A peculiar phenomenon in the Bitcoin and Lightning developer scene is that, while they are at the forefront of digital currency in terms of technical innovation, they lag far behind in many already established disciplines on the internet.
Two things stand out in particular: usability and trust-building measures. This is evident even in the most basic elements, whether it’s Bitcoin wallet UI, Lightning apps, various tools, or clients. Even I often struggle to understand what they are about. When a new tool is released, I find myself asking, “What is this, actually?” or “What can it do, and what problem does it solve?”
One would think that we have long moved past this awkward nerd phase of software development and marketing. Many open-source developments have long solved the problem of identification and communication to potential users. Even the most reserved developers have learned that a tool’s website should clearly state its purpose in a sentence or two. However, this is not the case in the Bitcoin scene. It seems as if they are starting from scratch in terms of usability development.
When I began offering heuristic usability analyses for websites at the beginning of the millennium, the first thing I focused on was self-presentation. The questions “What kind of website are you?” and “What do you offer?” had to be clearly answered in the first 2 seconds when someone accessed a website for the first time. Anyone publicly presenting something to a foreign audience cannot afford to make this mistake. Typically, there is no more time to make a clear introduction. If I didn’t understand what the website was about in the first 5 seconds, I would abort further tests and inform the operator.
Another achievement that the online community has built up in a 25 years journey is that trust-building measures cannot be overlooked, especially when selling something. The first and most fundamental measure is for the business operator to at least identify themselves. This is such a basic element that it has long been incorporated into laws (imprint obligation). And the legislator is not particularly famous for quickly translating established internet insights into law.
Nevertheless, especially in the Bitcoin Lightning environment, we have many providers who think they can appear as anonymous as a stereotypical hacker with sunglasses and a hooded shirt from one of the first hacker movies in the 90s. They expect people to trust them and entrust them with their valuable Satoshis.
I became aware of this phenomenon through two providers. One is a well-known Lightning app manufacturer, and the other offers payment solutions for online shops. Both make money through commissions, and both require the customer to extend a certain level of trust. On both providers’ websites, I could not find any provider identification. No imprint. No registered company name with an address. Not even in the terms and conditions, which is already a joke because the validity of such terms is questionable when you don’t even know who you are entering into a contract with (as I wrote about fake personas in online business before). Also, in all other legal texts on the website, such as the privacy policy, the provider is consistently omitted. This also makes the privacy policy incomplete and therefore invalid.
It’s as if, in many cases, 13-year-old wannabe hackers are trying to make fast internet money anonymously under a childish pseudonym. The old internet wisdom “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” still holds true. And you can only counteract it a little by providing at least verifiable provider identification. At least give an address (although that alone is not enough; tax numbers, registration numbers, phone numbers, etc., are not only good manners but also legally required in the civilized world), so that potential customers can use a map app to check if the address is not somewhere in a desert or a slum area.
Mind you, I’m talking about the most basic requirements of usability and trust-building in the Bitcoin scene. More subtle knowledge doesn’t even come into play here. These are the first steps that need to be taken and have been established for more than 15 years. It’s the mandatory routine, so to speak.
It’s time for the guys in this scene to pull themselves together and not pretend that the entire internet started with the invention of Bitcoin. Because digital currency itself is a discovery that has gone through a long trial-and-error phase and is based on many previous technologies. The so-called soft disciplines of human-computer-interaction (HCI) should not be an exception.
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