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I get asked that question quite often and my short answer is 'Bitcoin is for anyone, but it's not for everyone'. (Not my quote btw).

What do I mean by that?

Securing 12 words is the prerequisite for bitcoin ownership. If you can't or won't do that, then you have to accept some trade-offs. These include:

- You find an 'uncle Jim' (involves varying levels of trust depending on the setup)

- You interact with a custodian (you don't have any bitcoin)

- You collaborate with a service like Casa/Unchained (KYC etc)

If someone can't meet the prerequisites or take an alternative route that involves tradeoffs they're comfortable with, their personal need for Bitcoin is not great enough.

'Bitcoin is not for everyone'

techfeudalist 2y ago

Yes, I agree but I don’t find that a satisfactory quote and I’ll bet that you don’t either given your dedication to education and trying to make bitcoin more accessible to people. I think we probably agree that bitcoin is for everyone, but just not yet.

Securing 12 words is not sufficient for wealthy older people because those 12 words will die with you. I haven’t found any solution to inheritance without bringing in a custodian. Can you think of any way to provide inheritance to children without a custodian?

That’s why I referred to the problem as “unsolved”. If we found a way to solve key recovery and key inheritance, bitcoin would be “for”more people than it is now.

If it’s true that a custodian is a necessary evil, then I guess the question is … how should we design custodial solutions? Probably as geographically decentralized as possible, potentially using technical friends and family instead of commercial / regulated entities.

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QnA 2y ago

Securing 12 words is enough for bitcoin ownership, inheritance is a separate issue that has no one size fits all.

Outside of trusting/involving a third party in some fashion, it all comes right back to personal responsibility. There's no getting away from it.