Bitcoin Forum

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?

Just as a personal thing, I deal with it by not dealing with it.  I'm the type of recluse guy who finds this type of human interaction futile and frustrating, and I have no desire to try to convince someone else to use bitcoin or to explain to anyone bitcoin's advantages.

And even if I were to engage in such a debate, I'm not entirely confident I'd do a good job convincing someone.  A lot of the technicalities escape me.  I'm not an economist and I'm definitely not a computer geek.  Wish I had more of a background in that.

one of the problems that i have found to exist when i explain bitcoin to others or see it being explained to others is that telling them too much is sometimes harmful.

some people get scared when you talk about mining, private keys, signing a transaction, making cold storage, paper wallet, and any technical stuff.

that is why to these type of people i try to keep everything simple. bitcoin is money, and use coinbase for wallet then later on explain how everything else works in the next step. and if they ask questions like it is not physical i tell them paypal that you adore doesn't have physical form either.

I don't mean scare them with bitcoin, but by knowing what fiat is indeed and knowing that it has no physical existence whatsoever also.
I often stumble on this, at first they don't believe me - even my father was convinced Greek Euros were more worthy because were backed by more gold, as Greece has some good gold reserves -, then they study it over a bit and come scared that our money (no matter the currency) is a scam and the discussion derails to it and to how scared they got by being aware of it.

I think you can deal the argument with many sentences like "bitcoin has no physical existence because we can use it easily without physical coin, no problem of printed money" and  "why isn't there a physical money ? This is technology. This is more worthy than the traditional one." or many others.
Just my opinion. Hope helping.

The irony of people using that argument, is that most of the world is controlled by credit networks that are managed in a virtual environment. Visa and Mastercard, to name a couple, rely on an extensive range of data centers to keep their ledgers accurate. Yes, it's not like physical notes or coins but many people spend a majority of their life using bank cards to pay bills.

Turns out coins and bills are as virtual as credit cards, they don't worth the value printed on it, they represent such value.
The only "physical money" is gold or silver themselves, but fiat isn't backed by it or anything at all.

you right , but still we should always gies in the positive thinking about Bitcoin . so we should take care that we are going well not with the fake or false thing. and secondly it can't be printed use but we can accept it through a printed thing because we have  fascility of the accepting btc from baracode scan .
overall no reason to think about its bad way .

I would answer that question by simply saying that bitcoin does not need any physical existence to be used, even if they does not exist physically like fiat but they can still be used as real money, if they are not accepted somewhere then they can easily get changed to fiat to get used then, and it is actually becoming physically gradually as it is being adopted in physical world now a days.

Well not all of the facilities here in our country accepting bitcoin unlike in your place bro that we could say that it has a physical apperance in real life because not all of the country exist that thing!. We could say that the world is in the virtual like all of the people or most of the people like paying via visa credit card or anything else without the appearance of the printed money.

I just show them my bitcoin wallet and then asked them to allow me to load their phone so that they will believe.  I also showed them every transaction I made.  I converted my bitcoin into a fiat currency in their face so that they would believe.  But even if they so that bitcoin is real, they still do not indulge themselves because it is complicated.

I used to show them how bitcoin is superior and more secure than usual electronic payment system we use including internet banking. And after i complete my intro about bitcoin with the word that your balance can be viewed by anybody but nobody can use those bitcoin without your private key and even millions of computer can't calculate those private key out of bitcoin address, which part they like the most.

I don't get on those argument regarding can we touch bitcoin or can i see what is bitcoin etc after i finish telling them how bitcoin works. But if some force and keep arguing with you to show them physical form of bitcoin giving bitcoin paper wallet containing few bitcoin will be enough.

And may I ask you sir, what is Bitcoin backed by?  ::)
In any case, does it really matter that fiat is not backed by anything? What would you like it to be backed by? Gold? And who decides that gold holds any value? Gold or thin air, who cares as long as you can use it to buy anything you want. The whole system is built around fiat, if fiat fails, everything fails so it's in the interest of everyone, people, government banks etc that it doesn't. The very concept of money is based on thin air.

I agree with this. People who are saying that fiat money are backed by something, they just have too much faith in what they are told by the governments. Whether Bitcoin is backed by something valuable and physical from the point of an individual depends a lot on their perception because actually you can buy gold and other precious metals with Bitcoin.

if we think about the bitcoin deeply in such a way that how much the bitcoin is exist in the world then we found only limited existence in form of internet data and we feel unsafe .
but actually nothing is simple as we think .
it is very safe and easy to  make deal without fear .

For me, I dont care if bitcoin has no physical existence as long as it has value and I will consider it as an asset. There are a lot thing that has physical existence but it has no value.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. .

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 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.

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

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 .

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.

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.

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"

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?

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. 

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.

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

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.