Amid all the lawmaking, it seems meanwhile that the remedy to allow the lay man to embrace Bitcoin really is “education, education, education”.
That was the reported result of a crowdfunding event for The Bitcoin Doco, a film initiative looking to document the growth of Bitcoin in Australia, focusing on Melbourne.
Bitcoin Doco event illustrates need for education
“Our key drive with this campaign is to assist people as they step into Bitcoin, answer questions and make the process as easy as possible,” organizers Chris Mylrae and Dale Dickins explained in a press release. “We are keen to educate people with cryptocurrencies, answer any questions they have and give them opportunities to use it.”
The event itself accordingly aimed more for mass inclusion than the standard Bitcoin meet-up. “The campaign drew people from a variety of industries, many of whom brought a friend with them,” Mylrae and Dickins write. “Shortly after arriving, people who'd never used Bitcoin before happily waited for wallets to download so they could get their $10 Bitcoin gift and then spend it at the bar!”
To sell a concept with a couple of free drinks hardly guarantees its enduring acceptance, but Mylrae and Dickins noticed during the event that many previously disinterested individuals were ‘converted’ to Bitcoin’s credentials following demonstrations of its mechanism in action:
“There were many 'light bulb' moments as Bitcoin was transferred from wallet to wallet to point of sale system ‘that's it, that's all I need to do?’”
On hand were also instructional clips on usage and how the system works in general, whose exposure had surprising results. The press release also revealed that:
“Of the 38 gift transactions 47% happened AFTER people saw the clips, which indicates that the footage increased confidence in use.”
US Dichotomy
The formula could well be of use in the US, whose most recent Bitcoin survey produced mixed results. Of 1,754 likely 2014 voters polled online by Morning Consult between May 29 and June 1, 2014, 36% said that they had never heard of Bitcoin, while “a majority knew at least ‘a little’ about it,” Coinbuzz reports.
Accordingly, it could well be deduced that 27% of respondents answering “not too likely” and 46% “not at all” to whether they would use Bitcoin to pay for goods and services is to a considerable degree based on misinformation.
This may come as little surprise, yet given the changes in law being enacted in California which “reflect Californians’ payment habits in the mobile and digital fields,” it would appear that public opinion is far from clear cut.
In light of Bitcoin entering the official legislation phase in the US and Canada, its increasingly raised profile will surely guarantee that its identity reaches the ears of the mainstream once and for all.