Bitcoin needs stories to win.
I am absolutely convinced of this.
Today, I see virtually zero human-to-human stories emerging.
Not from conferences, not from educators, not from companies, not from builders.
Not even from writers.
We are fixated on problem-solution.
But problem-solution is NOT a story.
No characters. No struggle. No happily ever after.
We must remember that no one cares about our products, services, or apps.
Speaking from a tech-first or systems-down standpoint is not convincing people to invest hundreds of hours of learning.
Most people are not systems thinkers, proficient developers, or even financially literate.
The vast majority of people only care when something hacks their emotions.
Give them a good story, and you make them care.
Yes, we must build, but without stories, we are just idealists writing code for solutions that will never be implemented.
Vexl is literally about meeting bitcoiners.
Sure. But it's hard to show those interactions to the wider world. They've done some cool stuff, but they are a SatoshiLabs funded project, not a for profit entity.
Yes agreed. It's a forever grass roots project. Establishing your local Bitcoin circular economy.
What kind of stories? Fake ones? Can you give us an example?
Sure. I think there is a place for fiction, narrative ads, and storytelling about the history of bitcoin.
Mostly, I'd like to see more real life stories about the impact of projects on people, not just 'how tech works' or 'what issue it fixes'.
HRF, Gridless, Club Orange, Primal, GeyserFund, even Steak n Shake are examples of projects and companies who get this.
Alas, most plebs and Bitcoin businesses think AI generated content or simplified explanations are the answer.
Nah, if anything there's too much of that... the virtue signals about the global south are in excess supply, shops in south america, mining in africa, donations to ukraine...
These strategies come off as a circle-jerk
People care about themselves, they care about products/services/apps to the extent that they serve them.
Bitcoiners are terrible at this because hipsters and the over-socialized are the most vocal cohort. Bitcoind doesn't need anything, but it would benefit from more appealing to peoples logos not their pathos.
The majority of current bitcoiners are INTJ systems thinkers.
The majority of normies are not.
We wonder why we can't attract a broader subset of users, but we speak only to current ones.
I agree with you that people care about how products solve their problems. Stories help to show them that. Most of us need to empathise with similar characters to get it.
Also agree that bitcoin doesn't need anything. It wins anyway. But we want faster adoption so we get to live in a better world.
Most peoples problem is they need more money. Address that, and Bitcoin grows.
They don't perceive themselves as being censored, needing permission, or having their savings inflated away (they have none). They're in survival mode and need income.
An INTJ can look at Bitcoin's properties and figure out how that applies to them, where normies can't. Stories about others are about its properties applying to that person.
Normies need it spelled out plainly, what product or service should they use to make money. A worthwhile services leverages Bitcoin's properties to achieve that since normies won't achieve it themselves.
I respectfully disagree. I rarely if ever see human-facing stories about bitcoin. And that's in the bitcoin community and if I go looking for them.
And when it comes to normies I never under any circumstances see any human-facing stories at all. Zero none.
In fact in the financial press the idea of transacting in bitcoin is never discussed ever, except in WSJ comment sections where the overwhelming majority of the comments amorphously say "crypto (bitcoin?) is for criminals and money laundering" and nothing positive.
Although by that same logic... Money laundering implies censorship resistance self custody and relative privacy which is valuable for human rights.
But the general public is convinced at every turn that... Somehow those things aren't achievable through bitcoin which doesn't make any sense.
I would go so far as to say that bitcoin is the worst, most stacked against it asset or network I have ever seen in the mainstream media or financial press.
MSM is a counter-signal, they exist literally as fronts for disinformation operations
Funny thing to say about an NSA built transparent ledger... see prior point
In the organic sphere, its almost all virtue signaling about the global south etc, not enough practicality. Doesn't matter what the MSM says, their job is to lie.
I think we agree.
I'm saying that I also see very few effective stories about humans.
If there were more of this, more people could see the real-world impact of bitcoin.