I honestly don’t know how to onboard people anymore… half the wallets look like ass, the other half behave like ass and the third half (off by one errors are hard) looks and behaves like ass. And then there’s the question of which poison to recommend. Spark? Cashu? A whole ass node full of complexity which still needs purchasing liquidity from a third party? Ignore lightning entirely and tell them to run a plain and boring bitcoin wallet like bluewallet? So many questions…

I’m long past the need to bring up Bitcoin at all. I see now that doing so was just a way of validating my own interest and decision making. I found my own way to Bitcoin when I needed it through podcasts. Let others find their way, too, I figure. Or not.

I see a lot of this. If not explicitly stated, then demonstrated through a complete lack of participation. People don't really return to the meetups after 1 or 2 cycles. "People will figure it out on their own." Its like bitcoiners are embarassed of their ideas, but somehow also extremely convicted by them.

I’m not embarrassed. My closest friends and relatives know and accept it. Only two own, one because of me. I’ve been quite interested in personal investing for decades, yet I can count on one hand the number of in-depth conversations I’ve had about STOCKS, much less anything more complicated. I realized it’s even less likely to gain interest in Bitcoin, especially given how hostile the mainstream media is to Bitcoin.

I would skip the whole self-custody thing for onboarding. I'm not obligated to do the work of a bunch of wallet writers and manufacturers who lazily thrust the same compromises and awful standards on us for the last 13 years. Trying to make everyone a sovereign self-custodian Day One is mission creep. Convert Square merchants. Tell your family and friends about Strike or CashApp. Hairshirt fanaticism is for the monero bros who want to LARP as science fiction characters and ship each other baked goods and shit.

And then what would be the following steps? Or do we expect them to figure out the rest on their own?

Direct them to the local meetup or grounded, practical resources online. IMO getting bitcoin into as many hands as possible, however they hold it, is the most important part. People with skin in the game will move the needle faster and further than a handful of hardcore's obsessing about rolling dice.

I’m just afraid of people getting burned, because they are most likely going to paint a negative image to others around them. And negativity spreads faster than positivity, hoomans are simply wired like that.

Burned by what?

Anything. Rug pulls, retarded legislation changes, bad UX (though indeed most centralized options have it somewhat better)... It probably doesn’t help that I live in a different country so I have to weight the local options, not sure I have a cashapp equivalent.

The more people that own bitcoin, the more the present a political front that makes the government think twice about fucking with us. As fat as rug pulls go, don't know what to tell you. Pick custodians that aren't reprobates.