It has come to my attention, that people are starting to lose their passwords/wallets/access to bitcoin more and more often. They are either idiots or careless or just naive, but this really needs to stop.
Just today I see at least 5 reports of people losing their wallets, frequently in the wallet subforum but also on reddit. Of course economically speaking this is good for the rest of us, because the money velocity slows down making our coins more valuable, but it also makes newbie integration very unfriendly.
Really if we want bitcoin to be global, we need to make newbies more comfortable with bitcoin. Many people are irresponsible, so we need to warn them of the consequences, because they never read the fine print.
My suggestion:1) Everyone should write tutorials for newbies and give them out for free for newbies, that will teach them how to start out in bitcoin, and what risks they need to consider. Highlighting important topics like backing up wallets, and passwords, and also keeping their systems safe from malware.
2) Every wallet software should integrate a warning window warning users to backup their wallets and passwords before creating the wallet. The warning should be in big red letters , so that newbies can see it, and this might make them realize that it is important for example:
WARNING!! BACKUP YOUR WALLET/SEED/PASSWORD OTHERWISE YOU COULD LOSE ACCESS TO YOUR BITCOINS
3) A pinned thread on the
Beginners & Help section warning users to backup their wallets & passwords
4) Bitcoin.org and wallet websites should also tell newbies to backup their stuff.
Consequences:If we don't make bitcoiners more responsible, then they will demand the existance of "bitcoin banks" that will store their bitcoins for them "safely".
If the newbies cannot be responsible, then they will hand over the control over their coins to middleman, centralized wallets, and we will accomplish nothing.
Bitcoin banks will be born,and the same fractional reserve shit will start over again. So it is in our interest to make people responsible, to keep bitcoin decentralized.
People are too lazy! There are already enough warning and guidelines on how to secure the wallet. People are just to confident on their computer securities and neve think that crashes may happen anytime. During the creation of wallet there is enough reminder about the securities and private key that they have to secure.