Confusion, Greed, Uncertainty and Bitcoin

[JoshSummers]

Medium-length lurker and first-time poster.

I wrote a blog post that explains why I think the complex nature of bitcoin and people's greed is ruining its hopes of becoming a widely used virtual currency:

http://joshsummers.co.uk/2015/02/24/Confusion-Greed-Uncertainty-Bitcoin/

I'd love to know if I'm wrong!

[picolo]

Medium-length lurker and first-time poster.

I wrote a blog post that explains why I think the complex nature of bitcoin and people's greed is ruining its hopes of becoming a widely used virtual currency:

http://joshsummers.co.uk/2015/02/24/Confusion-Greed-Uncertainty-Bitcoin/

I'd love to know if I'm wrong!

You bring up an interesting subject, people are greedy and sometimes going into bitcoins for bad reasons but the price volatility has to do with the uncertainty as well.
Bitcoin can succeed even if people are greedy!

[ChuckBuck]

Confusion, Greed, Uncertainty and Bitcoin....I"M ALL THE ABOVE!   

Call me greedy like Scrooge McDuck, because all I'm gonna do is hoard like a muthaf#cka, and occasionally spend and replenish.

Don't be overanalytical about Bitcoin, just let it happen.  Buy more when the price is low, use it on websites like Purse.IO, Brawker, Gyft etc, then replenish.

Simple strategy.  K.I.S.S.  = Keep It Simple Stupid!    

And I mean stupid in the most pleasant way.

[neoneros]

Bitcoin has its ideals, but it will not banish greed. Greed has always been there and will always be there, bitcoin or not. People want more and more. Some will go the muddy roads and steal and scam the hell out of others and the others will fall for it because of their greed.

The confusion and uncertainty will eventualy fade and make bitcoin stable, but the only certainty we have is that with bitcoin a new asset for the greedy is created.

[koelen3]

There's nothing wrong with greed if it's not going in wrong way
And confusion

[ebliever]

People are greedy about bitcoin, but they are also greedy about anything else that has value. That hasn't destroyed the value of dollars or gold or Ipods. But it probably does cause secondary issues (like volatility) that can slow down acceptance of bitcoin. People moving in and out of bitcoin due to speculation rather than for mundane use of BTC for transaction purposes or as a long-term store of value probably create a "herd effect" that exaggerates price movements.

But that works both ways, and the big upswings are really what put Bitcoin on the map for a lot of people. So overall greed has probably helped bitcoin more than it has hurt.

[ebliever]

At the end of the article in the OP it states:

The sad end to my Bitcoin adventure
 Not only was my bet wrong, but my understanding of virtual wallets was wrong too! After my hard drive crashed and the man at Apple told me he would have to wipe it - I quickly learnt that I had lost my little bit of Bitcoin. Fingers crossed the global financial system stays strong.

This is really unfortunate, and underscores the need to better educate people on necessary bitcoin security. So many people are losing serious sums of $ due to errors that in hindsight are fully preventable even with elementary steps that it is kind of shocking.

I keep hearing people give simple and inadequate, piecemeal advice. "Use cold storage." "Don't use online wallets." "Keep a backup." All these are inadequate by themselves.  You need backups (protected from theft) with multisig (such as 2-factor authentification or better), and you need them physically distributed so a housefire or a tsunami or earthquake in your region, don't wipe you out financially. Don't say that won't happen - over a lifetime lots of "interesting" things happen to a person.

Someone at some highly visible Bitcoin sites like Coindesk really need to put some effort into putting together user-friendly guides on what does and does not constitute effective bitcoin security for a lifetime. I've put some effort into it and think I'm almost there, and I'm willing to write up my approach, but it would be good if someone with more experience and expertise would write an inclusive, balanced, guide that covers all the proposed security approaches (cold wallets, hardware wallets, hardcopy vs. electronic records, online vs. offline wallets, exchanges, etc.)