Bitcoin Paradox # 1

[Panadacoin]

Almost everyone wants bitcoin to grow and become mainstream. But bitcoin is in no way noob friendly, and the majority of the community prefer to keep it that way. For bitcoin to become mainstream the majority of users are going to have to be noobs, with most not knowing or caring about the inner-workings of the technology.

Here is a fictitious quote I made up to put things in perspective.

Old-school credit card user: 
"ZOMG, you have been using a credit card for 3 years and you don't even know that the magnetic stripes tracks one and three are typically recorded at 210 bits per inch? pfff Go back to cash noob credit cards are not for you."

Me:
  "But, I just want to buy a soda."

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[BillyBobZorton]

Almost everyone wants bitcoin to grow and become mainstream. But bitcoin is in no way noob friendly, and the majority of the community prefer to keep it that way. For bitcoin to become mainstream the majority of users are going to have to be noobs, with most not knowing or caring about the inner-workings of the technology.

Here is a fictitious quote I made up to put things in perspective.

Old-school credit card user: 
"ZOMG, you have been using a credit card for 3 years and you don't even know that the magnetic stripes tracks one and three are typically recorded at 210 bits per inch? pfff Go back to cash noob credit cards are not for you."

Me:
  "But, I just want to buy a soda."

Who is the majority of the community and where did a poll happen to say that "the majority of the community doesn't want a noob friendly bitcoin"?
This makes no sense because as far as I know everyone wants to see a worldwide widespread Bitcoin. And yes, at the end of the day the final goal is that Bitcoin is easy enough to use so people don't need to understand the tech behind it, but we are still at the very early stages so you can't expect this to happen, once the technology finally ready to start scaling up worldwide the devs will focus more on cool looking GUIs and making it all more noob friendly, for now the main focus remains making the protocol as robust as possible guaranteeing you will be able to keep working on top of it without needing hard forks every X time because some sort of dead end is meet.

[allthingsluxury]

I actually believe bitcoin is incredibly easy to use. Way easier than it has ever been in fact. I also don't believe that the majority of the community wants to keep bitcoin in the dark. I don't see this.

[RustyNomad]

I think there is lots of work going on to make bitcoin 'noob friendly'.

A good indication of this is both online, mobile and desktop wallets. Especially so mobile wallets which are becoming easier to use. You do not have to be an expert to work a mobile nowadays. So I also tend to disagree that the 'larger' community do not want bitcoin to be noob friendly, I think most are trying to make it as easy as possible without throwing security out the window.

[b457]

I can agree to allthingsluxury.

I also believe that Bitcoin is very easy to use. You can download a client in seconds and you are ready to receive payments. One doesn't need to wait for days like when you are opening a bank account.

Simply download, send someone your address, receive your BTC.


And sending BTC is also quite simple. Get an address, type in the amount, send and wait until it is confirmed.

[Panadacoin]

Ok, maybe I was out of line by saying "majority". I should have said the majority of users that respond to noob-like questions in any sub-forum besides beginners, that I have read.

I based my assumption on the small sample size of posts that I have read.

[marky89]

Almost everyone wants bitcoin to grow and become mainstream.

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. Perhaps the majority wants this. There is a core group of bitcoin users, I believe, who see it purely as a hedge against government intervention and devaluation. In that case, whether or not it achieves "mainstream adoption" is less important than maintaining a "secure network that is decentralized." Many believe that at a certain point, those two things are antipodal.

[Amph]

i don't find bitcoin so hard to use, really you need a program an amount of coins and an address to spend to coins, how in the hell this is not noob friendly?

people are avoiding it for a compeltely different reaso, which has nothing to do with how hard is bitcoin to use, but more how insecure it can be if you don't take the right measures

[gentlemand]

Funnily enough those who say it's easy to use are those who are currently using it. It's easy once you're rolling but there's a mountain to climb to get just anyone to roll. It takes decades for new concepts to take root.

There are no shortage of third parties beavering away. It can only really be truly widespread when its use is a mindless act and it's such a no brainer that you don't need to justify why you're using it to yourself.

[Yerm]

i thought bitcoin was noob friendly?   you have a wallet it has bitcoin in it and you can send and receive.

[Delek]

I will take this seriously:
The main difference between a credit card operation and a bitcoin operation is that the main logic runs on different places:
*CC: In VISA servers.
*BTC: In your Phone/PC/Tablet/etc.

That will obviously complicate a little bit the things for the user, but guess what?, the whole process is almost the same. Instead of sending data to VISA servers and signing a paper, your phone or tablet have to cryptographically sign a transaction and send it to the Bitcoin network. And the latter is almost transparent now by using very user friendly Android/iPhone wallet applications.
Both worlds are very similar, but now the responsibility is on OUR SIDE. That's the thing and it is lovely.

I will end my post saying that if we are complicating a 1% things to be REALLY FREE, then I love complications.

[Hopalong]

Anyone wondering why the pin code on credit card  have so few digits? I would have chosen to have more than 10 numbers but normal people cant remember long numbers. Most people are idiots and a payment system has to be made to work for idiots. Even now there are a lot of people who has to write down the pin code and carry it with them to be able to use cards.

No way bitcoin is userfriendly and easy for the normal person.

[LiteCoinGuy]

I actually believe bitcoin is incredibly easy to use. Way easier than it has ever been in fact. I also don't believe that the majority of the community wants to keep bitcoin in the dark. I don't see this.

It is not. Maybe in 5-10 years.

[Hopalong]

i thought bitcoin was noob friendly?   you have a wallet it has bitcoin in it and you can send and receive.

Just wait to see when normal people drown their phone and dont have any backup and have no idea how to get their bitcoin back.

[adamstgBit]

I actually believe bitcoin is incredibly easy to use. Way easier than it has ever been in fact. I also don't believe that the majority of the community wants to keep bitcoin in the dark. I don't see this.

It is not. Maybe in 5-10 years.

idk blockchain.info's wallet is pretty simple.

but its true actually using them, learning how to get them, how to securely store them if your want to hold a larger amount long term, etc... isn't exactly easy.

[wxa7115]

Well bitcoin could be made to be more user friendly, but it’s not rocket science either, especially with online wallets and QR codes.

As such, I think that mainstream adoption could be possible, the only problem that I see could delay this is the fact that people are not very good with passwords, so be prepared for a lot of stolen coins.

[Mickeyb]

I agree with the OP on this problem. Bitcoin is not yet enough user friendly and that's a fact. I am not talking about scanning a QR code and hitting a send button.

First unfriendly thing is definitely a security. Bitcoins are hard to secure at the moment and this is essential and needs to be solved. I bet that if we gave a 100 people from the street 1 BTC each and show them how to secure it, at least half would have their coins stolen or they would lose them. This is just too much.

Second unfriendly thing that comes to my mind is buying first coins, verifications, etc.. This is way to hard at the moment.

Yes a lot of work to be done for us!

[turvarya]

I agree with the OP on this problem. Bitcoin is not yet enough user friendly and that's a fact. I am not talking about scanning a QR code and hitting a send button.

First unfriendly thing is definitely a security. Bitcoins are hard to secure at the moment and this is essential and needs to be solved. I bet that if we gave a 100 people from the street 1 BTC each and show them how to secure it, at least half would have their coins stolen or they would lose them. This is just too much.

Second unfriendly thing that comes to my mind is buying first coins, verifications, etc.. This is way to hard at the moment.

Yes a lot of work to be done for us!

How is writing down some words hard? You have to do that once and it is done.

Buying Bitcoin is also not that hard anymore, I know of two ways in Austria, where you don't have to register anywhere: ATMs and Bitcoinbons.
Besides, registering on an exchange is as hard as opening a bank account. Most people can manage that.

[Trenbolon]

walking, reading, writing... all of that isn't easy tasks either...

but we all make an effort to learn them because they are soooo good and necessary...

if people knew how GOOD bitcoin is to change the way the world works and how FREE they can be in a bitcoin (idea) financial system, they would do everything to learn bitcoin as much as they could...

people are not interested because they don't understand how good bitcoin is...
when you try to explain to people how the current financial system works and that in the end the rothschild controls pretty much all the economy in the world, they don't pay attention or simply call you a conspiray theory freak..

when you have facts, the theory is not a theory anymore..

[Meuh6879]

But bitcoin is in no way noob friendly, and the majority of the community prefer to keep it that way.

1) buy a recycled android phone (less than 100 USD)
2) buy a internet phone month service (less than 15 USD per month)
3) create a gmail account (free)
4) install Bitcoin android wallet (schildbach)

Now, you can emit and receive bitcoin for free ...





so, noobs ?
sorry, if noobs don't read FAQ, i can't help.