i think this is likely what he is trying to pass across only that he might have passed his message in a one sided manner that did not deliver it intent the right way. if you are living in a region where some security agency are taking things too serious and you can not really trust the next person that much, it is usuallly defficult to be direst on what you let the next person know because on the one hand, you wnat to be sure you are not exposing yourself to the threat of kidnappers and thiefs and on the other hand, you want to also ensure that the security agencies do not target you and frame up false accusation on you.
You are right, I meant to say the same and I even give the example don't know why he did not understand that, although in his last lines he was being agree with me, just like you are explaining it the same way I did, but in different words and in different way of course. But the question JayJuanGee asked was different then the explanation you guys give here. Not an answer to his question. Still thanks for clearing this out to him, I was away for a day that's why I did not catch up.
Ofcause, being bullish about bitcoin and telling others about it is what also helps in boosting it adoption but the reality is that the same way you are conscious of your asset security is the same way you should be conscious of your personal security which will demand that regardless of how you speaks about bitcoin in the public space, you ensure that you reveal little to nothing about how much bitcoin you are holding. in my country for instance, if the security agency find out that you hold like say $3k worth of bitcoin maybe through an online gigg and they can not trace your source of that bitcoin to something that see to be okay, they will try everything that is within there power to confisticate it. that might be part of the reason why some people might not be willing to ak much about bitcoin in the public but then, there is always a modest way of going about it in a safe and secure manner.
I agree, if we will reveal how much we own, out of 100, maybe 90 will be motivated to learn about it and that's a lot of people but most of them won't invest, won't learn, and some of them who will invest, they make loss, they will also leave it, but the remaining 10 can get you bad audience, like thieves in your way. That's what I meant to say, we should not expose ourselves, but we can still promote BTC among others, we can teach them about it with examples.
Whatever his/her actual reason, Bitcoin is actually more valuable in regions where it is "illegal" to use Bitcoin because it makes use of its main value-proposition. CENSORSHIP-RESISTANCE.
But it's probably a good decision NEVER to tell anyone in real life that he/she uses Bitcoin. Although online, and anonymously - he/she should tell everyone.
If someone lives in China, Iran, or in some region where the government is sort of too restrictive, they can say "I AM FRIM IRAN AND I USE BITCOIN TO GAMBLE, BUY ALCOHOL AND DRUGS. TRY TO STOP ME".
I was not talking about only myself here, either it is legal here or not, I was trying to give advice to everyone living all over the world even in safe places that never reveal your bitcoin holdings, that's a one way to promote the btc, but only if the next person buys it but if they don't you are just taking a risk of exposing yourself to unimaginable dangers like the ones teacher in that twitter link exposed to. She must not have thought about it in her entire life and yet there she was, kidnapped by the students who knew her son had 3 btc.