The usability is a huge and totally valid critisism, though I don't think for the reason you suggest. You can use software to allow you to sync keys between you

The usability is a huge and totally valid critisism, though I don't think for the reason you suggest. You can use software to allow you to sync keys between your devices. I use 1password - that's a fairly minor usability hurdle. More of an issue is the bitcoin client software itself. It's a usability disaster. From every point of view - it's hard to use / understand for the layman. But even as someone technically minded, it's hard to figure out what you need from the software to manage your wallet. Given that all you need to keep your coins safe is a tiny bit of text that you can take with you - why is it so hard to get it out and in to the client software? Edit: for a layperson the 1password hurdle is a lot bigger so you're right about how that's a major usability issue.