I just had an incredibly frustrating experience that I want to share with this community, as I'm sure a lot of you can relate. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of Steemit users have had an experience with a friend, family member, or coworker who is vehemently against the concept of cryptocurrencies (Uneducated really, but I digress). The amount of knowledge the general public has regarding BTC and other altcoins is laughable, but what's even more laughable is the fact that they don't even know it. So many people believe that they've "seen things like this before" and that us traders are all naive and misguided. This mainly comes from those of older generations, but it's not solely limited to them.
Now I've been meaning to switch banks for a while now, but due to me being a serial procrastinator I only just got around to it yesterday. I stopped by my parents' house after getting off work to pick up some cookies (Off topic, but every holiday season my mother bakes an obscene amount of delectable sweets :P). I asked my dad to accompany me to the bank, because I was also looking to get my first credit card, and didn't want some asshole working there to try and swindle me into a bad deal. My older brother would have been my first choice for this, but he's out of state.
So we get to the bank and sit with the teller. As we were setting everything up I was making idle chit chat with the girl who was helping me and casually asked when my new debit card would arrive, as I wanted to beef up my portfolio some more when I got paid the next day. She began to inquire as to just what I meant and I explained to her that I trade cryptocurrencies with my disposable income. This is something I'd very briefly discussed with my father in the past, but never really went too in depth (In his words, he didn't even know that "cryptocurrency was bitcoin"). Immediately upon me mentioning this she put a very condescending look on her face and started going into detail as to how cryptocurrency is absolutely worthless and I'm incredibly naive for buying any. Saying how she has so many clients who've gotten into it, and how she doesn't understand how this many people are so gullible to have "fallen for it."
Now when I say "cryptocurrency" I'm projecting knowledge which she did not have onto the conversation. Because she was only aware of Bitcoin. Not Ethereum, not Litecoin, and she sure as hell didn't know about any other altcoins. At this point my dad chimed in, bolstered by what he perceived as a knowledgeable authority figure on the topic saying things which lined up with his view of Bitcoin. So for the next 20 minutes they both went on and on about how I shouldn't blindly throw away my money like this, with her claiming that in all likeliness Bitcoin is in fact "illegitimate transactions" saying "What are you going to do when in a year or two it finally comes out that Bitcoin is a scam?" and she would not accept any of my assurances that it is not in fact a scam.
Right before I completely disengaged from the asinine conversation we were having, they both reminisced on some other currency from a decade or two ago - that I hate myself for not remembering the name - which a lot of people invested "all their money in" and when it turned out to be a scam lost it all, urging me to stop now before I meet the same fate as them. Then closed things off by claiming the IRS is going to throw me in jail for my endeavors dealing with crypto, and if that doesn't eventually happen I'll be plunged into such a large amount of debt, I'll never find my way out. And to top it all off, I got to hear my father lecturing me as if I were still 16 years old the whole way back to my parent's place.
"You're not a economist! You don't have any experience dealing with currency, you don't know what you're talking about. She works at a bank, she's gone to school for these kinds of things, she knows her stuff! You're being incredibly naive about this and think you know everything when you don't. I have more life experience than you, I know these things."
He actually got really pissed off about the whole thing and spent the entire time yelling, then wonders why my brother and I don't care to spend extended periods of time with him...
It angers me to no end when people open their mouths about this based on things they've heard in passing. Or just go off their gut feeling when it comes to a nuanced topic which requires extensive research to even come close to getting a grasp on. I don't even know half of the ins and outs of the crypto industry, and I've spent months and months educating myself and getting firsthand experience trading. Yet someone who only knows the name Bitcoin thinks they're an authority on the topic... Give me a fucking break.