Topic: shortest way to explain blockchain to a noob. go: - page 2. (Read 415 times)

Definitions are by definition arbitrary and usually only applicable to certain aspects of a "thing".
Bearing that in mind, my favorite definition of a blockchain has always been something along the lines of:
"a peer to peer network serialization of linearly dependent data sets".
Boring, isn't it?

In almost all cases: no.
There's one known applicable use case for a blockchain so far, and that's payment systems.

okay I mean, ookkee   Hey you seem to know your stuff what would you say? keep in mind I am talking about blockchain not bitcoin. I mean do we need the blockchain anyways? What are your thoughts? I think we do need it and it is the most important part about bitcoin

That is just plain wrong.
Bitcoin is not a "digitized form of double bookkeeping*".

Double bookkeeping is by its very definition a centralized process (someone keeps the book, the double doesn't refer to that someone being e.g. two people).
Also, in Bitcoin, there is actually no "double" bookkeeping taking place.
"Double" bookkeeping refers mainly to the tallying up of accounts, which is something that does not happen in Bitcoin.

* weird, never noticed before that there's an English word with "ookkee" in it

so it contains balances is what your are saying   everytime you do some basic maths at the end of a transaction. which "bitcoin" does for you.

uuhmm well, it is a bunch of blocks connected by a chain.


What I believe and also practice is that the answer or rather the explanation of bitcoin and blockchain changes depending on who is asking. A 'noob' is not an absolute term. People might even understand complex economics yet won't get the digital part like bitcoin, blockchain, etc.

What you wrote is fine, but I think there is no single explanation you can make for everyone. And I am not talking about book definitions but rather to make people understand what is happening and what are its effects in the society for now and in the future.

well it is not a "balance" per se. for example when you have a bank account, a PayPal account, Visa,... there is a database which is like this:
so to know how much money someone has you just have to look up the username.

with bitcoin (the blockchain technology) that "database" looks like this:
and if we say "username" is 1BitcoinAddressThatIUsedTOReceive then i have to loop through all blocks from height 1 to last one and check every single transaction to see which one has paid to my address and which one spent those payments to come up with the final "balance".

so it contains balances is what your are saying I edited a bit, does that work for you? I do understand what you are saying.
I mean I am not a fan of short form either, But I don`t want to have a hour discussion with 1 person I want to have a 360 discussions in 1 hour. 

i am not a fan of short explanations because they only create more and more questions the shorter they get. a good definition is the one mentioned above with terms such as immutable and decentralized in it but that only creates more questions as what it means to be immutable and how.

also a big distinction that i feel like OP messed up in first line is that blockchain does not contain balances. it only contains transactions that occurred and you have to calculate your balance based on that history.

According to a study by Microsoft, the average human being now has an attention span of eight seconds. This is a sharp decrease from the average attention span of 12 seconds in the year 2000
https://www.cision.com/us/2018/01/declining-attention-killing-content-marketing-strategy/
I don`t know if that is legit or not what they said, I don`t have Microsoft`s link.

that video is 5minutes long, I want something I can say to someone when we stop at a red light at the same time.

Blockchain is entirely a new concept and people find it difficult to understand and also it is quite hard to explain as it doesn't have anything physical. The briefing needs to be done explaining a virtual number and how it got into existence. To avoid this complications there were lot of youtube contents available which make the blockchain concept understand with ease. HOW BLOCKCHAIN WORKS

Blockchain is a global, decentralized, immutable ledger. It is permissionless.

Corrupt government, banking cartel, corporate deceptions cannot alter it.

Bitcoin = Blockchain

Owning your own Bitcoin is being your own bank.

Bitcoin is the Internet of money.

That can be the shortest but not decent enough.
The best way is always by giving them a simple and attractive video explanation like this  video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiRFuHXHBhk
Video is always worked in every field, every market.

Actually we dont want them to just know what is the name of this thing, they will just forget it.

Most people don`t know what a public ledger is, they know what withdraw and deposits is and remaining balance, they are used to these terms when going to their local banks, but if they do understand a public ledger I guess it works.

I know there is more to it than that, I mean this is for complete noobs and I got 10 seconds to explain.

These are the best thing I got so far Wall of Fame:

Qwk: "a peer to peer network serialization of linearly dependent data sets".
(I have to reword this one better for new people)

Crypto Girl:  "blockchain - consist of blocks in a chain. Just imagine we have a lot of square ( blocks ) and the information is stored in a block and will broadcast throughout the network."
(maybe blockchain consist of data that is linked, imagine we have 10 people reading a blank book in a room as the author fills in the words simultaneously and in each book the words appear at the same time, everyone is the author and all must agree to one story or at least 51% have to agree to each next word)

or my own that I was told was wrong by the guy that suggested the one up top, and I have to agree with him but I need a way to make that sound normal to normal people I might as well tell them
it is the time continuum transfuctioner or something lol.


I: It is a digital form of Double Entry Bookkeeping, deposits and withdraws with remaining balance on paper.
Luca Pacioli created it in 1494 and Satoshi Nakamoto digitized it on Jan 3rd 2009, now everyone owns a copy of the book that gets updated anytime someone does a transaction.
It is a system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are maintained across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network.