In your opinion, what us the biggest first mistake when telling people about Bitcoin or orangepilling?
I begin: talking about current day politics. I see that so often - Bitcoin isn't just in our current politics censorship free. Tell people that Censorship free is important in general always not just now!
Telling people they should buy.
Should honestly be left out of the conversation if possible. If they ask, tell them not to buy. If they buy before they understand it, they won’t hodl. If anything, say “don’t buy what you don’t understand.”
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Right. People should learn about it and then make their own decisions. Pushing creates unconvinced userbase
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I completely agree. People need to learn that cryptocurrency is about freedom, not just some money-making scheme.
With freedom comes responsibility. Cryptocurrency can allow people to transact with incredible security and privacy, but it also can allow people to lose all their money with no recourse.
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The biggest mistake are people thinking Bitcoin was an investment for financial "gain" (measured in fiat). Idk how to do this but we really need to bring people to the irl community and meetups to make them understand that Bitcoin is a non-government network first and foremost (which investments and financial speculation normally are not which creates the confusion here).
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I always start with "Bitcoin is just a public ledger of transactions that anyone can write to, but somehow everyone trusts. We've never had that before."
The conversation usually then goes in a few directions, "Why have we never had it before?" or "Why does this matter?" Either way it goes to a very productive discussion on either the underlying technology or the underlying monetary economics
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Sounds good. But what has that to do with my comment?
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Just an example of a conversation that follows your advice in not emphasizing the financial gain, but emphasizing that Bitcoin is first and foremost a network that lets people opt out of the government controlled monetary system
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Oh okay, I get it. More of a flow based strategy instead of an individual good or bad argument then.
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The moment I realized that I am no longer excited about selling my bitcoin for millions is when I realized that I have hit a milestone in falling down the bitcoin rabbit hole: It's not about fiat gains, it's about the separation of money and state.
In other words: I finally understood the Matrix meme
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I'm sorry to say this now but I cringe really hard at matrix / red pill / sheeple metaphors. Very cringe to me.
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I can understand, but I think that one has some depth to it.
Interested what you then think of "orange-pilling" people?
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I think "orange-pilling" is fine.
My problem with matrix / red pill / sheeple metaphors is rather that it implies that one is smarter than everybody else. Which is simply not true. Having early exposure is luck or fortune - but nothing that diminishes people that did not!
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Einstein and Newton were smarter than you, so are most CEX owners and people who got in earlier than you.
Genius is the capacity to learn and pattern recognize at a much faster rate than the average. And so is intelligence and it falls on a spectrum
why do you have such a hard time accepting that other people WERE smarter and got in earlier on?
You get bitcoin at the price you deserve.
Equality nonsense does not hold up in reality :)
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Giving them some as a gift. This is my own regret in the past when trying to orange pill people around me. I like this subject because I made myself the same question many times, and now I nearly stopped with the orange pilling with anyone, they will come to understand it on their own and that's the only way. I feel trying to convince people about it is like what Jehova witnesses or mormons do, it's just annoying and only people who have some genuine interest will come to be convinced, but those are precisely the ones that will seek to know more about it and don't need any convincing!
"It's not the job of a bee to convince flies that honey is better than sh** " Unknown internet philosopher
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Why do you regret it? Have they reacted negatively to it? And did you do it as a birthday present or just randomly? And how did you gift it (paper wallet etc.)?
Asking because I did that myself a few times so far and received mixed reactions to it.
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We opened a wallet live and I sent them some, but most of the people I gave BTC never got involved any further, which defeats the purpose of the gift. I could verify when I spoke to some of them maybe a year later and they still saw it as an internet curiosity. Also, you simply don't give money as a gift. Back when I was young it was seen as a lack of tact to give money or to leave the price tags on your gifts.
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Ah, I see. Same experience here with most of my people. However, I gifted hardware wallets on birthdays and else gave away bitcoin by just sending them the seed words; they had to figure out the rest by themselves (or come up with questions).
I think gifting money it's still seen like you described. That's why I bought hardware wallets. The other cases I would describe as "giveaways".
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  1. Not asking them what they know about Bitcoin
  2. Diving too deep into Bitcoin - much easier for people to understand why Fiat is broken
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talking about price. The topic of price should be avoided at all costs.
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For me it has been: "assuming that people care."
They just don't care if the current system is stealing from them. Sure, they care about taxes and the simple concepts they're used to. But trying to explain how QE is taking more purchasing power from them than taxes is.... their eyes glaze over and they just don't seem to care.
If the American revolutionaries in 1776 cared the same my friends & family do, independence would have never happened.
"You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependant on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
It appears that ignorance is bliss.
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Don't start with the solution. Talk about the problem, if done properly you don't even have to say the word "bitcoin" to orange pill someone.
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Telling people that FIAT IS A SCAM BUY BITCOIN BROOOOO
Just tell em to keep a few hundred $ in BItcoin as an emergency fund while traveling. Its practical, useful and not investment.
Easy to exchange for cash in any country on earth. :)
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My biggest mistake has been getting quite passionate in my explanations I often find myself using “prove you wrong” tones when they really aren’t called for. I recognized it when a bitcoin enthusiast and fellow poker player would continue to tell me things like “hey you don’t have to convince me”. Him saying that made me realize that I really need to be zooming out and only explain the things I truly understand and be transparent about the things I don’t.
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Oh, for sure. I probably make this mistake too
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I think we make a few common assumptions that don't help:
  1. We assume people know about hard money, the history of mercantilism and kings and currency debasements etc. People spend money and think in terms of money but a lot of people go through life not even thinking about what money is.
  2. We assume a level of technical proficiency which many people may not have.
  3. When it comes to speaking about BTC itself a lot of people don't understand the emissions meant to mimic a physical hard money like gold, but with improvements. The capping of total BTC can be confusing to some as a price manipulation feature / scam.
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Don't go outside their Overton window.
For precoiners, start with the risk adjusted potential gains but make sure their self custody.
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Based :)
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Being in a hurry.
It takes time. Try to imagine your first conversations with that person as you planting seeds. Afterwards, you slowly water and care until it blooms.
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For me, it's the realisation that everyone's "get it" moment is something different, for myself it was the protection via self-custody, for a friend of mine, it was the ability to store wealth outside the current system.
I think my mistake Orange pilling was pushing what I value onto people and not realising they don't value the same things I do.
I've actively stopped orange pilling, in fact I don't even encourage people to get bitcoin anymore in my family and friend circle. if they feel they don't need it, if they are not naturally curious I don't bother. If they come to me with the right questions I'll help if they asking how to make money or trade or can I trade for them I tell them to fuck off and have fun staying poor
You can't save everyone
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People just quickly assume bitcoin is tied with drugs or gun running I mean it is but….
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Use my bitcoins to test ETH
I participate in a beautiful group called HashPY, Telegram group Paraguay based where we talk about bitcoin among others cryptocurrencies.
Mostly, before 2021 I only use bitcoin to save my money. That's all I do but the group encouraged me to take actions in the ETH ecosystem. So I did.
I own honesty and say..it's creepy awesome, invest money in those spaces have the same emotion of being in a casino and bet for 0 BUT they pay even 80% higher. You're the king; the real problem starts when someone has to pay the bill.
And that's what I learned. In this ecosystem, they're cannibals eating each other with fancy buzzwords and most (not all) projects dedicated to one purpose: fill their bags and run. With bitcoin, we stay and stack and spend to earn more sats. Now I'm 98% BTC again, didn't lose any money because they were profits but lesson learned in the hard way.
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Not sharing with them some Knut wisdom.
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Making someone drink from a fire hose when they were only a little thirsty for knowledge. Everyone’s bitcoin journey is motivated by different externalities. In order to communicate the value prop of bitcoin you first to know what motivates / intrigues them. Censorship resistance, sound money, history of money, technical workings, etc.. there really is so many angles to rope people in with but you need to be a good communicator to understand what they need to hear first