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What is the Number One Problem with Bitcoin?
The number one problem with Bitcoin is clearly the price right now, at least for 99% of people that is the case. So what is the biggest factor affecting price? Adoption is a massive factor. For adoption to happen, people need to know about Bitcoin and understand what is it. They have to want it. I, therefore, think marketing or the complete lack of it, is the biggest problem with Bitcoin. Let’s have a look at this problem in this article.
How did you hear about Bitcoin
For most people, you most likely heard about Bitcoin from a friend. This is how it all started with Satoshi Nakamoto being the first to discuss it with friends in the Cypherpunk community. The research I’ve done strongly shows that knowledge of Bitcoin has been person to person dissemination with many others seeing a news article in the last 18 months, sparking their interest.
You may have heard about it a few years back, maybe when the Winklevoss twins got in. That was my catalyst to take a close look at Bitcoin. That in many ways was only a big story as they were the guys who said they came up with Facebook.
These two methods, person to person and news media, have taken Bitcoin to a wide audience but imagine if Bitcoin actually had some marketing. How many products or services have ever succeeded with zero marketing? Not many. Now factor in the relentless stream of bad press that Bitcoin has had to endure in 2018. Companies use sophisticated PR techniques to combat bad press, Bitcoin uses community members and a handful of YouTubers to rebut bad press. Whoopty doo. This is just the Bitcoin community talking to each other and in many cases squabbling among themselves. This article might fall into that category as well!
The Number one problem with Bitcoin
The number one problem for Bitcoin is marketing. It is pure and simple. Bitcoin needs to have a large enough group of people agreeing it has value for it ever to be more than a tool for a few people to use among themselves. If Bitcoin does not reach a certain point where its price stabilises caused but enough adoption to
give it liquidy then it might just end up being what it was in 2012, something to buy drugs online with. You could argue it is not even useful for that as there is, or will most likely be a better coin for this type of activity. There will be those in the community who would happily see Bitcoin go back to 100 bucks and be adopted slowly by a fringe. I’m not one of them. It will take years for it to rise again, rise it will, but over a very long period of time. Bitcoin was launched during the financial crisis and it offers a very real solution to the looming debt crisis. Read about that in this article.
There needs to be a very concerted effort to take Bitcoin to a much wider audience and fast for it to be used as a solution to the coming financial crisis. I firmly believe Bitcoin will become a store of value and at some point a currency but only through a coordinated marketing effort. The big stakeholders need to step up.
Here are some fun efforts at Bitcoin marketing via people making music videos
Does Bitcoin need the Altcoins to survive
If you agree with me that marketing is essential for Bitcoin to survive, and when I say survive, I mean for it to be more than a plaything for a small community, then it needs to be properly marketed to people. It is totally naive to think any other way in my opinion. Leaving it to a 77-year-old rapper is not the best idea.
I have written articles recently stating that Bitcoin needs the altcoins to disappear allowing capital to flow back into Bitcoin. They have tarnished Bitcoins reputation with the general public who do not really understanding the vast difference between Bitcoin and the shit coins. But could it be true that Bitcoin only pumped because of the altcoin frenzy? It is a horrible thought but the reality is that these coins had and have something Bitcoin does not have, marketing budgets. We are a Bitcoin site and while that makes getting funding difficult, we are in this for the long game. Take a look at other Crypto media, it is a circus of flashing banners, sponsored stories (how lawsuits haven’t happened on this yet I have no idea) These Crypto media outlets have been well funded and have been a huge factor in pumping some shit projects. There are some really good sites out there but within the community I know there are strong negative feelings toward some of the bigger players in Crypto media and their behaviour during 2017 and 2018.
The reality is that many people heard about Bitcoin because of the huge pump in Altcoins. Mainstream media covered this and Crypto media fueled it massively by ICO advertising. This, in my opinion, did its bit to disseminate knowledge and to a far lesser degree education on Bitcoin. Bitcoin was and to a large degree still is the entry and exit coin when coming from Fiat to Crypto. How many people are staying in Crypto by parking in Bitcoin when exiting shit coins? I’m not too sure many are it looks like most are parking in tether!!! That’s a horrible thought that tether is being used as the store of value. I think Bitcoin will be the store of value but it comes back to adoption, liquidity and ultimately marketing. It will be interesting to see if capital stays in Bitcoin if the alts all fail or if Bitcoin does, in fact, need a healthy dose of altcoin frenzy to keep it above $3000.
Who is Marketing Bitcoin
Ok, I’m in a grumpy mood today, and this was caused by some clown in a Bitcoin facebook group with 250,000 members asking for money for us to post an article from our website. It is totally fair that someone needs capital to run a business but this guy has a group claiming it is an Offical Bitcoin group!. Decentralisation is what makes Bitcoin great but it is the main issue facing its dissemination as coordinating any form of marketing is very difficult.
There has been a Bitcoin foundation in the past but without knowing all the details on that I will stay away from that can of worms but just say there haven’t been many positive comments on the way that was run. Recently I heard about the B foundation Hopefully, this successor to the Bitcoin Foundation can help with a marketing campaign for Bitcoin where it predecessors by all accounts didn’t do the best job.
There are lots of YouTubers out there who in the main seem to survive on donations. People like Tone Vays do a good job of promoting Bitcoin. He has found a way to earn a living by running trading seminars and now conferences. Many people still overlook all the good work he does spreading the Bitcoin gospel preferring to troll him. You can find Tone Vays’ YouTube channel on our favoured YouTube channel page. This page automatically updates upon every new upload on the channels listed.
Trolling is a pretty awful aspect within Bitcoin and for people putting themselves out there, often just as passion projects, this sort of behaviour doesn’t help anyone and drives people from the space. I’ve questioned my commitment on many occasions as you do get a lot of crap from people.
I was very happy to hear good friends committed to helping grow the space recently. Didi from the Bitcoin family is possibly the most vocal and committed person there is. I’ve known him for a while and he, in part, inspired me to commit to creating this content.
This content comes at a financial cost to me and the team, no. we haven’t monetised this media as yet. Feel free to help! info@hardforking.com
Didi and his families story is a great one. They have been dubbed the Bitcoin family.Â
They recently finished a European tour to 32 countries promoting Bitcoin. They have appeared in numerous documentaries that received millions of views. They have never been paid for this media just sponsorship from a handful of projects. Much of that income was donated to charity in line with the families belief in a minimalistic lifestyle and their strong values. It was disturbing to hear the level of trolling he has had recently. He has three young daughters and they read the comments. They sat down as a family a couple of weeks ago to discuss if they would continue as the Bitcoin family. I think the trolling must have been very hard to accept. Fortunately, they decided to stay committed. Please support this family and their efforts, they are good people whos message is much more than just promoting Bitcoin.
How you can help
The reality remains that Bitcoin needs to be spread person to person. If you want Bitcoin to succeed it is down to you to tell people about it, teach them about it and support others in their efforts in doing this. If you would like to help us please share our content, like it and subscribe to the website and youtube channel. We would really appreciate this.
To discuss email us at info@hardforking.com
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