Bitcoin is too complex for the average person

[CtrlAltBernanke420]

What's going to happen if a new person comes to Bitcoin, and comes across a website, say something like, https://www.bitaddress.com (only .com vs .org) and the program on it's website has the ability to know all the private keys used?

Same thing that happens to the countless people who get fooled every day by phishing sites made to look like PayPal or their bank.. unfortunately without the dispute process that banks and PayPal have to try to get your money back.. but personally, I'm of the opinion that protecting people from their own stupidity by making it clear that whenever they make a mistake someone will come in and clean up after them only encourages them to remain stupid. Harsh, I know, but as long as there are no consequences for making such a foolish mistake (anyone who can read should be able to spot a phishing site a mile away) people have no incentive to learn not to make that mistake.

I think what's going to end up happening, is we'll get lots of businesses who create wallets that will hold your Bitcoins (Private keys & Public keys) for you (so you don't even need to give someone an address, maybe just QR codes everywhere), and let you spend it and insure it against loss in the exact same way credit cards work and hold your money. If they screw up they'll need insurance on the Bitcoins, so we'll see more Bitcoin insurance companies, and the companies will need to make sure they have taken as many precautions as they can so their insurance premiums will be lower the more protected they are.

This is why money printing is out of control… If the bank were actually liable for the losses of irresponsible customers or ID theft then the big banks would have been long gone by now… The need to print money as far as i understand is because so many deals go sour… Yet need to be honored financially or we ride the fuk off a financial cliff.

[MakingMoneyHoney]

What's going to happen if a new person comes to Bitcoin, and comes across a website, say something like, https://www.bitaddress.com (only .com vs .org) and the program on it's website has the ability to know all the private keys used?

Same thing that happens to the countless people who get fooled every day by phishing sites made to look like PayPal or their bank.. unfortunately without the dispute process that banks and PayPal have to try to get your money back.. but personally, I'm of the opinion that protecting people from their own stupidity by making it clear that whenever they make a mistake someone will come in and clean up after them only encourages them to remain stupid. Harsh, I know, but as long as there are no consequences for making such a foolish mistake (anyone who can read should be able to spot a phishing site a mile away) people have no incentive to learn not to make that mistake.

I think what's going to end up happening, is we'll get lots of businesses who create wallets that will hold your Bitcoins (Private keys & Public keys) for you (so you don't even need to give someone an address, maybe just QR codes everywhere), and let you spend it and insure it against loss in the exact same way credit cards work and hold your money. If they screw up they'll need insurance on the Bitcoins, so we'll see more Bitcoin insurance companies, and the companies will need to make sure they have taken as many precautions as they can so their insurance premiums will be lower the more protected they are.

This is why money printing is out of control… If the bank were actually liable for the losses of irresponsible customers or ID theft then the big banks would have been long gone by now… The need to print money as far as i understand is because so many deals go sour… Yet need to be honored financially or we ride the fuk off a financial cliff.

That's what's going to have to be different for these types of companies, and the insurance they would need. They'll have to have the bitcoins (or the ability to actually buy the bitcoins) to pay people in the event of loss instead of just being able to print money since you can't just print bitcoins when you need them.

[koelen3]

It might be but an avergae joe can alays rise if he/she have some interest, though their are simpler exchange's like coinbase which helps them alot

[calme]

It's important to remind yourself now and then that "With intelligence comes great responsibility." Otherwise it's easy to forget and you end up abusing your own fellow ppl of the world, and that ends up being who you are in the one life you have to live. Being smart is not the most important thing to be.

Anyway, yes, too complex. Almost no one knows what "Github," "wallet.dat," ".json" or even "encryption" means. Those things need to be in the background but not of concern to the user.

I tend not to tell many people about BTC anymore. It's something that most people just aren't interested in and often even think is downright stupid. Most people aren't even interested in the stock market. They watch sports/reality TV (depending on their sex) and get on social networking sites. And of course video games are popular with guys too. Older people who do have money to invest--often thanks to their previous investments--say "I'm not of that generation." They really just don't care, and it confuses them and makes them feel uncomfortable. That lack of comfort also seems to exist in the youth to an extent.

[DeathAndTaxes]

I thought the current bitcoin protocol block chain cannot get changed, and if it does get forked, we are dealing with bitcoin 2.0 not the original sound bitcoin…

The original bitcoin allowed the arbitrary creation of an unlimited amount of coins due to a bug, had no protection against spam, a rather broken method of implementing custom scripts, allowed creating coinbase transactions with duplicate transaction ids, allowed the sending of bitcoins to an ip address which was cryptographically weak and a whole host of other problems which have been fixed over time.   You couldn't even get the "original sound" bitcoin client to sync with the current network.   Protocols evolve.  Nothing is in stone.  The burden for change is high, it isn't impossible, if it was then Bitcoin would be dead today.

[moko666]

i agree with this
years ago in 2010 when i visited this forum and learning about bitcoin i was completely unable to how it works and then i give it up
now again in 2013-14 i decided to look into it deeply and now i understand basic of it how it works

[criptix]

computer and the internet is too complex for the average person....

[bryant.coleman]

Bitcoin as such is not very complex for an average human being. But the safe storage of Bitcoins, protecting it from hackers and robbers can be a bit of a headache. I have seen coins stolen from well established users here.

[monkeygang]

Frying an egg is too complex for regular people. . bitcoin is more like swapping an alternator. electrifying

[koshgel]

It's as complicated as you want to make it. Call it a form of digital currency. Anyone can understand that.

[Lauda]

Maybe the problem isn't in Bitcoin, maybe the problem is in the people. Have you considered that?
People are very limited when it comes to technology. The majority really have no idea what they are doing.

[lyth0s]

Anyone ever got the feeling that Bitcoin is too complex for the average person? The average person wants things as simple as possible, so when the word, Blockchain, Decentralization, etc, come into play, I feel that makes it too complicated for the average person to understand or even care.

Just show them how easy it is to use a mobile wallet to send money directly to another person, usually that is what they are interested in. Then if they have more questions you can dive into the other major benefits and technical aspects of bitcoin.

If you overload them with information right from the get go, they will quickly dismiss it as too nerdy or too complicated.

[uvt9]

What's going to happen if a new person comes to Bitcoin, and comes across a website, say something like, https://www.bitaddress.com (only .com vs .org) and the program on it's website has the ability to know all the private keys used?

If people are still saying things like this currently (posted today):

How do you make it safe for those who don't know how to make your own private key?

Bitaddress page using javascript to generate private keys so the algorithm run only on your browser, not on the server, which mean that generated key is made by yourself, not by someone else. If you want to be careful you can save that page to an offline computer and open it with browser, still work fine.

However you're right about the fact that this is not the way to make Bitcoin easier for average people. They probably refuse to believe a paper wallet can receive money because this piece of paper can't connect to internet !!!

[ebliever]

Bitcoin as a whole is complex. But the average person doesn't need to grapple with that complexity. They just need a wallet and to understand how to use it and their public keys.

Compare bitcoin to fiat, for example. Does the average person need to understand how a mint coins money, how the Federal Reserve works, how monetary policy and bank security and credit card transaction networks work? Nope.

[j5d]

I have no idea how a wire transfer works. I just go to the teller and say I need to move money from this account to that account. I haven't got a clue how I am able to have a piece of plastic in my wallet that allows me to swipe it through this slot-thing and I've paid $39.80 for dinner for two. I go days on end spending money without ever having a single dollar bill in my pocket. I don't know how any of that works, but I do it.

I call the 1-800 number on the back of my card, key in my account number and this robotic lady tells me I have x amount of money to spend. But where's that money?? I don't see it! It must not be real!

Anyone who has ever owned a bank account or used a credit/debit card can easily understand bitcoin. Your wallet address is your account number. Your device is your debit/credit card. Who cares how it works? I can buy things with it.

[calme]

I'm not even certain the average person knows that folders are containers for files and that you can put folders inside of folders. When at people's houses, I've noticed it to be common to just see a ton of files all over their desktops (typically Windows). They know that clicking an icon opens a program. Even if they learn/know that those icons can be sorted into different folders (i.e. "music," "video games," etc.) that doesn't mean they understand that a program is just a collection of files sorted into folders and that you can add or subtract a file--such as a wallet.dat, for example--to make the program behave differently. Having them experiment with that concept with something financial is risky stuff.

[redsn0w]

As someone from you told, bitcoin is still a project/revolution and each day it will be more strong. As revolution isn't so simple, because a lot of person think that the FiAT values are better the bitcoin and we should try to change the "mind" of those person.

[nextgencoin]

As a long time IT manager I finally realized that if you want folks to adopt to new advances you need to completely skip the technical aspects... more time should be spent giving them "what's in it for me" and making it fun.
When we did need to have training sessions relating to tech concepts we tried to make it a good experience... for example casino night... correct answer gained chips... or a virtual baseball game between two teams (base hit for simple answers... home run for harder etc).

As the op says as a community we have to come to grips with the need to dummy it down ... simple short promotions that can positively address their every day issues.

I do agree on what your saying. Skip the technical aspects and go for more mass adoption. As more and more are adopting this new currency into the market, people will easily understand then the need for BTC and its advantages compared to fiat.

I agree which is why I invested heavily in GEMS, If there is another project that will take Bitcoin mainstream tell me about it, until then this is the best chance we got. I wish the Bitcoin community gets behind this app and pushes it to their friends and gets it viral. It is another Altcoin but it has a Bitcoin wallet, it's a win win. The Bitcoin community is so fragmented it's hard to get a United front to attack the mainstream.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.getgemsmessenger.app&hl=en_GB

[ikydesu]

Maybe the problem isn't in Bitcoin, maybe the problem is in the people. Have you considered that?
People are very limited when it comes to technology. The majority really have no idea what they are doing.

That's right. That people too lazy to understand about bitcoin and new technology, they need a simple thing which make they activity become simple as just click they dont need to understand why that technology works. And that's why indrustries become effloresce.


~iki

[Kprawn]

I have had many discussions on this topic and I can tell you, most people do not even know how the fiat banking system work.

When I explain it to them, and I highlight the problem areas, they tend to get why BTC is the solution to those problems. The average person do not deal with the inner workings of the fiat financial system, so they never see the bigger picture or the problem with it... they want to go to a ATM, withdraw money and complain about the fees.

You have to explain the problem, before you get to the solution.  

The average person do not care how the fiat financial system work, and they should not care how the Bitcoin protocol work.... they should just use it. The more than average person, will ask more questions, and there are "Bitcoin for dummies" guides all over the internet for that. { Nice pictures and animations and videos }

We make it complex, when we go into too much detail when we discuss it with NEWBIES