Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin has a steep learning curve. Most of us here understand the fundamentals of the technology even if some don't understand cryptography. I called in to a radio talk show and tried to quickly explain what Bitcoin is about. I realized that there are very complex meanings to the terminology we toss about.  How do you explain Bitcoin to civilians before they roll their eyes and walk away?

You meant elevator pitch, not speech ;)

And Bitcoin can't be explained like that. There's too much to explain in such a short time span.
But the only way I know that explains Bitcoin in less than 15 sec. and will convince most people is:

Bitcoin is  a way to transfer money from A to B with no banks or government controlled institutions involved.


The problem resides on converting fiat money into Bitcoin...

"Bitcoin is the most efficient form of money transfer ever invented.  You can send money like you send an email, to anyone, anywhere in the world at anytime, without going through a bank.  Would you like to try it?"

in my eyes, using the e-mail analogy is one of the best ways. it's wrong from the technical standpoint, but for the average user it's a good example. they all know what a traditional letter is and that it takes a day or more to transfer it. also, it involves real paper. e-mail takes seconds, involves no paper and you also don't have to go out of your home to do it.
of course, online banking tries to close this gap, but it still takes some time for the transfer to actually happen.

One of the more tricky parts is to make them understand that Bitcoin is not just another Paypal...

And that it's not a scam...

money+internet=ppl think it's a scam unless there is a famous bank or something behind it

Send money for free*, internationally, and receive it faster than bank wire. No fees for anyone.

*essentially, in reality, less than a penny.

The first ten people I told about Bitcoins thought it was a ponzi scheme, it took me around half an hour each to convince them it wasn't.

"It's like cash for the Internet.  Now shut up and buy some before you're a dinosaur."

I'll give a try.

"Bitcoin is a currency invented in the Internet. They have value because they are difficult to obtain. There will be just 21 million bitcoins in existence. The system is decentralized, with no single point of failure. It is designed in a way that take advantage of what the worst hackers in the world knows best (crack hashes), and use that power to secure all the transactions."


As the matter of fact, 30 seconds is not enough time to talk about satoshi, deflation, fiat money, gold standard, cryptography, PGP signed messages, silk road, austrian economics...

Just mention it like they should already know it then answer the questions they ask.

The producer asked me what bitcoin was. I just started babbling about cryptocurrencies, decentralization, and deflationary liquidity. She put me on hold and never came back.

Good one! I'll try that.

I think the solution lies within this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4

No need to watch the whole thing and, for those who've viewed it before, re-view it again starting at 2:00, or skip to 4:05 where I feel the answer lies.

So we're soldiers? xD

Might be a little weird to do it cold, but if you want to get bold you could try to buy coins from random people. Just be like "I need some bitcoins, do you know anyone?". You'll get like 100% nos of course, but you'll up exposure and it's just odd enough an interaction you'll probably get a solid % googling it later. And it'll help them understand right away that bitcoin isn't a MtGox(tm) product, you can buy it from your peers on the street.

Well, lesson learned I guess.

Think about what you would say to someone asking what a dollar was. Would you mention the FED and targeted inflation and details about the dead presidents portraits?

What it took for me:

"Bitcoin is a digital, decentralized currency with strictly and permanently limited supply. It is fully international and has an active user base."

This is all it should take for an educated person to become extremely excited. It might be enough to change the world. Oh, and yes, it's a currency, just legally it isn't for whatever reason.

"Bitcoin is a digital, decentralized currency, transferred via peer-to-peer, without borders, with a growing user base. Want to buy some (or, how many do you want)?"

May still need edited by a versed wordsmith and in e-prime, thus communicating an experience.

"Like Western Union via email and almost no fees."




Let them ask the questions.
Answer basic questions with simple answers.
When the questions stop, that is as far as they are ready to go.

Don't pitch the 'currency' to someone who is clueless.
Pitch the transfer of money between private parties using some free software.


Nobody has to hold Bitcoins. i.e. Dollars-->Bitcoins-->Dollars
Boom. Done.

The raison d'etre of Bitcoin is TRANSFER MECHANISM,
NOT
DEFLATIONARY
CURRENCY.

Most guys who are holding hefty chunks of Bitcoins want the
deflation-to-the-moon-currency argument made
so that they rapidly get more wild-eyed
speculators back on board
then cash out.

It's true.
It's also pretty basic human nature.
But it's bad for Bitcoin and bad karma for themselves.

Now, having said that, as more people see the utility
of this transfer mechanism,
they will have the disposition to hold it for longer periods of time.
And in that sense it develops, organically, its currency value, investment status.

But that is way beyond most people. They just want to be able
to move THE MONEY THEY KNOW with as little hassle as possible.

Bitcoin facilitates that.

The "store of value" pitch is a loser. IF people come to that belief then let
them do it out of their own experience with Bitcoin.

Because the world we increasingly live in is characterized by one thing more
than anything else - uncertainty!

So don't promise certainty when, in fact, you cannot. And everything
in people's daily life is telling them that 'certainty sellers' are total
con-men, frauds or idiots.

People are trying desperately hard to make rational decisions in an increasingly
insane environment. DON'T BE, OR EVEN LOOK LIKE, AN EFFING HUCKSTER,
which you immediately will if you hype Bitcoin as investment or start
talking about it as if it were gold.

Bitcoin is not gold; it's code.

In short, the only "certainty" that a newbie needs is a sense that
it is extremely unlikely that the entire Bitcoin system will crash
during the few minutes they use it to send money to Aunt Harriet.

i will give it a try...

"Everything we do we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making software beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly, we just happen to make Bitcoin."

(my inspiration source http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4)

 :)


Depends on the chart.

Is this the fist copy and paste paraphrased sentence extracted from a YouTube video? BTW, I fixed it:

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo, we believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by coding beautifully designed software that's simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to mine Bitcoin. Want us to transfer you some?

Yes, all tongue-in-cheek, but think about it. Isn't this the way we all should be thinking?

Why
How
What

In that order. Not versa visa.

Bitcoin put simply, is an anonymous digital cash that has no central authority, no one can tax you or ban you from using it. It is a free way to send and receive money anywhere in the world, and I can use my Bitcoins to pay a bill, buy some food, lend my friend $20 or do just about anything the money in your pocket  does. Unlike paypal and credit cards Bitcoin is internet cash.

"It's like paypal, but decentralized" is what I've said in these cases.  Where the conversation goes the other 25 seconds depends on the listener.

Don't ever say "mine". Say "secure" or "record", and mention that that's CPU-intensive, and this gets a small reward. Mining money makes it seem like you're pulling bitcoins out of your ass, then get the other guy to pay for it.

Bitcoin is a new currency "easy" to store and transfer worldwide. 50 are generated every 10 minutes in a randomly conected PC and they get their value from exchange markets given they are scarse and unfakables.

I think this is the perfect way to make people believe this is a Ponzi scheme.

thanks you Phinnaeus, i was hoping you will do that or somebody else that manages a little better than i do the language. Dunno about the mine verb in there though, create sounds more motivating. The last part has to be worked a little i think... how about this

"... Wanna be part of our project ?"

stick to the facts, don't involve your ideology with it, even if it may or may not be a general consensus. It's not about motivation or intent, its about positives and negatives.

It is really hard to explain unless they already know the problem of the current system or interesting in the new technology.

Fixed! Instead of mine used as a verb, it's now a noun.  ;D

Seriously, this:

Everything we do, we believe in thinking differently, coupled with challenging the status quo. In accepting that challenge, we code user friendly, brilliantly designed software. We just happen to create Bitcoin. Wanna control your own bank?

I used: "With modern technology, the average person can run a bank from their back-pack." I also added "(If it takes off), governments would not be able to cut Iran and Syria off from the International banking system."

That second point is profound, if scary: not even governments can have their accounts frozen. The first point ensures that the average person can not have their accounts frozen either.

Edit: I also mentioned the concise, if technical: "Bitcoin is a peer to peer crypto-currency with a psuedonymous public transaction record."

Bitcoin functions as a decentralized, peer-to-peer crypto-currency with a pseudonymous public transaction record.

(double check for comma and dash errors, as well as does a hyphen(s) need inserting--wish I would have paid better attention in English class instead of playing with my slide rule)

In discussing Bitcoin, there are two paths:

1. Transaction
2. Currency

All currency conversations will lead to "ponzi".

Won't all transaction conversations lead to "banks"?

Ponzi scheme is such an often overused and misunderstood term.

So is 'bank'.

If they do, that is a favorable conversation for Bitcoin.

Ditto with that experience.

Bitcoin is a currency that was created by Bernie Madoff in 2008, it's backed by a large cache of du-rags and bottles of OE 800 malt liquor that are currently stored and protected by the Montana militia. If you would like to purchase a Bitcoin please send all your money to Nigeria.

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. Pen all your good ideas in E-Prime.

Hows this:
Bitcoin is a fundamental technology based on mathematics. It will do to banks what email did to the post office, but that's just the beginning. It took many years for fractal mathematics to go from making pretty pictures in movies to changing the way we understand the universe. Bitcoin will change the way we understand economics and how we function as a civilization.

This will only confuse people. Most people don't know about fractals. Most who do know, still see it as pretty pictures.

Heh, I was trying to think of an allegory based on math. Maybe I should use "It took many years for people to understand New Math."  :D

FTFY

I like that

And mine?:

Bitcoin functions as a decentralized, peer-to-peer crypto-currency with a pseudonymous public transaction record.

'Why' is near the root of the matter. I certainly agree.
But not everyone can hear the same
answer to that question.

People function at very different levels of
consciousness.

There are higher orders of answer
to 'Why'
than you or I are capable of hearing
even right now

But someone sophisticated enough
to know that
is not going to beat you or I
over the head
with that answer, albeit properly correct

Your definition is fine, but i was refering to his first speech, the "With modern technology..." thing. :)

Your definition is more completed than the phillip one, cause it add "decentralized" (and it's an important thing, especially when compared to thing like scamcoin that ARE NOT decentralized (closed source client? lol))

I see, now. Thanks for the pat on the back. Note, I also tossed out the 'is' to make it an active sentence.

I was going to post a YouTube video of E-Prime, and found a guy who, not only is into E-Prime, but against the Federal Reserve. Hope you enjoy this 3:15 video among others this guy is in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKRAY3t1L-o

This worries me (with reference to the "bank from a back-pack" idea). You can certainly put a (fire) safe in a back-pack, but security would still be a problem.

I really liked that video.  Here is my try.

"My finances aren't anyone's business but my own. Bitcoin means I don't disclose or ask for anyone's permission when I make a transaction. Bitcoin lets me safely store, send, and receive money with anyone in the world for less than a penny per transaction. Unlike using my bank, credit card, or PayPal,  I am the only one who controls my money, and there is no middleman taking a cut." 

This is shorter that 30s, I might add, "It uses the same top-of-the-line encryption technology as the US government, so my money is more secure than if I stored in Fort Knox."


Cool idea.

Short and sweet.

Does a fee enter the equation if Bitcoin is not converted to fiat, e.g. transferring P2P and purchasing coffee or socks?

"Like Western Union via email."


That's even better.

(though Western Union has a stigma for fees)


Re: your question,
that of course leads to a currency discussion.
Don't get me wrong. Bitcoin can stand-up to any major existing currency in a debate.
But the topic of this thread is 'elevator pitch', ostensibly to a total newbie. And I believe that one of the biggest mistakes, in that regard, is to immediately overwhelm a newbie with ideology and/or technospeak.

It's like a spaceship trying to enter a planet's atmosphere, too steep and it burns up ("Ponzi! Ponzi!"), too shallow and it bounces off ("Oh, another digital utopia.").

As for me, personally, I am VERY intent on ideology. Indeed, the essential point of my website (targeted to folks who are already further along the path) is taking the Bitcoin ideology to its natural interface with personal liberation.

So, yes, as per your 'Why' posit...count me in.

[FYI...I also dug your Robert Wilson vid & posted it up.]