Bitcoiners love to believe their complicated version of money will win hearts and minds. But they might be overlooking one crucial aspect – most people don’t even understand traditional finance, let alone the uber complicated digital finance of the future.
Almost two thirds of Americans can’t calculate interest payments. Yet, Bitcoiners believe their complicated digital currency, which incorporates encryption and deflation, will catch on and “revolutionize” finance.
A new study released today determined nearly two-thirds of Americans would fail a basic financial literacy test. They got less than four answers on a five-question quiz correct. How many people who could pass the test has declined since the financial crisis. Last year, just 37% could pass. So, good luck explaining to them SHA-256 and mining.
The FINRA Foundation’s National Capability Study surveyed 27,564 US Citizens from June through October of last year. FINRA regulates brokers on Wall Street.
Only 28% understood what happens to bond prices when interest rates decline; that is, they fall. Fewer than half of all American can answer rudimentary questions about financial risk.
Significant portions of the population – in particularly, African-Americans, Hispanics, women, Millennials, and those without high school education – are worse off than before the recession. More than one in five Americans have unpaid medical debt.
39% of blacks and 35% of Latinos have used high-cost forms of borrowing like pawn shops and payday loans. Just 21% of whites and 21% of Asians have done so. 29% of 18-34 year olds – Millennials – have been late on mortgages. 45% of respondents without college education said if they had an emergency requiring $2,000 within a month, they’d fail to do so. So, even if they did understand Bitcoin, it’s not clear they’d have the extra cash to speculate.
“This research underscores the critical need for innovative strategies to equip consumers with the tools and education required to effectively manage their financial lives,” according to FINRA Foundation Chairman Richard Ketchum. “My hope is that policymakers, researchers, and advocates will use these findings to make more informed decisions about how to best reach underserved populations.”
So while Bitcoiners debate scaling the software so that more people can transact with Bitcoin simultaneously, it might be in the so-called “Bitcoin Community’s” best interest to double down on education efforts before they take such risks.
Stolen.
Original here: https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-financial-literacy/
Thanks for the policing. I already up voted it. :(
You can correct that by clicking on the upvote button again, or even downvote with the flag in the upper right corner of a post.
Thanks for the tip, and DONE.
That is horrible. But I suppose it is why we can get paid to curate... Good catch, thank you!
This is why I believe that the complexities behind steem do not matter. It is the end user experience that will drive things.
wow your upvote has the most weight I've ever seen.
How does it affect comments?
hint hint ;P
thanks friend
You got me to bite. =b
Haha :P too bad @dan didn't. ;P
There are few complexities. Maybe a tutorial in the account to help people understand permissions.
so is a friend, the end which is the reason it is the user
I'm hoping that is what will drive it-user experience and an overall sense of value from the content shared. If it gets too sales-y, it will deviate from being the special place we are all hoping for.
I absolutely believe it is possible to make a somewhat complicated system such as Bitcoin user friendly enough for average people to make sense of it. It just depends on how well developed the user interface is.
hello if you also have that much see the tools that are given to people and that is as understandable as possible
It made me think
I have seen the same sort of argument against the internet in the early 90's "its to too complicated etc" but look at us now we use it every day. Smart people will make it possible :) cheers
so is a friend, the internet can be a way of freedom
You are right about the stupidity of most Americans, but since when is not understanding something ever really stopped people from taking part. Many use this currant system, like you explained, with little or know knowledge of it.
I think there are enough savvy people who are willing to learn and see its amazing capabilities and many benefits. Of course it may take time but as we see with many things the "herd" doesn't need an in depth understanding to accept it
At the end of the day, its literally clicking a few buttons in the correct order.
Bitcoin will succeed precisely because the majority does not understand how the modern financial system works. If the masses had any idea how badly they are being robbed by the central banks there would be blood tomorrow. Bitcoin offers a way for the common people to retake control of their wealth with a smart phone. I wouldn't count Bitcoin out just yet, it has network effect and a serious first mover advantage.
Not only is this stolen, it's also a shit article
Why would they need to know mining or SHA-256? Apps like Arba completely disguise the fact that you are using crypto. You don't need to understand SHA-256 and mining to hear about bitcoin become a legitimate asset and want to put some of it in your portfolio. It's also the most secure and you only need to look back yesterday to remember why that's important.
And guess what Steem is far more complex than bitcoin. I understand the technicals of bitcoin and I still don't understand how Steem works. But here I am still using it
Good points but bitcoin is not really targeted at people who have access to financial banking. It's for the 6 billion people that don't have access to banks (but likely have access to a cell phone) and that is valuable.
Stolen article aside, this article is silly. It's like saying Derivatives aren't successful because most people don't own them or understand them.
One path to success would be to have a billion people using Bitcoin regularly. That would be fantastic, and true to the vision of what Bitcoin was meant to be.
But there are plenty of other paths to "move forward" (whatever that actually means). A single mega-rich investor wanting to park his funds somewhere with comparatively low inflation (and potentially away from the prying eyes of the tax authorities) could hugely drive the price of Bitcoin up. More likely, companies will build platforms on top of Bitcoin and customers will end up using Bitcoin and the Blockchain without even knowing it. Kind of like how most people use the internet without ever knowing with TCP and UDP are. Remittance companies are a great example of this -- I give them money, they make it appear at the other end, in a different currency. Bitcoin can be the facilitation layer, but I don't need to care.
And as we continue to see financial crisis after crisis, more bail-ins, smart money is going to start finding it's way to places that can't be stolen. Your mom isn't using bitcoin because for her needs, credit cards work just as well (if not better). So why would she? But give people the right incentives...
From a success metric standpoint, I believe Bitcoin is much less likely to fail for the factors mentioned in the article, and more likely to fail through competition with other cryptocurrencies, some of which might eventually outshine it.
You don't need to understand money to use it. Bitcoin is actually very simple if you disregard the technicalities. It's just a currency that will retain its value.
Sad state of financial literacy...
You can set a friend up with an android crypto wallet in twenty minutes. Then watch their face when they realise that they can send money around the world, for practically nothing, in practically no time.
Look at stocks many people have no clue how that works and they still invest, there are always gonna be those kinds of investors
bitcoin to the moon!
This article is so stupid and narrow minded.
How I got 18 btc in bustabit gambling game and got broke!
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@burgalu/here-s-how-i-earned-almost-18-btc-gambling-in-bustabit-com-and-got-broke