How can we expect "average Joe" to remember passphrases to his Bitcoins?

[andrei56]

when you go and use a new system then you also have to adapt yourself to the new situation. it won't happen easily. it is like when the first car came out and people switched from using horse and carriage to vehicle, "how can you expect 'average Joe' to remember where he put the handle to his car to start it in the morning?"

This is true when the personal computer first appeared no one was sure what kind of use the average person will have for such a device, and now we seem to be unable to live without them for even a few seconds, people will adapt and bitcoin will eventually become more user friendly.

[secdark]

when you go and use a new system then you also have to adapt yourself to the new situation. it won't happen easily. it is like when the first car came out and people switched from using horse and carriage to vehicle, "how can you expect 'average Joe' to remember where he put the handle to his car to start it in the morning?"

This is true when the personal computer first appeared no one was sure what kind of use the average person will have for such a device, and now we seem to be unable to live without them for even a few seconds, people will adapt and bitcoin will eventually become more easier friendly.

Technology makes our lives really easy so thats why when we adopt new technology at first we dont expect that we cant live without it or without using it though it is not really necessity but we cant live without it. You are right at first because they dont know that importance of bitcoin they wont adopt it but at the time  goes by they will

[Xenophoto]

It's something which seems crucial to me for reaching mass adoption (in addition to scalabilty of course...).
Already on this forum there is a shitload of people losing their Bitcoins by forgetting passphrases, the private keys, the dat file etc...
So I would like to know what technological solutions could be proposed for this problem.

To make a comparison, a lot of people are forgetting their credit card code (even if it's only 4 digits...) or losing the card and the centralized solution to this is the bank providing new card/code.

Which decentralized solutions to this problems could you think of?

Human stupidity/negligence will never be cured. Before you ever put money to something, you have to do research about it so you wouldn't regret it. It's written on wallets that you should write down your seed somewhere and passphrases are also important. It's pretty obvious. Now, if you didn't know all this, then you weren't reading when you created your wallet. If you forgot it, it's alright as long as you have the seed of the wallet.

A lot of people are forgetting things, but do we really have to implement something so big just so people would stop being so dumb? I don't think so. People have to learn sometimes.

[Wayan_Pedjeng]

I am pretty bad in remembering these pass-phrases. So I have written down them in a piece of paper and kept it securely in my locker. If this is lost, then all my coins are gone. Also, if someone steals that piece of paper, then it is trouble for me.

[DoublerHunter]

I am pretty bad in remembering these pass-phrases. So I have written down them in a piece of paper and kept it securely in my locker. If this is lost, then all my coins are gone. Also, if someone steals that piece of paper, then it is trouble for me.

I think it is dangerous for you to put your pass-phrase copy in your paper from your locker because pass-phrases are easy to identify and other people that have access to your locker can get and steal it, so if you ask me, i will just put it on my room or put it in the book and place it around my room and also i will ask my parents to remember it so i will not be worry.

[dunfida]

How about this way of generating a passphrase.

Second part: Your fingerprint

wut?
The second part of the passphrase will be... Your fingerprint?
Ignoring how complicated all your idea is...
What is a phrase fingerprint? xD

Passwords may not remember. But there are such functions when the password can be restored, and access with the help of a mesh of the eye or a fingerprint is very difficult to forge. So it's worth thinking about how to secure your documents and money other things.

that is not such a good idea.
the fingerprint system is not perfect yet and it has some problems, and reaching a truely random password with it will be hard (from what i have understood from what i have read).

also consider what if you burnt your fingers? what will you do them? all your money will be lost because you simply lost something that you could never "back-up"

Burning your fingers would only happen on 1/10000 chance and if youre a careless person then possibilities of this thing to happen would be high. Biometrics is always a good security and if you are not satisfied then choose iris scanner it would be much better if you do really concern about security into your bitcoins.

i am not exactly referring to a horrible incident that you lose your finger for example although that is still possible and leads to total loss.
but even small burn like burning it with a hot stove or something leads to you have no access to your money at least until your finger is healed! and that should be a concern because you wouldn't have any other way of accessing your funds then.

Such cases is really possible since the danger is always on our side or in the environment which we cant even prepare when that thing happen. Therefore,if you know that your fingerprint is the only way to access your money or wallet then you should really be careful on for it to be compromised and if you are worried too much on this thing then better to seek on any other way.

[bartolo]

I am pretty bad in remembering these pass-phrases. So I have written down them in a piece of paper and kept it securely in my locker. If this is lost, then all my coins are gone. Also, if someone steals that piece of paper, then it is trouble for me.

I think it is dangerous for you to put your pass-phrase copy in your paper from your locker because pass-phrases are easy to identify and other people that have access to your locker can get and steal it, so if you ask me, i will just put it on my room or put it in the book and place it around my room and also i will ask my parents to remember it so i will not be worry.

You can use some trick to hide the passphrase words within a larger text. For example, you can write a poem where each line starts with a passphrase word or you can write a text and place every five words, a word of the passphrase.

[Wesimon]

I am pretty bad in remembering these pass-phrases. So I have written down them in a piece of paper and kept it securely in my locker. If this is lost, then all my coins are gone. Also, if someone steals that piece of paper, then it is trouble for me.

I think it is dangerous for you to put your pass-phrase copy in your paper from your locker because pass-phrases are easy to identify and other people that have access to your locker can get and steal it, so if you ask me, i will just put it on my room or put it in the book and place it around my room and also i will ask my parents to remember it so i will not be worry.

You can use some trick to hide the passphrase words within a larger text. For example, you can write a poem where each line starts with a passphrase word or you can write a text and place every five words, a word of the passphrase.

That is quite useful for people who cannot remember their pass phrase. It is like hiding a treasure in a plain sight. You will just encrypt your passphrase using your own pattern and then decrypt it if you forgot your passphrase. Just remember your way of decrypting them or you will have another problem.

[ViceOfBTC21]

I am pretty bad in remembering these pass-phrases. So I have written down them in a piece of paper and kept it securely in my locker. If this is lost, then all my coins are gone. Also, if someone steals that piece of paper, then it is trouble for me.

I think it is dangerous for you to put your pass-phrase copy in your paper from your locker because pass-phrases are easy to identify and other people that have access to your locker can get and steal it, so if you ask me, i will just put it on my room or put it in the book and place it around my room and also i will ask my parents to remember it so i will not be worry.

You can use some trick to hide the passphrase words within a larger text. For example, you can write a poem where each line starts with a passphrase word or you can write a text and place every five words, a word of the passphrase.

That is quite useful for people who cannot remember their pass phrase. It is like hiding a treasure in a plain sight. You will just encrypt your passphrase using your own pattern and then decrypt it if you forgot your passphrase. Just remember your way of decrypting them or you will have another problem.

I use passphrases but as obscured form as password. 6-word passphrases are harder to remember for average Joe than 12-char passwords. That's why best option for him is just to store in fiat and in bitcoin only money he can lose. Drug users just hide their mnenomics next to stash.

[Nascor]

in the future you won't have to remember anything

wallets will be accessible by fingerprint/iris/voice scanning

[jubalix]

a usb, or charge card, that Joe can load up BTC too, and they can beep across a scanner.

If they loose the USD / Charge card they have lost the BTC, If you find one you can use it.

So just like cash.

[sampp43]

using a secure password manager app either on desktop or mobile can be helpful. that way you just have to remember ONE master password.
there are loads out there that are either free or have very low fees.
also you should always backup with two factor authentification!

[kolloh]

using a secure password manager app either on desktop or mobile can be helpful. that way you just have to remember ONE master password.
there are loads out there that are either free or have very low fees.
also you should always backup with two factor authentification!

Yep, password managers are definitely the way to go. KeePass is a great free option if someone is looking for one. You should never reuse passwords and password managers are the way to achieve that.

[Viviyang]

It's something which seems crucial to me for reaching mass adoption (in addition to scalabilty of course...).
Already on this forum there is a shitload of people losing their Bitcoins by forgetting passphrases, the private keys, the dat file etc...
So I would like to know what technological solutions could be proposed for this problem.

To make a comparison, a lot of people are forgetting their credit card code (even if it's only 4 digits...) or losing the card and the centralized solution to this is the bank providing new card/code.

Which decentralized solutions to this problems could you think of?

The solution to this problem I can think of is that either you should not put any password on your bitcoin wallet or use a password manager to store your passwords at a single place.
And even if you still loose your password then I advise you to keep the wallet seed at a safe place as you can use it to retrieve your lost wallet.

[johnny5johnny5]

This is a huge issue to me and someone needs to find a way to make the safekeeping of cryptocurrency easier and more fool-proof.

[KuromaYoichi]

Well, even average joe can remember their password for their social media account, and they can write the passphrases somewhere. It's not like you have to remember it. And if they lose it then it's them to blame in the first place to forget something associated with their money.

[Harlot]

I got this problem I while back and it is safe to say that only people who are not active with their accounts tends to forget their password. Like what happened to me with my bank account I forgot my 10 digit password because I barely look at my account. Bitcoin wallets on the other hand are much easier to access because they is a wallet app for it and I can always check my in going and out going transactions with it. For me people who barely have any interest with their Bitcoin will have a higher chance that they will forget their passwords.

[DoublerHunter]

This is a huge issue to me and someone needs to find a way to make the safekeeping of cryptocurrency easier and more fool-proof.

You don't need to worry too much about the safekeeping of your passphrases because there is a lot of things you can do which is very easy like having a soft copy of your passphrase and keeping it on the safe place that you know so you don't need to store it online which is very unsafe, you can also get a copy of your passphrase and keep it on an offline usb or you can just make a paper wallet to store your cryptocurrencies and passphrases at the same time .

[YuginKadoya]

This is a huge issue to me and someone needs to find a way to make the safekeeping of cryptocurrency easier and more fool-proof.

You don't need to worry too much about the safekeeping of your passphrases because there is a lot of things you can do which is very easy like having a soft copy of your passphrase and keeping it on the safe place that you know so you don't need to store it online which is very unsafe, you can also get a copy of your passphrase and keep it on an offline usb or you can just make a paper wallet to store your cryptocurrencies and passphrases at the same time .

This is Rich! online or offline bitcoin is not really safe in storing it, if you are having a doubt on the security for online wallets then you can always have your bitcoins on a physical coins but I think it is expensive or on the paper wallet, I think even thought your bitcoin is in the offline storage what if your PC would get virus or your computer would just don't work all of a sudden then you will have lost your bitcoin, even in a Trezor storage or a USB storage it is not really safe with certain virus right? or it might corrupt your storage! I think it is OK to just trust your wallet provider because you can never know what may happen in the future! even though bitcoin is secure it can always have a slight error involve!

[szpalata]

I am pretty bad in remembering these pass-phrases. So I have written down them in a piece of paper and kept it securely in my locker. If this is lost, then all my coins are gone. Also, if someone steals that piece of paper, then it is trouble for me.

Well I think you can save it in your bank safe or in a personal safe and keep it away from intruders. It's not going to be easy but I think from time to time average joe will adapt and recite them verbatim.