How do we get from here to there?

Bitcoin (the network and economy) has the best chance of growing when people build businesses that provide value to others, to facilitate seamless peer to peer transactions at scale.

Although many Bitcoiners started out as hobbyists who mined in their basements or garages, after ten years, is it obvious yet that the future of money should be secured by seriously competitive miners?

The current system where every user is a network node is not the intended configuration for large scale.  That would be like every Usenet user runs their own NNTP server.  The design supports letting users just be users.  The more burden it is to run a node, the fewer nodes there will be.  Those few nodes will be big server farms.  The rest will be client nodes that only do transactions and don’t generate.

-satoshi on bitcointalk.org, July 29, 2010

As a user of Bitcoin (BSV), I have ZERO desire to deal with the hassle of “running a node”. The BTC Core story is that we must keep the cost of “running a node” accessible to as many people as possible, because decentralization. I have not experienced a problem with using a non-custodial SPV (simple payment verification) or similar type of wallet to use Bitcoin as money, and only refer to a block explorer when necessary.

In fact, as a non-coding regular “Alice”, I don’t really give a rat’s rectum about technical details which are irrelevant to my user experience as long as I am able to simply USE the product or service that adds value to my life with more delight and less migraine-inducing frustration.

Fledgling apps or businesses being built on Bitcoin need to earn the trust and loyalty of new clients and customers. First impressions do matter. The general public (mass market) is not as forgiving as the early adopter nerds and enthusiasts.

  • Does your product or service actually work? Dear devs, I realize this is the hard part. Thank you for building brand new products and services (from scratch?) that work with Bitcoin!
  • Does your business have a memorable, recognizable name? A contemporary, professionally designed logo and cohesive brand identity is also a worthwhile investment when your idea is ready to present to the world. Obviously there must be substance to back up the name and outward appearance, unlike many ICOs with no reason to exist other than fluffy marketing and swindling.
  • Does your business clearly explain your product or service so that the average or intelligent potential customer can understand what’s on offer? Are you using technical jargon without explaining acronyms? Did you or someone else proofread the copy on your website? Glaring spelling and grammatical errors do not inspire trust about overall competence. “Crypto news” sites (and, let’s face it, the entire internet) often suffer from this kind of inattention to detail. Bitcoin might be described as a “trustless” system, but trust is generally required to do business. If there is an English-as-an-additional-language issue, consider recruiting a linguistically competent friend or family member, or hiring a proofreader, copywriter, or editor to help. FAQs? Videos? Blog or articles to keep us up to speed?
  • Does your product or service demonstrate empathy for the customer? Is it easy, intuitive, and pleasant to use for the intended end user? Does it take a couple of minutes to sign up, or must people jump through hoops? Is there a reasonable learning curve? (Aside: The first time I tried to use the Instagram “story” feature, it took me a few minutes to figure out, but I knew that millions of teenagers and mommy bloggers had already figured it out, so there’s that.) Are there some special touches to delight? (e.g. the Money Button party pinata animation) Underpromise and overdeliver.
  • Do you have a long term outlook and vision that inspires you to persist (i.e. not suddenly disappearing a few months after releasing an app)? Do you have one or more team members dedicated to providing excellent (and beyond) customer service and technical support? Are you easy to contact and receptive to feedback? Is there a marketing plan including social media presence? Do you (within your control) project a professional and sincere attitude when conducting public relations? Do your fans and promoters (not necessarily within your control) behave like argumentative and toxic idiots on social media? Do you reach out to other builders and promoters in the economy and/or community to cross-promote your wonderful and possibly interoperable products and services?

That’s a lot of stuff, and just the bare basic things in a competitive world. Businesses and devs in the BSV economy seem to generally have a high level of professionalism. I hope this post does not come across as pedantic, coming from a non-technical dreamer/artist. Amongst various Bitcoin projects, amateurs are likely to be outcompeted by businesses (unless the former levels up).