Bitcoin has no image problem.
These image problem people are like if the Clampetts discovered that they were sitting on a swamp made out of crude oil and worrying that people wont accept it because its too ugly and gross, so they try to convince people that its a pretty shiny pink and tastes like cherries.
The only way to think Bitcoin has a bad image is by marketing it to the wrong people. Yes, just about everyone could benefit from Bitcoin right now, but for most people, the immediate benefit would be relatively small, and it is too much to ask them to understand both the economics and the cryptography that would be required to convince them that Bitcoin has a vastly greater potential than it has yet achieved. Instead of marketing Bitcoin to the people creative enough to see its potential, or to those who so desperately need it now that its benefits are obvious, entrepreneurs like Jeremy Allaire are attempting to market Bitcoin to the average American as a payment-processing system. This is premature because Bitcoins benefit as a payment system is only significant after lots of people already have ittherefore the benefit is marginal to most people. As Bitcoin improves, and particularly when it begins to weaken the fiat money system, more and more people will find it prudent to adopt it.
Bitcoin inspires suspicion among bankers and regulators. Bitcoin has a bad image with them, but thats their problem, not Bitcoins problem. Those who are worried about banks boycotting Bitcoin or the government regulating it out of existence should not plan to start a Bitcoin business under such regime uncertainty. Eventually, Bitcoin will have become so widespread that it will have drastically reduced the scope of both banks and government. Then that will be a good time for payment-processing companies.
This is all a bunch of narcissism. Its an emphasis on appearance without substance and respectability among people who dont matter. Bankers arent Bitcoin owners yet, and until they are, their opinions are not important. If Jeremy Allaire thinks that Bitcoin has an image problem, he should try smuggling it into Argentina instead of marketing to Americans and bothering with American banks.
