I am a PhD scientist and have spent several years translating applied science into protocols for people with minimal training to follow (in pharmaceutical industry). Trust me, it is not easy! One must very specifically define each variable and downstream relationships.
We are at the point where MASSIVE amounts of money WANT to roll in but are afraid of security related issues.
From my interactions, I have concluded that lifetime investors (40-70yrs) old with successful history in the global markets are the key demographic. Guess what, most of them barely know how to send email, but very much realize the growth potential of this thing.
We need a WELL WRITTEN STEP BY STEP MANUAL endorsed by votes!!! and we need it NOW!!!
While I agree with you that the 40-70 year old demographics are sitting on a huge chunk of $$ AND the fact that they are mostly computer illiterate and have NEVER touched a command line interface before, I doubt you'll see this "dummy-proof manual" written and--more important--widely adopted by this group of folks any time soon. It's simply asking too much for the average folks.
My feeling is that this so-called "theft" (which we have to take at face value since there really is no proof other than one person's claim) may actually be a good thing for bitcoin. After all, necessity is the mother of all invention. This is what I predict will happen:
1) A spawn of third-party brokers/bankers willing to hold your bitcoin deposits for safety. Of course this means sacrificing some level of anonymity but that's the price you pay for security. In addition, there will be a service charge added.
Think of it like this...what if a trusted brick&mortar bank or entity or institution that complied within legal banking laws offered you the ability to deposit your bitcoins? And the only way to withdraw them would be the standard banking authentications of legal ID and PIN number.
In some ways, bitcoins are very similar to an entity like E*Trade where I sign over my actual stock certificate and deposit the shares into my account for trading & safekeeping.
This is a win-win for some, but not for those who want to stay anonymous. Nevertheless, there will be a market for it that fulfills that demographic you mentioned.
2) Third party security consultants who specialize in illustrating that hypothethical "MANUAL" you wish for and possibly taking even further steps & safeguards as well.
3) Other jobs & services & products will be created to get around the high technological barrier of safeguarding your bitcoins....e.g., a book published "Safeguarding bitcons for Dummies" (if it hasn't already been written) and dummyproof it by possibly using non-command line linux or phone apps.
As bitcoins grow in popularity and demand, it will only create more ways to fulfill the needs of the 90% technophobes out there. And in the end, this will be a good thing.
Just my .00000002 BTC worth!
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