The easiest litmus test for bitcoin’s cultural status is to simply ask people: “Do you know about bitcoin?”
I found that throughout most of 2017, the prospects were pretty good. More people seemed to know about bitcoin than not. Despite the mainstream media’s idea that this was some obscure and risky financial instrument, the word at the grassroots level was mostly neutral - people wanted to ask questions about it.
Raleigh Has Amped It Up
Ever since I hit the Raleigh coffeeshop scene the amount of bitcoin conversation I am overhearing has increased tenfold. It’s insane.
Just the other day while I sat and had some coffee, these two other guys sat down near me. They proceeded to have a passionate conversation about bitcoin mining, with one person sounding like the experienced expert and the other asking a lot of questions.
Then the next day at a different place I heard a group of six people literally standing around at the bar (I think they all worked there) and saying - “Is there a place to go for bitcoin stuff? Like, reddit?”
So of course I said - “You guys should check out Steemit” and ended up showing a few of them the site for 15 minutes. There was even some talk of a bitcoin meetup.
This is nuts. It seems like the scene in Raleigh has a dense concentration of blockchain industry people.
The Triangle
It’s not too surprising to find out that blockchain is big here. The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area consists of three cities that are all pretty close to each other in North Carolina, and it’s collectively known as the “triangle”.
source: wikipedia
There is a huge tech scene in the triangle. Red Hat has a big presence here as do several other large companies, and it is sometimes thought of as the “silicon valley of the east”.
Raleigh is a much more up-and-coming city with a lot of excitement as opposed to Silicon Valley which is more established, basically SV is the incumbent right now.
Meeting the Local Community Adds Depth To The Blockchain Experience
It’s easy to forget that the whole point of blockchain is to bring communities together. By cutting out the middlemen of the government and the banks, we make it possible for people to rely on each other in smaller groups.
It’s a healthier way to live and may result in less corruption/crime/bullshit.
Perhaps more importantly this is a way to use cryptocurrency directly. When you meet other people who have digital wallets for these coins, it is completely feasible to buy and sell things in cryptocurrency tokens without converting to fiat at any point in the transaction.
If anybody I know ever needs to pay me any amount of money, I’d give them a 10% discount to do it in steem. No question! As more people (and businesses) think this way, the currencies will gain usage and probably some more value too.
And it’s fun to meet new people anyway.
Have you overheard any blockchain talk in your city?
I definitely hear more crypto talk then blockchain talk. They are both getting more popular.
True - its more financially oriented than technologically oriented good point
well, I live in deep rural eastern Europe and I sold a used car radio to guy for the neighboring village for 20 USD in LBC. people talk, but we are very far from the mainstream adoption. it will probably happen first on the fringes of society (or by the elites in parallel).
Haha thats awesome though that you were able to do that! Im just waiting for more of my friends to get on Steem so I can start paying people in that lol
I'm from the Caribbean. I've noticed more people are expressing interest in bitcoin and somebody put an ad in a local newspaper recently for their 'cryptocurrency course'. It sounded kinda scammy to me but the fact that it exists means that someone saw the demand for information and thinks it's worth trying to exploit .
That's great that you are seeing increased adoption in the Caribbean, cool. Too bad about those scammy courses.... I see a lot of those too
After six months of busting my butt I finally got my friends to sign up. None of them were interested when I was only making a few cents, but now that I'm up to a "few" dollars they ask more and more about Steemit.
I keep throwing it out on Facebook when people complain that they don't have enough Fiat to buy BTC on the lows, but haven't had much success with doing that yet.
It seems like it gets easier as you go... Ive had a similar experience.
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Good to see fellow North Carolinians on Steemit.
INDEED
I love how you said blockchain brings people together, because it does. This emerging technology is getting so many people to come out from the woodwork to join and create new communities. And I love that you can pay each other without having to get anyone else involved. Did a bit of work for my buddy yesterday and he paid in crypto. Market might be down now, but HODLing will lead to early retirement, hopefully :) Thanks for posting! Never knew all that about Raleigh.
Uh, I am outside of the bitcoin for now, too tick for my blood. I this period I am focused on the small-coins and privacy coins., basically whatever has a lower fees I am up to it.
A little to no people in my environment knows what is Bitcoin nevertheless anything else.
I always worry about the time that you will hear any local talk about bitcoin. AS back during the 20s stock rise when a certain famous investor heard his shoe shine boy talking about buying stocks he knew it was time to get out and crash bang boom Depression. I hope that is not what will happen to crypto. But I believe in it and am happy with it so lets hope it goes up and I don't hear an anachronistic shoe shine boy say, 'gee ma'am, I'd like my tip in Tron please'
lol ya that is true! To be honest I do think at least 50% of the market (totally random guess) is acting out of greed, FUD, and hype. Its inevitable. I just hope that enough people are in it for the right reasons, so we don't have too much of a "depression" like you said.
Well the dichotomy of my personality says play devil's advocate and wonder at Depressions but the Pollyanna side is happily invested in crypto and happy to see the change with a hopeful eventual adaption that is fair, just, and still give a nice reward to those of us getting in a bit late but more in the 'middle' of it. :)
I've been talking to people about this stuff for 4 years now. Honestly, it just feels good to see some of those people winking at me 20x later...