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Many posts here about how Bitcoin is not user friendly, and how it can't compete with existing (digital) payment solutions in terms of UX. My experience with it

by Ruphin 8y ago

Many posts here about how Bitcoin is not user friendly, and how it can't compete with existing (digital) payment solutions in terms of UX. My experience with it is quite the opposite, and I prefer paying with Bitcoin/cryptocurrencies in most (but not all) situations. My phone has a wallet app with some small amount of Bitcoin on it. If I have to pay for something, all it takes is opening the app, scanning a QR code, and clicking ok. For paying beers at a bar (which I have done) the setup is slightly less convenient than NFC touch-to-pay solutions but not significantly worse. But for things like purchasing digital goods or other items online, the process is sometimes significantly better than alternatives. If I purchase something from an online vendor it's the same process; QR code shows up, I scan it with my app, and press ok. For this scenario it is almost always more convenient than having to enter some payment information, or logging in to some payment processor like PayPal or whatever solution my bank has implemented. The downsides are that my phone effectively has a bundle of cash strapped to it, and when I lose the phone my cash is gone too. Getting the money onto my phone is also not the most convenient process as I need some external service like an exchange to acquire the coins first. Not all the problems have been solved, but things are slowly getting better. Just like Linux on the Desktop, people will keep repeating the same story that it's never going to happen, but the reality is that modern Linux distributions have nearly the same install-and-go ergonomics as Windows, with many happy users.

exit 8y ago
> The downsides are that my phone effectively has a bundle of cash strapped to it, and when I lose the phone my cash is gone too. you should have the root mnemonic of the wallet stored separately, in which case you would be able to regenerate the private keys and access your funds again. i can recommend the eclair wallet, by acinq, for android. as well as traditional on-chain transactions, it also supports spend-only lightning channels. receive functionality is being tested on testnet and should arrive on mainnet soon.
- Ruphin 8y ago
  It's exactly narratives like that, "you have to store this passphrase somewhere secure or you risk losing all your money", that makes anything in this space so much less accessible to normal people. You can choose to ignore those complexities and just treat a wallet like a simple app that just sends and recieves money without understanding anything about how it works, and the UX is way better. You just have to live with the consequence that your money is gone if you lose the phone (which is the same as losing the cash in your physical wallet when you lose that). In my experience that narrative works much better for onboarding people, because it doesn't place any burden on them to do anything. They just have to choose their level of acceptable risk, which is something they are familiar with (carrying cash in their physical wallet).
microtherion 8y ago
> For paying beers at a bar So you order the beer, wait for an hour or so to get 6 confirmations, then drink the beer? Sounds like a great recipe to limit your alcohol intake.

by Ruphin 8y ago

exit 8y ago

> The downsides are that my phone effectively has a bundle of cash strapped to it, and when I lose the phone my cash is gone too. you should have the root mnemonic of the wallet stored separately, in which case you would be able to regenerate the private keys and access your funds again. i can recommend the eclair wallet, by acinq, for android. as well as traditional on-chain transactions, it also supports spend-only lightning channels. receive functionality is being tested on testnet and should arrive on mainnet soon.

Ruphin 8y ago
It's exactly narratives like that, "you have to store this passphrase somewhere secure or you risk losing all your money", that makes anything in this space so much less accessible to normal people. You can choose to ignore those complexities and just treat a wallet like a simple app that just sends and recieves money without understanding anything about how it works, and the UX is way better. You just have to live with the consequence that your money is gone if you lose the phone (which is the same as losing the cash in your physical wallet when you lose that). In my experience that narrative works much better for onboarding people, because it doesn't place any burden on them to do anything. They just have to choose their level of acceptable risk, which is something they are familiar with (carrying cash in their physical wallet).

microtherion 8y ago

> For paying beers at a bar So you order the beer, wait for an hour or so to get 6 confirmations, then drink the beer? Sounds like a great recipe to limit your alcohol intake.