Quote from: Shinobi on April 27, 2013, 01:21:56 AM

I read a thread like this and it just blows my mind that anyone thinks that Bitcoin will ever move away from a fringe casino hobby.

I would side with you at times on this Shinobi, but then you need to really step back and realize the lack of understanding of most things that people engage with on a daily basis. You use VISA and pay your bill at the end of every month, but very very very few people understand the mechanics behind credit card transactions, payments via the ACH rails or anything else involved with day to day financial life in 2013. Yet there are trillions of dollars spent each year by people typing in their passwords to online bank accounts and pull pieces of plastic out of their wallet that is representative of fiat money (which is a whole other rabbit hole altogether).

I think there is something behind this, otherwise I wouldn't be wasting my time here. What will happen (and you can see it starting slowly) is that VC money, independent development and ingenuity with start to develop tools that will isolate the average end user from the complexity while still giving them the benefit fo the technology. It has already begun with services like blockchain.info aggregating wallets and providing cloud based services. It will eventually progress to hardware based tools (similar to the RSA key fob many people used to have at offices) and move on from there. Long BTC public addresses will be replaced by alias services (how? I'm not sure, but they will) and people will slowly become accustomed to using this a method of money transport. I could certainly be mistaken but it has attracted enough interest and has engaged enough people's aspirations that even if the current instance of BTC doesn't make it to prime-time, something similar will.

I once read that all it takes is for 10% of the population to be extremely excited about something (whether it be a fashion, technology, fad, etc) and it will become mainstream (given the average persons indifference and apathy). While I don't think we're at the tipping point yet, the ideals behind this project is resonant enough with a population in turmoil to energize that portion of the population and turn this truly into a movement.