Bitcoin Is Getting Easier To Purchase, But Harder To Truly Own.

[Itz-prisigold]

Once upon a time to purchase Bitcoin was not very easy back then. A person have to learn about wallets, private keys, addresses, back ups and learn how transactions really works. But one biggest barrier for many to get into Bitcoin was the learning curve.

But as of now, that barrier is far less today.
There are exchanges, mobile applications, ETFs, custodial services and other payment platforms, that have made it easier than ever to buy Bitcoin. In some instances, an individual can just buy Bitcoin in mere minutes without having a lot of knowledge regarding the technical things involved, so this greater availability has helped Bitcoin reach more people, but I wonder if something is being lost.

Bitcoin is getting easier to acquire, but is it getting harder to really own?

1.The idea of buying versus owning Bitcoin is not the same thing as before.

A lot of new buyers think that once they just buy Bitcoin, they automatically own it. But in most cases, what they have is an account with a third party that holds the Bitcoins for them. So as long as the platform is still running, everything looks fine.

However, once access is denied, funds are frozen, withdrawals are delayed or the service is closed, users soon realize that there is a difference between exposure and having the control over Bitcoin.

There is a reason for the old saying: "Not your keys, not your coins".

2: Convenience Is Replacing Self Custody.

Self custody is what allows you to have complete control of your bitcoin. At the same time, it also comes with responsibility.

. It is crucial that you keep your seed phrase safe.
. You'll need to secure your wallet.
. You must understand recovery procedures.

Custodial solutions seem to be a lot simpler for many, so convenience is thus slowly making ownership less appealing.

But my problem is that are we sacrificing one of the most vital characteristics of Bitcoin for simplicity?

3. More Bitcoin Users, Fewer Bitcoin Owners?

Bitcoin adoption has been steadily increasing, but how many of these new adopters are "in control of their coins?

. There are a lot of people who came into Bitcoin through exchanges and stay.

. Some users have not even created a non custodial wallet; so that one does not exist.

. Others have never even back up a seed phrase before.

. Many people don't even understand the difference between custodial and non custodial storage, let alone know how to use each type.

So this as raise an interesting question; Are we increasing the number of bitcoiner users or are we increasing the number of bitcoin owners? These two are not necessarily the same thing.

4. Skills for Ownership Are Not being Practiced.

Now, anyone can purchase Bitcoin without needing to learn:
. How wallet recovery works
. How to verify addresses
. What is a seed phrase and how to secure a seed phrase.
. What private keys do and how
. How to avoid common scams

Although greater accessibility is a good thing,  but the lack of education may end up producing a generation of users who are completely reliant on third parties. Interestingly,  the easier Bitcoin is to purchase, the less people feel like learning how to really own bitcoin.

5. Bitcoin is meant to eliminate the trusted middleman.

Some of Bitcoin's original features were the ability to store and move value without a trusted intermediary.  But, in the present times,  a significant number of users deal with Bitcoin through middlemen.

This does not necessarily mean the custodial services are bad or should not exist,  they have a function and assist new users.

But, if the majority of Bitcoin holders never go beyond custodial services and are we closer to the original vision of bitcoin or further away?

[Sim_card]

A lot of new Bitcoin adopters, I mean those that got into bitcoin when it hits $100k are after making profit with bitcoin, which is the reason why they don't care much on how use bitcoin for the main purpose it was created for. The US has lunched Bitcoin ETFs which is another way of government directing people to keep their bitcoin with third party is wrong. Not your keys....not your coins.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

5. Bitcoin is meant to eliminate the trusted middleman.

Some of Bitcoin's original features were the ability to store and move value without a trusted intermediary.  But, in the present times,  a significant number of users deal with Bitcoin through middlemen.

This does not necessarily mean the custodial services are bad or should not exist,  they have a function and assist new users.

But, if the majority of Bitcoin holders never go beyond custodial services and are we closer to the original vision of bitcoin or further away?

For me, i think every thing you said in your post summarizes to this number five and it's the reason I am going to quote it..

Trusting and engaging thy services of middlemen or third party in our buying, selling and holding of bitcoin is a choice, it's something we get to choose our self and not that alternative options that does not involve getting middlemen and or third party services is not available, it's available but many of us still prefer to go through middle men because it appears safer and more convenient.

Like for example, If I want to buy bitcoin without involving any middlemen and third party services, it's absolutely possible, look for someone selling and send money over to them and give them your wallet address, and the fund the address with bitcoin worth the amount you paid for.
Now, even if you engage middle men in buying bitcoin, what stops you from withdrawing same bitcoin to your personal wallet immediately after purchase? I think many are gradually becoming ignorant to self custody and until something happens that leads to loss of funds, investors will not realize leaving their bitcoin in the custody of thirdparty services is not recommended.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

Exchanges have made bitcoin purchase easier, but people continuing to hold huge funds on it is a mistake. I understand that a lot of newbies get started investing in bitcoin through an exchange because it is much popular, but holding bitcoin in an exchange a year or two later or more shows they're not interested in having full ownership of their coins. Those committed to learning about bitcoin would be interested in it's decentralization and censorship resistance feature and start practicing self custody which is the best way to hold bitcoin. Until people start practicing self-custody, they never truly own their bitcoin.

[Hatchy]

But, if the majority of Bitcoin holders never go beyond custodial services and are we closer to the original vision of bitcoin or further away?

How hard can it be to own your bitcoins? It's very simply to have full ownership of your coins. Purchase it through any means you want, centralized or decentralised, get a self custodian wallet, write out your 12 words and store them in a safe place. Transfer your coins and hold. Is that quite difficult for any serious person? People these days are just too lazy or careless. They are only focused on how they could make their next millions from bitcoin investment but they have forgotten that even before you make profits you have to secure what you have first. Bitcoin was created to be decentralised, you and your keys, you are your bank. So why give access of your coins to a centralized platform?

[Dunamisx]

Everything about bitcoin is made affordable for everyone, except you are not used to how it works, and which is why everyone is expected to learn how bitcoin operates, you can make use of it as an advantage for your own benefits, bitcoin is not hard to own, but many users don't know that the render their assets to centralized institutions instead of taking possession of it by themselves.

[BitBakerr1]

But, if the majority of Bitcoin holders never go beyond custodial services and are we closer to the original vision of bitcoin or further away?

How hard can it be to own your bitcoins? It's very simply to have full ownership of your coins. Purchase it through any means you want, centralized or decentralised, get a self custodian wallet, write out your 12 words and store them in a safe place. Transfer your coins and hold. Is that quite difficult for any serious person? People these days are just too lazy or careless. They are only focused on how they could make their next millions from bitcoin investment but they have forgotten that even before you make profits you have to secure what you have first. Bitcoin was created to be decentralised, you and your keys, you are your bank. So why give access of your coins to a centralized platform?

You are correct, I don’t see what is difficult in owning your own bitcoin. It is very simple to own your own bitcoin just like you explain the only reason why people are finding it difficult or being afraid is because they are careless and lazy just like you said they only care about making money from it but they don’t care about protecting it. These are one of the reasons why a lot of people are poor today. There are many people who lost their bitcoin just because of carelessness and laziness this set of people would have become rich today, but because of carelessness and laziness they lost that opportunity to change their life for good.

[uneng]

I totally agree with the title of this thread. Bitcoin is getting more accessible through centralized platforms, especially banking apps, but when acquiring your coins through those, you are unable to truly own the assets, because they are tied to the banking app. You can't cashout the purchased coins to a hardware wallet, for an example. You are only allowed to hold those coins while on the hands of the bank.

That is an absurd situation, because completely goes against what Bitcoin represents and was created for. However, the average investor isn't concerned about this anymore, because he doesn't have the awareness early investors did. He isn't investing for the same reasons early investors did. The current average investor is just following the sheep.

It's actually a big cons of Bitcoin having gone mainstream.

[aoluain]

Once upon a time to purchase Bitcoin was not very easy back then. A person have to learn about wallets, private keys, addresses, back ups and learn how transactions really works. But one biggest barrier for many to get into Bitcoin was the learning curve.

But as of now, that barrier is far less today.
There are exchanges, mobile applications, ETFs, custodial services and other payment platforms, that have made it easier than ever to buy Bitcoin. In some instances, an individual can just buy Bitcoin in mere minutes without having a lot of knowledge regarding the technical things involved, so this greater availability has helped Bitcoin reach more people, but I wonder if something is being lost.

Bitcoin is getting easier to acquire, but is it getting harder to really own?

Yes its quite easy to actually buy Bitcoin although I dont know what it was like pre 2017.

There are people who have educated themselves about taking ownership of their Bitcoin
and with education and knowledge things should become simpler.

There are also some people who take the cheap lazy way of "storing" their Bitcoin and
cannot justify spending $50 on a hardware wallet and spending a bit of time learning

[Rockstarguy]

1.The idea of buying versus owning Bitcoin is not the same thing as before.

A lot of new buyers think that once they just buy Bitcoin, they automatically own it. But in most cases, what they have is an account with a third party that holds the Bitcoins for them. So as long as the platform is still running, everything looks fine.

However, once access is denied, funds are frozen, withdrawals are delayed or the service is closed, users soon realize that there is a difference between exposure and having the control over Bitcoin.

There is a reason for the old saying: "Not your keys, not your coins".

As for this, I don't think there is a total change about this because there are some people who are still comfortable using exchanges. Knowing the right wallet for Bitcoin has to do with knowledge and choosing what is right. At this present time, there are some people who may even have little understanding of wallets, why a self-custodial wallet is better than a custodial wallet, but still prefer to go with a custodial wallet. This particular point has to do with understanding because when you don't understand the importance of wallets and how they work, you may still find yourself keeping your coins in a custodial wallet. This forum has allowed its members to understand what wallets are all about and why it is important to choose a self-custodial wallet. For those not in forums like this, they may not have the privilege to gain this knowledge, and normally, people hardly research for themselves to know what is best when it comes to wallets.

[retreat]

Once upon a time to purchase Bitcoin was not very easy back then. A person have to learn about wallets, private keys, addresses, back ups and learn how transactions really works. But one biggest barrier for many to get into Bitcoin was the learning curve.
-snip-

I don't know why people still say it's "hard" to go with self-custody. Even just setting up an exchange account these days requires you to go through a series of verification processes, that's already more complicated. Meanwhile, if you choose self-custody, you just need to download a self-custody wallet (e.g., BlueWallet or others) and you can set it up in just a few minutes. It won't be a more complicated process - not nearly as complicated as opening an exchange account.

So I think it's not about whether it's easy or not, but rather that these people are too lazy to learn and have been misled by the narrative that exchanges are regulated and it's safer to store your assets there. In reality, it's the opposite, centralized exchanges can be the worst place for you to store your assets.

[The Cryptovator]

Once upon a time to purchase Bitcoin was not very easy back then. A person have to learn about wallets, private keys, addresses, back ups and learn how transactions really works. But one biggest barrier for many to get into Bitcoin was the learning curve.

Bitcoin is getting easier to acquire, but is it getting harder to really own?

It's true once-a-day purchasing Bitcoin was quite hard, but nowadays it's very easy. There are no barriers, but people are too lazy to learn about Bitcoin. That's the reason most people don't own Bitcoin; due to various reasons, they especially have been using custodial wallets. That's the biggest issue nowadays, and people are losing funds.

I was a victim as well, even though I know the risk. Binance had frozen my funds, though it later unfroze them; it does mean that funds weren't in my control, and I didn't own that amount either. However, there are a lot of resources nowadays that weren't at the beginning stage of Bitcoin to learn about it. People should have minimal knowledge of how to own Bitcoin, not only purchase it.

[Finestream]

I think as long as you know how to buy and sell, and select a reliable exchange, buying bitcoin will not be that tough. You can own bitcoin immediately after a successful transaction. But keeping bitcoin through a self-custody wallet or a non-custodial wallet will be not that easy if you are not aware or educated about its complete security and exclusive control over your bitcoin.

There are those who keep purchasing but hard to keep and sustain their purchased bitcoin. The money is always available, but if you are clueless on how to secure your bitcoin on your non-custodial wallet 24/7, complete ownership will be impossible.

[serjent05]

Once upon a time to purchase Bitcoin was not very easy back then. A person have to learn about wallets, private keys, addresses, back ups and learn how transactions really works. But one biggest barrier for many to get into Bitcoin was the learning curve.

But as of now, that barrier is far less today.
There are exchanges, mobile applications, ETFs, custodial services and other payment platforms, that have made it easier than ever to buy Bitcoin. In some instances, an individual can just buy Bitcoin in mere minutes without having a lot of knowledge regarding the technical things involved, so this greater availability has helped Bitcoin reach more people, but I wonder if something is being lost.

Bitcoin is getting easier to acquire, but is it getting harder to really own?

1.The idea of buying versus owning Bitcoin is not the same thing as before.

A lot of new buyers think that once they just buy Bitcoin, they automatically own it. But in most cases, what they have is an account with a third party that holds the Bitcoins for them. So as long as the platform is still running, everything looks fine.

However, once access is denied, funds are frozen, withdrawals are delayed or the service is closed, users soon realize that there is a difference between exposure and having the control over Bitcoin.

There is a reason for the old saying: "Not your keys, not your coins".

The easy fix for this is to withdraw your Bitcoin.  It is your Bitcoin anyway so you have the right to move it out of the exchange platform.  The way you say it implies that it is impossible to move Bitcoin away from an exchange platform, which we all know is not true unless you happen to stumble upon a fraudulent platform and all your withdrawal access is restricted.

3. More Bitcoin Users, Fewer Bitcoin Owners?

Bitcoin adoption has been steadily increasing, but how many of these new adopters are "in control of their coins?

. There are a lot of people who came into Bitcoin through exchanges and stay.

. Some users have not even created a non custodial wallet; so that one does not exist.

. Others have never even back up a seed phrase before.

. Many people don't even understand the difference between custodial and non custodial storage, let alone know how to use each type.

So this as raise an interesting question; Are we increasing the number of bitcoiner users or are we increasing the number of bitcoin owners? These two are not necessarily the same thing.

Again, you are forcing a third-party platform here when, in fact, holding Bitcoin with a non-custodial wallet can still use it for transactions.  Obviously, if the number of bitcoin users increases, those who own Bitcoin also increase, indeed they are not the same thing, but they are directly proportional to each other, not the inverse proportion that you wanted to imply.

[Findingnemo]

The concept is still the same and nothing changed but the stupid people who came to the picture who are lazy and not interested in learning or anything except the potential profits, so they buy bitcoin with their inherited money or something and assume their are bitcoin owners.

If someone is doing it in the wrong way then it is their loss, so no need to beat ourselfves for that.

[Alphakilo]

Potential Bitcoin investors need to have the patience to learn all that is necessary from the basic knowledge to the more complex ownership details or else be subject to scams or CEX palava that may arise at any given time.
It is in the moment of friction that those who failed to learn the nitty-gritty from the onset actually understand all the point made by our dear OP and it may be too late to think of owning a seed phrase to a self custody wallet when all your initial BTC has been lost somehow.

Convenience is the order of the day today because humans are naturally wired to be lazy and dwell in convenience, hence why the rise of AI and robots are rampant, but when it comes to true ownership of Bitcoin, AI bots can't be trusted with this responsibility and that's why knowledge of true ownership and self custody is the key to holding onto your Bitcoin investment in the long run.

[Felicity_Tide]

How hard can it be to own your bitcoins? It's very simply to have full ownership of your coins. Purchase it through any means you want, centralized or decentralised, get a self custodian wallet, write out your 12 words and store them in a safe place. Transfer your coins and hold. Is that quite difficult for any serious person? People these days are just too lazy or careless.

There are so many things that ought not to be a big deal, but for some reason, some users have chosen to see them as rocket science or some form of complex maths that is only meant for experts. The practical reality is, some of these users who prioritize third party services just because they feel that the process to self custody is complicated, are literally those that haven't taken their time to try it out. Of course, you clearly won't know how simple something is until you try it out for yourself. You've literally summarized how it is done, but don't be surprised, some people won't still get it more matter how simple it sounds.

[Dreadboost]

Once upon a time to purchase Bitcoin was not very easy back then. A person have to learn about wallets, private keys, addresses, back ups and learn how transactions really works. But one biggest barrier for many to get into Bitcoin was the learning curve.

Last time I checked, nothing has changed. A beginner still have to learn about wallet, private keys, address, as you have mentioned before thinking of purchasing Bitcoin. A beginner will be risking his Bitcoin if he don't know the basic. Back then, online scammers are not as they are now. And that's why security is needed now more than ever. Again, Bitcoin was not difficult to purchase years back. It was the same process that was needed to purchase Bitcoin and most people got their Bitcoin through mining and faucet.

[uchegod-21]

It was never really about Bitcoin itself being difficult to purchase in the past; it was because there was less adoption as a result of less awareness among people about Bitcoin. So, P2P was quite difficult because it wasn't easy finding someone to trade with, especially in urgent situations, and there were very few or no exchanges at all to make trading less cumbersome.

Now, in the present time, P2P and self-custody are supposed to be the easiest things to do because what was seen in the past as challenges has now been fixed. It's just that people don't want to learn. They are choosing the easy way out over their own freedom, and the easy way comes with a price.

Self-custody is not difficult; people are just lazy and finding excuses for their laziness. The same energy put into handing over ownership of their assets to third parties can actually be put into securing their assets themselves, but their minds are not ready for that responsibility.

[Patikno]

The phrase "Not your keys, not your coins" shouldn't be taken lightly, as it teaches an important lesson regarding the importance of safeguarding our crypto (Bitcoin) privately (without third-party interference). Storing Bitcoin with a centralized party carries double the risks compared to storing it independently.

Several cases have occurred with several exchanges, one of which is Mt. Gox. While there is a possibility of a refund from the exchange due to the issues, but wouldn't that be a very lengthy and time-consuming process Furthermore, if a similar case occurs in the future, there is no guarantee of a refund, right? Maybe, it will be lost forever.

I don't mean to scare anyone here; I am simply explaining the risks, and I don't expect a similar case to happen again. I simply want to advise us all, not to place too much trust in third parties, or centralized entities. That is all.