The role of user-interface designers for Bitcoin, opportunities for creating visual and linguistic metaphors to increase accessibility. What happens when design decisions are made by engineers. Increasing investment in the Bitcoin space. “Real” jobs and money. The efficiency of banks and fiat payment vs. Bitcoin during The Internet of Money tour. If it's not your keys, it's not your bitcoin.
Transcript
[AUDIENCE] Hi, I'm Ashley. I am a user experience designer, and I just heard about cryptocurrencies today. [ANDREAS] Wow! [AUDIENCE] I was just trying to decide...
whether this is worth looking into, and it seems like there is a real question of ethics [here]. I know you spoke to the media [portrayal] and stuff, but I was in a very real job interview today with... a for-profit company and I want to know what the role of user interface and experience designers, proselytizers and such is for this kind of platform. Where is there room to be- See?
I told you it was a bad question. [ANDREAS] No, it is not a bad question at all. [AUDIENCE] I'm trying to figure out what is important about [them], and where do I find a spot inside it? [ANDREAS] I did a presentation at Hardward University for a workshop with IDEO Lab, [based in] San Francisco.
The workshop was on design fundamentals, [and there was also] a hackathon with young designers, to do design for Bitcoin. I did an hour-long presentation telling them about everything that sucks about Bitcoin design. If you look at Bitcoin simply as a computer technology, you are missing the point. Bitcoin is probably the fifth change...
in the most ancient technology we have as a human species, which is money. From barter, to precious metals, to pieces of paper (fiat), to credit cards, and then Bitcoin. One of the elements of design is taking something new and creating visual or linguistic metaphors... to make it accessible to people within an existing paradigm, and help them understand it by setting up expectations of behaviour.
If we call it "Bitcoin," what does that mean? How do you expect [the system] to behave? If you say this is a "wallet," how do you expect it to behave? For a user interface designer, nothing is better than working on a really strange, disruptive technology...
which [represents one of] the most important technologies we use in society (money), but changes it in a way that hasn't [occurred] for more than five times in [about] two million years. [We must] take that technology and try to explain it to people through design. The good news [for designers] is, the attempts we have made so far are laughably bad. Let's [think of the name], "Bitcoin." What should you call the most abstract form of money ever?
"Let's call it a 'coin,' the most physical form of money ever created." Well, that is not a good idea. "How about we put the prefix 'bit-' in front?" Well, in some languages that means 'small,' [but do you] want to associate that with money? In other languages, it means "I am a geek." [Laughter] That should alienate anybody over forty [years old]! [What should we call] the main user interface that everyone will interact with?
The collection of keys? "Let's not call it a keychain; let's call it a wallet." But you can make a copy of a keychain. If you have a key to your house, and you make a copy, another person can get into your house. "But that makes far too much sense.
Let's call it a wallet, like the thing you have in your pocket... that you can't make a copy of, which holds all your money, even though a Bitcoin wallet doesn't hold money and you can make a copy of it. All the coins are actually in the network [These discussions] go on and on. Bitcoin is plagued by design decisions made by engineers.
So what greater challenge could there be for a designer than to come in and fix all this mess? As far as work is concerned, this space has been generating thousands of well-paying jobs. There are over $2 billion of investment that have flowed into this space just in the last two years, in a time when, outside of this space, the vast majority of jobs are minimum-wage and unqualified. In this space, the jobs are creative, sophisticated, and highly paid.
You said you had an interview for... a "real job" that pays real money, and I understand that. But this has been my real job, and I have been earning "fake" internet money (bitcoin) for three years now. I live happily with an income paid in bitcoin.
Interestingly enough this seven-city tour involves... six talks organized by Bitcoin meetups that are helping to support my expenses, and the one of those conferences is organized by Swiss banks. Who do you think paid me faster? [Laughter] I sent the Swiss banks an invoice.
Then they asked me for the SWIFT code. But my bank was closed, so I needed to wait until the next day to call my bank. They gave me the SWIFT code. I sent them four pages of instruction.
They made the payment, but nothing happened for two weeks, so I followed up with my bank. [My bank] told me they can't find the payment, so they asked me to follow up with the [other] bank. My bank was open, but their bank was closed., so they followed up with their bank the next day. They couldn't find the payment [either]; they asked me to follow up with my bank, but my bank was closed again.
The next day, I call my bank again to ask where the wire transfer is. They say, "You see, what happened is... this is a U.S. dollar account, and they sent Swiss francs." "Right, so you converted them?" "No, we can't convert them." "If the wire is [denominated] in Swiss francs, but the destination account is in U.S.
dollars, it can't go in." [Laughter] "Well, can you give me the details of the wire?" "No, we can't give you details... about the wire unless you are the verified recipient. So please tell me, which company sent you the wire?" I said, "I receive a dozen wires every month. All of my work is international.
I don't know." "Maybe this was the German wire?" "No, it wasn't a German wire." "Was it the Swiss one?" "No, it wasn't the Swiss wire..." "Was it the English wire?" "Oh, you're getting warmer!" [Laughter] This is some kind of bizarre, sadistic 'Twenty Questions' game with my banker in order to receive my money! Long story short, the wire didn't come through. It was bounced back, which means they didn't get it either. I called them back and say, "The wire was rejected." They said.
"Well, we didn't receive it either." "Well, call your bank because our bank is closed today." They called their bank the next day. They found out that the wire has been "lost." [Laughter] Of course, this is what happens when you try to do banking with Botswana... Oh, wait, no. It was Switzerland, the center of world banking.
And they can't do a wire transfer. They are still "looking" for the wire. It has been more than seven weeks. They haven't received the money back.
So I told them about a very important American expression, which is: "NMP," which stands for "not my problem." I told them, "You still need to pay me anyway." "Oh, you lost your money? Sorry, but you use the banking system. I use Bitcoin." "That is why I told you to pay me in bitcoin." Instead, they sent me another wire, which took only four days to arrive. This happens to me with half my payments.
Now my contracts say, "If you pay me in bitcoin, this is the price." "If you want to pay me in anything else, plus 20%." That is the fee... [Applause] I know I am not answering your question anymore, but I will [return to] it in a moment. That is the fee [you must pay] for [forcing] me to talk to a banker for an hour per work. In contrast with the experience I have on Saturday afternoon, when I sit down and [consider] six meetups...
which have agreed to help me with expenses, and I've shared out the cost with all of them. So I send out six invoices, [one to each of] the six Bitcoin meetups, in six different countries, with three different currencies. I send out these invoice emails, go make a sandwich, come back fifteen minutes later, and [all the invoices] are paid, paid, paid, paid, paid, and paid! This was Saturday afternoon in the United States, and it was Saturday night in Europe.
On a Saturday night, I had just been paid from six different countries and companies, in fifteen minutes. Ten minutes later, that money was in my account irreversibly. To go back to your question, one of the advantages of working in this space is [how fast] you are paid. You will be paid no matter where you are working in the world.
There is no such thing as, "We sent the wrong amount, so we have taken it back out of your account." That can't happen anymore. So as a professional, you can bill and work anywhere in the world. with companies that work in any other currency, but use bitcoin as the international money of the internet. I know that is probably not very appealing to you right now, but there are opportunities for designers.
The work is very high quality. We desperately need good designers. You won't be able to pay your bills in bitcoin at first. When you receive bitcoin, you will need to convert it...
but that is very easy to do. How many people here convert- [AUDIENCE] These guys in the corner. They actually offer a service where you pay them in bitcoin and they pay your bills. [ANDREAS] So you can pay some of your bills directly in Bitcoin, but even if you can't...
[Sometimes] I immediately convert into dollars when I receive the bitcoin and use that to pay the bills, for the people who can't be paid in dollars. I use an exchange. Coinbase, yes. As the rule goes, I do not leave my money on the exchange.
I move it in, convert it, and move it out. If [you have] the keys, it is your bitcoin. If [you do not have] the keys, it is not your bitcoin! That is the lesson we all learned from Mt.
Gox. Let's try to not need to be taught that lesson again.