Quote from: SolarSilver on October 09, 2012, 06:51:54 AM

Quote from: CharlieContent on October 09, 2012, 04:07:51 AM

Credit cards are just the easiest and safest way to buy things. You know it and I know it, so don't be ridiculous.

There are a whole class of people who can't get credit cards, for example young people, students (in Europe) who have no regular income. Poor people who are too poor to get even a bank account, in developing countries. Illegal immigrants who can't go to a bank where they live. People with bad or no credit rating, ...

The list can go on and on.

This is a sizable chunk of the market which is currently not served by regular credit card companies.

You'd be surprised at how EASY it is to get a credit card (in the UK atleast). Now try and get an over draft... well sir now that is difficult if your any of the above. If you have a name and adress you can pretty much get a credit card here, one of the reasons fraud is also such a big deal here.

As f

Quote from: FLHippy on October 09, 2012, 11:26:30 AM

Quote from: sturle on October 09, 2012, 10:49:45 AM

Quote from: Severian on October 08, 2012, 05:41:44 PM

Quote from: FLHippy on October 08, 2012, 05:39:06 PM

the average joe

The average joe, if they've ever heard of Bitcoin, have no idea what it is or how to use it.

The average joe don't buy drugs on SR either. The number of computer geeks in the world outnumber the number of SR users many times, and how many computer illiterates know about SR at all?

Anyone who reads rolling stone regularly would have heard of silk road. Gavin Andresen is quoted in that article.

When the gawker article came out in 2011, a lot of news aggregators linked to it with the same headline.....
"The underground website where you can buy any drug imaginable" or a more recent headline "Amazon.com for illegal drugs"

http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imaginable
http://pointsadhsblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/amazon-com-for-illegal-drugs/

And there is word-of-mouth to spread the word.. which is part of the core culture of drug use. Help a brutha out.

How does the average joe participate? Through eBay sales. Joe isn't going to go through the trouble of signing up for an MtGox account. He's willing to pay as much as 50% over value to get bitcoins on ebay. The going rate is 30% over value. Of all the coins I have sold on eBay, the buyers are either holding on to them long term or they head directly to tumblers.

Based on sales and comments by buyers, I also assume that a group of people work through a tech savvy friend and coordinate/combine purchases. Also a core part of the drug culture.

Nothing new really except the guy who knows a guy is buying online and the price is a little higher but the options are greater. The casual user is you, your next door neighbor, your boss, your mom. If nothing else... Silk Road is a safer alternative than buying off the street.

Fully agree with this ^

Im your average Joe, found out about Bitcoins through Silk road from a friend, since then Ive told loads of people about Silk Road (I try bitcoins but being fairly computer illiterate by the standards here I dont do so well)

Id have to say for the time being atleast, bitcoins future is illegal.

My guess will be another Crypto currency will spring up, with a fresh start and be a little 'cleaner' if you get what I mean. Right now bitcoin has a pretty bad reputation and I dont really see it changing for a while.

Hell ive been here for about 5 months now lurking (kicking myself for not buying up big time back then) and ive gone from wanting to jump straight in to being alot more cautious. Why? Because the majority of the people using bitcoins seem to be computer nerds with a chip on their shoulder, the amount of scams, hacks and general chatter on this forum is a fairly big warning sign for someone like myself.

I see the potential and I loved the whole ideology aspect of bitcoin, but seems to me that died a while ago and what we have now is a rat race with rats alot more tech savy than myself, no thanks, for now atleast.