Quote from: NotHatinJustTrollin on January 24, 2015, 04:56:38 PM

Quote from: tvbcof on January 24, 2015, 04:27:01 PM

Quote from: NotHatinJustTrollin on January 24, 2015, 04:08:15 PM

Nobody answered my question tho.

Why should the average Joe buy bitcoin? For what purposes?

Back when Bitcoin was in the low single digits, I argued that the average Joe who could afford to might pick some Bitcoin as a long-shot bet just in case because the pay-off, in the relatively unlikely event that there was one, could be large.

Also for the reasons of reward size, that the actual amount of BTC need not be very large in order to make things pay off in a moderate to good scenario.

At $1000, we were approaching what I considered the 'moderate win' scenario. I took some profits and re-balanced my portfolio there which was in-line with the plan I made when I was buying.

Different times now. I'd not make any suggestions at this point. Personally I would still probably make a modest bet today if I had a strong desire to diversify.

That is still "speculative reasons".

yeah. So? That as good a reason as any and a better reason than most for people to buy BTC. As long as they are willing to put in the effort required to know how to hold on to them.

Quote from: NotHatinJustTrollin on January 24, 2015, 04:08:15 PM

The average Joe wants something that is useful, that has a purpose, if the only purpose is "I will get more dollars when I will be able to sell it higher" (IF it goes higher), that is not gonna work to bring "world adoption" to bitcoin.

The average Joe wants to make money just like everyone else. 'World adoption' is the worst idea ever for Bitcoin. Indeed, efforts in that direction were a driving force inducing me to sell more a year ago when I was doing that.

Quote from: NotHatinJustTrollin on January 24, 2015, 04:08:15 PM

As I explained, there really isn't any point for the average joe to actually use bitcoin as a currency or as a store of value, aside from illicit activities.
The only real reason seems to be musical-chairs speculation as an end in itself, and that is not exactly something the average joe might know how to do profitably or be interested in in the first place.

'Illicit' is, I suppose, defined as anything that corp/gov doesn't like. And they like very little that gets in the way of their crony relationships with one another. So as far as I'm concerned when it comes to 'illicit activities', bring it on. There are lots of ways to catch crooks who do bad things. I'm not inclined to give away every freedom I have, or every possible way to express dis-satisfaction with the corruption in the system just so some fat ass cop can 'do his job' without doing any real work.

I've never favored being anything but completely straight-up with Mr A. V. E. Joe about Bitcoin and have never personally done so. There are absolutely risks and the very nature of the solution is not clear in part because it is different things to different people. If Joe want's to take the time to figure things out, I'm OK with that. Some Joe Sixpack types end up being a fair bit more competent than many self-garlanded 'experts' if they take an interest in applying themselves.