The Challenges in Spreading BCH Awareness in our Place

September 23.

I'm not sure how many people in our city know about Bitcoin Cash in our city. Or how much do people know about cryptocurrency? I mean the real truth about cryptocurrency, its intended purpose, and its true benefits.

Greetings once again my dear readers and BCH community. Since I joined readcash, I have learned a lot about cryptocurrency, especially about Bitcoin Cash. And I wanted to spread Bitcoin Cash awareness in our city. I know there are people here who are aware of Bitcoin, Litecoin, and other cryptocurrencies. But the terms Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency already have a negative notation to many people here at this time.

In this post, I will share with you how people got a bad impression of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. And perhaps, I will ask for some suggestions on how to overcome the challenges.

Bitcoin Got a Bad Impression

Multi-level Marketing (or Ponzi Scheme?)

I think it started in 2011 or 2012. The time that Bitcoin started to gain popularity and its price started its steep climb. A group of well-known people here started a Multi-level marketing scheme using Bitcoin. When they started the "joining fee" (this is just the term that I will use for the sake of this discussion) was small. But when the BTC price continue to rise, the "joining fee" reached $1000 or PHP 50,000. That was the price of one Bitcoin at the time.

Since it is Multi-level marketing, the members focus on recruiting members and earn a huge chunk of commissions. Since I did join this group, I had no idea how the compute the "earnings" of the members. It could be they based it on the price difference from the day the member joined, or they have "expert" traders in Bitcoin. Sure enough, a lot of people earned a lot of (fiat) money. Until the crash in 2018. Why? Because the members earn mostly from their commissions from recruiting other people. Which is the main ingredient of a Ponzi scheme.

I met one of the "investors" and asked me if I joined Bitcoin. At the time, their impression was, Bitcoin is associated only with the multi-marketing group. I said yes. But he was surprised when I said, I bought my (small amount of) satoshis directly using the coinsph app and did not join their group.

That was just the first.

There were other groups that popped up. One was even registered to our country's Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). At the time, having an SEC registration is an assurance for investors. But now I know that this defies the very purpose of cryptocurrency of decentralization.

A former classmate of mine who now lives in London also tried to recruit me to join One Coin. Which again was later proven to be another Ponzi scheme.

Another Ponzi Scheme and then some.

Then came another person who claimed to be a rich doctor and wanted to help the people during the time of the pandemic. His double-your-money scheme became an instant hit. Even some doctors, lawyers, businessmen joined. For a few months, his popularity grew since a lot of people testified that they indeed earned twice the amount of their investments. Some even sold their vehicles and other properties to "invest" in hope that their investment will double after a month or two.

When asked how he does it, he said he invests, or trades rather, the money in different ways, including the stock market, forex, and cryptocurrency. Then there were two or three more companies who started the same scheme.

But in an instant, all of them disappeared like bubbles. With the people's money.

Because of these people, Bitcoin and cryptocurrency had a bad reputation to the people here. Of course, there are a few who knows the truth.

Commodity or Currency?

Another challenge is the few people who know something about cryptocurrency is, they see it as a commodity. Like gold with highly volatile prices. Or something like stocks in the stock market. They would buy some then sell them once the prices go high. Some are even doing day-trading. I'm not sure if they are aware of the "currency" part of cryptocurrency.

Although there was one cafe here that was supposed to accept bitcoin as payment. But I don't think it would be wise if you are going to order only a cup of coffee worth $2-$3 and pay in Bitcoin. It remained operational even after the Bitcoin crash, but it did not survive the pandemic.

BCH is A Scam?

Perhaps, because the name bitcoin was used by some people to scam others, some people now believe that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are nothing but a scam. Even a friend of mine whom I know who is into Bitcoin thinks BCH is a scam. Perhaps because of the other altcoins were.

Course of Action

Write on Platforms outside the Cryptocurrency Realm.

So far, I have been reading and learning a lot about BCH and Cryptocurrency in platforms like this one, readcash, noise.\cash and publish0x, Hive, and among others. But I suppose, to reach out to people who still have little knowledge about Bitcoin Cash, it would help if I write on other platforms. One platform in my mind is Medium. I also created a WordPress.com page for this purpose. It doesn't matter for now if I can't monetize my WordPress page. But once I can earn and save enough BCH, I will soon get a paid hosted WordPress site with my own domain name and proudly say "Funded by BCH!". I think I only need about 0.3 or 0.4 BCH to start this project.

Then promote my page to the other bloggers and social media users from our city and province.

Start Earning From BitWorkerss.Cash

I know, I know, I said this already many times. And I need to start my "gigs" (I need to stop using this Fiverr term for Bitworkerss) and start earning. Then promote my earnings to my friends, through social media and my WordPress site.

Start Talking About BCH

My problem is, I'm not good at marketing and selling, and I hate posting to Facebook! Unless I create a separate page and invite some select people whom I know are or were interested in cryptocurrency. I think I can start with that.

Start a Small Community Project Funded By BCH

This is a long shot, considering my financial status at the moment. But I think this is possible. Especially during this time of the pandemic, a lot of people are still depending on aid from the government and the business sector.

Maybe a small community pantry funded by BCH or something like that. Or a beach clean-up drive. With all expenses funded by BCH. With a streamer promoting BCH. (Do you want to help? LOL!)

Any Suggestions?

At this point, I'm going to ask you to share your own thoughts about this. How did you or will you spread BCH Awareness in your area? With some people believing that BCH and cryptocurrency is a scam, how can you prove that it not? (That's what I need --- proof!)

You can write a comment below or even a post about it.

Ok, consider this is a writing prompt. "BCH Awareness" or Spreading "BCH Awareness".

The rules are:

• Original content only.

• If you got some information from elsewhere, quote it and give credit to the source. Don't rephrase. Trust me, I will know if you did.

• At least 600 words.

• Tag me if you want to.

Ok, I will stop here for now, before this article evolves into something else. These are some of the challenges in spreading BCH awareness in our place... and I say...

"CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!"

Thanks for reading.

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