I could say lack of education but I'm going with other most r like Cypher (bald guy in the 1st matrix) they know something is wrong but they don't want to look at it or even act on it would rather be plugged back in and not remember a thing and they all wanna be rich...

Probably they or someone they know got rekt last cycle by Saylor telling them to 2nd mortgage their house. Or a ponzi rugged them, or their exchange got hacked, or they fell for a scam. Or they tried mining and found out its unprofitable for them and they sold their ASIC for 80% loss. Or they just bought the top and aren't exactly pleased that short dated treasury bonds are outperforming their BTC position.

Only time BTC is in the news is when we're at ATHs or some criminals are using it. Only time normies need to use BTC is to pay the ransomware on their laptop. None of this really signals "generational wealth" to people. This scares away most people who don't even want to associate with something that could make them lose money or is used by criminals.

The people who care the most about sovereignty are already bitcoiners.

OTHER: Bitcoin terrible image in mainstream media and general audience.

For most people on this planet, Bitcoin is:

Therefore, my wet finger feeling is that a good 90% of people who know what Bitcoin is still think that Bitcoin is overall "bad" — and prove it by staying away from it.

So it's close to "Lack of education", but it goes beyond that. Bitcoin as a "product" suffered (and is still suffering) from a lack of proper "marketing" and dramatically failed to convince the average Joe of the benefits it can bring.

The only way to solve this is to radically change the Bitcoin narrative. It's urgent and I've been saying this for years, but nobody would listen. Too bad.

Mainstream media negativity.

And they spin it around links to illicit activity, the suggestion it’s a ponzi and the public are too late, it’s purported lack of utility and all in addition to the energy/climate debate go against it.

What do the media stand to gain from opposing it so vehemently?

the exact same issues that enabled fiat to work at all is the gigantic hurdle that must be cleared to understand that btc is even needed. fiat-tax-sheep is a very hard concept for us sheep.

Lack of usecases. The doomsday hyperinflation scenario has not happened yet, but as a currency BTC is too slow (or L2 like LN is too difficult).

Collectivism.

All of the above. 😂

Lack of channel factories

JohnLaw2 on using CTV for scaling lightning: https://github.com/JohnLaw2/ln-scaling-covenants

If I look around at what going on here even though people say South Africa has high % of BTC ownership most people I've spoken to that do own it, do so with a custodian and see it as a small allocation to diversify from real estate, the JSE (local stonks), EFTs/Unit trusts that most people who have money to invest would push into because the returns are pretty gross when inflation-adjusted, people might not realise they're getting shafted but they kinda feel it so I think basically by taking a flyer at something with alpha they found Bitcoin

As for why more people don't adopt it, there have been a lot of scams here, MTI, Africrypt, and Mining City that ran away with people's money under the guise of investing in Bitcoin so people still point to those examples

So yes definitely a lack of education on what it is, why it exists, why its an improvement on what we have, if those 3 things can click, I think people move into it, either that or the fiat pain becomes so unbearable, right now, people are still willing to take the on average 15% decline against USD in their local currency thats been going on for 25+ years, its amazing how people can just shut off those pain receptors and keep going

The narrative is everything. But the funny thing about the "narrative" is that it's not just one thing. There's multiple narratives being spewed onto people all the time.

The word narrative is just another word for story. And the story people have been told doesn't match up with reality. There's many stories, but there's only one truth.

Over time, people will start to see the cracks in the narrative that don't fit with reality. We're already starting to see this happen, for those that are paying attention. Most people are not paying attention and don't think they have any reason to care.