Are we over complicating Bitcoin?

[Kakmakr]

A centralized advocacy group (bringing all cryptos together), and proper education to the "normies" would go a long way. Something to bridge the gap between "us" and "them"

We have tried this before and it was called The Bitcoin Foundation. It started with honorable intentions and then money got involved. In the end ego's and greed took over and the funding dried up for that initiative. ^grrrrrr^ Nope, this will not work to solve this problem. We need large scale education about these changes and Press involvement way in advance. A spokes person from the Core developers should actively engage directly with the Press to get the message out. < Gavin did this, but then it went to his head >

We also need to speak from one mouth. ^hmmmmm^

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[FCDenHaag]

No, but the blockchain needs to get improved fast.
Do we need more exit nodes for example? To speed up transactions?

[European Central Bank]

It started with honorable intentions

from where i'm sitting almost every single person involved in that was either an asshole, criminal and usually both.

i'm sure there were a few people in it for the right reasons but they were always in a minority.

[mk4]

Our standard answer to people saying that Bitcoin is too complicated used to be, " Bank customers do not need to know how the internet ledgers of a bank work, to use their service " but now with the introduction of things like UASF people have to approach their merchants and exchanges and services to figure out what services will be safe to use, depending on what route those services will be going with this scaling option.

Are we over complicating Bitcoin for non-technical users of this technology? < They have no clue what chain split and soft forks are, and should they be that involved? >

Our goal should be to make it very simple for Granny to understand and to grow adoption. ^hmmmmmm^

Imagine if the reserve bank issued 2 different types of $1 notes and one type of note was accepted at specific merchants and not at other. This will create a lot of confusion with the general public.

Example : https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6e25yx/im_investing_on_bitcoin_for_some_time_but_what/

We are not over complicating bitcoin. It's just that some non tech-savvy people are trying to understand a quite complicated technology.

People don't need to understand it, just trust it; but yea understanding it is a big plus and a big knowledge advantage.

Laymen people don't under the internet or the world wide web either, but they still use it. It should be the same for bitcoins.

[bitbunnny]

For the person with some average techical knowledge Bitcoin is not that much complicated unless you want go realy deep in the system. But people would like to becom experienced profitable traders over night and understand everything about Bitcoin just in a few days. That is not how the things are working and it takes time. But it's essential to understand basic principles.

[fan_of_things_and_stuff]

For the person with some average techical knowledge Bitcoin is not that much complicated unless you want go realy deep in the system. But people would like to becom experienced profitable traders over night and understand everything about Bitcoin just in a few days. That is not how the things are working and it takes time. But it's essential to understand basic principles.

Understanding bitcoin and understanding the value of a currency are very different IMO. Blockchain technology and the market that encompasses cryptocurrencies are two very different fields, so I would be careful combining them

[extremeboggle]

We're hitting a time where the average person wants to learn about cryptocurrencies in 24hrs while it has taken us years of building, understanding, and planning.

Couldn't have put it better myself!

[aliashraf]

FTFY

Science is simplicity. Once you can't describe a subject for average audience comprehensively, I assure you: definitively you have not a clue about it.

UASF?
Easy! If at some point some accountants may decide to change the protocol while others may not follow the proposed changes, there will be two versions of the ledger, two coins eventually the group who changed the protocol will quickly find themselves isolated on an invalid version of the ledger. A mess in the very first days, better to remain calm in the event then choose your prefered ledger/coin after the storm, or even use both as you may have records in both ledgers at the same time! You know there will be no dispute about the past it is just about the future and future is formed by your choices through your transactions and not the protocol and the accountant/miners whom their business is registering the events ...

Nope. Any version is a version and will be considered valid by people who use it (being minority or not) ... it is fundamental do not mess with fundamentals please. We are trying to teach newbies here not to make them more confused, for the god sake

People who are determined to run a fork will do it and once it has been done, they don't care how many votes they have. They just stick to their balances and newly mined coins being named whatever.

[iamTom123]

Actually you have a big and quite legit point. When I started with Bitcoin I was then facing a blank wall and even up to now there are still so many things I don't understand as I am considered as a very technically-challenged guy. Coupled with information overload and opposing opinions we can all read around, it can sometimes be very confusing as if I am getting drowned in a sea of data.

However, there are some things that may not be easy to simplify though I would very much welcome an effort to make things easier to grasp. Technical matters can be given more understanding by connecting them with things ordinary guys are used to seeing and using. The question then is who can make these things for us?

Right now, I am still continually learning new things on cryptocurrency and now can even do some trading in a popular trading site. At least I could proclaim that am not a newbie in cryptocurrency anymore but definitely not yet approaching an expert position.

[ViceOfBTC21]

For now, no. We can't describe it in any simpler way for now. Maybe in the future no one will care Bitcoin from technical side since Bitcoin is going to be used in parallel with fiat.

[Zadicar]

Even myself have been involved on cryptocurrency for how many years i do have still some questions on my mind remained unanswered specially on technical aspects on Bitcoin,im still confused and still studying on it also to other altcoins in the market. Telling other people about bitcoin directly on technical aspects then i would say they wont really put interest at all since they dont have any idea on what you are saying thats why as a bitcoin user and do really concer on adoption progress then explaining to individuas on simple aspects of BTC would somehow help but only on small scale. The best move is to make organization or group on your place which do conduct some seminars or other stuffs that do make exposure on bitcoins existence and its usage/capabiities.

[BitcoinBallerina]

Bitcoin is for a fact overcomplicated. For some reason, it is still very difficult for complete noobs to purchase in under 10 minutes, whereas anyone can buy stuff from Amazon with 1-click... using a traditional credit card.

[iamTom123]

We are just actually having the side-effects of information overload. What we should do is not to hide those technical things which can be hard to grasp by ordinary people (just like me!) but create an educational system where complicated things can be downsized in pieces which we can all bites. In other words, there must be a way to simplify things for the sake of newbies while not withdrawing the chance for the advanced learners to satisfy their cravings.

I mean, this must be something for everyone if we have to make the adoption of Bitcoin truly global so that a teenager can have Bitcoin as well as a grandmother who can be 94 years old already. Bitcoin is really for all types of people regardless of age, race, sexuality or whatever they may have under their pockets.

I do understand your concern what will all crazy jargon related to Bitcoin...it can sometimes be a little dizzy wading through with those terms. 

[investFeed]

We are just actually having the side-effects of information overload. What we should do is not to hide those technical things which can be hard to grasp by ordinary people (just like me!) but create an educational system where complicated things can be downsized in pieces which we can all bites. In other words, there must be a way to simplify things for the sake of newbies while not withdrawing the chance for the advanced learners to satisfy their cravings.

It seems to be the reason for most of the confusion - a streamlined crypto-focused social network could greatly assist this.

[iram1011]

Bitcoin being decentralised will remain a chaos. Just because it is decentralised, for making any major change we need to have a majority which is not the case in centralised currency. A central authority has the major right and changes could be made without anybody knowing anything. But in Bitcoin, everything is transparent and open to discussion. This over complicate things because people start speculation. On one hand this is advantage but on other it creates confusion in not tech people. But I think bitcointalk or a just a google search can help people to solve their problems regarding all the new chaos and confusion related to technical aspects.

Bitcoin being a technology inclusive currency. I think we can't really escape from technical aspects of it. We as a community should help each other and make the situation clear for non tech people and we at the most part are doing that.

[investFeed]

Bitcoin being a technology inclusive currency. I think we can't really escape from technical aspects of it. We as a community should help each other and make the situation clear for non tech people and we at the most part are doing that.

It has to definitely be community driven.

[LeGaulois]

Bitcoin is for a fact overcomplicated. For some reason, it is still very difficult for complete noobs to purchase in under 10 minutes, whereas anyone can buy stuff from Amazon with 1-click... using a traditional credit card.

How buying or using Bitcoin is overcomplicated. You just need to enter the amount you want to buy and click a "Buy" button. If it was years ago where not a lot of payment methods were offered, or with a fastidious process ok. But now I don't see how we could make it more fast and easy to buy some BTC. There are all of payment methods offered, wallets so easy to use that a baby could do it with one hand and the other with a baby bottle

[zilions]

Hard to say. In my opinion, we're using a technology far before its time.

A great way of putting it is to think of blockchain technology as a 22nd-century mainstream take up. The internet was invented 34 years ago (1983) and we're still performing large scale upgrades to it constantly and making it better. Australia is performing large-scale national upgrade. They're half way through upgrading the country, and yet when they plan to finish (in a few years time) the technology will already be deprecated and will need another upgrade!

Bitcoin was not made to scale as easy as newer blockchains are, mainly because newer applications knew the problems they had to overcome by looking at Bitcoins mistakes. I trust the minds behind the Bitcoin development community and believe what they are doing is right, as a hard fork would have been a very hard decision to go forward with.

The blockchain still has a very long way to go to be perfect. Transactions still take minutes, which is far too slow for a mainstream adoption for large applications such as databases and storage. But until then, we can keep innovating, challenging and questioning the technology to help perfect it.

[aajnbtc]

Our standard answer to people saying that Bitcoin is too complicated used to be, " Bank customers do not need to know how the internet ledgers of a bank work, to use their service " but now with the introduction of things like UASF people have to approach their merchants and exchanges and services to figure out what services will be safe to use, depending on what route those services will be going with this scaling option.

Are we overcomplicating Bitcoin for non-technical users of this technology? < They have no clue what chain split and soft forks are, and should they be that involved? >

Our goal should be to make it very simple for Granny to understand and to grow adoption. ^hmmmmmm^

Imagine if the reserve bank issued 2 different types of $1 notes and one type of note was accepted at specific merchants and not at other. This will create a lot of confusion with the general public.

Example : https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/6e25yx/im_investing_on_bitcoin_for_some_time_but_what/

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The problem with the overcomplication is it is only overcomplicated if a person does not seek the knowledge to understand the intricacies of Bitcoin.

I am not saying that people should all just dedicate their lives to trying to understand Bitcoin, however, if you are going to be owning the token then you should understand how it works.

If we applied this exact same principle to the fiat money we all use today, no one would ever use banks because they would see the system for what it is.

So, the message is, overcomplication is actually a good thing because it drives people to learn and understand as opposed to just sitting and listening to others that are deemed 'more intelligent', instead of raising one's own intelligence so that they do understand. If we don't force ourselves to learn and innovate we are not moving forward and away from the same corrupt and flawed system, we have today.

Knowledge is power and power is derived from intelligence. If you do not make yourself uncomfortable you will never grow as a person.

[HeRetiK]

I don't think we're overcomplicating Bitcoin. You don't need to know a whole lot about hard forks and UASF to continue using it as a regular user - as a regular user all you need to know is that there are certain timeframes where it may be wise to avoid making transactions. The details behind it don't really matter. You can get involved, but you don't have to. However that you can get involved is one of the greatest privileges of crypto. Getting involved in traditional banking is a tad bit harder.

Bitcoin was not made to scale as easy as newer blockchains are, mainly because newer applications knew the problems they had to overcome by looking at Bitcoins mistakes.

I personally am not fully convinved of the scalability of newer blockchains yet. Most of them have to reach Bitcoin level transactions yet, and those who have, even if just for a short time, didn't scale so well either. (I'm looking at you, Ethereum)