No, they are generally buying from Exchanges and sending to wallets.
Ironically, switching to Testnet is only available on advanced wallets and requires advanced features to use. So no, Testnet for a newbie would be even worse than playing with tiny amounts of Lightning or a few dollars or on chain Bitcoin.
Testnet is great for advanced users wishing to test advanced features or developers, but I don't think it is suitable for newbies.
It may have once been only available with advanced features, but that appears to be changing. It's available on Nunchuk's most basic 'guest' wallet, for example: you just have to change the network setting from Mainnet to Testnet: done. Similar for Sparrow wallet. In both cases, it's no more or less advanced than just using regular Bitcoin.... the only difference is the coins are worthless, so no risk of any real value loss.
I you want to get a little more advance, you can, of course. Like, set up an 'offline' wallet on Sparrow and import the public descritor into Nunchuk - so that it operates as watch-only - then you can practice initiating transactions in Nunchuk and use Sparrow to sign them - which is a pretty good approximation of the process to eventually use for a hardware wallet... but even this is freely available with the basic functionality of each wallet.
You can’t imagine how complex you’ve just made a newbies life 😂
Again, the complexity exists already doing other things increases that complexity.
... perhaps. But, it sure seems like the 'complexity' of changing one simple wallet setting from Mainnet to Testnet is worth it for the attractiveness of risk free learning... not to mention not having to learn how to make use of an exchange first.
I'm not trying to argue. Really. You obviously get the orange-pilling results you're looking for.
Newbie Instructions:
Press Receive
You now have $1 of Bitcoin
For other regions, nostr:nprofile1qyt8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnrda5kummn9e5k7tcqyzagpxgxvmhskm6t55zex3a7kyey9ys723nfu6qqvn9825jk5836v8xsdxk
No discussion of seed phrases, Satoshis, Blockchain, fees etc....
Nothing,
Those come later. Once they see they have $1 of Bitcoin which may go up or down in the short term, but always goes up in the long term, they're hooked.
The rest comes later.
You hit the nail on the head man. There is entirely toooooo much to delve into with bitcoin and if someone is not interested diving into rabbit holes there's ways to guide them into tripping into it.
Fair enough. That does indeed sound like a great strategy. So, to answer my original question: You neither suggest Testnet as a tool, nor do you plunge them into Mainnet at the start. Presumably, they stay reliant on custodial services until later when they are hooked to the point of making the choice themselves to learn more... or maybe even getting hooked on the custodial services.
The above is one method, I haven't used it each time, it depends who you're talking to.
It isn't the only option, if you're talking to a highly technical coder, then you might want to start with testnets.
Personally I have never used any of the testnets
If you want to get into the nuance of testnets, then two of them have been destroyed by testing itself. I believe ODELL broke one of them 😂
I see the testnets as sandboxes for playing with new BIPs or if you indeed want to experiment with moving UTXOs.
Personally I haven't found it necessary, but I'm not against testnets at all, just not for newbies (i.e. day 1 newbies).
My general process is:
WoS
1 year goes by
Mike, why have I got $40 (I normally send $10).
Explain NGU
Explain how the world actually works
Try to stop them selling their wife and kids to buy Bitcoin 😂
If you run out of things to do one day, I think it would be worth your while to give Testnet4 a try. You may very well find this to be another useful tool to have in your orange-pill toolbox. You may not. Either way, this process is so quick and painless, you may as well gain the 1st-hand experience rather than instinctively dismissing it. I used to dismiss testnet as a tool for devs and very advanced users, too, until I bothered to find out for myself how easy it actually can be (provided, obviously, that the software you're using supports it). Getting a whole family of Bitcoin skeptics trading Testnet coin with each other might end up just as addicting as NGU (okay, maybe not quite as addicting as NGU 😜):
Install Nunchuk on a phone (my experience is with iPhone, but I believe it's available on android, too).
On startup, you don't have to provide your email address, just "Continue as Guest" (you only have to choose this the first time).
On the Profile tab, change the Network settings from Mainnet to Testnet. When you save the setting, Nunchuck will restart and be on Testnet4 (again, you only have to make this change the one time).
Create a new wallet and send it some Testnet4 coin. Here is an easy completely non-KYC 'faucet' I've used: https://faucet.testnet4.dev/ - you just need to tell it where to send coin and do the typical prove you're not a bot thing. (or you can just give me a Testnet4 address. I'd be happy to send you some).
I'm a heavy sparrow user, my preference would be to use that, but yes, you're right, I should experiment with Testnet to add it to my arsenal.
🫡
For Sparrow, just in case you haven't noticed it, switching to Testnet4 is as easy as selecting Testnet4 from the menu: Tools > Restart In >. You will have to make this selection each time you want to switch to Testnet4 - unless you add the "-n Testnet4" parameter on startup... Consequently, I have 2 Sparrow shortcuts on my desktop: 1 with the "-n Testnet4" parameter added; the other without. (*this is for Linux; but I'd bet the others are pretty much the same).
Thanks 🫡
It tested me on the keywords for a frickin testnet 😂 😂 😂
If you'd like to send some test Sats,
tb1q3rtnj6u7ep6dc3dxdy3ug28elrw5rzpdzaf5dx
incoming
250K
Thanks bro 😀
I went to the horses in Dubai once.
You're not allowed to gamble in Dubai.
Holding testnet BTC is like Horse racing in Dubai 😂
FWIW, Sparrow (and Nunchuk) displays the would-be fiat conversion as well. A noob could still experience seeing a fake $10 grow to a fake $40 in a year; then think to themself: "I sure wish this was real BTC".
Yes, I got 500K Sats from the testnet mempool faucet:
I have 1.25M Sats 🎉
I have $1,219 of fake money 😂
