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Topic: How to deal with the "bitcoin has no physical existence" argument? (Read 1476 times)

hero member
Activity: 994
Merit: 544
Bitcoin has no physical existence just like PayPal funds. Bitcoin is like a movie where you can download and upload then play it, but just like movies you need to pay using credit cards to watch or if you are the owner of the movies you get payment so they can download a movie. To get bitcoin playing on your wallet you need also to pay dollars to have it, and after a time you can sell it also in exchange for dollars. If there is money on virtual movies then so as bitcoin that play as a currency online.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 252
Veni, Vidi, Vici
It depends the people you are speaking to. That is, older people they understand only if they have money in their pockets or down of their mattresses. The younger one can understand that debit cards and web banking is money even though these are only numbers without physical form. Imo only people younger than the middle age will be the most supporters of crypto currencies
legendary
Activity: 2996
Merit: 1188
Just tell them the truth. Their money only exists in a digital form now a days anyway. And that's the cold hard truth.
All the money not just bitcoin does not exist in real world, they are only numbers on the market, do you think that investors will use rea physical money to make deals, that will take ages since there are billions of dollars to count, the only time it gets physical is when you use your credit card in the ATM, and the same goes for bitcoin.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
Just tell them the truth. Their money only exists in a digital form now a days anyway. And that's the cold hard truth.
and it is the need of the day, as in modern age people are not going to carry paper money with them in their pockets, they do online shopping and other trading using crypto currency, the trend is increase as the time passes. 
sr. member
Activity: 322
Merit: 251
Just tell them the truth. Their money only exists in a digital form now a days anyway. And that's the cold hard truth.
That there is true ta an extent, but I know lotsa people who stale like tha cold hard cash.  Then they house burn down an' they fucked, but that's another story.   Y'all is right, everthang is digital nowadays,  cain't git away from dat fact.  So thos here argument ain't really much of a debate,  is it?
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1001
whwn i was introduced bitcoin to my friends, they will asked the same question, then my answer is simple, " see your bank account, does it have physical appearance? it is just a book with number, and when you want to pay using credit card, does your credit card has physical existence, no it is just a piece of plastic, but it is still valuable, it is the same thing with bitcoin, you can't touch it but you can spend it"
sr. member
Activity: 441
Merit: 250
I've been facing this arguments many times. I've simply replied that the Internet isn't physical too, as their bank account. The hammer another time the nail, I tell them that you can print the username and the password of a Bitcoin account onto something physical and that way in some way you can touch it.
hero member
Activity: 868
Merit: 535
Well I think you just don't. It doesn't really have a physical existence in the world. Everything in the bitcoin world is digital and doesn't have a physical manifestation or a tangible object to attach to. I would say that value should be discusses. Since money is just paper with numbers. You have to define what is value. Why do we use the USD? Why does it have value? That should your point in arguing for bitcoin.
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
Wolf
It will be difficult or worse just a futile act if the other party are/is not willing to even listen or should I say not OPEN to new things .

I suggest that you should thoughly think on how to explain it to them in a more understandable way, it will be helpful to based it in their personality . Even if its a good or bad thing we should not forget that we should only state facts without bias and prejudice .
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1000
this is very difficult to telling the truth to the person who always believed that every currency must have physical existence because bitcoin as digital currency was made without physical existence but valuable such as fiat however maybe if my friends ask about this someday then i would telling to them that you're no need to big pocket to save a lot of bitcoin and to save bitcoin too you're no need personal ID because one of the advantages of bitcoin is anonymity
copper member
Activity: 1330
Merit: 899
🖤😏
That is not an argument but stating the fact, arguments can be made when there are 2 sides of a story, but in bitcoin's case and the question here, not just bitcoin but it works for almost anything, we're not always value something that has physical form like when you trust someone with your life you can't really put a price on that can you? when someone promises you something or when a president talks on TV and suddenly oil, gold prices go up or drop.

Simply as long as people say something has value and put a price on them other people trust them and will start to trade it with even physical valued items. more than 90% of all the businesses in the world are done by trading invisible or digital/virtual items.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
Just tell them the truth. Their money only exists in a digital form now a days anyway. And that's the cold hard truth.
member
Activity: 70
Merit: 10
Tell them its like money in the bank but the price of bitcoins will rise .but in case of fiat it wont .so its better to use bitcoins as transaction r fast and the fees are miner. .
full member
Activity: 224
Merit: 100
Hard argument to take on because most people believe they actually own the land they have a house on as well and do not realize how easy it is to toss them out of the location.
When you look at anything there is a line that can alter ownership and bitcoin being digital just makes it that much more clear,comparing it to say real estate where people are not usually running into issues where the land below them is going to be used for a pipeline and they need to move along.
hero member
Activity: 1246
Merit: 588
If ever that it could happen to me? I don't have to explain it further to them just let them experience how bitcoin woks and to let them fully understand. After that let them decide, well for now you can call me one of them because i am still much more satisfied if  i do save my earnings in the banks so i still prefer convert btc to fiat most of the times.
hero member
Activity: 713
Merit: 501
Just tell them that bitcoin is a digital thing and it's not tangible. It exists as a data and nothing else. There are some physical coins of bitcoin but it costs much more than it actually holds. I personally wouldn't argue with this people. If they doubt bitcoins, then just let them not use it. It wouldn't affect you anyway. Remember, you don't have to fight all the battles. Just like how you shouldn't always defend bitcoin to those doubters.
full member
Activity: 185
Merit: 100
The argument is void for me. For most fiat money, there is no equivalent physical value, too. It can be issued real value covered Bitcoin coins, then a physical value would be present.
hero member
Activity: 742
Merit: 500
If you talked about Bitcoin with your friends you most likely already listened to this "argument".
It's not false, Bitcoin has in fact no physical existence, but nor does the printed money we call fiat.
The question is then on how to deal with this argument, in a short and easily understandable way, without scare them of by knowing the bills on their wallet are no more than regular papers representing x units of the virtual currency y, which is backed by thin air and its supply is limited only by the paper and ink in stock or the printing capacities of the machine that does them?
I always heard this from many of my friends they were skeptical about bitcoin has no physical existence.
However i don't like if bitcoin has physical existence i mean being virtual is fun than has physical existence, you don't need a place to store them and aware of loosing it (if you keep your private key safe) and it's obviously better than physical then i explained to them actually bitcoin can turned to physical like paper wallet or physical bitcoin, but still with virtual is the best.
legendary
Activity: 1218
Merit: 1000
I've no issue about the way our financial system works or want it backed by anything.
The issue is that people along the time made false assumptions about fiat money, and fail to know the same arguments they use against Bitcoin applies to fiat.
This said, I often feel like Morpheus giving red pills...
legendary
Activity: 1372
Merit: 1032
All I know is that I know nothing.
i think the simplest way is to show them how they can use bitcoin to purchase something.

for example if there is like a coffee shop, a restaurant a food truck even that accepts bitcoin you can take them there and pay for a cup of coffee for example and show them that "this is the value this none-physical money has"

nobody is going to care if bitcoin has a physical existence or not when they can spend it for their day to day needs.
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