Why the negative connotations? The trick to understanding is to get out of the crypto bubble and learn more about what average Americans think.

Here's a few ideas:

1. The crypto industry spent $millions attaching itself to the, um, highly controversial figure of Donald Trump. Many here are very enthusiastic about Trump, so they can't possibly understand why that could be a bad thing, but recent polls would indicate they are only among about ~30% of Americans who think this. The rest seem to have this ridiculous idea that Trump is the most corrupt president in US history, and that crypto is just another scam for him  .

2. The crypto community's "extreme libertarianism" can be confused with... moral relativism. In other words, criminals and non-criminals are the same, aggressors like Russia are the same as victims of aggression like Ukraine, etc. It's great, they say, that Bitcoin provides a wonderfully useful product to both criminals and non-criminals alike, terrorists and non-terrorists alike, and so on. That's Bitcoin "doing its job", they say. The problem is, many Americans don't agree that terrorists should be able to have a nice way to move money around without getting caught, so when the community brags about this, they get... confused .

3. The crypto community supports CZ, but many Americans do not--and this is a very polarizing issue. To some, CZ was the victim of the previous administration's "war on crypto" and he is a totally innocent, upstanding guy. To others, he's a businessman who made his fortune by purposefully supporting terrorists groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS in order to make money. Again, you might be among the many who support CZ, but understand that many Americans have made their mind up about him.

4. The crypto industry is now the #1 political lobby in the USA, surpassing that of Big Oil, Big Pharmaceutical, etc. Many Americans feel very threatened by a gigantic industry like this buying our elections--and they are almost entirely supporting the Republican party, which only roughly half of the USA supports, which means that half of Americans would be rooting for the crypto business to totally fail.

So in summary: crime, association with crime, and indifference to crime and perpetrators of violence.  There's obviously a lot more to Bitcoin than all of these things, but the association doesn't wear off very easily...

They have no interest because they are already doing good even without involving themselves in crypto. That's the bottomline of this. So yeah, you can't expect people to really chase their opportunities here in the crypto market. They have their own way of making their own money and they are more comfortable in that aspect.

We pay so much attention to what the public is saying, what they are hyping and what they want people to believe.
Low-interest? Yes that's because a lot of people thinks that they can't afford bitcoin anymore because of the price.
Low-visibility? I don't think so, bitcoin has been discussed many times on the media, what other visibility does it need?
Low-trust? Yes for people that are not into bitcoin, No for those who are into bitcoin. Why can't you trust what you have in your own custody?
Low-understanding? Of course, you don't invest in what you don't understand but it is better to seek understanding of it now than regret later.

I've found the perception of bitcoin is better with people who regularly send their money internationally, when they know bitcoin exist, they aren't hesitating to use it and avoid high fee enforced by SWIFT for international remittance, on the other hand the people who hate AI usually hate Bitcoin for some reason LOL. I think they just hate new things that aren't provided by government.

Dunning-Kruger effect? it seems some highly educated people can't accept the fact that bitcoin is invented by anonymous.

I don’t think your perception is actually off, why I said so is because most people outside bitcoin circles only get to hear about bitcoin during the bull market when people are in profit, or the downside when most people are panicking, or even during exchanges failure or wallet compromise, just like the case of COLDCARD recently. they rarely spend time to learn and understand the protocol and how it works and that is why their opinions will be based on on headlines instead of facts.
Like there are people that are actually good technically but still are skeptical about bitcoin, I don’t blame them because being good at programming or IT doesn’t mean that they understand the consensus model, monetary system, until they learn it. That is why most of them dismisses the idea without even understanding what decentralisation fixed supply really is.
I also think that bitcoin has a communication problem, it is easier to explain number go up than proof of work, self custody or why con censorship resistance is valuable, most people don't appreciate those properties until thay actually need them.
However, all this didn’t stop its adoption over the years just that it’s slower than early bitcoin bitcoiners expected. Because changing how society thinks about money is actually a generational shift and not just like a software upgrade. The best way to change mind will not be through debating with people but building useful tools and allowing bitcoin prove itself over time.

Patience is something that is gradually going extinct in our todays society and an average person can not relate with anything that requires them putting in an amount and having to wait for long. this is not to say that the worth of bitcoin is just in it investment potential, it is just that overtime, the discussion has seriously shifted to how profitable investors are and when newbies comes in and don't see this profit and when outsiders only know the current price of bitcoin relative to it past price, they tend to easily loose interest in it.

when you search bitcoin on the media space that contains an average mind that is a bit naïve about bitcoin, what pops up on your feed is usually not as encouraging as the truth that an investor that is on a forum like this is exposed to. you rarely sees a clear distinction between bitcoin and an altcoin or meme coin. before the difference is not too obvious, when some of these altcoin fails, the general believe is almost like bitcoin is just one of them and with that you tend to see a lot of people shying away from being interested in bitcoin.

This is partly the reason why we can still say that bitcoin is still new. as long as in the street, people can not make a clear difference between bitcoin, altcoin and a meme coin and sees what is applicable to one as what is applicable to all, we are going to continue seeing a larger population of people that are still uninterested in bitcoin not because bitcoin is getting any worse but because some of these new coins that comes up and fails are having a tail on bitcoin.

Bitcoin and it's transactions ain't built to operate on trust but proof which is what a lot of traditionalists do find it's very hard to come terms with because it's a system they ain't used to. For the average guy to understand and accept bitcoin he must first relinquish from his mind those traditional government backed financial system with a middleman to instill an atmosphere of trust kind of mentality.  And it's why you can see people easily falling for ponzi schemes than adopting bitcoin.

Your perception is on point, generally speaking, I don't think Bitcoin investment is for alot of people, it would take time for maximum mainstream adoption because of a lot of reasons I have thought out some of mine;

some people especially the older gen thinks the interface is too complex compared to there everyday fiat micro finance banks system so adoption becomes complex for them especially when it comes to seed phrases and pass keys which have to be carefully placed.

Another attribute is patience and some even feel like instead of waiting for a substantial increase in the market, they can opt out for other alternative investment opportunities.

And the last, which I experience on my journey in some crypto space is how unaccommodating the crypto space are with newbies, I too saw a fare share of mine and by far Bitcointalk showed me how different they are.



As for solutions, it would take time and sustainability before widespread adoption will take place and it's not a 10 years projection but the one thing that can help is making exchange platforms easier and more user friendly, although they have been massive progress in this area, but more work can be done

I think bitcoin's popularity tends to grow whenever it reaches a new all-time high. That's when the media and influential people around the world start talking about it again. Compared to a few years ago, many more people have become interested in bitcoin, not only because of its privacy, but also because they see it as a way to invest and preserve wealth. In today's world, where there are so many military conflicts and new geopolitical tensions constantly emerging, many assets that were once considered stable and low-risk are no longer viewed the same way. As a result, bitcoin, with its relatively consistent market cycles, no longer looks like the financial pyramid scheme that some people used to claim it was. I believe that today, largely thanks to the media, people understand bitcoin much better and are far more interested in learning about it.