Bitcoin is unfair to the non tech-savvy

[Lethn]

I scored an F in my GSCE maths, if I can understand it and use it, so can they, I suppose if you want to understand the whole code behind it that would be impossible for a normal person including but honestly I think they're exaggerating if they consider the idea of difficulty and mining blocks to be hard to understand. I know the basic theory behind Bitcoin and I know it's open source, that's all I needed in order to make the decision to trust it, some people just clearly either need to do their research or grow a brain.

Basically, this article seems to be a different spin on the same bullshit we've heard since Bitcoin's inception, they'll be saying this crap when it hits $1000 again.

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[Light]

Yesterday I met a couple of my old classmates on the street. They asked about Bitcoin and started to whine that most people don't understand the mathematical fundamentals behind Bitcoin and therefore had no realistic chance to invest when it was cheap. Of course, I encouraged them to invest now (better late than never) but seems that people generally rather enjoy wallowing in their own self-pity than take steps to adapt and overcome.

That's just really garbage whinging talk. You don't need to bloody well understand the mathematical principle behind Bitcoin - a simple (but really rather complicated) overview is enough. It's probably a bit arrogant of me to say so, but I believe I have a reasonably good grasp of the core ideas behind Bitcoin without having to completely understand the mathematics behind trap-door cryptographic functions and elliptic curve cryptography. Personally, I doubt anyone truly believed we'd ever get this far with Bitcoin, some hoped and dreamed and speculated (more than others) but no one truly expected it.

[acs267]

Really? Because I heard this currency... Wow, what's it's name? 'USD' is pretty unfair to anyone below the Middle Class in the United States. Wow. So unfair, right?

That's what I'm thinking.

[2good2betrue]

"Bitcoin traders are sometimes accused of unfairly profiting from an opaque asset beyond the understanding of ordinary people."
This is unfair why exactly? I don't understand the ins and outs of 99% of industries, is it unfair that some people will use their specialized knowledge to profit from these industries?

[eid]

I guess bitcoin is complicated when you first discover it. It takes some effort before you begin to understand how everything works and fits together.. But that's ok. If people are put off by this and walk away, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Sadly, realising this would also take more effort than some are willing to expend.

[2good2betrue]

Dear New Yorker, I don't know shit about writing articles or editing a magazine, every dollar you make is "unfair".

[Anders]

How many people understand the fractional reserve banking scam for how ordinary money is created? Yet, they still use money.

[jubalix]

people are trained by omission in education, by mass media and gov, to not think about what fiat is, only that they need it.

Movies about $$$
Crime about $$$
success measured in $$$$
Price of things in $$$$

tax in $$$$
wages etc etc

you can go no ad infinetum.

As I have said several times, you could talk to people and anyone in this forum now back in 2005 about FIAT currency and their eyes just glaze over.

I know I did it. I made a whole presentation on FIAT/FRB/CRR for my Law of banking elective, i tried to explain to people  the issues and scam of FIAT and how their needed to be competition.

Eyes glaze over.

Now BTC has put it squerly on the table and FIAT is unmasked....but only for the minority.

The intersection of what "money" is plus the tech, is major ovelaod for a lot of people.

There needs to be a lot more uptake which will take years from now. essentially you are saying, hey you know you money, well your money is no good! Wait what? yeah that paper stuff or digits in your account/shares valued in $$$$. The $$$ bit is all basically near worthless soon.


A killer app / hardware has to come along that is easy to use.

We are accordingly still in quite the early stage of BTC @tm

[Soros Shorts]

The intersection of what "money" is plus the tech, is major ovelaod for a lot of people.

Hey, once in a while the advantage does NOT go to smooth talking wheelers and dealers who understand finance. That's fair to me.

[AliceWonder]

Here's the problem.

Janice hears about bitcoin and gets all excited.

She goes and buys herself a few coins.

Her PC automatically backs up to the cloud, and because she doesn't understand what actually is happening, she doesn't realize that means the private keys that control those bitcoins are backed up too.

Her coins then vanish.

You think Janice will ever want to use Bitcoin again?

Bitcoin must be made safe for the non-tech savvy, and right now for non tech savvy that means encrypted hardware wallet. But they don't have a clue to even know they need one or where to get one.

It is a serious problem, and if you want your BTC to continue to grow in value, it is a problem that has to be solved because users like Janice adopting bitcoin and being happy with it are necessary for 1BTC to hit 10,000 USD in the next ten years. Very possible if we fix this issue.

[Bit_Happy]

I don't get people who complain about having missed the boat on bitcoin. There are many penny stocks or sometimes even regular stocks that go up a lot more than bitcoin...

Any chance you want to document that with some examples?
One third of a penny (~$0.003) all the way to $1200+ !
You claim to know of "many" past cases that go up "a lot more"? Please show us some....

[commandrix]

Tell them to try earning some Bitcoin in their spare time. It's not hard to do if they can simply make your talents known right here on this forum or otherwise let word get around that they'll work for Bitcoin (LOL). In fact, I think I'll jump on a relative of mine who's a teacher and tell her that it might not be very hard to provide tutoring over Skype for anyone with Bitcoin who wants to improve their math skills over the summer.

[Nerazzura]

Bitcoin is not unfair to anyone. It's a piece of software by it's own. It won't discriminate against you and me.

exactly once, bitcoin is not money or objects that can be controlled by one person alone. he has his own way to evolve or backwards, so no one can control it

[Bit_Happy]

Bitcoin is not unfair to anyone. It's a piece of software by it's own. It won't discriminate against you and me.

The early mining resulted in a massive amount of coins for "Satoshi".
You can attempt to call it "fair", but you cannot deny a HUGE amount of early coins went to one single person (or small group)

[Lauda]

Such people are only non tech-savy because of their ignorance. Stop doing useless things in life and learn, it's not even complicated.

[skottiejay]

I wouldn't say it's unfair to the non tech savy, but 3 or so years ago when I first had even heard about it the word "Bitcoin" in itself was just a joke that I saw on twitter constantly. It's unfair to people NOW because the only possible way to get any is from signature campaigns and such.

Such people are only non tech-savy because of their ignorance. Stop doing useless things in life and learn, it's not even complicated.

But not everyone always pays attention to techy things, if people are going to introduce others into the bitcoin world they need a basis to start from. Not a lot of people in 2011 probably even knew what it was or how to get it. Of course jumping on the bandwagon now is kind of dumb because of how high priced they are and how difficult mining or getting any is.

I scored an F in my GSCE maths, if I can understand it and use it, so can they, I suppose if you want to understand the whole code behind it that would be impossible for a normal person including but honestly I think they're exaggerating if they consider the idea of difficulty and mining blocks to be hard to understand. I know the basic theory behind Bitcoin and I know it's open source, that's all I needed in order to make the decision to trust it, some people just clearly either need to do their research or grow a brain.

Basically, this article seems to be a different spin on the same bullshit we've heard since Bitcoin's inception, they'll be saying this crap when it hits $1000 again.

Not everyone is the same as you.

I guess bitcoin is complicated when you first discover it. It takes some effort before you begin to understand how everything works and fits together.. But that's ok. If people are put off by this and walk away, they have no one to blame but themselves.

Sadly, realising this would also take more effort than some are willing to expend.

It isn't so much that it's complicated, I mean it's pretty straight forward on how to set up a wallet, and how to get your first bitcoin if you are talking back in 2011 and earlier. Faucets etc, it's just that a lot of people are thinking to themselves now "Well now how the hell am I going to get some?" As I said earlier, when I first found out about bitcoin people didn't take it seriously, hell I don't take it seriously otherwise I probably would have had quite a few by now.

I don't think it's the persons fault if they walk away, I think the community could do a bit more in reaching out to new adopters to bitcoin and help them, but that's imho.

[intron]

Bitcoin traders are sometimes accused of unfairly profiting from an opaque asset beyond the understanding of ordinary people.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/currency/2014/07/bidding-on-bitcoin.html

Yesterday I met a couple of my old classmates on the street. They asked about Bitcoin and started to whine that most people don't understand the mathematical fundamentals behind Bitcoin and therefore had no realistic chance to invest when it was cheap. Of course, I encouraged them to invest now (better late than never) but seems that people generally rather enjoy wallowing in their own self-pity than take steps to adapt and overcome.

Even in this forum I have seen demeaning opinions about people who bought in when Bitcoin was trading single digits --- "they are not real investors and their earnings are equivalent to winning with a lottery ticket".

I can see that these issues can raise some negative emotions and Bitcoin has even not risen to 6666$ yet . What's the worst case scenario to follow? Bitcoin Jesus getting beaten up by angry conventional Warren Buffer apprentices?

If everything was fair, it would be 4 Kelvin
everywhere in the universe...

[seriouscoin]

But not everyone always pays attention to techy things, if people are going to introduce others into the bitcoin world they need a basis to start from. Not a lot of people in 2011 probably even knew what it was or how to get it. Of course jumping on the bandwagon now is kind of dumb because of how high priced they are and how difficult mining or getting any is.

Why even open your mouth to prove the world that you're dumb?

Its the same thing ppl said in 2011: $11 for a btc? are you dumb? it was only $.01 in 2010. Now i cant even buy 1000btc OMG.....


Also if mining is still easy, would the price still be at current level? Are you that stupid to not understanding basic economy?

[seriouscoin]

OP, tell your friend to grow the fck up. All the education they got have failed them miserably.

They should cry about APPL share also.

[giveBTCpls]

I don't get people who complain about having missed the boat on bitcoin. There are many penny stocks or sometimes even regular stocks that go up a lot more than bitcoin. So what? You can still trade it and profit from it.

I have never seen a penny stock or regular stock grow the equivalent of 12 million% in 4 years like bitcoin. Correct me if I am wrong.

This. Bitcoin WAS the one in a lifetime get-rich-quick opportunity. I readed about it back in about 2009, I saw it linked to criminal activity so forgot about it. I saw it again years later when the bubble exploded, too fucking late johnny boy. Fuck my luck. It's specially frustrating since I readed about it in fucking 2009. Thanks to it im suicidal since that day. I could have retired my entire fucking family and myself, but no! of course, I had to have bad fucking luck. Now im stuck in this shit hole for life, slaving away for minimum wage and that's if I ever find a job. God fucking sakes. Bitcoin solves shit nothing for the 99.99% of people. What changed pre-post Bitcoin for 99.99% of people? That's right, bout fucking nothing. If I had to point a change, in any case it made me suicidal as fuck. Whenever I talk to someone about Bitcoin, they just don't see the appeal, they think it's too late to invest, to make any life-changing money, at least not without having a shit ton of money required to buy a good amount of BTC by now. Exactly, BTC only changed lives for these that:

1) Were lucky as fuck enough to invest/mine in the early days.
2) Already had a decent amount of money

For the rest it's nothing. The social pyramid is and will be the fucking same, but now the few that had luck to be on the right moment at the right time made a killing and own a big part of the supply, which will continue to stack due being able to buy ASICS, re-invest, and so on. The poor attracts more poor, the money attracts more money. Basic fact. It's specially ironic how a lot of these broke NEET guys that used to complain about how fucked up wealth distribution is, that had the luck to mine shit tons effortlessly or buy a couple thousand BTC to buy some weed in SilkRoad or whatever, found out two years later they are multimillonaires, and then whenever they get approached by a guy on their former position complaining about how fucked up wealth distribution is, say "if you are poor you deserve it, get a job" and help you in your dead end position with shit nothing when 1 BTC means shit nothing to them, while it would mean a world to a person like me because it would mean being able to at least, have a somewhat materializable idea of a business or investment and try to start from a fair position. No matter what greed will always be there, fiat, Bitcoin or who the fuck knows what. The human race is pathetic and ready for extinction.