Informative article about payservices. I'm going to seriously look into this.
Here's another interesting one. Calling the research a "study" is a bit of a stretch. I mean, it's barely a pilot study, as they only interviewed 20 people. But the interesting initial finding is that non Bitcoin users feel that they can't use Bitcoin because they don't understand the technical aspects of how it works--feel they need more technical knowledge than they have in order to use it. The truth is you can use Bitcoin without a complete understanding of the underlying technology (or even a completely wrong understanding). This is true for any kind of currency, and I think an important point to get across when the time comes to promote for wide mainstream adoption. Oddly enough, that was the goal of GAW Miners with their "mining platform," hashlets, and later Paycoin. Unfortunately for various reasons that did not work out. But anyway, it's an important point to communicate with the public that technical knowledge, while interesting and helpful in certain circumstances, is not necessary for basic use. It's not too much different with fiat currency. How many of us use fiat everyday and yet do not understand the inner workings of the Federal Reserve? Also, wallets have to work and not require constant updates, downloading of block chains, etc., or the public won't use them. Some altcoins have this problem. As long as there is a full service online alternative, then the techies can play with the QT (or equivalent) wallets as desired.
http://www.coindesk.com/study-misconceptions-bitcoin-ease-use/Interesting study.
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initial finding is that non Bitcoin users feel that they can't use Bitcoin because they don't understand the technical aspects of how it works--feel they need more technical knowledge than they have in order to use it.”
We could have told them. Our industry has made Bitcoin and digital currency sounded incredibly complicated. Perception is reality. So to the average consumer, it is very complicated and they don’t understand it. It sounded very intimidating and too hard to warp one’s head around it. This unfortunately, will be the biggest challenge to mass acceptance. Gaining consumers’ trust and confidence is a very difficult and time consuming process. That is what we have set out to do. We are very certain that we are on the right track. This may be a long hard journey but the ultimate reward from mass acceptance is huge.
We have been taking very good notes regarding some of the major technical constraints and problems that need to be solved and we are comfortable that DNotes will be able to make major advances in the future. Good timing is very important to us. It is too early to make a major change while so many issues are still unsettled.
Once again P & D is back in full force. The “wild west” is back; this time with strong connection to the East – China. Almost any coin listed on a Chinese exchange is going through the roof. As Mark has indicated a number of times earlier, it will eventually help out other altcoins. We will patiently wait for our turn.