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Design Thinking for Blockchains

designforblockchain.net

1–10 of 19 posts

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#2
> One of the most significant obstacles against blockchain and cryptocurrency products from entering daily lives is bad user experiences.

I think the biggest obstacle is the use-case for blockchain. Unfortunately, most of the articles written in favor of blockchain solutions don't cover the why and hows and instead directly go for buzz words like trustless, decentralization etc. Case in point about banks:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescoppola/2018/04/21/bitco...

So I am really looking forward to a curated list of well-written articles on the use cases for blockchain.

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#3
post #2

> One of the most significant obstacles against blockchain and cryptocurrency products from entering daily lives is bad user experiences. I think the biggest obstacle is the use-case for blockchain. Unfortunately, most of the articles written in favor of blockchain solutions don't cover the why and hows and instead directly go for buzz words like trustless, decentralization etc. Case in point about banks: https://www…

Not a curated list, but I am writing a serialised book on the subject:

https://dailyfintech.com/building-the-blockchain-economy-ser...

My POV: plenty of problems to solve with Blockchain, UX is key and early attempts are very bad

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#4
One of the most significant obstacles against blockchain and cryptocurrency products from entering daily lives is bad user experiences. It is extremely difficult to figure out for someone who isn’t tech-savvy.

This has nothing to do with "blockchain."

It has everything to do with public key cryptography. Managing private keys is a royal pain for ordinary people. Yet every block chain secures its users assets with the same basic technology.

Users detest managing private keys so much so that they'll obligingly turn over their digital assets to bank-like institutions (Mt. Gox and a cavalcade of others who rarely get mentioned). In so doing users undermine the original censorship-resistant value proposition on which legitimate block chains are based.

If you want to make block chains more usable, focus on making public key cryptography more intuitive.

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#5
post #2

> One of the most significant obstacles against blockchain and cryptocurrency products from entering daily lives is bad user experiences. I think the biggest obstacle is the use-case for blockchain. Unfortunately, most of the articles written in favor of blockchain solutions don't cover the why and hows and instead directly go for buzz words like trustless, decentralization etc. Case in point about banks: https://www…

Blockchain is a technology – and as with all technologies, it should be abstracted away from the user. The majority of people don’t care about words such as “trustless” or “decentralization”; those are essentially meaningless. They need tangible benefits such as lower fees. Not sure why people in the cryptocurrency space don’t understand that.

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#6
post #4

One of the most significant obstacles against blockchain and cryptocurrency products from entering daily lives is bad user experiences. It is extremely difficult to figure out for someone who isn’t tech-savvy. This has nothing to do with "blockchain." It has everything to do with public key cryptography. Managing private keys is a royal pain for ordinary people. Yet every block chain secures its users assets with the…

I agree - this is the basis of the issue. Though there's no apparent solution. Using passwords is inherently less secure. What are the other alternatives?

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#7
post #5
post #2

> One of the most significant obstacles against blockchain and cryptocurrency products from entering daily lives is bad user experiences. I think the biggest obstacle is the use-case for blockchain. Unfortunately, most of the articles written in favor of blockchain solutions don't cover the why and hows and instead directly go for buzz words like trustless, decentralization etc. Case in point about banks: https://www…

Blockchain is a technology – and as with all technologies, it should be abstracted away from the user. The majority of people don’t care about words such as “trustless” or “decentralization”; those are essentially meaningless. They need tangible benefits such as lower fees. Not sure why people in the cryptocurrency space don’t understand that.

I think people in the crypto currency world understand that pretty well. The problem is that blockchain solutions don’t actually do anything useful yet.

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#9
post #5
post #2

> One of the most significant obstacles against blockchain and cryptocurrency products from entering daily lives is bad user experiences. I think the biggest obstacle is the use-case for blockchain. Unfortunately, most of the articles written in favor of blockchain solutions don't cover the why and hows and instead directly go for buzz words like trustless, decentralization etc. Case in point about banks: https://www…

Blockchain is a technology – and as with all technologies, it should be abstracted away from the user. The majority of people don’t care about words such as “trustless” or “decentralization”; those are essentially meaningless. They need tangible benefits such as lower fees. Not sure why people in the cryptocurrency space don’t understand that.

The intention of the better design for products. Products also should be abstracted away from the user?

Re: Design Thinking for Blockchains

#10
Users don't care if the database behind instagram is mysql or couchdb. Users don't care if a site uses php or node.

So why are we telling users they are using blockchain tech? And forcing them to hold their private keys?

Blockchain should be implemented behind the scenes to increase user experience, in a way that improves the overall technology. Until this occurs, we won't see mass adoption of blockchain.

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