Bitcoin UX & Marketing with Dan Held

“We each have independent narratives, in terms of how we talk about Bitcoin, but we’re each part of the same team and I think we all agree that our objective here is to convert as many people to Bitcoin as possible.” — Dan Held Location: Zoom Date: Friday, 19th June Company/Project: Kraken Role: Director of Business Development The very early believers in Bitcoin tended to fall into two camps, the Libertarians who were drawn to the censorship resistance & self-sovereignty of Bitcoin and the tech-savvy developers who saw a new experimental technology that was the first to truly offer a distributed & decentralised digital money. As Bitcoin has gained in value, it too has grown to appeal to audiences that don’t necessarily fit into these two camps. Fewer tech-savvy people have come to Bitcoin for ‘number go up’ more than the censorship resistance and decentralisation. For these people, coming into Bitcoin can be hostile and confusing. The community is understandably frosty to those not willing to learn about the importance of holding their own keys, protecting their privacy and being self-sovereign and the software can be confusing and unintuitive. For newcomers running a node is difficult, holding your private keys daunting and interacting with the community scary. So, improving both the UX and marketing of Bitcoin is key to attracting less technical people to the space. In this interview, I talk to Dan Held the Director of Business Development at Kraken. We discuss the importance of easy user experience, how Bitcoin can be a daunting experience, if newcomers should hold their private keys and why marketing matters. This episode’s sponsors: Kraken - The best place to buy, sell & trade Bitcoin BlockFi - The future of Bitcoin financial services Sportsbet.io - Online sportsbook & casino that accepts Bitcoin Casa - The leading provider of Bitcoin multisig key security. ----- WBD236 Show Notes: https://www.whatbitcoindid.com/podcast/bitcoin-ux-marketing-with-dan-held ----- 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 Make a tip: Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2S QR Codes: Bitcoin | Ethereum | Litecoin | Monero | ZCash | Ripplecoin If you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank you Subscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | Deezer | TuneIn | RSS Feed 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 | YouTube If you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.