When Will Cryptocurrency Feel Like PayPal?

by A. Horrigan
19-Jan-2018

I recently asked a food truck vendor in my home town if he accepts bitcoin, and he replied, “No, but I’d really like to see one."

These days, many people are buying and holding cryptocurrency, hoping it will become widely used. But their hopes may be premature, as average people don't really understand what it is and the user experience provided by blockchain and cryptocurrency companies leaves people thoroughly baffled.

Crypto start-ups may be good at creating sleek home pages, but after the easy sign-up process, the user experience tends to fall off a cliff.

The user experience for cryptocurrencies is like trying to figure out how to drive a car by staring into the engine.

It seems few of the companies hire professional writers to produce clear instructions for customers. This problem is not limited to blockchain and crypto companies, but it’s more detrimental to them because the technology is new and complex.

No Directions

Often the only thing standing between a company and its potential customers is a clear understanding of the technology and how to use it.

But step-by-step guidelines are rare and often cryptic in their own right--leaving out key steps that might be second nature to the tech-savvy but not to the average Joe, or providing too many choices, necessitating more research.

There’s a steep learning curve to interact with cryptocurrency exchanges such as Kraken, for example, to institute proper security measures, and to understand the geeky world of software and hardware wallets, private and public keys, and seeds.

For the typical, non-technical user, the front-end looks not much different from the back-end. It's like trying to figure out how to drive a car by staring at the engine.

Most of the crypto and blockchain home pages I've reviewed don't even bother to explain exactly who their solutions are for--and just as important, who they are not for. Without this basic orienting information, companies are alienating thousands, if not millions, of potential users.

It Should Feel like Paypal

Will the majority of businesses and consumers take the time (and assume the risk) of using blockchain solutions and cryptocurrency?

According to Amanda B. Johnson, writer and host of Dash School, not until we change the look and feel of the technology.

Cryptocurrencies currently feel like PGP email encryption, she points out, noting that Guardian journalist Glen Greenwald almost didn’t get the Snowden story because he couldn’t understand the 12-minute video Snowden sent to explain how to do PGP encryption.

To be a real competitor with banks, cryptocurrency users should never have to hear the words “bitcoin miner” or “masternode,” says Johnson. They shouldn’t need a tutorial on blockchain technology, how to download a wallet, how to back up their private key. They shouldn’t have to look at a cryptographic address at all, an intimidating string of random numbers and letters. They shouldn’t even have to use the word "cryptocurrency."

Any network “where only nerds basically can grasp how to use it,” says Johnson, probably won’t survive.

Therein lays the cryptocurrency bubble. Many of the investors and companies that don't get that this still feels like PGP and needs to feel like PayPal will lose their shirts. It will all go down in history as “akin to tulip mania," says Johnson, "except maybe they’ll call it ‘cryptomania’ in the history books.”

Note: This post is derived from my earlier longer post on usability.