Bitcoin Forum

Hi all,

I've been reading a lot about Bitcoin, watching interviews from Michael Saylor, Robert Breedlove, Pomp, Preston Pysh, read a book on Bitcoin/Blockchain......but for some weird reason, i still cant formulate a basic description of what is Bitcoin.
Yesterday, I was by myself and I asked myself : If you had to describe Bitcoin to a kid, or anybody, the very basic or simple aspect of it, how would you do it ?

For some reason, I wasnt able to say much beside :
-Its decentralised, its a «store of value», it can be seen as «property» (as opposed to land or house or anything that a govt can seized from you), and that all transactions or public to everybody via Blockchain.

I dont know if im retarded (loll) but I was very insastisfied of my description of Bitcoin compared to the work i've done to educate myself. Seems like the informations dont want to sync in my brain...
In a simple way, if you would like to explain  to a friend  the basic concept or nature of bitcoin, what would be the 5 key points/short sentence that  you would say ?

Once again, thank you Bitcoin family.
Always interesting to see your response !

Regardless of different interpretations and different opinions, I always go back to the beginning, because who can better explain Bitcoin than the person who imagined it and made it possible to exist.


Of course, this is just one sentence, but anyone who wants to understand Bitcoin at least to some extent should really read the white paper, and then look for other opinions and explanations. Besides, Bitcoin is not something I would explain to children (at least under 10-12 years of age), and to people who don’t want to understand it from some of their personal beliefs.

You only make it more complicated, how can a kid understand bitcoin for all of these you have in mind? There's no way a kid can understand such statement or I don't think you should tell a child about bitcoin or blockchain in the very first place.
 
A simply "alternative money that can be transferred online" is much easier explaination for their age, technicals can be learned when they're at the right age to learn more.

A Decentralized Global network/system for exchanging and storing values like currency.

*In five key words, Decentralized Electronic system for transferring values

Bitcoin can be many things, so it will be really hard to pick one definition. Personally, my definition of Bitcoin will totally depend on what kind of person I'm talking to.

Talking to an activist? Bitcoin is uncensorable freedom money.
Talking to an investor/finance guy? Bitcoin is an asset that the fed cant fuck with.
Talking to a kid? Bitcoin is "rare" money.
Talking to a lower-class person? Bitcoin is saving money but on steroids.

etc.

Bitcoin is money that can be sent to anyone anywhere at any time without the need for a trusted third party.

BTC is #cashless Revaluation

Bitcoin is decentralized digital currency.

To be honest, a lot of people still don't understand how Bitcoin works or what really Bitcoin is, they thought it's like a scheme or investment where you can get rich.
That's why when someone asks what is Bitcoin, I am comparing it to some fiat currency but in a digital way, and no one country owns it, it's like currency on internet.

(1). Bitcoin is popularly known as a digital currency across the nation
(2). Bitcoin is the easiest means of exchanges of anything via transaction
(3). Bitcoin is a decentralized currency that can't be control by any one irrespective of it's market volatility structure
(4). Bitcoin is a money like fiat currency and anything bitcoin does in terms of buying or purchasing values, is applicable to bitcoin
(5). Bitcoin is generally acceptable to people that knows it's function both primarily and secondary functional activities
(6). Bitcoin is an investment key point, and also an asset as people that commented above stipulated, so in all ramifications bitcoin is generally accepted for anything fiat currency can do.

This is in my opinion very close to the ideal short description. To a kid, or a person with only a basic level of education, I would however change it slightly to:

An Electronic/Digital system without owner to transfer values.

"Decentralized" is a bit difficult to really understand correctly, many people will perhaps think for example Facebook is also "decentralized", because everybody from every country of the world can create an account there. But "without owner" clarifies that potential misunderstanding. "Electronic", or maybe even better "digital", to today's kids should be easy to grasp. Maybe "values" has some potential to complicate things, but it should be easy to explain as long as the person knows what money does.

If there are some more words permitted, I would add "secure", then maybe "borderless/global".

Reading on whitepaper would sum it all.

A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online
payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a
financial institution

https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

A very short sentence but would answer it all.

Fluid reliable currency that transcends boundaries and defies limitations.

If I am to define Bitcoin to a kid or anybody who has not heard of it yet in such a way that they will automatically get the basic idea of it without further explanation, I might define Bitcoin as an independent global decentralized digital money.

I guess these 5 key words are enough to basically capture the most fundamental ideas of Bitcoin. It simply means Bitcoin is money and that it is not under the control of central banks and government authorities, could be used in international transactions, etc.

"Electronic Money that Easy to transfer worldwide"

of course aside from countries that has strict rules against bitcoin but still some people can accommodate.


actually Kids cannot really understand this that wide and we must respect their capacity in understanding , why not instead of telling them?
best to let them see the actual transacting by showing then when you pay someone so they might have idea on  how it works?

Perhaps kids nowadays can understand such things even you don't explain it to them very dip,  i mean just a simple words wherein a "decentralized currency or digital currency" , that no physical asset such fiats but it's more profitable when it comes investment and trading  because of being so volatile unlike stock reason mostly investors are focused on it. And you can say that it's more useful as well in making transactions because of its speed and etc. Perhaps on that way they can get you what's bitcoin..

I think the sentence depends on the type of audience. To me, saying that Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptographic proof-of-work currency that is often considered an investment opportunity is a simple explanation that captures the main features of Bitcoin. But even the word 'decentralized' can be difficult for a child, so I think it's important to take time and explain everything rather than to squeeze a lot of meaning into a small amount of words. A kid could learn about it through a series of games. For instance, the first could be a simple 'find a center' of a structure, and then showing that some of them don't have centers. Plus a financial game to understand how fiat works and what the central bank does. Then a kid could try to decipher some messages (simple ciphers can be used), and then you can say that there are more complicated ciphers, and they are important for security of this currency. Then you can play an online gold-mining game (I'm sure there are some), and explain that powerful machines can mine it digitally by solving mathematical puzzles (I think there's also a simple video that shows mining on a piece of paper as an example of the operations taking place during Bitcoin mining).

Again, this depends on what type of audience you are explaining things. When we think of "kids", I think this implies a person that has no prior knowledge or anything whatsoever about cryptocurrencies. I guess the simplest way of explaining what "BTC" is: Public spreadsheet where all transactions are listed.


I do agree that this may be the simplest way of explaining BTC to a kid. Though it is more complex and technical as an "electronic money", this is something that can be visualized and easily understood by them. From this point, they can use such definition to supply them with deeper knowledge for better understanding (e.g. blockchain, etc.).

Thank you all for your response, this has been really helpful for me. I've written down all the major/key points that were said here, and this helped me clarify once for all what BTC is.

Im pretty sure the info finally sync in my brain now.

If im asked what is BTC, there's now plenty of key point im able to verbalise.

I'll have to agree with mk4 here; it isn't easy to put bitcoin into few words. There's just so much to say that it's impossible to cover every main aspect of it in a sentence. However, summarily:


This is the major problem bitcoin solved. The need for a trusted third party to know what's true or not about the transactions. Instead, this task is managed collectively by the network.

5 short words to explain bitcoin to the layman for me
1, bitcoin is virtual money
2. Bitcoin can be called digital gold
3. Its decentralized nature
4. can be used as a long-term investment
5. the advantage of buying bitcoin when the red market can reach 100%

but all of that needs extra explanation and accurate evidence so that it is better understood by people who are blind to what bitcoin is

1. Decentralized
2. Digital currency
3. Encrypted
4. Peer to Peer
5. Blockchain
The keywords listed above best describes Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency encrypted on the Blockchain network and can be transferred from one person to another on the p2p bitcoin network.

I'd beg to differ. This would probably makes sense for some people(albeit a minority), but most people wouldn't even know what peer-to-peer is. I definitely don't think that there's a "one fits all" answer for this.

Exactly nowadays kids are really technology driven so they can understand easily. But I don't know they can understand within 5 short sentences because definitely they have many doubts even me too but I am trying to answer this question.

 We can say bitcoin is a currency developed by a new technology. Bitcoin is also called digital currency because we can't touch it or, smell it or see it. It can transfer only through digitally by using computer, phone etc. But in many places we can't use bitcoin to buy anything because it's a new technology, to aprove it government take some time, some law and order issues. But it have huge value than any other currencies like US dollar, Indian rupee etc. So we are buy more bitcoin now then we can convert it into our countries currency like we buy and sell a land, gold etc. So if we invest in bitcoin we will get  huge return than we invest in a bank.

i can say it is possible to make it clear to my child that bitcoin is real digital money but non government.
because indeed money is not completely issued from the government and bitcoin is one of them.
besides bitcoin is p2p where we can directly send the money we have to someone or to a group of people without having to have an intermediary.
maybe it will be a bit like imposing when explaining things like this to children but of course they must be able to re-describe what we are saying because indeed when talking about this and being taught about theory they will not understand, they have to go directly and observe and feel then they can understand

If I am to explain Bitcoin to anyone, I’m just going to say that Bitcoin is a decentralized and peer to peer method of transaction.

And of course, it is volatile and you can decide to choose whether you would like to invest your money in it and hold it as an asset. But, the most important thing is to let them know that it is a currency that can be used for transaction.


When Bitcoin came out, we all know that the main purpose that it was created was just transaction, but for the fact that people realized that it is volatile and can then increase in value to make them profit, that made them decide that it would be good for investment and they started investing heavily on it which for sure it is a good investment. so it can be a lot of things.

Bitcoin is digital scarce money. These five words are sufficient to describe the phenomenon of bitcoin or, at the very least, to get you interested enough in order for you to start your own diving down the rabbit hole. Before bitcoin, we hadn't been thinking much about what money really is, why scarcity is so important for money to perform its functions more efficiently, why digital money offered by central banks is no better than paper currency. Before bitcoin, we couldn't even imagine that digital scarcity was possible. Bitcoin got us thinking about things we had no idea had existed. Bitcoin is digital scarce money of which the combination of multiple disciplines is base.

Words that are encouraging, words that will actually make them interested and curious about Bitcoin, I think 5 words are actually enough for someone to at least learn about Bitcoin, 5 words ain't enough for someone to invest on Bitcoin though, it may need a further discussion about how profitable Bitcoin will be, that is unless someone can actually give us 5 convincing keywords for someone to instantly invest on Bitcoin.

That's a very good start to introduce it to your friends. But expect, there will be more inquiries after that. But this simple statement for bitcoin is great in my opinion. With scarcity, comes the idea that it may rise its value thru time because of its limited supply. But explaining all about bitcoin needs more than 5 key words. But I agree, to pick up the interest of people around you, you need to give them something to think about.

I think kids within certain ages shouldn't be let into the lime light of what Bitcoin is, they definition you've given though describes Bitcoin but may not be understood by kids it you're going to explain it to them against odds....

Bitcoin is a decentralized currency that can be purchased, sold or exchanged for a value without the a middle person like the bank..
By decentralized, Bitcoin isn't owned, managed it controlled by one person.

True, but it's the benefits of decentralization that matter to most users than the fact that it's decentralized. If there was some way to ensure that a centralized alternative was censor-resistant and uncontrollable it would have fit that function (maybe some satellite central node that is immutable). BTC just happened to do it via the ingenious decentralized design.

Decentralized.
Peer to peer network.
A currency on the internet.
One of the most used, if not the most use digital currency currently around the world.
Government are against it because they have no full control over it.

Everything depends on what explanation you want to give. An easy explanation for a child from the age of 3 years: “Bitcoin is Internet money that can be changed on paper money to buy you somethings” maybe not 5 words but every small cute child will understand you. If you are talking with an adult person then main points for me are 1) decentralized bank free asset; 2) digital asset; 3) very volatile asset; 4) transparent asset (all transactions are available and can be found in blockchain); 5) BTC can bring profit by mining, trading and hodling. A lot of details can be given on every point.

I believe that basically easily explains it to a kid (hypothetically visualized). Besides, I'll add that every kid (adults included) should be made to realize that Bitcoin isn't a "Get Rich Quick Scheme" In fact, that's the easiest way I like to explain it to anyone who comes inquiring from me. I start with that disclaimer, knowing that a lot of people come into Bitcoin hoping to hit a goldmine.

• It is same as our traditional fiat, but you can have it digitally
• Internet connectivity is a must to make use of it
• With time it grows and can be used similar to stocks/forex trading
• Holding it as an investment give assured profit
• Same as Bitcoin you've got more other cryptocurrencies developed over different platforms

Nowhere I mention about the technical things associated with Bitcoin, because most of them who have asked me about bitcoin have come after knowing its profit. Briefing about the technical features isn't gonna reach their minds.

Bitcoin is an idea, technology, and payment system.

I agree that the 5 short words you have mentioned can indeed briefly explain Bitcoin. I'm sure some lay people have started to understand what
Bitcoin is from these 5 short words. But we must remember that everyone's perception is different and everyone's insight is also different.
so the choice of words must use general terms that are often used. So for ordinary people it is easier to understand, but unfortunately in the third
point, not everyone understands what decentralization is. Maybe decentralization can be replaced with short words such as transactions without
the need to involve third parties. The conclusion Bitcoin should be explained in detail, so that there are no misunderstandings, therefore I prefer
to explain Bitcoin to others with a long explanation. So that people understand Bitcoin better and don't make wrong decisions.

For me simple words for simple understanding , and that is

"" Spendable Money Via Online Transaction ""

Bitcoin is also considered as Online money so for a Younger listener we must adopt in what they can carry .

But of course eventually you'll need to extend explanation like what those mentioned above that are great to learn.

Maybe not in 5 words, but easy enough "BTC is decentralized digital currency, that can be sent from user to user without the need for intermediaries".
If a kid asks about "what is an intermediary?", you can answer "a central bank or a single administrator in this case"

The keywords that come to my mind while I hear bitcoin (BTC) are:
· Mining
· Wallet
· Blockchain
· Private key
Cryptocurrency

Decentralized asset with high volatility.

Bitcoin is known to be a decentralized, speculative asset that has a high volatility which makes it a good investment vehicle as long as you know how to assess and manage risks. It is also good to be utilized in trading platform given its price fluctuations in the market, you can make a very big profit if you know how to do proper technical analysis with the right timing on when to take profit whenever the price skyrockets. Of course, you should also know when to cut loss to avoid more losses if ever you predicted the price trend of a coin wrong.

Bitcoin can give you so many opportunities, you just have to be determined to earn with it. It offers many income generating ways such as investing, trading, and campaigns in which you can utilize to your own advantage to have money most especially in this time of a pandemic crisis. Bitcoin could be one of the greatest tool you will ever have and know. It has a very promising value as of today and in the future as predicted and backed up by the history. If you missed to invest way back before its value is still too low, it's never too late to invest right now. Just be sure to do your very own research first and risk only the amount you can afford to lose because after all, no matter what prediction we do, the future of anything isn't really guaranteed. Trade and invest at your own risk.

Satoshi Nakamoto
Blockchain
Mining
Darkweb
Exchanges

I've mentioned the five key words and the details are compiled below

Going through the name one can get some basic understanding about how bitcoin came into the world.

Blockchain, the term is much used in the cryptospace. However knowing about the process will give a wider view about cryptocurrencies as a whole.

I've mentioned about mining, because it is the life to the network. With the beginning of the history mining won't be explained much as desktops were also used for mining bitcoin in the early days. The advancement need to be Known.

Darkweb, because there is a misunderstanding that bitcoin is for the darkweb. Going through that one can understand the usage of fiat is high in darkweb than bitcoin.

Exchanges are the backbone, because they're the market makers. Without them the market progress and decline won't happen.

Can five words made you to understand a concept that is very rigid to comprehend, i disagree with your concepts, because i believe on my own that five words can't let you know or have pre knowledge of things you are not acquainted to, someone who doesn't know cryptocurrency generally can't be acclimatized with few words that explained brief about cryptocurrency and especially bitcoin, it's a someone who have come across of bitcoin before now that five words can inspired about BTC, so with such letters it will summary BTC fully.

1) Bitcoin is not controlled by anyone.
2) Please check Bitcoin chart how it perform before investing.
3) Bitcoin technical details are not required unless you are a miner.
4) you can transact worldwide without any third party interference.
5) Bitcoin is a fixed supply and decentralised asset.

Well Said , completely detailed all the terms we can use on explaining bitcoin specially for newbies ..

But OP must not forget also to allow people understand about the risk , specially in terms of security as the possibilities of being compromised is there.

Hackers and scammers are only waiting .