How to explain Bitcoin? The internet of Money

kunstvanhetgeld (30)in #internet • 6 years ago (edited)

Ever had to explain Bitcoin to your parents?

Not that easy is it?
Don't even start about Blockchain, mining or algorithms.

The Internet of Money is a collection from Andreas Antonopoulos lectures on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. It reads like you're sitting in the audience yourself.

Bitcoin is new and disruptive, but also complicated. After reading this book you'll have several vivid examples with which to explain why Bitcoin is so exciting!

Antonopoulos describes Bitcoin as 'The Internet of Money'
If you have heard the phrase 'Internet of Things' before, this might spark your interest. People will not have to rely on financial instituations like banks anymore. You will be able to connect directly en become a whole seperate financial identity yourself.

One example that commonly returns in the book is the African Nokia Bank. Although almost everyone has acces to the internet, lots of people have no acces to banking! They are excluded from the big financial world. Bitcoin will change that. With just a Nokia and an Internet connection, they'll suddenly be able to globally transfer money. You can see this Nokia as it's own bank.

Even children will be able to express themselves financially. 10-year-old Joey could try to implement Joeycoin as the trading asset of the playground. Instead of Pokemon cards or marbles, kids will now be trading for cryptocurrency. The question: 'How many cryptocurrenies will there eventually be?' answers Antonopoulos with: 'How many Bloggers will there be? Everyone can become a blogger, everyone can create his own cryptocurrency. '

But why do we need this system? Bitcoin is becoming slow and expensive. Only a handful of people see Bitcoin truly as the payment method of the future. Scepticism is understandable, but also something of all ages.
Take the invention of the car, it was an utterly unreliable machine; very slow and expensive. Why would you drive one?
Cars used to break down because of rough roads, a horse was a much better option!
Still, a slow change of infrastructure took place and eventually the car has become an integral part of society. Horses are now very slow and expensive. Non-believers literally had to make way for the car.

How does this relate to Bitcoin?

Think about banks, they've worked perfectly for a long time just like horses. You didn't really need anything else. Then cryptocurrency came along and proved how slow and expensive banks really were. It can take more than five days to transfer money internationally and you'll be paying fees for almost everything.
Cryptocurrency transfers can be free and instant, no matter where you send them. Although at the moment Bitcoin is not the perfect example for this, it paved the way for the cryptocurrencies of the future. Non-believers will soon have to accept cryptocurrencies are an integral part of our financial system.