idiots need to stop thinking about how to integrate Bitcoin into physical stores. Visa and Mastercard have that market sewn up TIGHT and will FUCK YOU UP if you even try to get into it.

Bitcoin could potentially be the top ONLINE payment network and kick PAYPAL to the kerb, that could actually happen. Concentrate on that instead.

[Rassah]

You idiots need to stop thinking about how to integrate Bitcoin into physical stores. Visa and Mastercard have that market sewn up TIGHT and will FUCK YOU UP if you even try to get into it.

*coughDiscoverAmericanExpressGoogleWalletcoughcough*

Sorry, had something in my throat.

[Ten98]

WTF is Discover?

American Express is on a rapid decline

Google wallet is just Mastercard in Disguise.

Visa and Mastercard are the only serious contenders in the area of in-store physical payment. Did I mention that they will FUCK YOU UP?

Troll harder, noob.

[Rassah]

WTF is Discover?

American Express is on a rapid decline

Google wallet is just Mastercard in Disguise.

Visa and Mastercard are the only serious contenders in the area of in-store physical payment. Did I mention that they will FUCK YOU UP?

Troll harder, noob.

Discovercard.com It's a card used everywhere in the States just like VISA and MasterCard.

American Express has been "in decline" since it started. It is the only card I've seen being used in the small businesses I have worked in, because VISA doesn't even come close to the business specific services AmEx offers. Warren Buffett is also a very heavy investor in American Express. I will take his word over yours.

Google Wallet is a payment method. The underlying processor doesn't matter, and I suspect the only reason MasterCard was picked was because they were the cheapest option. There is no reason that Google can say fuck you to MasterCard and go with VISA, PayPal, or Google Checkout instead.

I am curious how you think those companies will, as you say, "FUCK YOU UP." What do you know that the rest of us don't?

[goodlord666]

WTF is Discover?

American Express is on a rapid decline

Google wallet is just Mastercard in Disguise.

Visa and Mastercard are the only serious contenders in the area of in-store physical payment. Did I mention that they will FUCK YOU UP?

Troll harder, noob.

If that were true (cause I dont know) American Express could be an ideal partner for Bitcoin. And their opportunity to regain the top spot in the ccard market.

I've always thought of American Express as THE name in credit cards.

[cbeast]

Bitcoin has properties only barely explored yet. We don't have to be limited to commonly known forms. We can invent new forms. Some will ensure privacy and anonymity, some will provide positive identity. We can wear payment codes publicly and we can conceal private keys in many ways. Without the Authoritarian Architecture of a Central Bank, we are free as individuals to invent new ways to create transactions and will inspire the Open Source developers to create new tools for us to make our lives easier and more convenient. And we will never have to worry again about someone stealing our money through the many frauds of identity theft.

[Rassah]

Bitcoin has properties only barely explored yet. We don't have to be limited to commonly known forms. We can invent new forms. Some will ensure privacy and anonymity, some will provide positive identity. We can wear payment codes publicly and we can conceal private keys in many ways. Without the Authoritarian Architecture of a Central Bank, we are free as individuals to invent new ways to create transactions and will inspire the Open Source developers to create new tools for us to make our lives easier and more convenient. And we will never have to worry again about someone stealing our money through the many frauds of identity theft.

I totally agree, and can't wait until all these ideas become mainstream. Though, regarding the OP's point of getting it adopted, this https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=64781.msg764034#msg764034 still applies. Most people fear change and the unknown
(people who are interested in Bitcoin and are on this forum, though, don't, and it's why this forum is full of awesome people)

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Bitcoin has properties only barely explored yet. We don't have to be limited to commonly known forms. We can invent new forms. Some will ensure privacy and anonymity, some will provide positive identity. We can wear payment codes publicly and we can conceal private keys in many ways. Without the Authoritarian Architecture of a Central Bank, we are free as individuals to invent new ways to create transactions and will inspire the Open Source developers to create new tools for us to make our lives easier and more convenient. And we will never have to worry again about someone stealing our money through the many frauds of identity theft.

Nicely said cbeast!

I got goosebumps from reading that post, CBH. No BS! If there were a Forum Post Hall of Fame, that one would be in it. Loved the fuck out of it.

~Bruno~