One and All,
My Mother In Law came for dinner this evening and my wife mentioned my obsession [I like to call it passion] with Bitcoin. My interest is far broader than one coin and I am trying to learn as much about the blockchain, mining, trading etc as possible, as I have explained to my wife. On several occasions. All of which elicited nothing more than a yawn and an errand to bring the wine!
But either way, she asked me to explain to her Mother what Bitcoin is...
I managed to be as concise as likening it to the introduction of the Euro as a new currency, but without the need for a bank or a mint and that in fact it was essentially no more than a load of zeros and ones. Obviously that did not even enter one ear to leave the other side, and understandably so as that is a terrible example!
Clearly I struggled to describe 'Bitcoin' in a way she could understand [for the sake of this post, please lets just pretend Bitcoin is Cryptocurrency]. It also made me realise that I am pretty much the only person I know within my circle of family and friends who has dabbled in 'Bitcoin' and were any of them to ask me to explain myself, I would have the same problem.
I would like to know how you would describe the wild west revolution of 'Bitcoin' to a friend or relative that knows you are doing something, but doesn't understand what exactly it is you are doing. Without getting a blank faced yawn preferably!
Thank you in advance.
I say something like "Open distributed ledger technology that is run by miners, they are the bitcoin minters/creators and ledger updaters. It lets us not have to use a third party for digital transactions, so rather than keeping your money in your bank and using your debit card, you hold your own money and can send it over the internet or use it on a debit card the same way you do now. This way though, all of the accounting is open for everyone to look at. There is also a maximum amount of bitcoin and a preset inflation rate that can't be changed, so inflation isn't a problem."
Them "But why does one cost $4000?"
"Well, bitcoins cost about $1000 to make plus it adds more anonymity to your digital spending, someone could track you using bitcoin if they really wanted to, but not like a bank can do to you now. Plus, you get to hold it yourself. So if banks or the dollar crash you still have money you can spend and you can do it digitally and buy things online and have them sent to you. It is also more efficient for moving your money around because rather than 3-5 days it takes 10 minutes to an hour, so you pay for the convenience and ability to truly own your money and use it how you want."
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THAT I understand and is what I wanted to say! Im not sure its going to do the job with some of my family though. I will pilfer some of this however and in the next few weeks I will try and cobble together an explanation that doesn't require my 11 yr old son to take over. Thank you!
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