Pierre Rochard on Bitcoin Adoption Hurdles

10/29/19 • -1 min

Location: New York
Date: Tuesday, 22nd October
Project: Kraken
Role: Bitcoin Evangelist

Despite the arguments that Bitcoin is the hardest money, it is the opportunity for new Bitcoiners to make a profit in their local fiat currency which is the primary driver of awareness and adoption.

Since the launch of Bitcoin over 10 years ago, there have been a number of bull markets which has seen a rapid rise in the price of Bitcoin leading to wider awareness. The volume during the most recent bull run in 2017 led to exchanges struggling to cope with the volume and some dropping offline. Such was the demand that Bittrex and Bitfinex had to close down new user registrations.

Making it easier for new Bitcoiners to acquire the asset has been a key driver of adoption. Good exchange and wallet UX, and education regarding key issues such as private key management not only support adoption but help new Bitcoiners avoid making silly mistakes.

The Bitcoin rabbit hole is deep and there are many new concepts which can be intimidating to new Bitcoiners which sometimes OGs take for granted. Transacting alone requires consideration for a type of transaction fee, unconfirmed transactions and the reality that mistakes can’t be reversed.

Having talked to Hotep and followed his journey into Bitcoin and the distraction with shitcoins, people told me to ignore him. I wanted to do the opposite as I wanted to learn about how someone new sees the space.

Kraken recognises that UX can be a hurdle for adoption, and are working on making it as simple as possible for new Bitcoiners to acquire and understand the asset. They recently hired Bitcoin OG Pierre Rochard to help with onboarding new users and Bitcoin adoption.

In this interview, Pierre and I discuss why they were the right fit for him, mass adoption, onboarding, Bitcoin financial services and the lightning network.

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Location: New York
Date: Tuesday, 22nd October
Project: Kraken
Role: Bitcoin Evangelist

Despite the arguments that Bitcoin is the hardest money, it is the opportunity for new Bitcoiners to make a profit in their local fiat currency which is the primary driver of awareness and adoption.

In this interview, Pierre and I discuss why they were the right fit for him, mass adoption, onboarding, Bitcoin financial services and the lightning network.

-----

If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:

Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contribute

Leave a review on iTunes

Share the show and episodes with your friends and family

Subscribe to the newsletter on my website

Follow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium |

Previous Episode

Pierre Rochard on Bitcoin Adoption Hurdles - WBD162

Location: New York Date: Tuesday, 22nd October Project: Kraken Role: Bitcoin Evangelist

Despite the arguments that Bitcoin is the hardest money, it is the opportunity for new Bitcoiners to make a profit in their local fiat currency which is the primary driver of awareness and adoption.

In this interview, Pierre and I discuss why they were the right fit for him, mass adoption, onboarding, Bitcoin financial services and the lightning network.

Next Episode

Nick Szabo on Cypherpunks, Money and Bitcoin - WBD163

Location: San Francisco Date: Monday, 21st October Project: n/a Role: Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts pioneer

On October 31st 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto emailed the cypherpunk mailing list, telling them "I've been working on a new electronic cash system that's fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party." In the 11 years that followed Bitcoin has proven to be the most successful attempt at creating a censorship-resistant and trust minimised digital currency.

Bitcoin was not the first attempt at creating a trust minimised currency, and there were several proposals, implementations and technologies which led to Bitcoin:

In the 1990's DigiCash, headed by David Chaum, attempted to make online payments anonymous.
In 1997 Adam Back created HashCash using a proof-of-work system to reduce email spam and prevent denial of service attacks.
In 1998 Wei Dai proposed B-money to allow for an "anonymous, distributed electronic cash system".
In 2004 Hal Finney built upon the idea of Hashcash and created Reusable Proofs of Work.
And in 2005 Nick Szabo proposed Bit Gold. Where unforgettable proof of work chains would share properties of gold: scarce, valuable and trust minimised but with the benefit of being easily transactable.

When Satoshi released the Bitcoin whitepaper, rather than a revolution, Bitcoin was an evolution of all that had come before it with Bitcoin being the most trust minimised, censorship-resistant and hardest currency that has ever existed.

Among Satoshi's email recipients was Nick Szabo, a computer scientist, cryptographer, the designer of Bit Gold and Smart Contracts pioneer. In a rare interview, Nick joins me to discuss the cypherpunk movement, what money is, privacy and of course, Bitcoin.