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Topic: When explaining Bitcoin to someone, what are some key points to speak about? - page 2. (Read 2398 times)

sr. member
Activity: 343
Merit: 250
I like to focus on "unpacking" three words: digital, decentralized, ledger. Here's my standard intro comment:

Quote
The reason it's so hard for most people to understand Bitcoin is that most people don't really understand money. Money isn't wealth. It's an accounting system used to facilitate the exchange of wealth. (The paradox of money is that while everyone wants it, no one actually wants it - they want the stuff they can buy with it!) Many people are put off by the fact that bitcoins are "just zeroes and ones." But that's what ALL money is, information! More precisely, money is a means for credibly conveying information about value given but not yet received (or at least not yet received in a form in which it can directly satisfy a person's wants or needs).

To put it yet another way, money is a ledger. With fiat currencies like the dollar, that ledger is centralized. And that gives the central authority responsible for maintaining that ledger tremendous power, power that history has proven will inevitably be abused. With Bitcoin, the ledger is decentralized. And that means that no one individual or entity has the power to arbitrarily create new units (thereby causing inflation), freeze (or seize) your account, or block a particular payment from being processed. We've had decentralized money before. After all, no one can simply print new gold into existence. And the "ledger" of gold is distributed because the physical gold itself (the "accounting entries" in the metaphor) is distributed. But with gold, that decentralization comes at a heavy price (literally). The physical nature of gold makes it hugely inefficient from a transactional perspective.

Enter Bitcoin.

It is the first currency in the world that is BOTH decentralized AND digital. It is more reliably scarce than gold, more transactionally efficient than "modern" digital banking, and enables greater financial privacy than cash. It could certainly still fail for one reason or another, but if it doesn't, it has the potential to be very, VERY disruptive.
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
https://youtu.be/PZm8TTLR2NU
To understand Bitcoin, you have to understand money: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2YllvbJo6g
What an outstanding talk, thanks for sharing this. I have a newfound respect for Erik Vorhees.
full member
Activity: 175
Merit: 104
Thanks for all the feedback! It was really useful!


The next few days of my life are going to be filled with people asking me about Bitcoin. I was able to get my school's news segment to speak about Bitcoin, I am currently writing a paper on Bitcoin, which many students will read, and I'm essentially a walking advertisement for Bitcoin with the shirt I'm wearing (https://i.imgur.com/eKrnvi6.jpg)



I hope all goes well, and once again thanks for the input!
hero member
Activity: 686
Merit: 500
Bitcoin price of course , anonymity , Low fees for transaction . that's the first things I guess
hero member
Activity: 854
Merit: 1000
Bitcoin: The People's Bailout
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?

To understand Bitcoin, you have to understand money: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2YllvbJo6g
full member
Activity: 179
Merit: 100
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?

if the price of Bitcoin rises up ,i think more and more people will pay  attention to it .
hero member
Activity: 784
Merit: 1000
https://youtu.be/PZm8TTLR2NU
How and why fiat money is a violence-backed monopoly and scam run by legitimized con men.

And that Bitcoin is the first viable alternative in the history of this planet that is immune to violence because it is decentralized.
Q7
sr. member
Activity: 448
Merit: 250
I just told them look how cool i have these numbers call bitcoin which you can keep in your phone. And you can buy just about anything errr... almost anything. And it's worth something like like 800 bucks per coin. And you can get it in faucets for free...

That's the exact same word my buddy told me and got me hooked on to bitcoin
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
just one: bitcoin can make you rich.

he would go to check the rest  by himself

No, just no. It never will have 1000% increases again.

But tell them its an easy way to send/receive money w/o fees and that it could save merchants billions in card processing/bank fees.  Also that there are a guaranteed limit supply of 21 million ever to be in circulation, a huge improvement over current gov't currencies!  Also no counterfeiting!
sr. member
Activity: 252
Merit: 251
Knowledge its everything
1. Decentralization / Freedom  Cheesy
2. How simple you use bitcoin
3. Bitcoin Price
4. What will happen bitcoin in future
5. Low fee

I think this is good for noob, and don't talk about bitcoin too hard.
jr. member
Activity: 58
Merit: 10
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?

The decentralized nature is it's biggest selling point. Sadly, though, many people are not that familiar with economics or how the fiat monetary system works so they're not that bothered by it.

They don't give a fuck. I've tried explaining Bitcoin's supossed selling points to the average folk and they only start paying attention by the time I mention it can increase in value and they can win money. Other than that, they don't care because they can do everything that is needed in dollar, and 99% of people aren't wealthy enough to care about diversifying it if we are selling Bitcoin as a storage of value. So unless it becomes widely accepted everywhere and becomes a cool thing to do to pay with Bitcoin and so on.. it's doomed.

Well that's sadly what happens with most people, but like Finchy said above maybe they will live to regret not trying to understand the benefits at some point in the future. You just can't force it on people so they need to look into it themselves and if they don't there's nothing anyone can do about that, but hopefully bitcoins popularity in the future will help sway them.
sr. member
Activity: 315
Merit: 250
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?

The decentralized nature is it's biggest selling point. Sadly, though, many people are not that familiar with economics or how the fiat monetary system works so they're not that bothered by it.

They don't give a fuck. I've tried explaining Bitcoin's supossed selling points to the average folk and they only start paying attention by the time I mention it can increase in value and they can win money.

Well then try sell them on the potential investment idea of bitcoin, though of course the opposite is true and you could easily lose money. Bitcoin just isn't for everyone at the moment, but hopefully they'll realise their mistake of not getting interested when you tried to tell them, then you can feel pretty smug about it all.
full member
Activity: 153
Merit: 100
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?

The decentralized nature is it's biggest selling point. Sadly, though, many people are not that familiar with economics or how the fiat monetary system works so they're not that bothered by it.

They don't give a fuck. I've tried explaining Bitcoin's supossed selling points to the average folk and they only start paying attention by the time I mention it can increase in value and they can win money. Other than that, they don't care because they can do everything that is needed in dollar, and 99% of people aren't wealthy enough to care about diversifying it if we are selling Bitcoin as a storage of value. So unless it becomes widely accepted everywhere and becomes a cool thing to do to pay with Bitcoin and so on.. it's doomed.
jr. member
Activity: 58
Merit: 10
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?

The decentralized nature is it's biggest selling point. Sadly, though, many people are not that familiar with economics or how the fiat monetary system works so they're not that bothered by it.
full member
Activity: 182
Merit: 100
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?

A very low transaction fees,

anonymity
newbie
Activity: 23
Merit: 0
just one: bitcoin can make you rich.

he would go to check the rest  by himself
legendary
Activity: 1316
Merit: 1004
1. free international transmission  
2. security-money is under your control
3. avoid high exchange fee especially for travel abroad
full member
Activity: 175
Merit: 104
I personally tell them about the decentralized nature and the lack of a middle man in transactions. What would BCT recommend to grab attention?
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