In Libertarian utopia land, nobody has friends because they all live in their basement and order beef jerky and freeze-dried "astronaut food" off Amazon for sustenance. In reality, Bitcoin's big enough now where newcomers should be able to easily find a friend who has experience with BTC. I actually shouted at one person who, after I walked them through the buying process, said they were going to buy on Gox. This was months ago, and I've been warning against it for at least a year since fiat withdrawals were near-frozen. Actually, everyone who I've walked through the buying process immediately goes to Gox, without exception, if I'm remembering correctly... maybe one exception.

Maybe we need a newcomer-vet buddy pairing program when someone decides they want to learn about BTC. I'll definitely double the call for local crypto<->fiat transfers. You can do it pretty much anywhere in any =<$10k amount... I'm in the middle of nowhere and it's just an hour or two drive in most directions if I want someone to meet with me for an exchange. Central exchanges are convenient, but it's very critical to have a good p2p exchange user base in place if the corporations should fall apart (said as part owner of a bitcoin vending machine).