Quote from: nameface on May 30, 2013, 07:48:48 PM

When I speak to newbs about Bitcoin:

Q: "Who's got all those 11M Bitcoins?"
A: "Some impolite guy in Eastern Europe running an underground asset market, BF members like Erik Voorhees and Roger Ver, an anonymous hacker(s) we're supposed to love because he/they wrote a good program, a few others."

Q: "Can I get some bitcoins?"
A: "You can buy them for ~$130."

Q: "What's the point of using Bitcoin?"
A: "You can send money all over the world pseudonymously, and it's a nifty store of value."

Average overall reaction: luke warm, unconvinced

About Ripple:

Q: "Who's got all those 100B Ripples?"
A: "OpenCoin Inc., But they're being given away gradually to massive amounts of people."

Q: "Can I get some?"
A: "You can buy ripples for ~$0.02, or easily get the amount you need to transact on the network for free for life by asking someone on a forum/chat."

Q: "What's the point of Ripple?"
A: "You will be able to send money all over the world, and the recipients will receive money in their preferred currency."

Average overall reaction: intrigue, they are convinced of real world utility

The above is true DESPITE the fact that Bitcoin works, and Ripple is in beta (alpha?). This line of dialogue matters. The systems of tomorrow will be the ones adopted BY THE MASSES. They don't know anything about hashing algorithms, and they simply don't care. Bitcoin has a PR problem.

I agree with you that Bitcoin needs to continue to be evolved to be more user friendly for the average user but I think we've come great lengths in that aspect over the last few years. As for the dialogue, your responses are rather biased and spun in a way to purposefully turn off a person looking at Bitcoin and entice someone looking at Ripple. It's not difficult to do.

Q: "Who's got all those 100B Ripples?"
A: "A single for-profit organization holds the majority share. Their profitability model is based on the appreciation of XRP and also control the distribution of said XRP."

Q: "Can I get some?"
A: "Sure, first you sign up for Ripple, which you can't use because you need XRP. Then you need to sign up for a gateway and go through their approval process. Then you want to fund the gateway with fiat. Then you transfer the fiat to Ripple and place a bid to purchase XRP..."

Q: "What's the point of Ripple?"
A: "To loan money to another person with no repayment terms, interest, or any other sort of traditional terms, including legal recourse, you would receive when extending credit. If you accept this rather significant counter-party risk, you can move DEBT all over the world."

What would be the average reaction if you spun it this way?