Bitcoin Forum

I was having a discussion on a forum, because I suggested bitcoin as an extra payment method except paypal. Unfortunately, online exchanges seem to have caused illiteracy to people on how bitcoin works. Also, most of the people that used bitcoin on online exchanges seem not to like it the way it works. I wish they read a little bit more of what bitcoin truly is.

You can read the thread here: https://forum.duelingbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11752

To be honest, the exchange does not care to teach their users about Bitcoin technology. They just need earning from trading. Only the Binance academy (https://academy.binance.com/en) has a few technical information about bitcoin and cryptocurrency where their traders would learn from there. The main problem is, bitcoin is an easy method to send & receive money worldwide, but it doesn't too easy to cash out. Its because most countries still do not allow to use bitcoin and don't know the value of bitcoin as well. It would be better if all the exchanges provide basic information about bitcoin and cryptocurrency to their users. So users would learn if they need it.

they just made that to get even more traffic from all kinds of visitors otherwise they don't care about teaching people and their traders don't care about learning either. majority of traders, specially when it comes to altcoin pump and dumps only care about making more money (and that's fiat). that's why we always see many of them don't even know you can store cryptocurrencies in desktop wallets, they think the only option is the wallet their exchange gives them!

Yea, I agree with you, their academy driving traffic to their exchanges. We can say it's an advertising policy, but there is something, something is better than nothing. I will be honest as you said, before joining on this forum at the beginning of bitcoin use, I thought only exchange and web wallets like coinbase are bitcoin wallets and that's how we have to use (receive & send) bitcoin. When joined on this forum then I have been learning about wallets and bitcoin technology. When I realized the importance of using a secure Bitcoin wallet then I have bought a Ledger x. Means, we should have a few potential sources to learn about bitcoin and related stuff.

Anyway, if exchanges give some technical information about how should secure their bitcoin and how should use as a payment method then slowly we may learn more. But I have doubts if all the exchange team knows about bitcoin technology better rather than only maintaining the exchange.

People regret to open up their minds towards Bitcoin as they are bothered by all the negative news they heard (hacking). Many were tried to give understanding and help them but sadly, they were also ignored and not given a chance to clear things. So much to think that we have nothing to do these people and I'm for sure exchanges will do the same if they are not able to adopt the new system. Teaching is schools might be the best solution but I'm not sure if there is someone willing to spend their time into this. Because this is totally a big challenge especially when you are teaching people who already have doubts in their minds.

No need to go that far. People can learn the basics fairly quickly as long as they spend some time reading here and there. And you'll get better when you spend more time with it. Exchanges don't have obligation to teach you anything since they will argue that anyone should know what're they buying before trading it.

We have likes and dislikes.

We have a crowd that likes this, and don't like that.

It's just that we can't be pleased easily by any means of service, exchange, uses of bitcoin and other sorts of things that we can use with bitcoin.

The responsibility is really on the user himself. Don't expect that online exchanges will give you tutorial step by step. But before pressing the next button, you should at least read something about what you are about to do. Because regret is always at the end, once you sent your funds to the wrong address. Always check the specific coin you are dealing with and the addresses you need to transact with.

In the first place, it's not their responsibility to teach their users about how bitcoin can be used as alternative payment method. They have other job responsibility aside from that. Of course, they are also expecting that users have already an idea about bitcoin's use, etc.

We can't blame online exchanges for that. It's not wrong to open a topic about how bitcoin can be used as digital payments, but others will not be open minded about it as saying goes "We can't please everybody".

However, theres one solution i have been thinking. If they'll  gonna put some small portion in their site stating btc as alternate method with link that will redirect them about instructions how it works. Anyway, this will take time and just a suggestion.

Not many exchanges try to do anything "extra". And I guess that it's rather disappointing to pay / work on blog entries to teach people and then see that almost nobody reads that (yes, they afford to pay somebody do that, but it's still disappointing).

The information about how Bitcoin works is there on the internet. One has to take some time, research and read. Most won't do that.
Imho it's more the users' blame than exchanges'.

I think we don't need to blame them about it?

As long as they are getting the Bitcoin being used and paid by the users to certain platforms through their exchanges, they are fine. The exchange here in our country just add more and more promos but don't add more platforms or stores where people could use their Bitcoin to pay. They are just converting them to fiat to start with so it doesn't matter.

When you have zero knowledge about Bitcoin but still you think you are the most knowledgeable. This comes to my mind when I  read the topic. To be honest exchanges are not meant to gain knowledge about a particular cryptocurrency. They are their for trading purpose they do not give a damm if you have knowledge or not.

You might find many people who are ignorant about the real use of BTCitcoin, if someone is using it then they will understand the process but for someone who never used BTCitcoin it might confuse them.

Suppose someone wants to do a one time transaction especially small amounts in BTCitcoin, they need to send money to the exchange and then the exchange have a much higher withdrawal fees and that is the only negative aspect the rest he said in the forum is because he never used BTCitcoin and have no idea what he is talking about.

This seems to closely mirror my thoughts in another recent topic (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5279525.msg55302187#msg55302187), albeit omitting the point about potentially paying more in fees by relying on third parties.  Some people don't understand what they're getting into.  Later, they pay the price for it.

As others have said, I don't think it's the services themselves that are responsible.  I take the stance that personal responsibility is something people need to take seriously if they want to get into Bitcoin.  There may be occasions where convenience might take priority and using a third party service might be appropriate.  But, for the most part, people shouldn't rely on them as much as they do.

Why would an exchange even go for that? Exchanges are here for business and if they need anything to teach their customers is- only teaching something related to their exchange.
I don't think exchange has anything to do here; its the users who should learn what they are doing actually. And none of the exchanges other than coinbase ever claim themselves as wallet. Coinbase has their wallet services as well.

End of the day everything is a business, exchanges are not with the service motto to support the needy one's or in a state to educate the common people who doesn't have much knowledge about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Every user at the beginning doesn't have better learning about bitcoin, as days pass everyone used to learn little by little. This is unfair to state that exchanges are the sole responsibility for the illiteracy about bitcoin.

Yea, I know that isn't business of exchange. They just need traders for trading on their platform. But that's not why bitcoin was created. The aim of bitcoin is to introduce a new decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system and we are quite far from it. Its because we don't know the technology behind Bitcoin. On the other hand, we have been looking to make quick money by trading or in some other way. Because of ignorance sometimes we lost our valuable assets. Adding some additional information about bitcoin and cryptocurrency isn't harmful to exchange but would help for users. Fortunately, it wouldn't happen ever.

Exchanges want to invite clients by making it easy for them to buy, store and trade Bitcoin so a newbie who never took money off an exchange will of course be illiterate, even though he technically owns Bitcoin. The same can be said about people who hire fund managers to invest their savings. They don't know how to trade and have never bought stocks, but they have people who do it for them every day and make them money.
It's always better to know how to do things and be able to do them yourself, but don't expect every woman to know how to change a tire or charge a car battery. Many people will never know how to use Bitcoin despite owning some.

This isn't illiteracy this is reflection of what people outside this forum think of bitcoin. They merely think of it as a speculative asset just because various exchanges have made them believe so. Actually there has been pretty much been mushrooming of exchanges in the recent past which has led to lots of scam popping up Moroever not every exchange is here to grow in an organic way most of them think that they won't be able to grow big to earn a lot and then resort to unethical ways to earn money creating such impression in minds of people. But yes if they are behaving in an ethical manner then it's obviously it's not their responsibility to educate users as they are here merely for profit making.

Exchanges also here to make profits like every crypto user so literally, they don't care about teaching bitcoin for payment mode because if this starts to happen then trading will starts to deplete over time so they just want to keep the things going on until it is good for them. In my opinion, every bitcoin user knows what is bitcoin created for but what for they are currently using.

So the linked forum post talks about Bitcoin as if it's some service always making its customers mess up. It's not Bitcoin's fault if payment processors or exchanges charge higher fees, mishandle coins or scam you. Bitcoin was meant to be trustless and if you're putting a relationship of trust between you and Bitcoin, it's not the coin's fault for you messing up.

Exchanges or most other services will probably never teach their customers about Bitcoin, because that is not the reason they exist. It's true - there are a lot of Bitcoin users who don't know much about blockchain and BTC yet they trade it - but an exchange exists for one reason: to earn a profit. If you entered Binance or Bisq and had a tutorial before being allowed to trade, I'm sure chances of you quitting their website would increase substantially. Most people here nowadays are only interested in earning money. That is both good and bad - a double edged sword - but it's not due to anyone's fault imo besides themselves for not educating themselves beforehand.

Lol! If the exchanges get closed for some reason, I want to see how you can use your bitcoins! Exchanges are the most important part of the crypto ecosystem that provides the much needed liquidity into the market. Without exchanges, the liquidity would be gone for good and we all will be left with unusable bitcoins in our wallet.

If this topic was about online wallets then I would agree with it but we can't blame exchanges for the iliteracy of its users. It's just not fair.
Exchanges are used to trade, exchange, buy cryptocurrencies. Why would anyone use them if he doesn't know what cryptocurrencies are and how to use them in first place!

Certainly agreeable. It is the responsibility of the individual or the trader himself to learn about how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies work before doing an engagement because it is no ones responsibility to teach it to you but your own self only. Being literate and illiterate depends on the individual himself if he will exert effort on learning the things he must know before he get into engagement.


Indeed. Only the basic informations are already enough to start with learning and understanding Bitcoin alone for the fact that the rest of the needed informations will be able to be learned along the path of their journey working with Bitcoin. There is no need to make things complicated when you were starting. As long as you do understand the basic information about Bitcoin and you keep up yourself being updated on the news and information about Bitcoin across this forum and even through internet searches, you can be able to start your Bitcoin journey even without the complexities for you can adapt on learning it on the long run.

The Bitcoin community has spawned into an organization that consists of different sectors, each with its own function. But 90% of the time, those sectors have the freedom to choose what role they want to play. It's quite unfortunate that exchanges chose to just do what they specialize in--facilitate exchanges. Now, the question is which sector should function as educators? I think we can all agree that that role is given to everyone who knows bitcoin regardless of the sector you belong in. Everyone who knows the good news should hold the responsibility of spreading it. Well, there already tons of resources online that people are free to access. This forum is a great place to learn bitcoin. So, some people are doing great at spreading the good news.

as exchange only matters the incoming trading transaction and care nothing about how to crypto works,and besides this is not their obligation
(though Binance has tutorial about this) because it is us who needs to study first before engaging in trading.
this is the problem why many losses now in their trading activities because they just entered here to invest and gain but no concern how
 this works and for what are the cryptocurrencies are created.

But thanks for the link it is worth reading.

Some of those exchanges have their own FAQ board where you will know things mostly about their sites and services but you are likely hard to find some FAQ of the exchanges that tackle how to use Bitcoin and how it works. they are assuming for all of their clients to know these basics and we all one this isn't the case. Anyway, that's their job and they might have their own reasons for not putting the basic information about bitcoin on their website. in case you guys wanted to read about the basic FAQ about bitcoin, you can try this site: https://www.weusecoins.com/en/questions/

we bitcoiners already knows this but i like the effort that you do . we can discuss it again and again if needed because there are new people that are not inform to this . this also remind us all , new and old bitcoiners that bitcoin should also be use for this purpose .

your saying that exchange built a busines like this so that people will do trade and not use the bitcoin for paying ? trading does affect but trading do also help bitcoin to grow . so many people attracted to bitcoin because of trading . people that are trading and earning , means that they like what they are doing but who doesnt like to earn anyway ?  any activities related to bitcoin are enjoyable and profitable and people likes that .

It seems that not everyone knows about Bitcoin and how it works, because in some countries they may not allow Bitcoin into their country, so no one tells them how it works using Bitcoin. But I am sure that as soon as possible they will definitely use Bitcoin and know how to use Bitcoin, because the development of Bitcoin technology is increasingly attracting everyone's interest to use Bitcoin and such people will slowly find out and understand how to use Bitcoin.

It's not the exchanges responsibility to teach these things. Their reusability is to protect your account and info as well as themselves. They are there to provide a service not hold your hand.
The golden rule of anything is never partaken in something unless you understand what is going on or are willing to learn from any mistake you make. This has never even crossed my mind because how can someone use an exchange but not understand crypto? You work hard for your money and now you want to risk it in something you don't understand? It just makes no sense to me.

i hope you took your time to read the reply to your post below on the link you posted, like the reply implies, none is more superior and besides individual preferences also plays a huge role in this case exchange can not impose that on people,  while you find it very comfortable, easy or convenient to use btc to transact and move funds around, others don't share your interest, and if you look at it, btc is not exactly free from some flaws,
in my opinion, both should be made as an option in any online or offline stores that decide to accept digital currency.

Though it's about a decade but still here is some problem with bitcoin that it's not legal in most of the countries.smart peoples whose are digitalizing the world, using the digital currency.It's a very easy task to make transactions by bitcoin worldwide.It should be known by the people clearly and thats why the exchanges and others related with cryptography should  talk about the bitcoin and its advantage transparently.As much people will know about it that much people will show interest and will go with bitcoin as an Additional payment method everywhere.

Majority of them would really be presuming out that people who would use up the platform had already known the basics of Bitcoin thats why some of them didnt really tend to put up some FAQ's about it.

Its not really that mandatory though nor obliged but it would be appreciated if they would at least consider on putting one because none all users would really be having the same level of knowledge towards btc or
crypto as a whole.

On someone whom do deal with crypto then its always been our responsibility to learn up things even it isnt really provided by someone.

Agree with your opinion, because it would be very funny for people who want to know bitcoin but only learn from the FAQ provided by the exchanger, even though details of bitcoin can be found from other more credible sources, such as mastering bitcoin book or through this forum.

The goal of people getting into exchangers of course to make trades and make a profit. Generally, as a crypto trader/investor, they should understand what crypto is (basic of crypto) unless they are really beginners who just go along when they see other people succeed.

Agreed. The centralization of the exchanges most likely contributed alot to how people view Bitcoin and others. Probably one the reasons it doesn't make sense to them.  I imagine the exchange users wondering: "How can this people say it's decentralized, transparent, privacy-friendly/anonymity-friendly, immutable, censorship resistant, permissionless, secured, consensus-driven etc whereas it's not"

The worst is that people who should know recommend those centralized exchanges/platforms and don't seem to be bothered..

I think people are doing it the wrong way because they are not researching about crypto to know more about everything before they start using it, some of them just jump straight on exchanges. So, I don’t see why we should be putting the blame on exchanges , they are just doing their business.

People themselves are the ones that are meant to understand that making use of an exchange is different from a personal wallet, and also understand the different types of wallets there are: Binance which is an exchange is totally different from Exodus which is a personal wallet, and people are not meant to be storing their whole coins on exchange no matter how secure the exchange might claim to be.

It would always be likely for people to have bad understanding about Bitcoin if they are not learning about it in any credible forum or website. Learning about Bitcoin in exchanges are the most unlikely way to understand Bitcoin. Adding Bitcoin into PayPal is a good way to introduce it to the public and having a elaborate explanation on what is Bitcoin is a good way for people to understand it. Illiteracy can always happen to people if they are only getting their information from scattered website which is really alarming so we should just help people learn about it in a way that they would not have a hard time understanding it.