Topic: Bitcoin is just to complicated for the average person to use.. - page 4. (Read 5871 times)

Of course there is no 'average' person and the definition will differ from country to country, but I think the average person in the Western world can use it. I'd consider myself average and have no problem working my wallet or using bitcoin. I don't think my parents would have much difficulty either.

Well, before answering this question, we should agree who is the average person?
Is it an American teenager who practically lives in the virtual world every day, and never separate from computers and smartphones.
Is that a pensioner from Brazil, poor and without electricity, who had never seen a computer in his life.
Is it a single mother from Africa, who lives in a tent.
Maybe we are talking about a middle-aged Russian from Siberia who has no confidence in anything that comes from the west.
Or  we are simply talking about a middle-aged American who use the Internet just to read e-mail and watch Facebook, but always prefer to see the money in his wallet rather than have some virtual money or use the credit card.
So, I would say that Bitcoin is not to complicate for average person to use but much more important question is who is average person today in the world and how many people in the world really have necessary foundation, habits and life style to even start to think about using bitcoin.

there is nothing complicated about "using" bitcoin. every one can easily set up a wallet in (for example) coinbase and then buy bitcoin and start using it. i know that it is not the best option and the safest thing is to create a cold wallet, buy as fat as using bitcoin it is easy.

Maybe you are referring to a minority niche group of techy people at the time? The larger majority of the people didn't know much at all about computers.


1980: I do not remember anyone saying computers were too complicated, most people did not have a computer. Most of us had no real idea what a computer was or how a person might use it, or for what reason. computers cost too much, there was students paying $2500-3000 for a computer for their college courses, and that was out of the reach of the common person, there was the sense that becoming computer literate might mean the difference between the 'haves and the have-nots', although no one really knew why that might be, but they had tv shows that had mysterious ways of explaining it

1990: Maybe in some small niche techie groups, they might have said things like that? But Ronald Reagan was president from 1981-1989 and I remember him speaking about the Information Superhighway, and he was really very upbeat about it, so the message to the larger population was upbeat and optimistic about the Information Superhighway( which is the internet). The teachers were saying that people who got computer training would earn good money after they finished college.

That is correct and same goes hand in hand when it comes to adoption and the acceptance of the bitcoin as a currency as people are not used to it and many of them have never heard about it so it is really difficult to expect that they would start using bitcoin as a mode of payment.

I completely agree with you. I tried to explain to some of my friends. They were with me on the same page until I came onto paper wallet system. They just got completely confused.

Thats why people that are glad the price is low and stable are on the right train of thought. We can benefit from it while we are early adopters and we can get away with crazy shit like hard forks while we are still an underground economy. Once we go mainstream, a hard fork is just something we have to avoid at all costs, while now we can experiment (even tho a big security flaw would be catastrophic at this point already)

services like Circle exist to 'dumb down' bitcoin for the Average Joe

Literally a quote from my 55 year old cousin back in the early 90's: This internet thing will never take off. Nobody will trust buying stuff from the internet without seeing what you are buying in real life and without knowing whom are you dealing with, you are literally insane to put any money into this thing.

It seems he didn't learn the lesson and is treating Bitcoin is something not serious lol

I don't think it's too complicated. I think bitcoin is actually pretty simple to use especially with a blockchain.info app which is just like paypal app in my opinion. I think bitcoin will only get easier to use over time too. I do think that maybe the public or most merchants aren't ready for it yet or have no real desire or need to use it over conventional means but it will take a 2-3 years to get them on board so it will be a slow progress any way and by that time maybe wallets will be even more user friendly.

I agree that Bitcoin is too complicated at the moment. Thats one of the reasons I somewhat resent those who are pushing for mass adoption. Sure it helps the value of the currency, but the stakes are higher than just your Bitcoin's value. Cryptocurrencies as a whole are a new concept. The distributed consensus model could be the solution to so many issues with the internet in general. All it would take is pushing one large company to use Bitcoin prematurely before foolproof and easy safety measures are in place, and Cyptocurrencies as a whole are sunk.

We get one chance at this. If Bitcoin is pushed down the public's throat before people are ready to try it on their own terms, one catastrophic security flaw, and there wont be another chance at adoption for anything Cryptocurrency. I think we are moving in the right direction, but it has to be just as easy to secure your Bitcoins as you can your cash or assets before everyone is ready to give it a try.

Oh I was not arguing. I think we both would agree that it will get easier for normal people to use as time goes on and tools are developed.

I started bitcoin not long ago, and my friends do not understand anything about bitcoin at all. I've tried explaining to them, but they still think its too complicated. Just like computer and internet, it takes time and market acceptance for people to understand. News things always needs time to go big and for people to understand. I'm sure more and more people will go into cryptocurrency
 

but but but but but but.. that's exactly what my first post says....

Currently BTC IS currently to complicated for the average person that doesn't understand how to make a .txt file.  There is a key word in that sentence.

It's kinda complicated for people around the planet that doesn't like thinking and barely knows how to use their cellphones or computers.
As far as I know, almost 70% of the people around the world just use internet for social networking and gaming bull games (losing valuable time).
If Bitcoin wants to get mainstream, it needs to be super simple and intuitive so it can be understandable and easy to manage.

The internet is also just to complicated for the average person to use. Which is why the internet never really caught on.
 

Not everyone is tech savvy. If you see people not understanding Bitcoin, or how it works, then explain it to them. Something that is easy for you, might be hard to figure out for others. We're here to help our fellow Bitcoiners. 

Bitcoin is not complicated at all for the average persons to start using it but it is just lack of awareness and Bitcoin still is too young.An average person still doesn't understand but by the passage of time Bitcoin and BlockChain related technology will as used as internet and PCs these days.

There really is no historical precedent for digital currencies. For that reason it'll take a long time to digest.

I personally don't think that Bitcoin is too complicated for the average Joe.

A factor that many overlook is the fact that most people are up to their eyes in debt which means little or no disposable income. You can look up the stats for almost every country and you will find that anything from 60 to 80% of their consumers are deep in debt.

If you live from paycheck to paycheck the last thing you are thinking of is 'investing' in a non tangible currency which you cannot use anywhere. Yes I know, you can already use Bitcoin in thousands of places but most of these places are not [yet] your daily 'bread & milk' shops and thus not the kind of places where these highly indebted consumers are spending their money at this stage. Also, Bitcoin is 'made' for the third world, meaning its the ideal place for it due to the large numbers of 'unbanked' people yet this is also the very areas where large numbers of the population lives under the breadline.

Most of the people I've spoken to understand the concept and think that it's all just fine and well and great but they just do not have money to throw around and or into something for which they have little use and or little incentive to use.

I personally believe that we will only see large adoption once there is a 'true' incentive for consumers to make use of Bitcoin like for example retailers/shops offering discounts on payments made with Bitcoin. Like what Starbucks did in [I think it was] Hong Kong where they gave 20% discount on bills paid with Bitcoin. Adoption levels will increase quite sharply, I think, once we see more of this as most consumers will then have a reason and incentive to use Bitcoin.

Just my 2 cents