Bitcoin at Thanksgiving – Bitcoin Magazine

In all seriousness, that is the entirety of the message: Don't even consider doing it. It is not worth the trouble.

You are no longer an overly-excited youngster who is in dire need of bragging credits or testing out your newly acquired wisdom. You are not some kind of preaching priestess who has lost souls to save just before the day of judgment is about to arrive. There is yet time.


Instead: simply leave folks alone. Seriously. They came to the Thanksgiving dinner to relax and enjoy with family, laugh, tell tales, and zone out for a day; the last thing they expected was to be surprised with what will seem to them like a crazed diatribe about some arcane issue that they couldn't care less about. Even if it's the monetary system, which no one really grasps anyhow, it doesn't matter.

Get real.

If you aren't persuaded by this Dale Carnegie-esque social approach, and you still naively believe that your meager words in between bites can change anybody's view on anything, here are some more serious reasons why you shouldn't talk to friends and family about Bitcoin the protocol — but most certainly not Bitcoin, the asset: Bitcoin is a decentralized digital asset that can be used to pay for goods and services.


Your loved ones and close friends do not want to listen to it. Get over it.
You don't want to bring unwanted attention to the fact that you presumably have a strong bitcoin stack since it might compromise your operational security. Although you might feel comfortable confiding in members of your family and close circle of friends, it's important to remember that gossip is never helpful and almost always harmful.
People only get interested in bitcoin when they are prepared to do so; everyone pays the price they should for bitcoin. In the book "21 Lessons," Gigi makes the following prediction: "Bitcoin will be comprehended by you as soon as you are ready, and I also think that the first fractions of a bitcoin will reach you as soon as you are ready to accept them." In essence, everyone will have itcoin at the precise moment that is appropriate.

It is quite improbable that your aunt or mother-in-law will simply chance to arrive at that location at the same moment that you are going to take your seat for dinner.

There are very few individuals who have really never heard of bitcoin; the only exceptions to this rule are those who are very young, extremely elderly, or live in great poverty. That means your evangelizing wouldn't be preaching to lost, ignorant souls ready to be saved, but rather to the tired, huddled, and jaded masses who couldn't care less about the discovery that will change their societies more than the invention of the internal combustion engine, the internet, and Big Government put together. Big deal.
The reality of the situation, however, is that everyone in your target audience has previously been exposed to bitcoin on a few of occasions and has decided against using it due to some type of usual FUD. It's a con, it appears strange, it's over, and we should put our faith in the central bankers since they have our best interests in mind.
It doesn't matter how much misinformation is debunked since nobody has misinformed or fringe beliefs for reasonable reasons—reasons that can be overturned by your passionate arguments in the time it takes to wipe off the cranberry sauce and grab another piece of turkey.
It is considered quite impolite to discuss money, despite the fact that bitcoin is now the most advantageous form of currency. Have some class.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you should never, ever bring up Bitcoin again. Because we like discussing Bitcoin so much, we frequently engage in related activities such as going to meetups, joining Twitter Spaces, writing, coding, operating nodes, listening to podcasts, and attending conferences. The people who live there comprehend something about this monetary uprising, and they have chosen to take part in it. Your unsuspecting family members have not heard of cryptocurrency; it is unlikely that it will go down well if you surprise them and tell them about the joys of multisig, the amazingly quick Lightning transactions, or how they too really need to join on this hype train as soon as possible.

On the other hand, if someone approaches you one-on-one with a scotch in their hand and an inquiring mind during the post-dinner pause on the porch, that is an entirely other scenario. That is done on a private rather than public level, and there are no time constraints involved, which is a welcome change from the norm. It entails elucidating queries or uncertainties for a listener who is both demonstrably interested in the subject matter and available for the discussion. That is really uncommon; guard it carefully and hone its qualities.


In December of the previous year, I published an article in which I discussed the appropriate place for political discourse in social situations. Due to the fact that November was also Election Month, the following should be cited here:

"I'm coming to the conclusion that politics is better left in the closet, where it may be renamed and brought out only when the occasion calls for it. Or maybe the bedroom, with the people in your life whom you love, respect, and trust the most. Not in a public setting, not with random people, not with your close friends, and most definitely not with other individuals in your neighborhood or community. Politics and political disagreements don't belong there, and our lives are too important to let them be ruled by (mostly contrived) political disagreements. "Purge it from your being as much as you possibly could, and refuse to let political issues invade the areas of our lives that we cherish. Politics and political disagreements don't belong there, and our lives are too important to let them be ruled by (mostly contrived) political disagreements.

These statements, if anything, sound even more prophetic now than they did when they were first spoken. And I'm going to venture a guess and say the same thing applies to bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a topic that everyone has some kind of perception or opinion about, and the majority of them are completely incorrect. But if there's one thing that people adore more than anything else, it's a rescuer in white armor who rides in to correct their misconceptions about something that they've recently stopped caring about. Similar to politics, nobody really gives a damn about this.


Just give them some space. They will, in their own sweet time, discover bitcoin, just like the rest of us did.


Ojike Stella

1727 Blog posts

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