What is taking Bitcoin so long to catch on?
Why don’t the masses “get it”?
The answer may be simply that Bitcoin is still a new idea, and people are sheep – they do not change course until the flock does.
In 2011, scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute asked the question: What does it take for an idea to spread from one to many, and for a minority opinion to become the majority belief?
They found that once 10% of a population has committed to an idea, it becomes inevitable that it will eventually become the prevailing opinion of the entire group. The key is to remain committed.
The research was done by scientists at RPI’s Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center (SCNARC), and published in the journal Physical Review E. Here’s a link to the paper.
“When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority,” said SCNARC Director Boleslaw Szymanski, the Claire and Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor at Rensselaer. “Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame.”
Bottom line: Stick to it. When you reach that crucial 10%, your ideas eventually win out. Just as the graph from SCNARC below illustrates...
We still aren't even on this chart.