Quote from: jonald_fyookball on April 15, 2014, 08:33:27 PM

Quote from: iGROWyourBiz on April 15, 2014, 07:15:39 PM

Quote from: dogechode on April 15, 2014, 07:07:46 PM

The OP said slow adoptive rate not slow value growth.

BTC (and other cryptos) have a slow adoptive rate for a few reasons. Here are a few:

1.) It is still really confusing and not newbie/computer newbie friendly. Go ahead, try to teach a 50-year-old about bitcoin in 5 minutes. You can teach a person everything they need to know about a credit card or checking account in 5 minutes, easily. Bitcoin takes hours and many follow-up sessions.

2.) It is still plagued by scams, frauds, and technical issues. The average joe can't be expected to constantly follow forums and reddit threads to learn of when some new exploit is discovered and the wallet needs to be updated right now or you risk losing your coins.

2b.) Updating the wallet properly (including backing it up beforehand and in some cases re-downloading the blockchain) is confusing and scary to newbies and the not-so-computer-literate.

3.) There still isn't a compelling reason for anyone to switch from primarily using fiat to primarily using BTC. It's generally confusing, it costs money (fees and such) and it is risky to acquire, hold, and use BTC (and other cryptos.) The majority of people involved right now are all investors in one sense or another, who are willing to take the risk only because they believe they will make a lot of profit.

3b.) If you disagree with the above, ask yourself - if you were to convince someone to start using bitcoin for the majority of their financial transactions, what argument could you make, other than "it will go up in value so you can make money that way" ... ?

I agree 100% with those things. and the bottom line is the SOLUTIONS to those are going to be found within AND WITHOUT the community.

The people who can provide the solutions - like the 50 year old successful and wealthy entrepreneur/investor/professional - is not going to bother with on their first session getting flamed to death by 12 year old know it alls.

PEOPLE (not technology in and of itself) is the solution to all the barriers. And if xenophobes keep running away those that don't sit and mine 24/7, build PCs and other uber techie behaviours...the adoption rate will continue to stagnate.

For those who say it is "only a few years"....in this day and age, there should have been WIDESPREAD adoption by now. (look at social networks and other payment platforms). Look at DWOLLA -- just as revolutionary, started around the same time - facing GREATER HURDLES...yet....greater adoption rate (on less publicity). Granted - not open source and does not require the technical acumen -- but I remember when the ONLY place to buy a domain was Network solutions. You had to pay for TWO YEARS at $50 per year. PLUS a $50 setup fee. And YOU NEEDED to be a techie to set up all A, mx, CNAME etc records with a plain interface. Yet within a few years, there were competitors and better interfaces and widespread adoption.

The "problems" are normal...the "community" is not.

I don't think the community is the issue... and it was never a "selling point of bitcoin" as you say.
Its great to shoot for the moon as far as adoption,but in addition to the security and user issues,
there is definitely a segment of society that wants bitcoin to fail and go away. The big losers
will be the credit card companies, money transmitters (western union), central banks, etc

...There's no doubt, and we shouldn't lose sight of the 'technical' challenges still ahead of us. Continuing to share ideas and introducing solutions and options is what it's all about. Actually referencing community, this could end up being the most incredible "community" project in human history. God bless, open source. And hey, no one knew how to maneuver windows, or browse the web, and send/rec email, etc. either. Hell, I was self-taught and ended up building a small software company out of my basement. Of course I hired my programmers, but had to learn quick what 1's and 0's at that time could do, and what they couldn't. Today...oh my.

I'm afraid what's being missed here by the (I assume younger) Xenophobe crowd is that the bitcoin community is a VERY important and a unique guild and blend of the social and in your face technology. It's not like logging into FB, uploading some pics, and sending an invite...though it will be in the near future. In the meantime let's not burn bridges, turn community away. Our rapidly growing community is going to need assistance and many will, well, use the Internet to get more knowledge; imagine that.

Just be open, be kind, and help if you can. I know that's a lot to ask from some folks, and I know some others won't deserve it. One simple rule has served me well since I was a boy, (not that I don't go off a bit - once in a while - when an impact is needed:) simply treat others how you 'really' want to be treated. Fair enough?