The average civilian associates cryptocurrencies with high profile thefts and dark web drug dealers because that's what makes it into the mainstream media. At best this will panic the big payment processors into making traditional payment options cheaper and easier, further undermining what little reason this has for existing.

> The average civilian associates cryptocurrencies with high profile thefts and dark web drug dealers

Maybe the average dismissive HN comment.

But pretty much everyone I ever talk to outside of HN treats Bitcoin with distant "hmm, maybe I'll learn more about that one day" curiosity. Kind of like programming and other tech.

You are way over-estimating how much Bitcoin even shows up on the radar of average people, even if it were 100% bad news.

The average civilian cares and understand nothing of that, all they care about it is the fastest/simplest/cheapest way to move their money around. Since WhatsUp and Facebook are ubiquitous by now, and everyone knows how to use them, so will that currency be.

Existing payment networks already are fast, cheap and I'll also throw in secure. (In Europe ATMs and bank-to-bank transfers are free.) They could easily be made simple to use given the requisite will.

You're correct about payment in the developed world.

But the Libra website highlight potential usage in developing countries. I may be wrong but in my opinion there is a huge market to take over in the countries where one has a Facebook account before having a bank account.

I can't find the link but I came across an article explaining that in Myanmar Facebook and "internet" are basically synonyms. That's because when most of the population began to have access to the internet it was only via Facebook services that are provided freely thanks to a commercial agreement between mobile providers and Facebook.

Now just imagine if Libra could pull something like that for payment services in all developing countries.

Fast, secure, but not cheap. Credit card merchant fees are on the order of 2% + 0.15 cents per transaction. The industry would still be profitable with prices orders of magnitude lower. A combination of regulatory capture and high fixed infrastructure costs have protected those profits -- but with cell phones, the infrastructure barrier need no longer apply.

Indeed, the average civilian will probably not even associate Zuckbucks with "Bitcoin"...

And that's why Facebook's Press Release[0] does not mention the word Cryptocurrency. Just "blockchain technology".

[0]: https://scontent.fvno2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.2365-6/65035641...

Every news report I've read about Libra includes the words 'cryptocurrency' or 'digital coin', so they're not doing so great controlling the narrative.

They use "cryptocurrency" here at least: https://calibra.com/about

> The average civilian associates cryptocurrencies with high profile thefts and dark web drug dealers because that's what makes it into the mainstream media.

That will change now that major corporations have vested interests in changing the opinion of the public on cryptocurrencies.