I recently attended a Bitcoin meetup at which a highly respected bitcoin company gave the audience an overview of bitcoin. It was one of the best technical primers on bitcoin I have seen. Towards the end of the presentation, they shifted gears and presented the case for why people should adopt bitcoin. A slide entitled, “Why should you care about bitcoin?” appeared on the screen. It had three bullets:
- Open source and decentralized
- Fast and cheap payments
- Because, technology
In that moment I understood how the bitcoin industry is failing to win over “everyday” consumers.
Decentralization or Bust
Right now we are in the Richard Stallman era of Bitcoin, a time in which innovation and dialog are driven by an obstinate point of view—that the most important thing about bitcoin is its architecture.
Yes, bitcoin’s decentralized architecture is its most defining characteristic, not to mention at its core. Plus, bitcoin’s decentralized nature is a crowning achievement in computer science, and a watershed moment that will open the door for countless more innovations. What I have observed, however, is members of our community confusing collective pride in decentralization (bitcoin architecture at the core) with eventual consumer attraction.
For the average person, nothing could be further from the truth. In other words, while it is easy for me to talk to a crowd about the importance of decentralization, I am careful not to mistake intellectual curiosity as validation of bitcoin’s value proposition.
Payments
The payment space is the most logical application of bitcoin. The obvious benefit being the elimination of credit card fees for merchants. Just by accepting bitcoin, merchants can increase their margins by three-percent, and almost eliminate fraud all together. Getting merchants to buy-into the idea of bitcoin is easy, and a number of companies are making it easier for those merchants to accept bitcoin as payment.
The disconnect though lies in the fact that bitcoin is not a more attractive option from a consumer point of view. Consider this:
- Credit cards are effectively free to use. Transaction costs are borne exclusively by merchants.
- Credit cards are, in practice, digital. They are really the only way to buy goods over the Internet, and in general have lessened our dependence on carrying cash around in our wallets.
- Credit cards are risk free for consumers. If you buy something and don’t like it, and the store won’t refund your money, just block payment through your bank or credit card issuer.
- Credit cards are effectively instant. While it might take days for a merchant to receive payment, the consumer has the instant gratification of swiping a credit card and walking out of the store with the item they just bought.
To top it off, credit cards give us access to money we don’t necessarily have, meaning the money doesn’t have to be in the bank to make purchases. It’s hard to see how bitcoin makes life easier as a tool for buying things. And as far as consumers are concerned, you can visit Amazon and with the literal click of a button have virtually anything delivered to your doorstep within 24 hours— money is already fast and cheap for consumers in the payments space. While bitcoin may offer huge advantages to merchants, we should not assume this directly impacts consumers or consumer adoption.
Because Technology(?)
Technology has always enabled inventors and entrepreneurs to solve complex problems in increasingly faster and cheaper ways. And, as far as technology is concerned, bitcoin is as significant and transformative as the Internet.
But consumers don’t choose products based on technology. We buy products that solve problems, or address fundamental needs. Ask yourself, why do you use Google? Why do you use Uber? Why do you use Amazon? Technology is the means to solving these problems and therefore is not a valid reason for adoption. We can only fully adopt bitcoin if the problem the technology addresses is, in fact, absolutely apparent.
As an industry, we need to talk less about technology and more about benefits. We need to build products that help consumers experience the benefits of digital money. In fact, we will know we are successful, when we have made the appearance of technology disappear altogether.
So, what next?
“Because technology.” It was that bullet point that stuck with me the most. In all likelihood, the presenter probably tried to add a little humor into a relatively technical talk by referencing an obscure meme. Or perhaps (and I’m acknowledging my cynicism here) a third compelling reason does not exist, yet.
Rather than find the right way to articulate bitcoin’s benefits to consumers, much less build products that allow consumers to experience those benefits first hand, we have invested our energy in promoting the technical characteristics of bitcoin. While we continue to tout bitcoin’s technological feats, we have left our people in the dust. While many of us in the industry made the switch to digital currency for ideological reasons, our belief systems are strong enough to help overcome the friction inherent when re-denominating our lives. But what about the rest of the world that does not share our worldview? Appealing to intellectual curiosities about the exciting nature of this revolutionary technology fails to acknowledge the real-world conditions so many potential beneficiaries face everyday. Bitcoin cannot be advertised on the heels of its technology and simultaneously fail to provide a seamless experience that protects the user from those very conditions that drive us to consider bitcoin.
We need to learn from our audience and adapt. We need to shift our focus to impart obvious and real-world utility. And lastly, we must stop assuming digital money is simply inevitable. It is only inevitable if we build transcendent products that enable unforeseen experiences. Our products must ultimately give consumers a reason to take a leap of faith.
Stay tuned for my 3 reasons you should care about digital money.
Source : https://medium.com/@byrnereese/dear-bitcoin-industry-were-doing-it-wrong-7fa81bcf2c7c
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