Crypto Life: Complicated Stuff That Doesn't WORK!
The road to usability and general acceptance of pretty much anything new is typically a long and complicated one.
Being of a somewhat curious nature, I always look into new crypto initiatives, both on Hive and off because I do believe in the utility, wider adoption and use of crypto.
::: Sigh :::
"Stuff that doesn't work" and stuff that's excessively complicated has always frustrated the heck out of me, and been a primary reason for me to — figuratively speaking — "abandon the shopping cart" LONG before making any "purchase."
But let's keep going!
Lots of projects and initiatives promise that they are "simple" and "easy to use," but most of the time "simple" is never anywhere near as simple as you think.
The problem is often two-fold:
Tech Bros and developers may consider something "simple" but they tend to live in a world that is so far removed from the average person on the street that it's not even funny.
Aforesaid Tech Bros and developers have usually been working on "their baby" for so long that every tiny tweak and turn seems "obvious" to them, while the average Joe Sixpack on the street would have not the slightest clue what they needed to do.
Consider things like crypto wallets:
I mean, if the world is going to get into crypto, they need to have a wallet. Or several wallets. That's like the most basic thing, right?
I already have more crypto wallets than there are grains of sand on the beach — most of them only usable for one thing, and it seems like I'm often having to create another wallet that's going to be usable only for one thing.
And then it gets complicated. Sometimes you can't actually use a wallet's features till you've deposited some native token, which requires you to have a different wallet that can "talk to" several blockchains... but in order to use that you have to have an account with a particular swap facility... which you can only use if you deposit "gas fees" in yet another currency that's not supported by any of the wallets you already own.
Meanwhile, everyone down the line is insisting that their wallet and system is "revolutionary" and easy to use!
"Oh, it's pretty easy!" I can already hear some Tech Bro say.
Let me offer you an unrelated analogy.
Imagine a world in which we have smartphones and small electronic devices, just like we do now.
EXCEPT...
Every single one has a different type of battery, and a different type of charging port, using different voltage and amps, different communications protocols, and to get two different phones to "talk" to each other, you would need a third-party "adapter," — which, by the way, has another type of power source that's different from the first two, requiring you to also buy a transformer to make them work together... which you can only get by buying a subscription to software updates because the technology is constantly changing...
Do you sincerely think mobile phones and other devices would be in widespread use if everyone had to navigate a jumble like that, just to use this allegely "revolutionary" technology?
Commentary: People are not going to start using crypto on any scale if they need a "New Whatever" every time they are going to be part of something.
OK, so I don't actually have "more crypto wallets than there are grains of sand on the beach" but counting the many scraps of paper I have with "seed phrases," it would seem that I do have somewhere around 40. That's still way too many!
This may not be a popular opinion around here, but sometimes decentralization feels more like needless clutter than anything! Most of us are not squirrels who want to hide our nuts in 600 different places!
We Pause for Station Identification...
Now, this post is simply about my personal experience, so that means I am going to share just what comes to mind, as I have experienced it... and it represents an aggregate of dozens of projects I have been interested in, but abandoned.
The FIRST thing that comes to mind is that I wish people with "brilliant ideas" would spend some serious time with a group of average street monkeys, just observing where the "barriers to entry" arise. YOUR simple is likely not mine!
The SECOND thing that comes to mind is that whereas I know how to buy some BTC or ETH, most places I am aware of makes such a thing virtually uneconomical unless you're buying $100+ USD worth. If you're going to require "small fees" to be paid, for fnck's sake choose an easy to transact stablecoin!
The THIRD thing that comes to mind is that sending BTC or ETH usually means there's going to be a substantial network (gas) fee, unless there's something I don't know about... so your whole gig feels like it's already starting off "financially upside down."
The FOURTH thing that comes to mind is that most general users wouldn't know (for example) that ETH tokens exist on different netwroks, and these can't necessarily "handshake" together.
Leading to the FIFTH thing that comes to mind which is that I generally abandon the idea of getting involved in projects — however promising they might be — if it looks like I have (potentially) HOURS of research ahead of me, just to get my foot in the door, merely to see whether or not I want to put effort into it!
A Final Note to Blockchain Developers You cannot assume that the next person interested in what you're offering lives "at your level of technical knowledge" about how things work. They DON'T! You gotta explain this like you would explain it to your grandma. In such a way she can still figure it out, even when you are not there to show her!!!!
Footnote: I worked in IT, a long time ago, specifically in the areas of usability and assuring backwards compatibility. Which basically meant I woked in the most hated department of the company.
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I have pretty much stepped back from the ponzi scheme that crypto has become. After being ripped off for upwards of $5k over the past 5 years. I am of the belief now that crypto, like most things man touches, he corrupts. BTC was a great concept that was quickly bastardized into many cryptos and made into a weapon of theft. To me, my opinion is that an "Algorithmic Mathmatical Solution" has no value. The only value is on the backs of the people who put their hard earned or not earned at all dollars into it. Where is the physical value ? Prove me wrong. Hive has value of content created. I do not consider hive a crypto. What will the tech nerds Weaponize next..?
Next up a.i.
What we value the most are things like this photo. A rescue of a black belly whistler duckling a few weeks ago...
Value=Priceless
I think the problem is that real money is pretty easy to use. You tap a card, or a phone, or hand over a wad of paper or polymer and some chunks of metal. It is visceral, it has next to no friction, and it’s relatively painless. Everyone can do it.
Currency transformation has traditionally taken place over a period of generations. It’s always value for value. Local. Globalisation screws a big bunch of this, for example, i was cooking some frozen potatoes the other day. They came from Belgium. I live in Australia. I can’t imagine in what world it would be cheaper to bring potatoes from Europe to Australia than to grow them locally - and not only that, to have them frozen the whole way!
Anyway, potatoes are not crypto. They’re not money - but If I had a lot of potatoes, I’d very much like to trade them for something that is something I don’t have.
Crypto doesn’t have to be complicated. Under the surface, cars are ludicrously complicated pieces of engineering, with each component being probably just as complex as some other systems - but they’re easy to use.
When we can pay / earn our crypto (without conversion fees, and middle men taking an unfair margin) - and no one cares about the form of value, just that it is value, that is when we might be see more rapid uptake in crypto for “ordinary people”.
Sure, the banks and credit card companies already take their value along the way of traditional monetary systems, but they need competitors. And currently, crypto doesn’t compete anywhere near on that scale, and certainly nowhere near the level of ease.
I sometimes wonder how much of the unnecessary complexity is designers trying to show off their skills irrespective of the impact on the end product, that complications and unwanted functionality are thrown in just because they can, and that they reject solid things that already exist because (in their minds) they want to prove they can make it better.
I've only got a certain amount of time and mental energy to devote to learning new things, so have to try to pick what to learn wisely.