With the holiday season almost upon us, the time has come to meet up with family members and friends. During these day-long festivities, a lot of topics will be discussed. Slowly but surely, mainstream consumers are inquiring about Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Anyone with some expertise on these matters may find themselves at the center of attention during the holidays. Starting a discussion about Bitcoin, altcoins, or blockchain remains somewhat difficult, though.
Cryptocurrency as a Talking Point
Talking to friends or family members about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is not an easy task by any means. Despite massive price gains, most conversations will start out with something else people heard on the news or read online. In nine out of ten cases, it will be a recent story involving Bitcoin and illegal activity. There are plenty of nefarious activities to choose from, including money laundering, kidnapping, ransomware, hacking, data breaches, and the dark web, to name a few. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will always be associated with illegal activity, unfortunately.
Unfortunately, once the discussion turns to illicit activity, the tone has been set for the rest of the conversation. For some reason, most people have trouble looking at cryptocurrency and crime as two very separate entities. This is mainly due to the media’s tendency to only report negative stories about Bitcoin. Even the positive items – often in regards to the price – will include some backhanded comment about illegal activity at some point. Bad news sticks better in people’s minds than positive developments.
It is your job to steer these conversations in the right direction. Talking about the Bitcoin price, for example, is an interesting option worth exploring. Be prepared for these conversations to inevitably turn to the “but what gives it value?” debate. Explaining to people how fiat currencies are nothing but IOUs from the government and central bank won’t score you brownie points, unfortunately. While that is the truth, it is not something people want to think about too much. In their minds, banks are safe and Bitcoin is a fringe market.
Additionally, there is no reason to convince people to invest in Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency either. This is a dog-eat-dog world, and no one should be trusted. Even advice you receive from family members should be taken with a few grains of salt. Financial freedom attained with cryptocurrency does not come cheap and requires doing a lot of research.
Your best bet is to get people slightly interested in this new form of money, but to tell them to do some research and perhaps point them in a direction. Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper is always a good reference, or one of the many books written about cryptocurrency will work too. The latter can also serve as a Christmas gift, killing two birds with one stone. There are a lot of good cryptocurrency information resources out there these days, which should make this process slightly easier.
We all have to acknowledge that cryptocurrency is still in the very, very early stages of mainstream awareness. A lot of people remain hesitant despite the sound financial picture. This is an investment which people are making first and foremost, and it should always be treated as such. Never go all-in with money you cannot afford to lose. Moreover, whether or not cryptocurrency will ever replace traditional money remains a big question. One thing’s for sure: there is a lot more to Bitcoin and altcoins than the illegal activity the media talks incessantly about. Spend your time wisely educating the masses, without pushing them into making an investment they may not be comfortable with.
