I onboarded my mother and sister into crypto - Adoption is now! 👍

BASE HEADER onboarded mothersister.png

A few days ago I helped both my mother and my sister to buy, store and handle their first cryptocurrency. Adoption is happening, and I'm doing my part!

Their First Bitcoin

bitcoin logo small.png

The amazing part of this story is that I didn't even have to force it onto them! My mother already was one foot in the door, since I was hodling some cryptocurrency for her since last year when I convinced her to put a little bit into it (ahead of the big bull-run 😎) but I had been the one handling it and taking care of everything that came with it ever since. Until a few days ago, when she approached me with the news that not only does she want to buy some more, but also my sister now wants to own some BTC! Amazing!

I'm not sure either of them really understands why Bitcoin is such a huge thing. Perhaps my mother does to some extent, as she's forced to listen to me go on and on about it. Still, I think it's pretty exciting to encounter 'normies' in my life approaching me to buy crypto. Of course, it does help that I told them that right now probably is not a terrible time to buy. I did impress on both of them that they are themselves responsible, and I cannot be held accountable if we drop another 50%. They seem to understand 👍

Buying Bitcoin is hard

One thing I did notice is how hard Bitcoin and crypto in general still is. It's easy to forget when you've been in the space for a while and have everything set up, but as a newcomer there still is a lot of hassle involved with starting the crypto-journey.

frustrated.jpg

Of course, there's the software hurdle. I decided it was probably best if they used a hardware wallet, so we got them a Ledger Nano S. Then installation followed - the 24 word passphrase deal was time-consuming enough, but explaining that the hardware device is something different than the desktop wallet application took some time too. The next big hurdle was actually getting the Bitcoin in the first place. There are many ways to get Bitcoin with FIAT but few of them are very fast. The easiest method is to just use one of those websites which buy and sell Bitcoin for a small fee. It wasn't hard to find, but regulations have really tightened up!!

Before they could buy first they had to make an account. Then they had to go through some KYC hassle where verification had to happen with the bank account that they wanted to couple to the account, as well as giving up a phone number. And that's just for Tier 1, which allows for a maximum purchase or sale of €100. We are working on getting them Tier 2 next, but this is a process that takes at least 7 days. We settled on a first, low purchase in order to get started and get them going.

Still, I was surprised to see this much hassle in setting up. I don't remember it from back when I purchased Bitcoin, and I must say it's quite an annoyance to someone new. At the end of it all we must have spent almost 3 hours from start to finish, and it involved a bunch of account creations, verifications, bank payments and whatnot. By the end of it, anyone would be tired and perhaps wonder if this Bitcoin thing really is such an improvement.Of course, many of these hurdles are thrown up by regulators and I do believe that the amount of 'friction' in purchasing crypto has increased a lot. That probably has a negative effect on the adoption rate - which is bad in a way, but also a nice sign that we're still in the very early days. Because of those hurdles, I'm sure many people could give up before long.

I told them to purchase in small steps from now on, explaining the basics of dollar-cost-averaging. I think both of them see it as an investment for the future. My mother is halfway into being a believer, and my sister sees it as an extra savings account of some sort. In any case, I'm pretty excited about having onboarded people in normal life onto crypto for the first time.


footercartoon new5.png

Sort:  

Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by pandorasbox from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.

If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.

Cool that you bring more people on board in the crypto revolution. :)

So cool bringing them into the crypto world, or more in in your mothers case, it is a pity it can be so challenging to get started

What amazing family you have.

Coin Marketplace

STEEM 0.26
TRX 0.29
JST 0.045
BTC 99825.91
ETH 3883.21
USDT 1.00
SBD 3.65