Those of us who have spent any time trying to evangelize Bitcoin know that one of the most difficult hurdles is overcoming the intimidation of using Bitcoin felt by the newcomer. “That’s just too technical for me” or “I’m not really a computer guy” are common lines. I don’t think these are just excuses meant to get out of doing a good idea, I think these are genuine concerns from people who just don’t know any better. In their defense, there is a lot of jargon out there and there is a learning curve if you want to understand how Bitcoin works under the hood, but simply sending and receiving Bitcoin is very easy.
But how do we convince them? Do we send them podcast episodes and videos and blog posts? Do we sit down and talk them through everything in excruciating detail?
I’m not going to say those things won’t work for some people, but I’ve found a much better way. Let me lay out the steps.
- Create a wallet (using your preferred or favorite wallet, preferably a phone wallet) and write down the seed phrase or private key as you normally would.
- Send a small amount of Bitcoin to the wallet. I usually send $10 worth.
- Hand the person the seed phrase or private key backup you wrote down.
- With a little bit of explanation (such as sending them the link to download the wallet), instruct them to restore the wallet from the paper backup, create a new wallet, and then send the Bitcoin from the restored wallet to their new wallet.
- Inform them after that some period of time (a week or two), you will spend the Bitcoin back to yourself if they don’t complete their tasks.
This costs you a little bit of money, but it saves you a lot of time and filters out the people who aren’t serious about learning. More importantly, your student learns in a way that is much more meaningful and impactful. This method has the following benefits:
- There is a built-in incentive to learn.
- They learn how to restore a wallet from a backup.
- They learn how to create a wallet.
- They learn how to send and receive a transaction.
- They won’t be worried about messing up because none of their money is at stake.
- They learn about the importance of securing the private key. Even though they might restore the wallet, since you also have a copy, it makes them understand that you can spend the Bitcoin as well.
It’s very likely that they’ll come back to you and say that the task was way easier than they anticipated. If they decide to keep going and continue to buy Bitcoin, you’ve already laid a foundation of understanding why it’s not a good idea to leave all their Bitcoin on the exchange.
Happy orange pilling!