Optimists predicted that Bitcoin would do something similar in the financial sector. Before Bitcoin, sending somebody an electronic payment required a bank to act as a trusted intermediary. Bitcoin uses sophisticated mathematics to secure transactions instead, making banks unnecessary. There was just one problem: Bitcoin was way too difficult for ordinary people to use. The software was complex and cumbersome. The value of the bitcoin currency was volatile. And Bitcoin users faced a constant risk of having their coins stolen by hackers.But Bitcoin’s early backers said not to worry about this. After all, the early internet was also cumbersome and hard to use. But then people invented technologies like web browsers and smartphones and online services like Amazon and Facebook that made the internet accessible to everyone.