First experience exchanging bitcoin in person and opinions

I was introduced to bitcoin about a year ago, but I didn’t begin using bitcoin until recently. I must admit that the process brought with it a bit of anxiety, since this wasn’t the same as going to the conventional bank or exchange that we’re all used to doing. Here, I would like to share the story of my first exchange, my thoughts about the Muun wallet, along with thoughts about problems which could be addressed by makers. With this I'm hoping my experience can lead to motivating makers to address problems, therefore, I'd be glad if anyone can use my case to validate their user research.

Experience of my first exchange

As is usual for first experiences, mine started off with the mistake of thinking that the string I had to send to receive a payment lasted only 10 minutes, when it lasts 24 hours. Thanks to the great wallet that is Muun, everything else went smoothly. I sent the code and received my payment. The only downside is the bitcoin volatility, but that’s a topic for another time.

Exchanging sats for cash

The next thing that I needed to do was exchange the bitcoin for some fiat cash. I would imagine that this is the part that feels most strange to first time bitcoiners. If I can make an honest analogy of the process, it felt like buying something from a friend or the guy down the street. This might be a strange way of perceiving a monetary exchange, since we are so used to large financial institutions in fancy buildings and offices with staff behind glass. No such thing existed here.

We got in touch, and they greeted me at the door with a welcoming smile. The office itself was clean and minimalistic, however, the first floor was undergoing repairs. We went upstairs, chatting on the way. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The office windows were wide open. There was a desk and a man who chatted with me while I sent him the money through the Muun wallet and he counted the cash while waiting for confirmations. All went well. He received the confirmations within about 5 minutes and he gave me the cash. That's all!

The next time I’ll feel less nervous, as the process is quite simple. As long as the person you’re exchanging with is recommended by a friend who has transacted with them before, you shouldn’t have worries.

Thoughts on using the Muun wallet

The Muun wallet has a spotless and simplistic design. There is nothing unnecessary on the screen that might confuse you. Just a send and receive button with a constantly updating exchange rate showing fiat currency to bitcoin or sats. I don’t have any experience using other wallets, so these are just thoughts on what I see as a first-time user, and I can’t make a valid comparison with other wallets for the time being.

Some things that I would like to see implemented in Muun, or other wallets, are:

Messaging between wallets - this would be a nice way to communicate about transactions beforehand.
A contact list of trusted people whom I can send to by simply selecting them - regarding the point above, a contact list of trusted and approved people would be a great implementation that we can message directly from the app, and whom we can send money too without having to copy and paste strings.
The removal of the note before sending - I don’t quite understand this feature, as it forces me to write a note to the person I’m sending to. The feature is fine, but it seems like it should be optional, as I have to write something useless every time.

Experience with offering bitcoin to others

As an enthusiast for the bitcoin philosophy, I did try to convince other people to use bitcoin. But my friends mostly rejected me. Here are the 3 most common rejection reasons that I got from people.

I don’t have enough money to use it.
Why should I use it, when I already have fiat?
What’s the point of using bitcoin when I can’t spend bitcoin in stores or pay my bills with it?

Problems incentivizing others to use bitcoin

The 3 problems above are probably the most common questions anyone asks themselves when considering bitcoin. For most people, money plays one important role: where and how can they spend it? And all 3 problems are only 1 in reality. The more reason people have to use bitcoin, and the fewer obstacles there are in the way of using it, the more easily it will become to convince people to use it.

The question of incentivizing people to use bitcoin is one that I’ve never been able to find an obvious answer for. I’d be glad to see some comments about how we are going about solving this problem. For starters, the above features that I mentioned, like in-wallet messaging and lists of trusted contacts, could interest people to use bitcoin amongst themselves, and who knows where it could go from there.