Understanding how bitcoin works is IRRELEVANT

[jeannemadrigal2]

The author is right, Bitcoin has reached a point in which you don't really have to understand it's underlying technology to be able to use it.

Same with cellphones, TV, PC etc. thats reality

Most things are like this.  How many people really understand how their car works?  Who really knows what a turbo charger does?  This information is readily available, but the majority of people don't even care.

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[Sythyn]

i think its important to understand it to gain trust in Bitcoin

[adzino]

http://bitcointechie.com/how-bitcoin-works-is-irrelevant/

Can't say that the author is wrong. Most people in this world has no clue how the current fiat money works but yet they still use it fine.

Just like the most of the internet users don't  know how TCP/IP/HTTP works but they can still use it. They don't even need to know about these stuffs if they want to access the internet. But they need to know some stuffs about the internet like security, privacy and safety.

Thats the same thing for bitcoins. They  need to know how to use it but also how to store securely, how to do a transaction that is send and receive from a wallet. That's it. No more techy stuffs needed.

[jbrnt]

Ultimately, users do not need to understand how bitcoin really works, they only need to know how to use it. People don't need to know how the Internet works in order to use it. BUT now, bitcoin and it's services are not fully matured yet. We still need to understand the technical side of bitcoin to prevent loss of our coins or ensure a successful transaction.

[johnyj]

This is still the very early days

[blablaace]

agreed, the average consumer/bitcoin user does NOT need to know how bitcoin works .. any more than the average user of fiat money needs to understand the nitty gritty of fractional reserve banking

[pooya87]

eventually this has to happen. because average day to day users doesn't need to know about all the technical stuff that is going on behind the scene. and in many cases they don't want to know and knowing them would make things complicated for them.
take the things that we are using every day like cell phone, computers, cars, etc nobody (at least not many) cares about how they work but still they keep using them.

[Balerion]

Indeed, we don;t understand how electricity works to use it or computers, internet, phones etc.

[peligro]

I think it's not irrelevant if you want to have some sort of privacy.

This! Most noobs think bitcoins are anonymous. In fact its pretty easy to connect the dots when you don't care.

And its way too dangerous to not understand that actually you are your own bank. You will lose all your money if you don't care about your passwords, have backups and protect your wallet. Thats too much for many newbies.

So no, you need to understand the risks at least.

[DarkHyudrA]

Well, one important point that everyone misses is about the security.
Most people don't give a f#ck about the privacy, but understanding how to secure your wallet and the computer that holds it is far from irrelevant.

[Herbert2020]

bitcoin is complicated concept for some people to accept. i say this from experience, since i try to explain it to my friends and coworkers sometimes. i mostly find out that they don't care about the technical stuff and find it hard to understand, so they stay away.

[peligro]

It's complicated, ok. Though i'm not sure if the solution is to create wallets that do everything for the user. First thing is that an experienced user often don't have any chance anymore to get the more professional features. That's something really annoying. The same way went ubuntu and it's annoying not being able to find the pro settings anymore. At the end you simply change to another linux version.

On top i don't think it's good to not educate people. They need to know the risks, otherwise bitcoin only will get bad press and such.

[neoneros]

For the average user it is important that the use of BTCitcoin is as easy as it should be. Installing a wallet on your phone, receiving/sending money and important too, what if my phone breaks or gets lost/stolen? Backup should be safe and easy too. With the current online banking systems there are a lot of people who have problems using it, they find it too hard to work with computers in general and have no interest in learning new ways.

There will always be that group of users, but it should be made easy and it can be, bitcoin is not so difficult to use and a lot of smart people work on it and other implementations to make it work for even those who do not(want) to understand. 

[BitcoinNewbie15]

I do agree, it is not necessary to know how Bitcoin works in order to use it and benefit from it. I know many people who use Bitcoin because they like it, and they have no technological understanding about Bitcoin or the blockchain.

[spazzdla]

If you don't want them to get stolen I would disagree.

[Amph]

Indeed, we don;t understand how electricity works to use it or computers, internet, phones etc.

not really a good comparison, knowing about electricity is useless because you don't use it you use computer, internet ecc, but you actually know how dthose thing work, and with bitcoin is the same, you should need to know at least the minimum

everyone should at least know how to secure their wallet, telling that this is irrelevant, is a blatant lie, and it tells us how you did not understand the decentralized nature of bitcoin, where you are the own in charge for your security and not someone else