Has Bitcoin become too easy to use?

[BluebloodCXVI]

Perhaps there’s a bit of truth to what you have said OP but I don’t think you should generalize it. There are certainly far many bitcoin enthusiasts in this present day who understand what self custody means, what seed phrases mean and also the importance of holding their own keys  because they know that is one of the core principle of bitcoin in the first place.

In my opinion i just think that people who save their bitcoin in exchanges are just far too comfortable, and often at their own expense.

[marrcelo]

Bitcoin became easier, yes, today access to information got much more easier. Now the people who don't want to have responsibility with their Bitcoin and leave it in third party hands. Could be that he have difficulty with the technology, it's easier to leave the self custody in third party hands. Until the exchange get hacked or go bankrupt and he lose money, then he decide to study and learn about Bitcoin security and self custody.

[2stout]

Yes, it seems to have become easier to use over the years as it is now more assessable and acceptable due to an huge increase in adoption over the years.  This is not a bad thing, if anything difficulty of use would result in slower if not stagnant adoption.  I think on the flip side, as perhaps an unintended consequence, is that folks have become too complacent and lazy with more reliance on 3rd parties and centralized entities.   

[qwertyup23]

At the same time, I sometimes wonder if convenience is creating a different problem.

I’ve come across people who own Bitcoin but don’t know the difference between keeping it on an exchange and holding their own keys. Some have never written down a seed phrase, and others have no idea why wallet backups are important until something goes wrong.

This is one of those instances where you would say that this kind of problem is the “good” problem compared when people have been stigmatizing cryptocurrencies as a whole.

Given that there has been a widespread increase of users investing in cryptocurrency, these kinds of problems were bound to happen and were inevitable. Somewhere along the road, we already foresaw that people would have problems with its accessibility, convenience, storing, and security.

Instead of seeing it negatively, we should celebrate and do our due diligence in helping these persons in order to maximize the opportunity for everyone. Again, not all of these new investors are as knowledgeable as us- we all, too, were beginners at some point in our cryptocurrency journey.

It makes me wonder where the balance should be. If using Bitcoin becomes almost effortless, do people gradually stop learning the ideas that make it fundamentally different from the traditional financial system? Or is that simply  the natural path every successful technology follows as it matures?

Nope- this is the beauty of crypto and technology. Embrace the change and they would also adapt. If we were to put this in a graph, people are at the very top or at the peak- they are enjoying the benefits of technology which made it adaptable, convenient, and easy to use as a whole.