Bitcoin is Wordpress and Coinbase is Wix
About two weeks ago I helped him set up a Coinbase account and I sold him one of my Bitcoins and sent it over to his account. Earlier today I had messaged him and told him Ethereum and Litecoin were down and told him if he wants to buy he should buy some now.
Well despite several attempts my dad can't figure out how to connect his bank account and make a purchase lol, so he asked me to buy him about $2500 worth of Litecoin and Ethereum so I made a purchase for him through my GDAX account.
This evening I was over eating dinner with him and my mom and after dinner he said "hey you wanna send me those coins?"
I logged onto my Coinbase account and noticed there was an option to send coins to an e-mail address, or I guess I should say to a Coinbase account associated with his e-mail address. I typed in his e-mail address, selected the amount of coins I wanted to send him and hit send. A few minutes later we logged into his account to make sure the coins arrived and sure enough they had.
This got me thinking, boy was that transfer easy. I didn't have to have him log in to his Coinbase account, get a Litecoin address, e-mail it to me, then have me send. Then go into his Coinbase account get an Ethereum address, have him e-mail it to me and send again. I simply typed his e-mail in which I knew off the top of my head and sent him coins.
A while back I had been listening to a John McAfee talk where he mentioned how he had lost thousands of Dollars worth of cryptos sending them to wrong addresses. He said Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are overly complicated and that until they were simplified to the point a housewife could use them they wouldn't go mainstream.
Now McAfee having a background in software talked about how software is meant to simplify things which our brains have a hard time comprehending. He said there is a lot of need and a lot of opportunity in the cryptocurrency world to have software "dumb down" for lack of a better word the use of cryptocurrency.
Now I know what you guys are thinking. The whole point of cryptocurrency is to get rid of centralized exchanges and banks. The whole point of cryptocurrency is to be your own bank right?
Well yes and no. There are people interested in cryptocurrency who want to be a part of it, but maybe aren't quite ready to take on the full responsibility of being their own bank and that's the beauty of a site like Coinbase, they dumb it down for people.
That said for you and I who do understand it and are capable and would prefer holding our own keys and being our own bank we have the option to do so.
So this is where we get back to the title of this post Bitcoin is Wordpress and Coinbase is Wix. I think most web developers would tell you that Wix is in pretty much every way superior to Wix and Squarespace and other website builders. You truly own your site and the content, you have much more flexibility, and while it's a more complicated platform with a bit of a learning curve, it's the superior way to build and maintain a site.
That said there are many people out there who want or need to have a website, but who aren't capable of setting up and managing a Wordpress site. For these people we have Wix. They sacrafice a bit of the autonomy and control and flexibility for ease of use, but at the end of the day they are still able to have their own website online.
This is why I make the argument or the analogy that Bitcoin is Wordpress. Bitcoin does take a bit more of a learning curve and a bit more technical knowledge, but you are your own bank and have sole control in the same way you have it with a Wordpress site.
People who aren't ready or aren't knowledgeable enough to make that leap yet can still get involved with Bitcoin, but they sacrafice a bit of autonomy and control by using a site like Coinbase.
I think most of us would agree controlling your own keys is the superior way of owning Bitcoin, however for someone first getting involved Coinbase allows them to dip their toe in the pond and feel comfortable doing so.
