I was recently in the hospital (that part of the story isn’t important) and had a Bitcoin book, A Progressive’s Case for Bitcoin: A Path Toward a More Just, Equitable, and Peaceful World, out on my desk to read while I was sitting around doing nothing. One of the nurses asked me if I “Was into Bitcoin?”. I naturally said “yes” enthusiastically and asked her if she wanted to talk about it. Her first comment was “Isn’t the bitcoin guy in jail?” I explained to her that “no there is no ‘bitcoin guy’” The guy who is in jail, who I’m assuming she meant Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), although we didn’t clarify that, I explained to her, was a fraudster but not directly linked with bitcoin. I explained to her that Sam and his company FTX were more or less committing fraud on a level similar to Enron. She seemed to understand that. 

Fighting basic narrative errors about bitcoin like this is important for bitcoin adoption. There is so much false news and when people don’t really have that much interest, this is the type of error they can make. 

I also got to mention to her that there is a limit of 21 million bitcoin ever and it fixes the problem of governments stealing our savings via inflation. She did like that! She mentioned that she had a “lot of cash” and “wished the government would stop stealing things”. Not the most technical conversation, but I’m hoping that by.

1 . removing the connection of SBF/FTX to bitcoin and

2. Connecting the idea of bitcoin saving you from government created inflation, she might be more open to bitcoin the next time she hears about it. 

She also mentioned that she “isn’t tech savvy” but somehow mentioned she has Venmo. You can buy bitcoin on Venmo (it’s not the favorite platform for the “hardcore” bitcoin folks but it works). So I did mention to her that she would be able to buy it there pretty easily.