25 sats \ 3 replies \ @0000 29 Jun 2023 \ on: How do we make BTC the reserve currency when users are so inept? bitcoin
Welcome to a nearly impossible problem. Engineering and accounting for human error.
My fellow Bitcoiners will lose their collective shits over this one. I don't blame you. But there will almost always be a need for some sort of non self custody solution. I recall there is a project that basically acts as a federated bank built on Bitcoin but I cannot remember what the project was called. I believe it could be used to help solve this problem.
One of my favorite examples of engineering for humans in this way has to do with how we connect to wifi points. People find managing passwords difficult and barely remember the passwords they use every day. WPS was born. WPS is a compromise in physical network security for convenience for the user.
I think we will need to consider that somewhere along the way, in order to onboard the next hundred million users we will need to figure out compromises so people don't have to worry about the challenges of self custody as much.
I also think when speaking with individual people you need to be very critical about your approach. Self custody is the most secure way to store Bitcoin but it is far from it in the hands of someone who isn't capable of storing anything securely to begin with.
There will always be a group of people that no matter what education you provide them, these concepts will fall flat every time. If Bitcoin is for everyone, then it is our duty to engineer for every edge case we are capable of as well.
To glue all this together, it will require something else that my fellow Bitcoiners will hiss at. Regulation. Else those self custody solutions will get away with all sorts of scammy stuff. Prime Trust ring any bells? I do hope we can engineer clever solutions to avoid this. I think we can figure it out.
Truth is if humans had any interest in self custody of their wealth, we wouldn't have moved away from what we had been doing in the wild west days storing gold in the ground. Over time the prospects of holding your wealth with a custodian became much easier to consider. Convenience over security.
Fedimint is the project you are referring to. I am excited to see where it goes as I think it is a huge improvement to current custodial options.
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That is the one! I always forget the name of it. It is the best solution that I can think of so far but from what I recall it can still have its own gaps in terms of security. I think the most optimal scenario would be to set up private instances for family and extended family.
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I think something that this community struggles with is the reality of human nature. I think its because Bitcoin tends to attract more technical, libertarian-minded, individualistic people.
Don't get me wrong, I would prefer if everyone self-custodied their sats. But that's not going to be the case. Some people due to differences in intelligence, personality, culture, interests, skills, etc. will simply opt for custodial solutions no matter the education or arguments given to them. Humans have logic as a tool in their toolset. We are not inherently logical beings. Not to mention, Bitcoin is permissionless so anyone could set up a custodial service that people will flock to.
The key here I think is make self-custody as easy and enjoyable as possible. Maximize the number of people who own their own keys. We will probably need to make the UX almost indistinguishable from custodial UX. We should also engineer trustworthy, accountable custodial solutions as well. We can't neglect that, otherwise people with less savory intentions will do it in our stead.
I recall there is a project that basically acts as a federated bank built on Bitcoin but I cannot remember what the project was called. I believe it could be used to help solve this problem.
I believe you're thinking of Federated Chaumian e-Cash.
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