A lot of people in my area are interested in what they are, cause they are just unable to comprehend the technical aspect of it. I try to explain it to them from time to time, but most of them lack the understanding. Also some yell that I'm caught in some "Pyramid scheme"
This isn't surprising. It'll take a few more years for the mainstream to catch up. It's still oftentimes hard even for technical people to understand the exact application of cryptography in Bitcoin and understand why the system is very secure. It takes a lot of work even for programmers to fully comprehend BTC. A non-technical person who is exposed to Bitcoin for the first time would be more likely than not to think it's a scam.
We just have to prove it to them by developing an actual economy that people use.