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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @fiatbad 28 Dec 2023 \ parent \ on: Bitcoin fees, a worrying trend bitcoin
I hear you. And I appreciate the conversation.
To me, all the other FUD has been debunked and is silly. Environmental FUD, Keynesian FUD, Altcoin FUD, PoS vs PoW FUD, Government Banning FUD, etc. All of it is dumb and Bitcoin wins every time.
The issue you are discussing here is the only piece of FUD I still struggle with.
But, to play devil's advocate with you, a few comments:
It's close to 15 years and still a big oomph on ppl's faces when trying to understand or use Bitcoin. I understand and struggle with this also. But how many of those people understand gold or fiat? Trying to self custody gold is not easy, if done correctly (let alone trying to use it as a currency). Explaining counter-party risk with gold ETF's or other equities. Explaining Forex or derivative markets, or even just how shorting an equity works, is a bitch for these normies.
It isn't the gold's fault, or fiat's fault, or the market's fault that people are intellectually lazy.
I think this is why the store-of-value narrative works so well with Bitcoin, instead of the crypto-currency narrative. Bitcoin really is more like gold than currency. It really is meant to be a censorship-resistant, borderless store of value. This is what the world needed, not a new merchant point-of-sale system. And we have to continue prioritizing decentralization and censorship-resistance above ALL other concerns.
I think Bitcoin has succeeded at this over those 15 years. It looks like it's failing if merchant adoption is your number one metric. But should that really be the most important thing? Maybe it only looks like it's failing because you're prioritizing the wrong metrics?
But I dunno.... I also share your concerns. I've been conflicted on this, and it is my number one concern about BTC as an asset. I am convinced that no other cryptocurrency offers an acceptable solution. It's either BTC or back to the fiat/gold world. Because of this realization, I'm still optimistic on BTC for the long run. There just isn't a better solution, despite the downsides.
I don't know either... Its just that Bitcoin is still hard to get.
In your example of explaining Gold and Bitcoin to the average Joe; Explaining how to self-custody gold can be as simple as pointing them to the right manufacturer of safes, and have them put the safe in the right location.
Everybody knows what a safe is for and how it's used, right?
Self-custody of Bitcoin isn't that different; You point them to the right manufacturer of safes (hardware wallets) and tell them to store it in the right location (whatever that may be, you get what I'm saying).
With Bitcoin, however, most of the people you tell this will ask you what the hell a "hardware wallet" is, how it works, why they need one in the first place and if they can trust it, and that's just the start.
You have to explain to them that they'd do good to check the Hash of the accompanying wallet software they're most-likely going to use, before actually using it (good luck with that), what those words are and why there are so many of them, why the order of words matter and that their savings pretty much depend on that piece of paper, oh and that the wallet resets itself after three failed pin's.
Of course, as the responsible guide you are, you tell them about all the magnificent ways of backing up the seed words in steel, splitting them up yada yada, which makes it even more for them to absorb- and then we're not even started with the different extra's one could apply, such as a Passphrase or a 2/3 Multi-sig...
Phew, let's start about UTXO-management, what a "UTXO" even is and why you shouldn't start with one of those fancy auto-buying plans...
Why they should use a different address everytime they receive a deposit and that deposits to the wrong address will result in permanent loss of funds (can you smell the anxiety of sending funds? I can...), oh, and that they would do good by meticulously checking each address they'd like to receive funds to, because there's malware which changes the clipped addresses once you paste it, siphoning your funds to other addresses.
See, it's not even that people are intellectually-lazy, its just so much to take into account in order to do it right.
You and I, we get that, we understand that that's what's needed in order to make it secure and workable, they don't.
We have that intrinsic motivation to learn and understand these things because we know that Bitcoin is far more than just a fancy tech-stock-wannabe, they just want to have a smooth experience and personal profit of using it.
I think im getting a bit off the way here, I gotta go to bed.
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