Topic: Barriers To Entry Into The Bitcoin Economy (Read 1034 times)
These barriers will take care of themselves. Can you explain how a 747 stays airborne to someone unfamiliar with mechanics? Did you install the alarm system in your house yourself? Eventually, when the general populace see enough of us trading in BTC without crashing into the ocean, they'll follow suit, and eventually someone with the right expertise will come up with a simpler method of securing them that will probably rely on installing some hardware or software that most of us couldn't build on our own.
Most new users don't need to know how the system works. Especially mining, which most users don't participate in (just as most users of gold don't mine gold). You only need to know the properties of Bitcoin: 21 million max BTC, low fees, no central authority, etc.
Securing your wallet is difficult. You need to use much stronger security practices than most people use for anything, since a hacked Bitcoin-related account causes irreversible loss. Damage caused by a hacked email account or even a hacked bank account can be mostly reversed. I think that this will end up being solved with cheap dedicated Bitcoin devices which store your private keys securely and perform transactions for you. Currently, if you can't properly secure your own wallet, it might be best to use a verified MtGox account with a Yubikey instead of a Bitcoin client or other EWallets.
Securing your wallet is difficult. You need to use much stronger security practices than most people use for anything, since a hacked Bitcoin-related account causes irreversible loss. Damage caused by a hacked email account or even a hacked bank account can be mostly reversed. I think that this will end up being solved with cheap dedicated Bitcoin devices which store your private keys securely and perform transactions for you. Currently, if you can't properly secure your own wallet, it might be best to use a verified MtGox account with a Yubikey instead of a Bitcoin client or other EWallets.
I've spent many hours over the past week trying to get my head around Bitcoin.
From my perspective as a newbie and a non-coder, the biggest barriers to entry into the Bitcoin world - barriers that I'm sure will prevent it from ever taking off until they're eliminated - are these two issues:
In short, it is the apparent complexity and user-unfriendliness of the whole system that I'm sure prevent most people from joining and using it, and have caused me not insignificant aggravation over the past few days (...and I'm still not "up and running").
Let merant elaborate a bit on each of those two barriers:
Lack Of *Thorough* & *Easy-To-Understand* Documentation
I'm pretty sure I've seen all the popular Bitcoin education resources by now. I've spent hours reading info on this forum, read a decent chunk of bitcoin.it, watched videos, tried to get my head around the charts on BitCoinCharts.com, read as much of Satoshi's original Bitcoin paper as I could understand, downloaded a wallet, got some free bitcoins, checked out the exchanges, etc etc etc
And after all that I'm just barely starting to get my head around Bitcoin. I'm FAR from having a wallet that is secure, having a grasp of the mining process (something I want to understand before I transact or invest in BTC), being comfortable with open-source being safe, etc.
At best, I see threads like this "beginner's guide" explaining mining - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--9430. Seriously, kudos to the OP of that thread for trying to put together a comprehensive resource about mining. But he links to more than 50 other threads in his opening post. Crazy! I have to read all those to really understand mining? And those threads themselves are non-concise discussions rather than explanations intended for newbies, and they're full of the same unexplained jargon that I see in every other place that tries to educate people on Bitcoins (hashing, peer to peer, nodes, I could go on....)
Here's one example of a typical explanation, from the FAQ on BitInstant.com:
"Put simply, BitCoin is an decentralised digital currency that uses cryptographic techniques to enforce scarcity and defend against problems such as double spending. There is no need for a centralised server as with most digital currencies, instead there is a network of peer to peer (P2P) nodes run by the users of the currency which track transactions and enforce security with standard cryptographic procedures."
More kudos to BitInstant for their system that makes it a bit easier for people to buy BTC.. but that explanation above is NOT simple. It is exactly the opposite of simple. This is something that no one in this community of wonderful computer geeks seems to understand, as far as I can tell. If I had 100 random people on the street read that "simple" description, I'd be shocked if even one of them really understood it.
I mean sure go ahead and use all those terms IF you explain them. And I mean explain them WELL, in a way that a lay person can easily grasp. Before you tell me that I need to have a degree in computer science to understand something like P2P or nodes or hashing... I don't believe it. I've read enough about hashing (for example) so far to feel almost certain that if I was a coder and thoroughly understood hashing, I'd be able to explain it in such a way that a lay person could REALLY understand the concept and how it is applied to bitcoins within about 5 or 10 minutes. But I have not been able to find such an explanation anywhere online.
There ARE some resources that try to explain things in such a way that lay people can understand them, but most of the ones I've seen dumb explanations down to the point where they're no longer useful. One example is the popular video on WeUseCoins.com. Once again, kudos to them for TRYING to make mining simple enough for my grandmother to understand. But can a newbie have any clue about mining after watching the explanation in that video? No chance. It over-simplifies the explanation to such an extent that it confuses rather than enlightens.
I can't imagine that Bitcoin will ever spread beyond the uber-computer-science-nerd community & the desperate black market community unless some radically improved educational resources are created.
Difficulty & Hassle In Getting Started
I've rambled on for a while already, so I'll just give one example to illustrate the difficulty & hassle in getting started...
Securing my wallet. Getting my head around an online bitcoin wallet is hard enough in the first place... and then I have to secure using a process like this https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/howto-create-a-100-secure-wallet-17240 ?!?
Holy smokes man, I work on a computer full-time doing internet marketing and even creating the occasional website, but I'm clueless about creating a fresh new OS on my computer. It's painful to even think about trying to go through the process explained there. I expect it would take a full day of pulling my hair out before I completed all of those steps.
Alright, enough ranting. Suffice to say that I've found understanding and getting started with bitcoin to be aggravatingly slow and painful so far. Most people I know would have given up long ago.
I have friends who are capitalist libertarian Austrian-economist sound-money types, so they should be very interested in Bitcoin. But I also know there's no way they'd have the patience to slog through the long and bumpy learning curve that is currently required.
I want to believe in the future of bitcoin, but I just can't do that with the current state of entry funnel.
So here's my question: How and when will these barriers to entry be eliminated?
Before you respond by saying that I'm just a lazy whiner: Maybe I am, but I don't think that's relevant. So is most of the world. The fact is that people are far more likely to act when presented with a simple and easy-to-understand solution, and Bitcoin at this point in time is anything but that.
And lastly, please forgive me - I realize that coming onto a forum and ranting about the community in my first post isn't a good way to make friends. I think you'll be onside with my intent though. From what I understand so far of Bitcoin I like it and think it should have a future. My rant is intended to help facilitate a better future.
Eagerly awaiting your responses.
Thanks,
Justin
From my perspective as a newbie and a non-coder, the biggest barriers to entry into the Bitcoin world - barriers that I'm sure will prevent it from ever taking off until they're eliminated - are these two issues:
- The lack of thorough and easy-to-understand documentation explaining Bitcoin (I need to understand what I'm getting involved with)
- The difficulty & hassle involved in getting started with Bitcoin (I need to be able to get all set up easily and quickly)
In short, it is the apparent complexity and user-unfriendliness of the whole system that I'm sure prevent most people from joining and using it, and have caused me not insignificant aggravation over the past few days (...and I'm still not "up and running").
Let me
Lack Of *Thorough* & *Easy-To-Understand* Documentation
I'm pretty sure I've seen all the popular Bitcoin education resources by now. I've spent hours reading info on this forum, read a decent chunk of bitcoin.it, watched videos, tried to get my head around the charts on BitCoinCharts.com, read as much of Satoshi's original Bitcoin paper as I could understand, downloaded a wallet, got some free bitcoins, checked out the exchanges, etc etc etc
And after all that I'm just barely starting to get my head around Bitcoin. I'm FAR from having a wallet that is secure, having a grasp of the mining process (something I want to understand before I transact or invest in BTC), being comfortable with open-source being safe, etc.
At best, I see threads like this "beginner's guide" explaining mining - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--9430. Seriously, kudos to the OP of that thread for trying to put together a comprehensive resource about mining. But he links to more than 50 other threads in his opening post. Crazy! I have to read all those to really understand mining? And those threads themselves are non-concise discussions rather than explanations intended for newbies, and they're full of the same unexplained jargon that I see in every other place that tries to educate people on Bitcoins (hashing, peer to peer, nodes, I could go on....)
Here's one example of a typical explanation, from the FAQ on BitInstant.com:
"Put simply, BitCoin is an decentralised digital currency that uses cryptographic techniques to enforce scarcity and defend against problems such as double spending. There is no need for a centralised server as with most digital currencies, instead there is a network of peer to peer (P2P) nodes run by the users of the currency which track transactions and enforce security with standard cryptographic procedures."
More kudos to BitInstant for their system that makes it a bit easier for people to buy BTC.. but that explanation above is NOT simple. It is exactly the opposite of simple. This is something that no one in this community of wonderful computer geeks seems to understand, as far as I can tell. If I had 100 random people on the street read that "simple" description, I'd be shocked if even one of them really understood it.
I mean sure go ahead and use all those terms IF you explain them. And I mean explain them WELL, in a way that a lay person can easily grasp. Before you tell me that I need to have a degree in computer science to understand something like P2P or nodes or hashing... I don't believe it. I've read enough about hashing (for example) so far to feel almost certain that if I was a coder and thoroughly understood hashing, I'd be able to explain it in such a way that a lay person could REALLY understand the concept and how it is applied to bitcoins within about 5 or 10 minutes. But I have not been able to find such an explanation anywhere online.
There ARE some resources that try to explain things in such a way that lay people can understand them, but most of the ones I've seen dumb explanations down to the point where they're no longer useful. One example is the popular video on WeUseCoins.com. Once again, kudos to them for TRYING to make mining simple enough for my grandmother to understand. But can a newbie have any clue about mining after watching the explanation in that video? No chance. It over-simplifies the explanation to such an extent that it confuses rather than enlightens.
I can't imagine that Bitcoin will ever spread beyond the uber-computer-science-nerd community & the desperate black market community unless some radically improved educational resources are created.
Difficulty & Hassle In Getting Started
I've rambled on for a while already, so I'll just give one example to illustrate the difficulty & hassle in getting started...
Securing my wallet. Getting my head around an online bitcoin wallet is hard enough in the first place... and then I have to secure using a process like this https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/howto-create-a-100-secure-wallet-17240 ?!?
Holy smokes man, I work on a computer full-time doing internet marketing and even creating the occasional website, but I'm clueless about creating a fresh new OS on my computer. It's painful to even think about trying to go through the process explained there. I expect it would take a full day of pulling my hair out before I completed all of those steps.
Alright, enough ranting. Suffice to say that I've found understanding and getting started with bitcoin to be aggravatingly slow and painful so far. Most people I know would have given up long ago.
I have friends who are capitalist libertarian Austrian-economist sound-money types, so they should be very interested in Bitcoin. But I also know there's no way they'd have the patience to slog through the long and bumpy learning curve that is currently required.
I want to believe in the future of bitcoin, but I just can't do that with the current state of entry funnel.
So here's my question: How and when will these barriers to entry be eliminated?
Before you respond by saying that I'm just a lazy whiner: Maybe I am, but I don't think that's relevant. So is most of the world. The fact is that people are far more likely to act when presented with a simple and easy-to-understand solution, and Bitcoin at this point in time is anything but that.
And lastly, please forgive me - I realize that coming onto a forum and ranting about the community in my first post isn't a good way to make friends. I think you'll be onside with my intent though. From what I understand so far of Bitcoin I like it and think it should have a future. My rant is intended to help facilitate a better future.
Eagerly awaiting your responses.
Thanks,
Justin
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