Nostr Web Client

People like us are comfortable with the options because we’ve probably spent over 1000 hours studying and researching. We also have a tech background which makes it more familiar.

Consider my dad. I’m regularly asked to help him reset his normie passwords. He often loses / forgets. At least with fediments, I could act as one of a few custodians for my friends and family.

What are the alternatives for wealthy normies? Custodians like Unchained are regulated and do KYC. I don’t have high hopes that my dad would be able to properly manage a set of multisig wallets and their output descriptors.

What would you recommend for someone like him?

QnA 2y ago

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'

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Discussion

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.