Do users need to know how currency works?

I went to the store, and asked a person in line do you know how credit cards work? They didn’t know, the answer was, “I can spend money…” The credit card settlement system is actually quite complex, but basically nobody really thinks about it when spending. I then asked a friend, do you know how US dollars work? They said, “well it’s worth something, and I can buy things.” In reality the process of creating new money is quite complex, and how banks handle funds and only hold fractions of what customers have goes against common sense. The point is, money in general is quite complex but the underlying system doesn’t matter that much to users, as long as it works.

Moving to crypto the protocol is much simpler to explain in my opinion. It is of course hard for some new people to understand because they’ve never been asked to understand currency exchange before unless they specifically studied it. They have five dollars, they buy a sandwich that’s all they need to know. The fact that cryptocurrency users, especially Bitcoin users understand the underlying functionality is a break through. I love it! Why do people care to know how Bitcoin works, if they just want to hold it, or spend it? I believe it’s actually because of the fact it’s simpler. A decentralized ledger is updated one to one, with no fractional reserve on a transparent blockchain. In order to secure the network, miners compete computationally for rewards to ensure what’s updated is accurate by solving secure mathematics.

While building Metal, we're asking ourselves the question of needed knowledge. For further adoption is it necessary to push how Bitcoin, or the Metal token work? People understand saving, spending and receiving. Ultimately users want the functionality. We do feel that benefits like actually owning your money without a third party, and not having restrictions on where you spend as Bitcoin or Metal payments can go to any address, or limit amounts held, received or sent are huge. We can educate users in our own way if they so choose.

We’re forging the process on this, and looking at the industry and the offerings it’s not an easy answer, but I think the ultimate tone of the industry will drift towards unlocking the potential of the currency without having to teach all of the intricacies. Ultimately we’d love for users to fall in love with cryptocurrency like many of us, and dig deeper. We’re open to educating through our FAQ, and community, but we shouldn't make it something that’s a pre-requirement otherwise we miss the target on a bigger audience.
Ultimately I hope people experience the fun factor of cryptocurrency and we can let people play and get their first taste, and share that magic many of us felt the first time we found the space.