....Both of them had heard of BTC, but both said that they had heard that Bitcoin was shut down and out of business. I tried explaining that they were probably talking about Gox being shut down, but they were convinced that it was BTC itself that had been shut down.
There is just too much misinformation out there still.
Don't think I'll ever forget the day i was told by a smug few that, "Bitcoin in Japan has crashed! It is no more. "
People believe what they want to believe.
From my perspective, the main challenges right now are that 1. exchanges keep getting hacked, and while the thefts make headlines, the paybacks--when they exist-- are rarely publicized.
2. "(eg, way to bypass credit card and banks expensive and inefficient services, and bypass government taxes and protectionism)" doesn't really make any difference to small buyers/everyday users when it costs so much extra to buy in at exchanges like localbtc and the large exchanges have their trains jacked so often. Why would consumers want to support something like that? It's not as though most blue collar workers can afford to lose much.
tldr; If btc was supposed to help the little guy out it is now failing b/c a lot of those little guys are greedy and self-centered, just like Mr. Big Bank and Uncle Sam.
Hate to sound like a downer, but that's what it looks like from this honeybee's POV.
Some months ago my brother said something about, that all the Bitcoin-Exchanges are getting shut down(besides MTGox, there were also some small ones, I have never heard about before they were shut down) and therefor it doesn't is safe.
Today he owns some Bitcoins.