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Comment by ur-whale | Hacker News Reader

I think you have to separate:

   - hard to use because governments willfully get in the way

   - intrinsically hard to use.

The former is very easy to get around (it kind of being the point of cryptocurrencies in the first place).

The latter is a real hard problem for crypto that will require an entire generation to die off (those who can't understand and will never understand that using a 3rd party to manage your money isn't compulsory or even desirable anymore) before things evolve.

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> The latter is a real hard problem for crypto that will require an entire generation to die off (those who can't understand and will never understand that using a 3rd party to manage your money isn't compulsory or even desirable anymore) before things evolve.

This is not a description of why cryptocurrency is intrinsically hard to use. It's intrinsically hard to use because - - It requires insane levels of OpSec to keep safe - It can be sent to the wrong place with a typo, and never recovered - Its transactions are irreversible, this is not a feature for most users - The fees are opaque and variable - Transaction processing can take an arbitrary amount of time

It's not that people 'don't understand' that using a 3rd party is unnecessary, it's that these third parties provide a lot of valuable services. The use of cryptocurrency is a marked step backwards from the existing situation for most scenarios.

The problems with crypto-currencies being widely adopted are the same as the benefits. While people who understand the benefits like it, the same could be said for cash, which is widely going away and had far better adoption.

1. Loss aversion - You lose your bitcoin wallet you lose everything. You can't have that with large amounts of money or you'll bankrupt people.

2. Anonymity - Thieves can steal money, and to get it back you have to expose yourself and claim the money, if you're lucky enough to get it back at all. Governments can also very easily track users.

3. Decentralized - You have no one single person to punish when things go wrong, or seek help from. You're alone just like everyone else.

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