Step 1: buy a hardware wallet

Step 2: back up the seed for the hardware wallet

Step 3: send your coins to an address managed by said hardware wallet

Step 4: kick back and relax

Cryptocurrencies have only been around for 8 years. It's no wonder that we're still figuring out if being your own bank is possible. There's a long road ahead, a lot of innovation to be had. But being your own bank is a worthwhile and potentially achievable goal. Assessing the current state of the system and saying it has failed, at such an early stage, is folly.

How many years should we wait before trusting this technology then?

As many as you need.

Cryptocurrencies were easy to use day 1, for people who know what they're doing. The level of technical expertise needed is dropping over time, and will continue to do so.

Just as computers were the domain of computer scientists when they first appeared, but nowadays everyone has a smart phone in their pocket.

(BTW, let us not forget that everyone thought the idea of a Personal Computer was crazy. It's no wonder that people today think the idea of a Personal Bank is crazy.)

I agree that it's complex for the layman, but in reality it's really simple for anyone familiar with how crypto works. Even if they didn't, I usually just explain it like this:

Your account number is made up of two parts - one part lets you view and deposit, the other lets you withdraw. You can give the first part of your account number to anyone (if you don't mind seeing how much money you have), but you should keep the second part you keep very safe.

In fact, once people hear that the second part (the private key) allows you to withdraw, they don't even need to hear the rest.

For many people though, they don't like the idea that people who can deposit can also view amounts and transactions. I guess that's why cryptos like Monero are worth looking into.

Understanding the difference between private and public keys is not the whole story. Users need to know about backing these up, but they also need to know how to clear them off of their computer in the first place.

You can go as far as having your private key carved into a metal plate so it'll never get destroyed, but if a copy of it happens to still be sitting on your hard drive, your coins are still at risk. Very few people will know how to securely purge their computer of this critical data.

Even worse, the 'offline' approach in this guide means downloading random javascript from different web services that you are just meant to trust with your private key. It's a disaster.

I was referring to the idea of a "paper wallet". I don't know of many (any?) people who store their Bank PINs on their PCs, so I don't see how anything you mentioned is relevant.

If crypto currency is ever going to replace cash and credit cards, you need to make it easy for 8 year old Timmy and his 80 year old grandma. At the moment neither of them have any concept of what crypto currency is or how to use it, but the sure can go down to the gas station and buy some candy from them with cash.

This doesn't really have anything to do with security, and there's nothing inherent in the way that crypto currencies are designed that would prevent this.

>if you don't mind seeing how much money you have

You can and should create a new keypair for each transaction.

That way you avoid the issue of someone else prying into your expenses.

This is the default behaviour of most wallets

If you do not want to be your own bank, there are lots of other perfectly good options for you, such as holding dollar bills at bank of america.

If on the other hand, you want to use a decentralized, trust less, electronic currency, there is Bitcoin.

Secure messaging was the same for a long time but now it's improving rapidly. I don't think managing keys will get harder and harder. Already using a Ledger Nano is pretty nice, and I imagine in a couple of years it will be very nice. But I also imagine the ecosystem for hosted keys will stay, so you can choose to be your own bank or to trust some other actor. With cryptocurrency it will be much easier and cheaper to move to a competing service, too.