My problem with explaining it is that it is too revolutionary. It has so many properties that I don't know where to start.
-Decentralized
--No central authority
---No central point of failure
---No inflation at said authority's whim
---Can't be taken down
-Relies on cryptography
--Can't be stolen no matter how good the excuse
-Pseudonymous
--Can be totally anonymous if done correctly
-Near-instant transactions
-Near-zero fees
-Distributed fairly to those who help secure the network against attack
-Created at a predictable rate
-Blockchain enables many cool things like SatoshiDICE's provably fair gambling
Etc etc. That's a lot of meaningful points, and it's hard for people to get their heads around all of it.
yes, deathandtaxes, time will help. but I'm impatient and the fiat system might collapse sooner than later. We better be ready to jump in.
The above features of bitcoin I quoted are secondary properties (I removed opensource) that can be derived from the fundamental properties (what's in satoshis paper). Satoshis short paper alone is sufficient to figure these out.
I think it's much better to try to explain these "dry math fundamentals" and let people figure out the implications for themselves. That's much more effective in my mind than yelling at them: "but, but, it's decentralized therefore no govt. can shut it down!". Maybe the specific individual targeted doesn't even put much weight on this (or any other) particular feature.
If only it wasn't so damn hard to understand! We're so deeply involved ourselves that we don't even appreciate how hard it is.
Like the mathematics professors usual answer when asked some comprehension question ("I don't understand this or that"): "What
exactly don't you understand? It's all right there... trivial to see.". There's nothing "exactly" that isn't being understood by the confused student, it's the big picture he's missing. He's missing it because he doesn't see how the cogs and wheels all work together in concert because his mind doesn't yet have the capacity to hold all the detail info at once. He can see this cog driving that wheel or whatever and all the little details one at a time, but in the end, he understands
exactly nothing. He doesn't see the woods for all the trees and it doesn't help to yell at him: "look: the woods, all the animals that thrive in it, isn't it beautiful?!".
He has to figure it all out by himself, in quiet mind, only then he will have his heureka moment and be able to appreciate the beauty and really trust the "secondary properties" that derive from the "boring" technical details.
