There is a big elephant in the room when we talk about cryptocurrencies, and it is an undeniable trait since their inception: volatility. This trait has been unshakeable since their beginning and even the most stable of cryptocurrencies could experience double-digit changes in their price from day-to-day. This alone has been a factor which slowed adoption for most merchants and daily users, who have no interest in dealing with such instability.

That is why cryptocurrency wallets have always shown the equivalent fiat value of transactions on-screen, so users have an idea of the value being sent. Imagine paying wage or bills manually without this kind of tool. But the innovative of people at the Bitcoin-based Samourai Wallet have decided that this feature has slowed adoption and that Bitcoin transactions are just transacting tokens native to the Bitcoin network; nothing more. They have stated it at a blog post in their website.

Sadly, they are underestimating the intelligence of its users and making them calculate miner fees and transaction fees in Satoshis, to cover up what is evident: Bitcoin Core fees are (and will be in the future) too hefty to pay for the average user. But they’re also doing something a little more alarming. They are presenting an inferior experience for the noob cryptocurrency user, that is only just beginning to explore this space. In addition to new users having to adapt to the ecosystem, with the strange format of bitcoin addresses (this is a thing that should be addressed in the future), they would also have to use a second cryptocurrency app to calculate their remaining balance in their respective fiat currency.

This really does not seem like a forward-thinking update, and by removing the fiat equivalents they have made their wallet app unusable, making this the start of a troubling trend. The idea is to spread crypto to the masses, by making it easier for users to use than their fiat currency. Not to make it more intimidating for them to get on the crypto train. Sadly, this is not a smart business decision from Samourai.