How can we make Bitcoin simpler?

[n0nce]

Education isn't the best, but it isn't what's missing. The real reason we don't have millions of users on board is that people are afraid of responsibility.

Also convenience.  They want convenience.  Click a button and voila.  If something goes wrong, responsibility is put on some body else's shoulders.  So what the user is looking for is convenience and transfer of responsibility.

But are these two not also coming from a lack of education?  You can not be afraid if you have knowledge and are educated.  It is usually the unknown giving people so much fear.

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Regards,
PrivacyG

Like BlackHatCoiner, I find Bitcoin easier to use, but I do agree with the responsibility factor. Therefore, I strongly believe that wallets (hardware and software) and most software around Bitcoin are already 'simple enough', but we may need to find a way to get people comfortable with it and to assume responsibility.
One way is simply education and help forums (like the Help section on Bitcointalk), however I'm also intrigued to have a closer look at the https://keys.casa/ service. It seems to me like they could take over the role of the 'bank lady' who you can call or visit to ask questions about your bank account, special transfer (e.g. when you need an international bank transfer) or other advice. Someone knowledgeable who gives you peace of mind and also reduces responsibility somewhat, since they can keep (and back up) one of your multisig keys.

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[NotATether]

When you give someone a few dollars, do you have to teach them about the US financial system first before they understand how to use their money? Of course not.

Basically, people only need to know the following two three things:

1- How to buy bitcoins using cash
2- How to sell bitcoins for cash
3- How to avoid getting robbed online and offline

Everything else should be handled by the wallet or whatever platform is holding the bitcoins. In particular, "buying things with bitcoins" should be so intuitive that nobody needs to explain how to do that. QR codes and bitcoin: URIs are really helping in that regard though.

[cryptosize]

Also convenience.  They want convenience.  Click a button and voila.

I quite disagree on the convenience part. As someone belonging to this little group of people who got used to Bitcoin before they even create a bank account, I can assure you that I honestly found it difficult to adapt. Maybe my expectation that the banking sector would be more simple than Bitcoin did hype up the situation, but it wasn't very convenient to me.

Maybe it's just my e-banking app, but I see accounts, credit and debit cards, buttons for "New Payment" and "New Transfer" instead of just "New transaction", money boxes, savings, loans, investments, securities, amounts of money I have not reported to the taxman, then in "Transfers" I get the option to send to my banking account, to someone else's bank account of the same bank, to someone's bank account of another bank within the country's borders, to someone outside my country, or to someone just by giving a phone number (with IRIS). If I don't want to transfer via bank accounts, I need to withdraw some in my debit card, and thing goes on and on. There are statistics, profile stuff, and even an option to merge accounts and debit / credit cards that I don't yet understand what is all about.

And that's before I even mention the bureaucratic nonsense that costed me time when I had to go and get my debit card from the bank, and all these obscurities the banking sector is consisted of, like charging me 2 EUR for moving more than 15 EUR to another bank.

Revolut is much better, but I still don't find it more convenient than, say, Electrum.

It's even worse in Africa:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/zvlzb4/togolese_human_rights_activist_explains_french/

[WillyAp]

Bitcoin or any other crypto is not a bank, banks finance business' banks give credit.
A few whales have what makes them whales thru banks connections.
There are only a few crypto "Banks" which speaks volumes about the character of the holders.
Where is the bitcoin development bank? The Etherum Development bank, and so on?

[thecodebear]

People get into Bitcoin when they learn about its value.

People get into Bitcoin either due to its utility as currency, or to have fiat gains. Unfortunately, we can all agree that the latter are overwhelmingly more.

To say "fiat users", which is everyone, don't have the slightest interest in Bitcoin is just plain wrong.

For the sake of simplicity, I meant users who're fine at using fiat as currency. Fiat users who don't care about bitcoin as currency is the overwhelming majority of fiat users.

To get more people into bitcoin, and specifically bitcoin as a means of payment, we need to spread bitcoin education, stop the vast amount of misinformation that makes people have a negative view of bitcoin, make bitcoin easier and simply to get into and use, which also of course includes making the LN simpler and easier to use because that is where 99.9% of bitcoin payments will be done.

No. This is not enough, you're wrong. Education isn't the best, but it isn't what's missing. The real reason we don't have millions of users on board is that people are afraid of responsibility. They are satisfied in the feeling that in the current system, they have a third party to address to (even if they don't get the assistance they want). The extra responsibility bitcoin adds is unfortunately intimidating for the most.

#1: Yes agreed, they get into bitcoin when they learn about its value (as I said) meaning its utility (as you said). Also of course for appreciation in value. Nothing wrong with that. And generally appreciation in value is the reason they start to learn more about it. I got into Bitcoin to make money, and then eventually learned more and more about it and learned more about money and fiat and now I have a decent understanding of the whole subject, because I initially wanted to make money. Nothing wrong with most people getting in to make money. But they only stay in Bitcoin when they learn about its value, otherwise they just crash out during a bear market and get scared off for a few years.

#2: I mean everyone will always continue to use fiat. Bitcoin isn't going to replace fiat. Governments aren't going to stop issuing their own currencies just because Bitcoin becomes a popular alternative in the future. "Fiat users" don't care about using Bitcoin as a currency because they haven't learned about why it's valuable yet. Everyone is a "fiat user" as you are defining it, until they learn about Bitcoin's value, and that's when they get interested in using Bitcoin. It's not like people who are fine using fiat don't use Bitcoin because they are fine with fiat, they don't use Bitcoin because they don't know anything at all about Bitcoin. I'm fine using fiat, though I look forward to the day when I can also easily use my bitcoin as well. Fiat, whether bank money or stablecoins (which is fiat cuz its pegged to fiat) are useful for shorter term savings and payments because it is relatively stable in the short term. Bitcoin is useful for long term savings (which includes storing wealth) and for payments once you have been holding bitcoin for a while and are therefore in profit. Both will continue to exist side by side, Bitcoin will just get much more useful and some of fiat use will move over to bitcoin use. But its not like "fiat users" will never want bitcoin, it is just simply an education thing, they need to learn the value of bitcoin.

#3: Education, and making bitcoin simpler to use for the average person, are definitely the main things we need. Most of the reasons people are afraid to get into Bitcoin, or just don't want to get into Bitcoin (yet) are because they aren't educating on it, and secondly they don't know how to use it. Sure the idea of having to secure a private key is a small hurdle for those who don't want the responsibility of banking themselves, but that kinda goes with the whole education and ease of use thing, which are what need to be improved.

[WillyAp]

"Fiat users" don't care about using Bitcoin as a currency because they haven't learned about why it's valuable yet. Everyone is a "fiat user" as you are defining it, until they learn about Bitcoin's value, and that's when they get interested in using Bitcoin. It's not like people who are fine using fiat don't use Bitcoin because they are fine with fiat, they don't use Bitcoin because they don't know anything at all about Bitcoin.

What use has a currency which one day is worth $100 000 and the next day 10 000? You need to be an adventurer or trader to love that. People grow older and tend to be more cautious. That apart, Bitcoin is slow and cannot acomplish similar simultanious payments transacctions as Visa. Bitcoin lacks a trusted central authority that validates transactions. Being decentral. 

[zeuner]

That also means that the best way to improve functionality is outside of the consensus model. Lightning is a great example of that.

Exactly. It's a pity that there don't seem to be any legit smart contract platforms layered on the top of Bitcoin.

Have you checked RSK/Rootstock?

While it's technically built as a layer on the top of Bitcoin, it seems that in order to participate, users would either have to buy themselves in, or to clear the hurdle of getting into Bitcoin mining under today's difficulty conditions. No way to directly participate when already holding BTC. So it might miss an important opportunity of building upon Bitcoin, providing an easy path for the userbase. Having to buy in, it essentially has to compete with all the non-BTC smart contract platforms.