Finland.
In general, there is resistance to blockchain as a lot of the information people have is outdated, irrelevant or plain wrong. There is fear of crypto (BTC) as it is an internet scam and probably illegal, so keep your children away from it.
I am constantly surprised at (I work in IT) in a country where technological understanding is incredibly high on average, most people do not look into things themselves and instead pay attention to media FUD.
I've noticed the same thing and wondered how this technologically advanced country can be so close minded to new ideas and developments in that field. Helsingin Sanomat and Yle are basically telling people that bitcoin is bad and everyone related to it are criminals, and the general public believes every word these huge media companies tell them, without even thinking about having a critical look into what is said.
A couple years ago there was a study done that found 92% of Finns trust the Finnish media. But, most of the stories that come internationally are syndicated and translated. People in Finland also trust "experts" like financial managers and economists - no matter how often they get it all wrong. I was handed an article (not Finnish) the other day by a friend here that she used as an attack on blockchain and Bitcoin, yet it was so heavily flawed it was near useless - but it appeared in a big media outlet.
It really is discouraging to see people lead astray, when all you have to do is be at least a bit more critical and check the sources. I was just talking with my dad about how those who know how to play well in the media field, dictate was is the truth to most people. More often than not, the ones that are trying to bring to light issues that contradict the main media sources, are really bad at presenting their cases, and even though they are right, they are left unheard.
I instantly imagined this guy 😂
At least he’s wearing a suit and not a dirty t-shirt and Karjala lippis 😅
Maybe someone should tokenize Alko or recycling their bottles and the adoption that'll ensue will be something never before seen in the last decade of blockchain.
LOL
People using Bitcoin for criminal activity are gonna have a bad time!
Movies still potray Bitcoin as being untraceable, some young drug dealers will be in trouble 😂
Really weird tbh, not only does Bitcoin have really, really early adopters, one of them even having been in direct contact with Satoshi but also they were one of the countries highest on the list of that Onecoin scam adoption. You'd think that scam would've at least made them interested in real blockchain but I guess they got so burned they never looked back.
Yep - the early adopters probably on average sold fast and never got back in - as it would have been at a "loss" - I know one who cashed out at around 20 dollar BTC and was happy with his several thousand euro gain - until....
I have a feeling that a lot of Finns are culturally wait and see adopters, normally waiting for Sweden to prove it works first. :)
This. Having the Swedes test out a novelty and seeing how it works is a time-honored practice in all areas. @acidyo said Finland has had some extremely early adopters of Bitcoin and that, too, is another paradox of Finnish culture. Finland has always had a relatively high proportion of lone wolves who've gone their own way and done extraordinary things. The literary classic Seitsemän veljestä captures this phenomenon. But when it comes to the cultural mainstream, the country is not a first-adopter in anything.
The problem is that Finland jumps on the bandwagon at the peak of attention when there are already a thousand others in the space. As I keep saying, not everyone is cut out for being an early adopter. Finns generally want to be the best of the group, Swedes the furthest away from the group.
But yes, there are the lone wolves here too, unfortunately it takes far too long for general adoption to follow, even though track record should influence the decision to move.
Internally, Sweden has a stronger culture of conformity than Finland. But as a society, Swedes like to consider themselves as ones to take the initiative and pioneer new things.
I think adoption tends to be quick in most things as long as what is being adopted something technological. But cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech is not just technological. It's deeply philosophical. The entire starting point in the creation of Bitcoin was fundamental distrust in central banking. Trust, however, is a major theme in Finnish society and culture. Even the sparsity of communication (I don't mean the lack of small talk, I mean the fact that a lot of things are simply not communicated) that any foreigner will pick up after living here for a while, is a result of trust which in turn results from mainstream people having so much common ground that little communication is needed in the first place. Thus it is not surprising that a technological novelty offered as a solution to the problem of lack of trust will not get much traction in Finland.
That said, the way cryptocurrency transactions are taxed in Finland makes much more sense than how the IRS or other tax authorities in most other countries tax crypto from what I've heard. Yet another paradox.
Oh forgot (and I always do :() (maybe @peakd could add a simple tip button for people with over 1000 engage tokens to distribute it so you don't have to add it in a comment or it needing to announce the distribution in one)
!ENGAGE 20
Yep, that would be a good idea.
ENGAGEtokens.