I've been into crypto for three years now, since I first bought in around July 2017, and I still only have one IRL friend/ colleague outside of Hive who owns any, and he's kind of lost interest since starting a family.
Most (now ex) work colleagues and friends of mine think I'm nuts, and not one single person has bought in - that's despite some of my friends being quite well-off - some are newly retired on very comfortable boomer pensions, a couple have had successful careers in Finance in the city, and not one single person has had even a £100 punt on any crypto.
Even my regaling them with my favourite story of the year so far - being gifted 20 odd thousand Hive from a fork - which is only possible in Crypto - hasn't convinced any of them, neither has sending out a few bragging screen shots of my Blockfolio account during that recent Hive punt, showing them the insane increase in my holdings in just a few days, nothing it seems can convince my 'ordinary' friends to buy not even 0.01 BTC!
I usually go with two main arguments to convince people to buy into BTC (that's the one everyone's heard of!)
Dollar to BTC supply and inflation
I think these two charts say it all.....
Maybe now I can make a more convincing 'buy BTC argument', thanks to latest 'Covid dollar supply spike' leading to an instant 20% devaluation of the dollar, compared to the slowing supply of BTC - especially when the price has held up pretty well during its rapid print phase, and now with 85% already printed, there really is very little room for inflationary devaluation going forwards!
I think this is one of BTC's biggest strengths - the 'print rate' is hard-coded into the chain, so a bunch of cowboys can't just decide to print more overnight, like they have done with Covid-19 - and the stimulus checks - honestly, if you're American and not desperate, cashing your stimulus money in for BTC makes total sense!
Security
My second main argument for buying into BTC is better security - if people are prepared to take responsibility, then this a big win over fiat - get that crypto on a hard wallet, or distributed over several wallets, secure your keys offline, and no bank or government can take it away from you - it's the postmodern equivalent of burying yer gold!
And of course the no third party interference in transfers and the anonymity.
So why aren't my friends buying?
Maybe it's the poor utility? It's a hard task to sell BTC on its utility, since it's relatively inaccessible compared to fiat, and you generally need the later to buy the former. Then there's the fact that most places aren't set up to accept BTC! Then there's the fees you have to pay to move BTC around. Yes, this is is hard sell.
Or maybe they're just waiting for BTC to properly mainstream? Maybe it's just lacked legitimacy in their eyes over the past three years?
Possibly most of my friends and colleagues trust our current fiat economic system.
And maybe the bodged economic response to Covid-19 will help break that trust a little?
Posted Using LeoFinance
I've had the same reaction from people, and I think it's two fold:
One, they just don't understand it. Not the mechanics, like, how to use an exchange, but also, how it works, what the underlying idea is if not the tech, etc. I'm always trying to get people to watch the SciShow video if nothing else that explains blockchain because it's the best introductory primer I've seen, but most people don't want to ~bother~, because they think it's a niche thing and not a worldchanging thing. And they definitely don't want to learn an exchange, let alone two or three, which you kinda need to do if you're going to use it for real. It's not user friendly for people who are tech-nervous. It's figure-out-able for those of us like me who I consider myself to be non-techie but give me a hot minute and I can usually deal with an interface, but for those who are all "AAAAAAAHHH COMPUTERS" or "Everything on the internet is a scam! I won't shop online! I don't want 'them' to have my credit card!" type people? They are so not going to deal with the likes of a crypto exchange. The absolute friendliest that I've come across is Coinbase, and they'd balk at the identification requirement there, and completely brain melt over something like Bittrex.
Two, they don't trust anything new. This relates to the thinking it's a niche thing. Remember back when everyone thought the internet was just creepers in chat rooms and porn? How many "magic money in your computer" jokes do we still see from people who 100% unironically don't understand that that is exactly what their bank accounts are? They think all crypto is a scam and a get rich quick gamble, and the stories like Bitconnect and fearmongering stories in MSM about people using crypto on the dark web paints it all as criminal to them. I'm like, people use paper money for crime too, but I don't see you thinking all your 20 dollar bills are somehow tainted by it, but okay.
Until a) there is some REALLY friendly user interface that doesn't scare the bejeezus out of normies; b) the tax code stops acting like it's 1965 and realizes that crypto =/= the stock market, at least in the US; and c) there are a lot more "normal use" uses for crypto, like shops taking it as payment and crypto debit cards, etc. so it seems less "niche" and more "normal" - I don't think we'll see mass adoption. This is why I get excited by certain things because I think it will help way more than the newest cool altcoin ever will - big shops like Overstock taking crypto as payment, crypto ATMs, that kinda thing. It puts it in an "everyday people will come across it and say, 'hey, this is legit'" kinda position.
Yup. Totally agree.
I hadn't thought about the technological barriers TBH - I guess I just forget how into this I am - I think Bittrex is damn easy, Coinbase is pretty accessible these days though.
When was early for the internet - the late 1980s, then everyone's on it by what, 1995... I guess we're only 10 years in!
And thanks I do need reminding I've been living in a techno-hole for the last three years - I'll be sure not to mention Bitshares or BEOS drops to anyone I'm trying to sell crypto to!
Mmm, 1995 is a little early: I was one of only a half million people in the UK on the Internet in 1998. Here's a nice little chart for you:
Cheers, interesting, so 50% by 2000.
I can't even remember when I got my first home PC, with Windows. Maybe 1999? I think it was 1998, all in college before that.
LOL nah most people weren't online in 1995. I first got on in 1996 and I was a bit of a forerunner.
Totally!!!! Big time. I used internet in ummmm 1996 too. It was totally new and primative for sure. So fancy to send an email 🤣
Right? And there were two camps: team "use your full name as your email address" and team "oh my god never use your real name on the internet".
Maybe that's just because I was at uni at the time then. I think it was mainly email back then.
I first got online at uni then too. :)
Haha, speaking of which. Is it time to do something with the coins i staked in BEOS? Sorta lost track of that one!
I think it's still raining over there, I haven't looked TBH. Should check in myself.
The good thing about getting into that was that I opened up a Bitshares account, which I understand is genuinely decentralised, and after the whole Steem fiasco, I guess that's something good to be into.
I think ppl are not buying b/c it's a very complex paradigm shift for them. Even tech guys think it's for tracking. I don't understand either. I wanted in when i learned about btc in 2014. But, was too intimidated to figure out how to get myself some then. Great piece. They'll all jump on board when it moons again. Silly humans.
Thinking back I was on a summer holiday when I got into crypto, so I had enough time to learn about it!
It is a learning curve, probably easier now?
I've not heard from any of my friends that they have got into crypto, but then they don't talk about other investments either. Of course I have tried to persuade people to get into Steem/Hive and a few have used it, but most are not interested. That makes me think crypto is still a long way from being mainstream. Most people have only really heard of Btc and that's usually in a negative context.
There was one guy I worked with who bought quite a few Btc early on and was holding onto it. I've lost touch with him.
There are various options to buy into crypto quite easily these days, even if you have to get verified first and those take some of the complication out so you don't need to worry about keys, even if you should really know about those and take control.
Buying coins to hold or speculate with is not my thing. I like Hive as a social platform that happens to pay and that I can benefit others with my stake.
I talk about investments quite a lot with my friends, generally people don't mind sharing what they're invested in - I would expect people to mention it to me if they'd bought any BTC, it is something of a talking point!
I've mainly bought BTC to buy Hive, but I've always kept a little back in BTC every purchase I've made, and then the Steem PD - a lot of that I've put in BTC. I'm much happier now that Hive isn't 90% of my crypto Portfolio!
Hive is practically all I have in crypto, but I am happy with that. I am not relying on it.
TBH I still don't really think of my BTC as 'real' - my out point's quite a long way off!
They are not ready to accept because they cannot decide whether it is good or bad - they are waiting for the government's approval. This is not their fault - they simply did not want to understand the essence of Bitcoin and blockchains, and your arguments are not enough for them. This is normal - they will come to this later)
Your friends probably lack the early adopter psychological profile. Bitcoin makes sense, demonstrably so, for the reasons you mentioned. But it’s not mainstream, yet. Mainstream people dislike risk and always go with the flow.
And there's me punting on games on Hive!
Even though it is a faff to move BTC around, at least you don't get dirty :)
Ludicrously expensive too.
I think that some of the people like to be against change and this is what happened with your friends. I've also spread the word on crypto and none of my colleagues bought when it was the right moment.
They waked up now and trying to buy but at more expensive prices.
Posted Using LeoFinance
Well I'm kind of glad it's not just me - I'm hoping things will change, I wonder what the critical mass point is!?
My friends and colleagues are exactly the same.
A few bought in late during the bull run and don't want to touch it because they got burned. It's still too early in the next cycle and they're just not interested enough to take another early plunge.
But it's the well off, traditional finance guys that get me too. I had a chat with a mate just this week about buying Bitcoin and his response was that he had bought some (again, the top of the last bull run), but he's lost his keys...
Just mind boggling.
Posted Using LeoFinance
Well at least they bought some - of my two friends in finance, one just isn't interested, I think he's 'made it' anyway so he just doesn't care, another just doesn't trust it, 'It's all dead mate' was his assessment on crypto a couple of years ago.
I might have to chuck him a bone or two in a couple of decades.
BTC is horrible to trade, its slow and expensive. If LTC was the main coin it might do better. All the talk about it being quick, cheap is a load of shit. Far from it.
Most people won't know this though and despite all I said, it will still rocket sooner or later.
BTC is pretty shit, I agree, but it's what everyone knows, and everything else just seems to follow it.
I still believe LTC will, at some point, have sustained growth beyond BTC - purely on the basis that it sounds cooler and it's easier to own a whole one - it's just psychology - buying 0.5 LTC just sounds much more appealing than buying 0.008 BTC! or whatever the conversion rate is, you get my drift.
And that's before people realise LTC is what you want to shift money between exchanges.
Be interesting to see how the alts do in the coming years. I think I've settled on just holding the main coins.
Same here. I have some friends who got into crypto since the 2017 story and they are still always half lurking what is going on.
But new people even though they understand finance and see their options, nehhh they find it 'too volatile', as if the regular economy isnt collapsing atm. I dunno man
Well if you've got a few that have got in, you must be more persuasive than I am!
Clearly none of my friends took part in yer poll!