Quote from: jtpeters on February 11, 2014, 02:37:07 AM

Developing an emotional connection with everyday people (now) is essential. It need not be anything I suggested, but it should be something.

It feels like it is a long process. I'm new to the game myself (bought the GPU, then thought I could keep it busy in the cold winter months) but I'm a (conventional) ASIC designer so I understand some of the tech.

In trying to explain crypto to a more typical person, the fundamental points of confusion seem to be:

What is currency fundamentally? How does this fit in with intrinsic asset value
Why does it make sense to use crypto (from an EU citizen resident in the UK!)
How is the mining related to generating an asset, what _is_ the asset that is being traded

This even after having explained that I can demonstrate the process of converting electricity into beer (except my BTC are now traded for VTC), and it is cheaper for the pub to accept BTC than GBP.

It feels like the third point is the most difficult and also most important one to address at some level. If I understand it right, we are in effect certifying the public ledger of transactions, and taking a fee for doing this - so simplistically paying in crypto is the same as writing a cheque. The miners verify that the checks won't bounce, and ultimately the currency is bootstrapped by people exchanging fiat for crypto.

Should we be worrying if explaining this is a BTC or VTC task?