Topic: Bitcoin is difficult to understand (Read 779 times)

Many people do not know that it is not when the market falls that you are going to lose your money but because they think so, they have refuse to invest in Bitcoin with the excuse that they do not want to lose their money, they do not yet understand how the market works. Bitcoin is not difficult to understand but when you have the wrong mindset already it becomes difficult to understand Bitcoin. Learn about Bitcoin first before investing and you would not be met with any misunderstanding of Bitcoin. There are many sources where you can get the right information about Bitcoin and you will not be mislead, use this correct sources to get a better understanding and you will enjoy investing in Bitcoin. Sending and receiving Bitcoin are the basic thing you have to understand first before any other things.

That's why knowledge should transform into actions.
Not the other way around.

I know, but it's only for people who really understand Bitcoin.

If you teach to someone who didn't understand about Bitcoin, even you've show if we own the private key and can sign address, the coins is completely belong to us, but I'm sure they're still in doubt.

Most people still treat Bitcoin as a magically number, not really an asset.

Of course it might seem that bitcoin is difficult to understand for noobs but yet in a simple knowledge of how to send and receive bitcoin or even buy I will say that yeah it's quite simple to understand bitcoin. even though a lot of people would clear it's hard yet I only perceive bitcoin to be hard when one tries to get into the technical aspect of bitcoin.

Even the smallest exchanges have a FAQ for noobs to read and some kind of guide is highlighted on every aspect introducing you to the features and how you can use them.

It could be, but come to think of it, there are millions of users of Bitcoin already around the world, and with that, we could have gone to the same growing pains in the beginning and we thought that it's difficult to understand. And some of us could have fallen to the trap and scam and be hack or lose our Bitcoin. But still though, we learn and evolve and we sharpen our skills and keep ourselves in the market.

So if the OP has this kind of negative mindset in the beginning, then he won't  really prosper. But then again, as I have said, just think about the thousands if not millions or users of Bitcoin right now, so if they can do it, then the OP can also get that over the difficulty.

You know, when you're very deep into something at this point it becomes very easy for you to access it. Just imagine your first time of being in this crypto space, are you going to tell me that you understand everything just that very moment when you start this crypto journey? I guess it takes some couple of months before you started having the understanding. so don't say there's nothing difficult to understand, Remember he's still a newbie in this crypto space so he need some time to figure out how it works. Moreover it might not even be the technical aspect he's talking about, probably it might be the aspect of understanding how the market works.

You're right we may not actually know the reason why op is finding it very difficult to understand bitcoin, is just unlike as you said earlier about the experience you had When you were working in the Bank. Of course is funny enough to see that most people are still finding it very difficult to access the computer very well in this digital age. But we don't have to blame anyone who find him/her self in such condition, reason been that we don't know the background that he/she came from.

However, is very good to ask questions if there's any difficulties, you know had it been he didn't ask this question no one would've known his challenge. which is why is very important to ask questions, regardless to how common the question is, because if you decide to keep it to yourself definitely you will still end up not knowing it.

BTC,is an asset with the easiest understanding,there is no difficulty there,but when it comes to the technical and fundamental aspect that is where the difficulty comes in,because you need knowledge to understand that aspect,not just knowledge but a unique one.

Except the person is an illiterate then I can understand that he would find it hard to get these simple basics when it comes to handling bitcoin because knowing how to copy your Bitcoin address, send bitcoin or store your wallet seedphrase isn't something that's very hard to understand that would take the person the lots of their energy and time. Bitcoin management and understanding isn't something that requires an additional type of skills and everyone can handle it if only they are willing to learn the basis.

You are slightly mistaken. Those, who can do a bank transfer, can only use centralized Bitcoin services, an app similar to bank but instead of $, it will be B.
I've done an experiment myself, showed a few guys how to install Electrum, make a Bitcoin wallet and receive or send money from their wallet. I know that Electrum doesn't have the best user interface but the answer I got from these people was that it's too complicated and gives them a headache.
When I finished the university, I started work in bank and you can't imagine how funny young people were with computers, they were calling IT guys for the most basic things. I'd say that OP has no idea what he is talking about but no, he is right, it's the reality and it's very sad and probably strange for some of us.

This kind of condition can only be overcome apart from learning for theory then we must at least try to practice to do it.
Bitcoin will forever be considered difficult when we don't want to try in it because in the end the learning or research we do if it is only limited to theory without knowing more about what is happening then everything will not be much different because we only see the shell without daring to change it with the content carried out in practice in the end.

Many people say bitcoin is difficult just because they don't want to try more because of the fear of losing their money so in the end things like that will never change if indeed we don't want to try something we couldn't do before. Getting out of our comfort zone is important if we can't then learning is the solution, now there are so many references that we can do but if it is done but the fear is still in us then everything will remain the same because it is not bitcoin that is difficult but we are too afraid to start it.

Actually is a newbie and op needed to ask a question to know what he does not know of bitcoin, and secondly he did not make a research towards Bitcoin before posting, To know understand bitcoin is very easy,except that he or she didn't make out chance or time to research of how bitcoin works, its obvious that everything about bitcoin is online, even books and tutorial class on Internet can give a beginner more clue to understand exactly what bitcoin is all about, I could remember vividly that some years back, theirs a recommendable thread made in this community by a forum user that emphasize on the books that we can read to know about Bitcoin, so for some of us who is not familiar with bitcoin can search for such kinds of threads and read up of bitcoin, only thing it will take is a time.

If they cannot understand how to send BTC, how to send or copy their receiving address to receive BTC, what wallet to use and how to keep their seed phrase, then i guess they should not use BTC, they should probably stick with fiat. It is very easy to understand the basics of BTC and for anyone who wants to use BTC, they have to put a little time and effort to learn this, if they cannot, it does not mean that learning the basics about BTC is difficult.

You have used an excellent analogy to sum it up. Just like car has two aspects, the driving skills and the technical knowledge of the engine. Likewise in bitcoin, there are two things i.e. the investment know how and the technical knowledge about how the decentralised ledger technology work. There are many successful investors that don't have much technical knowledge about how bitcoin works but they know how to invest in Bitcoin.

If you have knowledge on how to use and secure a bitcoin wallet then you are all clear to use Bitcoin. No need to understand the PoW consensus algorithm.

People can use Bitcoin without much understanding about it. If they can do a bank transfer, they can do Bitcoin transaction, not big difference.

Even they can use Bitcoin blockchain and their bitcoin well without much knowledge but it's risky and also not recommended. Spending their time for learning basics of Bitcoin is recommended. Basic things like what is private key, mnemonic seed and importance of it for security of their bitcoin. Non custodial and open source wallet is important too. How to backup a wallet and recover a wallet. How to receive and send bitcoin with non custodial wallet.

I believe all these basic things are very basic, not hard to learn.
How to back up a seed phrase?
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/beginners/

Not all people are like you or us who easily understand bitcoin, there are others who even though they read the simple meaning of bitcoin and its function, there are others who do not immediately grasp what they have read.

There are others who have a fast pickup of understanding and there are others who have a slow pickup of understanding. So we cannot blame them, that is why it took some months before they really understood bitcoin because they tried several times to understand it through their readings, watching youtubes in their language, Although what you are saying is correct. But we do not have the same level of understanding.

It will be much harder to understand what you are saying because we do not understand the purpose of the writing you made. In more complicated technical matters it may be difficult to understand because we do not have the ability to test it. But if we talk about access to own bitcoin, it is actually quite simple and you only need money to buy it. So the complexity of understanding it is not as difficult as the technical things that maybe only a few people are able to test. If there is something easy to understand then there is no need to think about something complicated because in fact buying and holding is enough for us to get involved in bitcoin.

I agree.

I disagree. You own your bitcoin if you have your Bitcoin private key. It's your private key, it's your bitcoin.

You only don't own your bitcoin, if you buy it on a centralized exchange and leave it there, because you don't own private key; or if you store your bitcoin in a non custodial wallet and have its private key but later you deposit to a centralized exchange where you no longer own your Bitcoin private key.

Many scam altcoins with Bitcoin in their names, call themselves as Bitcoin forks, but they are altcoins and scam.

How Many Bitcoin Forks Are There? You will be surprised!!!

I don't think you can compare Bitcoin and a car though.

Bitcoin is an intangible asset, you can't touch it and you don't really own it.

While car, you don't have to understand about the engine functions, but you can see with your eyes, how the car looks like and you high unlikely get scammed if you bought it from official showroom. Even you get scammed, you can sue the showroom.

But, if you bought fake Bitcoin, your chance to recover your money is almost zero.

Accessing Bitcoin isn't for professionals only as anyone can buy and hold it or use it as a payment method without any issue. I know people who doesn't know anything about Bitcoin and some of them doesn't even know the name Satoshi Nakamoto the mastermind who created Bitcoin, and still they use Bitcoin on daily basis for transactions.

Those who believe it's hard to understand Bitcoin should definitely join this forum as they can learn a lot about Bitcoin from this forum alone and I don't think that they may even need to learn anything else after being active on this forum for sometime. Now, I won't say that every member of this forum knows a lot about Bitcoin but the ones who are interested in it can learn a lot from this forum alone.

Bitcoin only seems difficult if you try to fit it into the old system.

Money has always required trust. Bitcoin removes that need.
   •   You don’t need a bank.
   •   You don’t need permission.
   •   You don’t need to trust anyone—only mathematics.

The Psychological Barriers to Understanding Bitcoin
   1.   People are conditioned to trust centralized systems.
   •   Banks recover your password when you forget it.
   •   People are used to money being controlled by an authority.
   •   Bitcoin requires a mindset shift: You are your own bank. This makes some uncomfortable.
   2.   They try to compare Bitcoin to traditional finance.
   •   But Bitcoin is not a company, not a stock, not a government currency.
   •   It is an entirely new system. Trying to explain it using old models leads to confusion.
   3.   People fear full responsibility.
   •   If you lose your private keys, no one can recover them.
   •   If you send Bitcoin to the wrong address, it cannot be reversed.
   •   Many are not used to having full control over their own money.

The Truth About Bitcoin’s Difficulty
   •   Using Bitcoin is easy. Anyone can send or receive BTC in seconds.
   •   Understanding how Bitcoin works takes time—like any breakthrough technology.
   •   Mastering Bitcoin is difficult—because it combines cryptography, cybersecurity, and economics.

You don’t need to understand how an engine works to drive a car.
You don’t need to know every technical detail to use Bitcoin.

The key is to own your private keys and never give up control.
Once you understand that, you understand Bitcoin.

Ocoshy

Well if you say bitcoin is very difficult to understand there is no doubt on that because has gained weight and higher reputation in the crypto market,which have it more technical to analyse,
But keep pushing with time you we understand it more,and make sure you watch educational videos on YouTube and other platforms.

Bitcoin may seem tough to understand at first, but that's because most explanations are overly technical. The good news is, you dont need to know how it works under the hood to use it. There are few easy to use platforms where you can get started without any deep knowledge.

I laughed very hard when I came across the thread, was thinking he's got some explanation why he thinks understanding Bitcoin is hard and needs help with it but I see he's not very serious about learning, probably one of those that thinks Bitcoin is some get rich quick scheme that would immediately generate money once someone ventures into it. Just incase he doesn't know, he's privileged to be in one of the best if not the best place to learn and developed his knowledge concerning Bitcoin therefore he shouldn't be joking around with a lazy man's word cause their are people who are not aware of this forum and would be hoping they come across a space like this. Well, it's normal for some people to be overwhelmed when they discover this forum but he should've understand that learning is a gradual process and he can't learn everything here within a very short period.

It's a bit funny that OP only came to this forum to say that understanding Bitcoin is very difficult.
I guess OP got overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge that he saw on the internet hence, he experienced difficulty.

TBH, I also got overwhelmed at first because there has been lots of information online that would help you, and as a newbie, you don't even know where to start especially in my case where I didn't have any mentor at all. I focused on watching Bitcoin documentaries online until I get a grasp of every basic knowledge, and TBH, that's all you need to know if you want to use Bitcoin. OP might've thought that in order for us to know how to use Bitcoin, we need to also know the technical aspect of it. I also thought of the same thing back when I was a newbie, but as time goes on, I realized that it isn't necessary.

I hope OP will come back here, or if he will not then at least he continues to learn Bitcoin even just the basics of it. Forget the technical things especially if you aren't a programmer or developer.

If you talking about technical knowledge or becoming a developer we can assumed it's very difficult to understand for none developers or programers, but aside that you can download a wallet to receive and send out bitcon, with this there's nothing much too difficult understand after knowing how to send and receive Bitcoin, also know how determine you gas level. Like to know what fees you are using because lot of people has lost significantly amount of Bitcoin when transacting since they don't understand how the fee/vbyte (sat) are being calculated.

No Bitcoin is not hard or difficult to understand, it is very easy to understand and there are guides that can help you understand Bitcoin very well. Investing in Bitcoin is also easy to understand and hodling Bitcoin is also easy to understand. Everything about Bitcoin has been made easy because Bitcoin was not made for people with higher understanding of finances but for everyone that has interest to understand it with reading just few things about Bitcoin. There are some complicated things about Bitcoin that needs you to have further knowledge but those things are not important for you to start investing in Bitcoin. If you buy Bitcoin and hodl, you are going to make profits and there is nothing more simple than that.

Bitcoin have there own understanding and this will now be easily interpreted by who is transaction with it because a lot of things have happened and there is no much difference with bitcoin and other stocks because a lot of people are usually fund of confusing there self when it comes to crypto they give meaning to what they don't even understand and this is why this issue of trying to compare banks and crypto they are different because there is a high chance of it increasing but fiat don't have such capacity.

And that is why you seee people making all sorts of things and they will tell you that they prefer to safe there fair than invest in bitcoin or crypto just because of they lack understanding and clearification because if it is that they have the right knowledge they won't be doing the comparison at all because bitcoin is far better than fiat even if crypto is sometimes seen as a legal tender.

If you want to learn how to send and receive bitcoin and what bitcoin is, it's very simple; it's not that hard. Just a few minutes of reading, and you will understand everything, but when it comes to understanding how the blockchain works on its own, that's where the hard part comes, and you need to pay serious attention, and it requires some technical knowledge.

The majority of people who are even bitcoin holders, I can argue, don't pay attention to the technical part of bitcoin; as long as they know how to protect their assets, they are okay.

That is in the end the point that must be remembered that in the end saying something difficult is sometimes because we never try because we are too afraid of sentiment or the word “can't” but when in the end we have tried to find out how to do it which is currently a lot of tutorials or some articles that can guide us in learning in the end bitcoin is not that complicated and difficult it might even be said to be something that can be done by anyone when transacting.

It's quite strange actually when saying bitcoin is very difficult but we never or don't want to try that because in the end what happens is we still won't be able to be in bitcoin if we never try it. Not that it is a difficult thing to do but actually we do not intend to be there so look for reasons that are considered reasonable so that they are still not there by limiting themselves and considering that this is not easy for them to do.

Everyone with atleast a smart phone and internet connection has free access to bitcoin, but when it comes to understanding how it works, that is, the mechanics to how bitcoin was and is created/generated, this (like some others have said) do require technical knowledge, which actually will take you effort and time to learn.

But the goodnews is, just same way you don't need or understand to know how a car engine functions to have access to a car and also be a good driver, you also don't need to know or understand the mechanics/technicalities behind Bitcoin's creation to have access to bitcoin, and also own some bitcoin as well.

Access what? there are already plenty of online wallets, paper wallet and exchange for newbies to use, all they have to do is to have a decent knowledge on how to invest in it and how to keep their wallets safe.
Anyone could invest in Bitcoin, specially with so many mobile app that could be used to store their investment, use it as an online bank or mobile bank.

Just always remember what Benjamin Franklin said "If in doubt, don't. Sending and receiving transactions is very easy which needs no technical knowledge. You didn't even try to specify and explain what kind of "access" you did with Bitcoin so everyone here with technocal know how can help you. 

It all depends on the aspect of Bitcoin he wants to learn. If he want to learn about how to access and use Bitcoin or will take a few hours for someone who is conversant with online banking. It just almost thesame process as using fiat via online banking. The difference is just the process of accessing Bitcoin which could be through exchange or decentralized P2P.

But if he wants to learn about the technical aspects of Bitcoin, it could be a little complex. Understanding the process of fiat is also not straightforward. Many people just use fiat but they don't understand how it is printed and issued. The same thing might apply to Bitcoin. However, with little afford, Bitcoin technicalities can be mastered in a few weeks depending on how sound the person is.

As the title says, it is true that it is not easy to understand what Bitcoin is, it is not really possible to understand it in just one sitting. The features of Bitcoin are also very wide.

Then the blockchain technology is not immediately understandable by a newbie who has no knowledge of it. Even if we say that you are willing to study it, you will not understand it immediately, it really takes time before you understand it 100%.

Actually, the matter is not entirely logical because if you want to know what Bitcoin is and how it works, I would say these things are not very difficult at all. It depends on your interest and effort in learning how quickly you can grasp these concepts.

If the direction is to learn, then many places can be visited, especially in this forum, maybe everything we need about BTC, technical work and good storage patterns I think are in the discussion if you want to see the discussion in more detail.

Well, investing is not too difficult now, almost all exchanges provide BTC buying and selling, but what we have to pay attention to is if we don't dare to take risks in our investments, how can we make money here and in the future.

Yes, that's right. Actually, understanding bitcoin is easy and simple to understand. You just need to learn properly about the basic concept of what bitcoin is, how bitcoin works and what are its advantages. If you have read this, I'm sure you will easily understand it, in essence investing in bitcoin is not difficult.

However, what makes it difficult for you is if you want to access bitcoin technically because this will require quite high knowledge about bitcoin, especially in terms of storing bitcoin for the long term. In addition, I think whatever we like and do seriously, nothing is difficult even though bitcoin is complicated. However, if you are serious about learning it, it is not difficult. The point is if you want it to be easy to understand, the key is only one, namely learning and learning, no matter how difficult it is, it will definitely become easier.

Actually there's nothing very difficult for one to understand as long as bitcoin is concerned, if you're talking about the technical aspect of bitcoin of course it has absolutely nothing to do with bitcoin investment.  Oh, now I get your point, maybe op is trying to learn about the technical aspect of bitcoin that is why he's finding it very difficult to access it. I was actually thinking that the access that op is talking about is just learning about how bitcoin investment works and as well the strategies that is required when investing in bitcoin, I never knew he's actually talking about the other way round.

Of course if it is that technical aspect he's talking about, of course is going to take a couple of months before you could access it very well, That's if you're a fast learner.  but if you're this type that doesn't catch up so easily definitely it will take up to a year before you can access it very well.

I think OP didn't place their write up well for us to have an idea of the access they are talking about because when we talk about accessing bitcoin in a real definition, we are also talking about owning it which most of us know it is very easy to access bitcoin as regards to my explanation of what access means. I just feel that OP want to talk about the technical aspect of bitcoin that is why they talked about professional developers, i mean what has professional developers has to do with having access to bitcoin. So, yeah if they are talking about the technicality of bitcoin, they may be right because most people who are into bitcoin don't have much knowledge about the technical aspect of bitcoin.


It is not just about learning about bitcoin, what you want to learn will determine if you will find it easy or difficult to understand.

I was a kid when I started using Bitcoin and I didn't find it hard to use Bitcoin, so if a kid could download Bitcoin Core, and set up a node and wallet, then it shouldn't be hard for you or anyone to do the same.

It's easy to understand how Bitcoin works, what problems it solves and how blockchain works but if he wants to understand how Bitcoin code is written, how wallet code is written and how we connect miners to pools, mine Bitcoin, then halve rewards and etc, from code's perspective, it's really hard to understand for an average joe because you need to become software developer to understand how this process is done programmatically.

One major factor that is driving the adoption of Bitcoin is that it doesn't take high intelligence to learn how to buy and hold it. But learning about it's technicalities is not easy, it requires specially learning and understanding how it works. Like you said Bitcoin technicalities can be compared to technologically imputed commodities like cars, smartphones and computers, almost everybody knows how to operate them but a few professionals knows their technical aspects. People who are interested in holding Bitcoin for investment and payments don't need to bother about any technical knowledge, they can focus on how to secure their private keys.

As far as I know Bitcoin is not difficult to understand, as a newbie that really wants to invest in Bitcoin once you make up your mind to learn how is works it most surely be easy for you to understand. Why most newbies normally see Bitcoin as something difficult is because they don't want to acquire the basic knowledge first before venturing into Bitcoin, but once you are knowledgeable about risks involved everything would be easier for you to understand.

Bitcoin is a currency and unlike Fiat money it can be easily understood when it's time to spend it.
How I wish Bitcoin has a physical tender and can be dispensed at ATM machines, probably then you, our dear OP and everyone else, would come to understand that Bitcoin is more than just a good hedge  against inflation and remains valuable making it a wise choice to invest with as well as plan a future with.

I believe when you say bitcoin is difficult to understand you mean the technical aspect of bitcoin, well it is an advantage to bitcoin security and I don't expect it to be easy to understand.

 Bitcoin as an asset and investment it is very easy to understand,  I think this is the most important aspect we need to look into and take advantage of bitcoin.

Very correct in your explanation of how bitcoin works. Many thinks that bitcoin is very hard to understand but to me it is not and when you’re done to know about the basics of bitcoin, you’ll just be fine about it. The security and privacy of it matters and when you’re able to make that connection and how they work, it becomes seamless to understand. Not everyone can know the technical aspect of bitcoin as most people will give up learning about it because of its diverse ecosystem. When you’re done learning about the basics, it’ll serve its purpose and guide you with the reminder of your journey in bitcoin. The more you learn, the more you get to understand better and get to learn new things about the process gradually.

I don't understand the problem and your point above. why is it difficult to understand even though this is the most interesting asset. BTC is financial freedom in my opinion but it seems difficult for newcomers who come with the concept that they want to remain dependent on fiat.

In the past, it was true, where at the beginning of its arrival Bitcoin looked technical and someone who wanted to buy it had to understand computer science in order to access it, had to use a special wallet, understand the seed phrase. but, now it's much easier.

And it's so, because of the numerous fields of knowledge needed to learn or build on the Blockchain. The person should gain an understanding  on economics, maths, coding, and events happening on Bitcoin. It consumes time but can be achieved with steady efforts and trial on new projects. Researchers and scholars go this far in learning the techniques of Bitcoin due to the availability of its core information. Hence, those who have the zeal to read further than the basics are always welcomed.

Yes, Bitcoin can be accessed and understood by everyone who wants to find information and learn about it. This knowledge has been widely available on websites such as the Bitcointalk forum, Google, and others.

Bitcoin is as easy to use as traditional banks. However, when it comes to developing or delving deeper into its workings, there is indeed a certain degree of technical difficulty. This is due to concepts such as the blockchain and cryptography, which can be complex. But just like with banks, you don't need to know how a bank works 100% to use its services. Similarly, with Bitcoin, the essential thing is to become familiar with its basics, such as wallet security and how to make transactions.

Tbh, bitcoin is already an open book, people created so much information about it on the internet. Imagine this platform is already a platform of gold mine, a bunch of information and all you need to do is read all of the concepts and ideas that has been discussed by other members. If still complex for you, there are videos already that explain bitcoin for kids so if you think that you're in the kids' level, there are animated videos too. It's not hard to understand bitcoin, it's up to you if you're dedicated enough to read and it really pique your interest but if not then, you'll probably say it's hard. 

Nothing is difficult if they are willing to study hard - it's just that not all of them have the same ability to understand it more quickly. Everyone has a different process for learning bitcoin technically - it doesn't have to be the same at the same time. If they want to learn bitcoin technically - then they should read and discuss things on technical boards more often than on other board. Whether it's difficult or not just depends on their mindset.

To some Bitcoin is too technical for them to understand, but what I have noticed with them is that sometimes they are mostly newbies who are just getting into Bitcoin and are too anxious to know things that are way above their capacity at that level, and instead of taking it slow and steady they want to rush things and when it hard to comprehend at such a past, they make such statement as Bitcoin is too hard to understand or Bitcoin is too technical for them, but the reality is that they have not taken the right approach towards Bitcoin knowledge building. If you want to get the best out of Bitcoin, you need to handle it with a more relaxed mindset and needless rush things.

With the amount of resources OP got from this thread, he would surely be able to hop on and get better knowledge-wise.
The question would only be when to start and about the determination.

i get why bitcoin seems complicated but have you ever tried using it? Most wallets and exchanges do all the technical work for you so you dont have to deal with coding or complex processes. If you're open to it, i'd love to hear what exactly feels difficult.

That "flat-earther" idea is running out of time, OP, think about it this way, 25 years at 21st century, we are living in one of the most incredible times for access to information and hardware that is accessible to everyone. Please stop the idea laziness learning as trolling.

Bitcoin isn’t difficult to access, provided that you have understood already what bitcoin is and how to create bitcoin transactions. Although I wouldn’t deny that bitcoin topics may create confusion to others, but that’s because they don’t understand what bitcoin is. Bitcoin is not complicated and is easy to access, but it’s only the people who have no sufficient knowledge in bitcoin that are making it hard and complicated.

Absolutely not! Bitcoin is not difficult to access.

Seriously, all you really need do is download a wallet app on your phone and set it up real quick.  We are talking just a couple taps, thats it!  Same thing if you wanna sign up on one of the centralized exchanges to buy some coins - piece of cake.  I mean, have you even given it a shot before?  What problems did you run into when trying?  Far as I can tell its mad easy these days compared to how it used to be in the early days.

I agree with you, despite being in 2025 now. Bitcoin is still not user friendly while being slow and expensive. Other cryptos are also hard to understand but they offer more advanced features like smart contracts. And their layer2 networks are as simple as a common blockchain while LN add new complexity to Bitcoin instead of simplifying it.

To some extent yes, but that's when you don't want to understand Bitcoin,  most of the things we know today we learned them and for you to get understand Bitcoin, it requires you to learn and put extra effort, learn the technical and few other things. The way tha Bitcoin was programed, it doesn't require you to know everything to use it, so that aspect makes it seem easy to understand but when you looked at the broader view, then Bitcoin isn't something you can understand just easily without putting some extra effort to gain a deeper insight about Bitcoin Technology.

What makes you say bitcoin is difficult because for now with the ease of the internet with lots of sources to learn then everything will be easy if we are really serious about learning it.

On the other hand, it may definitely take time to understand the mechanism and study bitcoin properly but that doesn't mean it's difficult because in the end it depends on our efforts in deepening and studying it so in this case there is nothing difficult I think but whether we want to learn well about bitcoin or not.

We don't need to be a professional developer or be in a certain department to learn bitcoin because in the end it depends on our own abilities, the problem is whether you want to try to learn it or not because of a certain degree or department when you don't want to learn about bitcoin in the end they still won't understand and it's right to say this is difficult because they don't want to try to be in it.

You can access any information about bitcoin and how to use it and all you need to do is make a research and ask questions here. Anyway, what makes you think that bitcoin is difficult to understand?. If it's about mechanics then I agree with the post above that it isn't easy but if it's not about it then it won't be hard to understand. If it's really hard as what you have said then there won't be many people who are buy bitcoin and how to use it.

If you aren't a cryptographer or programmer than yeah sure bitcoin is difficult to understand, even if you are, it's difficult to understand. 

The first book I ever read was "Mastering Bitcoin" by Andreas Antonopoulos, which is definitely made for programmers and not people like myself.

Now was makes Andreas Antonopoulos so special is his ability to make bitcoin understandable to the "average" person.  Look up his YouTube page as well as read his book "Internet of Money" and I think those struggling to grasp the concept will be able to do so much more simplistically.

You have said two things here. First the title says "Bitcoin is difficult to understand" and now the op is saying "bitcoin is not easy to access".

Well for the first one, you should start with understanding the basics about bitcoin. What is bitcoin, how to acquire bitcoin, how to store bitcoin and some security practices you should adopt to avoid losing your Bitcoins. To be honest, these are just the information many bitcoiners know about bitcoin, it's not that difficult to understand.

However, if your interest in bitcoin is more than just the basics, then you are not wrong, it is difficult. But with time, everything will begin to make sense to you if you keep researching. If diving deeper into understanding bitcoin is complicated to you, why not stick to the basics that is easy to understand?

As for bitcoin being difficult to access, I am assuming you are simply having difficulties acquiring bitcoin because this is what 'access' means. This is just one asset that is very easy to access unlike gold. It is as easy as you getting paid in bitcoins simply by joining a paid campaign here in the forum. Aside this, you can get butcoins from exchanges and through P2P.

I agree, to transact a d use Bitcoin on a daily or regular basis in terms of sending, receiving,
buying, selling and HODL'ing its dead simple, just like everything there is a "getting to
know" period and after that its second nature.

Does everyone need to know how to program, test for bugs, develop new applications
and such? absolutely not, that side of Bitcoin is for the majority of us is indeed very
difficult to understand.

After a point, understanding BTC is only as difficult as each user decides to make it for themselves.

The learning curve can be a tad high, but once it sinks in you realize the security and freedom via self-custody is beyond anything anyone is used to with conventional (and toxic) centralized banking.

Bitcoin is open for everyone. However, you cannot access what you did not understand. In short, learn to know first on the basics of bitcoin, how to acquire bitcoin and how to create a safety and secured wallet for it, that way it will be easily access by its owner every time he plans to buy and sell.

Bitcoin is never difficult if you take time to understand its technicalities and fundamentals. Although it's quite complicated for beginners, but with time and patience, you will find it easily accessible.

What area of Bitcoin do you find difficult to understand? You have to state the exact area before generalizing it as Bitcoin is difficult to understand when it is not. Someone who's into Bitcoin investment will not tell you the same thing about how they take Bitcoin to be "difficult''. He or she will tell you that Bitcoin is easy to understand because they buy Bitcoin at a discount price, hodl it for the long term, and sell it at a high price. Very simple as that

In this life, not everything is easy to understand for you, but having determination and a mindset can help to achieve what you want in life. Starting something new can be difficult sometimes, especially when you don't know much about it; however, once you are eager to learn, it becomes easier. This applies to Bitcoin; if you are new to it, for you to understand how it works, it may seem difficult, but being part of a community like this forum is a great first step. You can take your time to read, learn, and ask questions where you seem to have difficulty and need more clarification.

Even if you have an interest in investing in Bitcoin, it will be a good idea if you have ideas about how it works.

Bitcoin is one of the most easiest things to do when it comes to bitcoin but the only thing you can do is to learn when you learn then that way you will be able to know wether bitcoin is hard or not because a lot of people have this mindset that bitcoin is hard but it's not like that, and the moment they seat down and have enough knowledge then they will have a clear mind of how everything is going and the whole processes, and when you don't understand something it is an open space question can always be asked, as far as the intrest is there, then o don't think there is anything to worry about, people are always concerned about there money and they don't want to take risk because they are scared of losing there money and in life taking risk is one of the objectives of been alive.

To understand bitcoin you should have some basic understanding of money and economics. If you can understand how gold has been used as a store of value for thousands of years, and why millions of people and countries all over the world invest in gold, then bitcoin is very easy to grasp. Bitcoin is simply the modern digital form of gold, with qualities that make it an improvement over gold.



The US dollar as well as all fiat currencies lose value over time. That is why people invest in gold because gold usually retains its value over time, and so does bitcoin.
The dollar has lost  over 99% of its value over the last hundred years. But that is over a hundred year period, so the impact is somewhat softened and not felt so drastically by the average American, but imagine if you live in a country where the value of the currency is dropping by 20, 30, or even 50 per cent or more in just one year. Like has happened in Turkey, Argentina, Lebanon, and many others.

When living in such countries, trust me you will learn to appreciate the value of bitcoin very quickly. That explains why 30% of people in Turkey own bitcoin, one of the highest rates of adoption in the world. Why? Because it is impossible to save up for anything when half the value of your money is vanishing before your eyes within a year or two.

it is never difficult to understand bitcoin. you don't need any deep knowledge of computers to understand the basics. all you need is to find out about bitcoin from various sources on the internet and understand it easily. it is only more difficult if you want to understand how the technology behind it works more deeply, maybe in that case you need to understand computers and programming languages. but in general, bitcoin can be easily understood by everyone.

Your title and your post are speaking of two different things.

However, I must agree that Bitcoin isn't that easy to understand. If somebody asks you what Bitcoin is, it's easy to drop how Satoshi originally defined it-- a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. You may even explain further how it basically works. But when you're confronted with a truly interested and inquisitive newbie who makes follow-up questions on your explanations, you might find yourself realizing you haven't really understood it at all.

As far as access is concerned, however, it's not very difficult. It's actually very easy. I'm referring both to resources that make you understand Bitcoin and Bitcoin, as in the coin, itself.

What? you don't need any especial skills and talents just to understand Bitcoin. Knowing it is pretty basic, maybe you are struggling to know where to earn that's why you said its difficult for you to understand about that.

You just feel it difficult because maybe its new to you. But try to frequently learn more about information about Bitcoin and how to use it for sure you will find out that its not hard to learn about Bitcoin.

There's so many suggestion posted here already and also try to visit this site then try to learn on what you can read here https://www.bitcoin.com/get-started/what-is-bitcoin/

Tell me, can you solve 2+2? If you can then you can access Bitcoin as well, my 13 years old niece is actively trading Bitcoin and this is the smallest human in my family that knows how to handle Bitcoin and Bitcoin wallet, maybe you should explain  better which part you are finding difficult to understand.

Mind you, this forum is a problem solver, if is a shame that you are not using it in such way, are you not here to learn? If you are then you need to start pointing to where the whole confusing is happening with Bitcoin, the handling of Bitcoin wallet? Or transacting in Bitcoin.

Anything new can feel difficult at first and bitcoin is no exception, But just like online banking or using a smartphone, it becomes easier with time and practice. You don't need to be a developer, there are plenty of tools that simplify the process for everyday users.

If bitcoin feels inaccessible, the issue might not be the technology itself but how it's explained. Many beginner friendly platforms now offer guides and tutorials to make it easier. Instead of diving into the technical side, you can start by using a simple wallet or exchange

You need to learn, very basic things to understand Bitcoin valuable things, and use it.
If you are a developer, you must be a good developer first, and you can learn Bitcoin technically.

If you are a complete newbie, and want to become a Bitcoin programmer, challenge is bigger for you.

Learning resources for beginners and developers (technical).
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/beginners/
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/technical/

A great way to start.
And then OP can return back and read on threads with similar info here too, if he is willing / has more questions.

Very easy to access by everyone from anywhere provided that you have the internet and a smartphone. All you need to know is the basic knowledge, and from there you can learn the rest from the internet. Buying bitcoin from an exchange is easy because there is a video tutorial on how to do that.

Since you are a newbie, you can read the article to know more about bitcoin and how it works.
https://learnmeabitcoin.com/

True to that.
Nothing wrong with not knowing something, it's only a shame if you don't want to know more of said something.
 

Actually I don't blame him for saying that bitcoin is very difficult to access reason is because he's still a newbie, probably he have not yet figured out what bitcoin investment is all about. of course your first time of being into something everything is going to look unfamiliar in your view and it will be very difficult to access it, which is why learning is very important.

If you take your time to learn about bitcoin you will find out that bitcoin is not actually difficult to understand. Moreover, you can't just jump into conclusion when you Haven't make an attempt to learn.

If you do not want to go for the technical parts but you just want to be able to know about wallets, exchanges, security and privacy, everything that you need to know about bitcoin is very simple. Even without buying or holding bitcoin, learning about security and privacy is important in people's life for scam to be avoided.

Bitcoin would never and ever be difficult.
Just have good intentions of learning and aim of understanding bitcoin.
 Go through this:
Some things you need to know about bitcoin
https://bitcoin.org/en/you-need-to-know
FAQ that usually help newbies

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Help:FAQ

Bitcoin has a learning curve but it's not just for developers or finance professionals. There are user friendly platforms where anyone can buy and manage bitcoin without technical skills. If you're curious, you can start small and learn as you go. The key is to take it step by step

What are the things that you have difficulty in understand though? I'm just curious because if you have that thought then maybe the majority of us are not here. So just take it slow and maybe read some books about Bitcoin. Or better yet, just go around in this community, for sure there are tons of information here as most of us started just like you with no idea at all but then we gravitate towards Bitcoin and learn a lot of things along the way.

So don't be just so negative in the beginning and says that it's for professional developers. Maybe you are referring to the developers of Bitcoin or those who are maintaining it right now. Or maybe professional traders who does it for a living.

it's pretty easy to undestand bitcoin in my opinion i usually explain bitcoin as borderless currency backed by computational power, don't want to go deeper because the other party might not care enough, at least they should know the basic.

if we are talking about access, pretty much almost all of people can have access to bitcoin easy, buying bitcoin is just few click away in your phone, even ETF is there, there's no stopping people from getting access to bitcoin whether for investment or some other thing.
I don't really think it's as difficult as you pictured, almost all gen Z know right off the bat how to use bitcoin or access it.

If it is information you wish to access, it is not difficult because everything is available in the internet and for free. If you just continue to read around this forum alone, you will have a better understanding of bitcoin. I am not saying that understanding bitcoin is as easy as a walk at the park but if you are curious enough and you have enough determination to really understand bitcoin then you can do it. Anyone can do it. The basic concept of bitcoin is just alternative currency that is digital. Obviously there is more to that but like I said, a lot of resources are already on the internet and all you need to do is find them and read them diligently.

The Bitcoin white paper is probably one of the easiest to read and understand in academia.

The concepts explained there can be grasped by the general population.

If you want to read the original problem that Bitcoin solved, read The Byzantine Generals Problem, a paper from 1982 stating the problem:


The "unforgeable written messages" bit is why you have to sign a transaction with your private key when broadcasting it to spend your coins.

There's a big difference between "access" and "understand".

Bitcoin is very easy to access, as long as you have money, you can buy Bitcoin and now you can "access" Bitcoin.

While understanding about Bitcoin, I tend to agree it's difficult to understand. Just like in dunning kruger effect, the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know about that. Even myself, I don't completely understand mining and technical thing.

You are saying right that using Bitcoin is easy but understanding how it works is harder and needs special knowledge. That is good point. Many people can use Bitcoin without knowing all complicated details just like how people can drive cars without knowing how to fix them. Most people who use technology like smartphones computers or microwaves do not need to know how they work to use them. It is important to separate using Bitcoin in practical way from understanding complicated technology behind it.

Absolutely wrong.
When it comes to what BTC is and using BTC, it is easy to understand.
Now if you are talking about understanding the mechanics of how it works, yes, that does take some technical knowledge. That applies to just about everything in life so, your point is?...

It is very difficult to access except for professional developers and majors.